Griff's normalmapped ship remakes

[Griff]

Glad to hear it wouldn't go to your head!

No i wouldn't let it change me, um, anyone know if Amazon.com stock sceptres?

[DaddyHoggy]

Yes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B001U1QJ80/

[Simon B]

FDL remains the toughest ship to remake ... I'm sort of narrowing down the options here while keeping the shape pretty much the same. That's the real challenge - most people who have tried it have either just repainted it or totally changed the model. I suspect it is that point on top that is the cause of the headaches, the second I get rid of that, it's easy. But if that's gone, is it really an fdl?

BTW: still cannot run Griff's ships at home, Oolite crashes quite hard each time. Something you've done eats intel chips.

[Gibbon]

As mentioned by Griff, i did ask permission to convert his ships to run in Freelancer (be rude not to really), for a mod i'm making. Nearly all done now so here are some piccies of my progress

http://gizmostudios.proboards.com/index ... 511&page=1

[Killer Wolf]

look as good there as they do here. odd green glow on the Adder nose gun, what's that about?

[Gibbon]

I should update that piccie as it's not there anymore. It's to do with the lightmapping, updated version doesn't have that glowy thing.

[Getafix]

Now that I saw the ship "exhaust" effect it reminded me that I really miss that in Oolite...

[Cody]

Yeah, I was looking at those pics last night… the engine plumes are sweet.

[Gibbon]

One thing of interest in this conversion of mine is the differences in the game engines. Don't get me wrong i do play Oolite a lot, but also Freelancer as well. One of the big differences are the effects obviously, particle based amongst others so you can get some great engine and weapon fx happening. Not just limited to the basic laser option. Also the various views are great as well, cockpit, a full rotating 3d view and a rear view, all very nice.

Oolite on the other hand supports shaders which FL doesn't, it's only DX8 compliant which is a real let down as that would be a nice feature to have. Oolite can also generate different skins on ships based off of a base texture i've noticed which FL can't do. Everything there has to be a unique model and texture which is a pain.

So both game engines have their merits, just glad i could convert these and do them justice as for me at least, best Elite models i've ever seen.

[DaddyHoggy]

Just looked at the images - I think the Thargoid still looks particularly marvellous - I thought Griff used shaders to make them pulsate - so I'm presuming, as you say Freelancer doesn't do shaders (DX8 - really?!) that you had to pick a certain glow instead?

[Gibbon]

Yes is the answer which is why shaders = good lol. This is also where Oolite benefits in the animation department. Something sorely lacking in Freelancer.

An example i can think of are Griff's market stations with the rotating advertisements and flashing this and that. Try that in FL, while possible it's more trouble than it's worth which is why over the last 7 yrs, probably about a handful of people have tried and walked away sobbing uncontrollably into the distance.

As i said, both game engines have merits, no question there, only reason i got involved with all this was after seeing Griff's ships in Oolite and wondering if they could be converted to my other favourite game. Now i can fly them in both so i'm a happy bunny/gibbon, plus obviously i'll release them to the FL community so others can benefit as well.

[Griff]

well done on the ship pack Gibbon, hope it wasn't too much of a job trying to make sense of all the oolite specific effects maps and stuff, they all look really great!

[Gibbon]

Thanks Griff, well after the few chats we had via pm, they all started to fall into place and i got them all done so i'll probably release them in the next day or so.

[Cody]

I've just been looking at the [wiki]Griff Industries[/wiki] page on the Wiki… the asteroid, alloy/wreckage, boulder and splinter lack pics.
Is there a Wiki wizard around? Also, it would be good if there was a link to the Griff Industries page at the top of this thread, Griff.

[Griff]

I did log into that page on the Wiki once to update the gallery but to be honest it looked a bit too complex so i just backed away slowly not making eye contact with it, good idea about adding a link to that page at the start of the thread, JazHaz and all the other wiki wizards have got it looking really great and it's well worth a read through for anyone interested in playing with the oxp