3D modeling

[Killer Wolf]

fast-burn WFI missiles : how about instead it would be like a Hydra rocket pod : ie, a pack of say 8 small dart-like rockets, un guided. fast, big punch (the guidance system space was filled w/ mose explosive instead) but it's dumb-fire. using the M key, could fire them as fast as needed, no lock required

[nebulous]

Hello, yes more newbie questions.
Does this 320 vertices rule apply to all objects? I ask as I have been designing a big npc ship to accompany a mission idea.
It's a modular transport with multiple uses (depending on which modules are carried) from simpe cargo to light industrial units to medical and science faclities and any other uses that can be shoehorned into a module. The mission would be to find a lost survey ship and modules containing "interesting" equipment.
The 320 limit would seriously impare this idea.

[LittleBear]

Yes, but you can get round it by making a ship out of subentries. You cannot have a ship with 960, but you can do the same thing by building it out of there subentires each with 320.

If you look at Griff's Mining Station here https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... c&start=45 he explains how its done. You can download his WIP OXP from the next page of this thread.

[CaptKev]

I've just created a ship in 3D Studio Max, what UV mapping should I use for the texture? There's quite a lot of choices in Ultimate Unwrap 3D.

[Brianetta]

It's a modular transport with multiple uses (depending on which modules are carried) from simpe cargo to light industrial units to medical and science faclities and any other uses that can be shoehorned into a module. The mission would be to find a lost survey ship and modules containing "interesting" equipment.

Is this survey ship from Moonbase Alpha by any chance? (:

[nebulous]

lol, no, unfortunatley not. X Bomber, now theres a challenge.

[Killer Wolf]

I've just created a ship in 3D Studio Max, what UV mapping should I use for the texture? There's quite a lot of choices in Ultimate Unwrap 3D.

i use UU too. what you should do is in your modeller prog group your model into useful groups. for my Vampires (not TOO disimilar in design to yours) i grouped them into Cockpit, Dorsal/back plates, Ventral/belly plates, engines, etc etc. since planes/spacecraft are fairly "simple", use the Planar mapping, and pick the Axis that's relevant to the surface you're unwrapping. select each group, planar unwrap it, and it'll go to the left window where the square area for the mapping is. There ARE exceptions, which you can simply trial-and-error, and undo if they don't work : eg, for each tailfin you might find the Box unwrap works better; Cylinder unwrap may work best w/ the wing tip bits.

i move the map off the grid and repeat until the whole model/all groups are unwrapped - once you have them all you can select them one by one and play tangram, fitting them into the square to get the best fit for your map.

[CaptKev]

Thanks for the info, Killer Wolf. I based the ship on one from X2, if you think it's too similar to yours I don't mind having a bash at a new design.

Is your Vampires OXP available for download somewhere?

[Killer Wolf]

nah, i don't care mate, make what you want - i meant generally as in a plane-w/-wings type thing for the basis of my little tute, rather than an accusation (i have slanty tailfins too! my major influence was the JU87 Stuka and Firefox :-) ) (the plane, not the browser :-D )
anyways, look on the roads as to how many cars look the same nowadaya, stands to reason some ships would be similar!

OXP is on my website in a "sales brochure" -
http://www.purgatori.net/Isis_Interstellar.htm

[Charlie]

Hmmm, there's some real new talent turning up on this forum

[Brianetta]

Thanks for the info, Killer Wolf. I based the ship on one from X2

Well, you based it on one from an X2 add-on mission! The X-Shuttle was the only ship available to the player in X:Beyond the Frontier (the first X game), and became largely unavailable after the player could use other ships.

I'd like to see all the BTF models in Oolite. They're very simple, low-polygon models, and they're very effective.

See more on my site: http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/ships.php?version=1

[nebulous]

Ok, so I've got the model on the go, it's behaviors now. What I'd like to do is have the ship eject it's modules when under severe attack. (modules would then do the same as escape pods and head for the nearest station)
As these are quite large objects would I have to include them as separate ships to be able to do this or can they still just be sub entries?

[LittleBear]

Think you'll have to cheat a bit to do this!

Do the module as a subentry, but set the death_actions of the subentry to spawn: specialpod 1.
Define the specialpod as a like_ship to the subentry but give it homeAI.plist (the same AI as the native escape pod) and give it a top speed (say 200 - 0.2lm).

When a module is out of energy it will blow up and detach from the main ship and head to the station.

(What your doing in code is replacing the module with a clone of itself that behaves like an ecape pod when its energy reaches zero, but it should look like the module is detatching in game. There's a bang and the main ship continues on its way with one less module, whilst a module spins away from the main ship and heads for the station.)

[Killer Wolf]

"What I'd like to do is have the ship eject it's modules when under severe attack"

:-O

i think we've all done that when a group of Thargoids turn up :-D

[CaptKev]

Sung would you mind if I pinched a few ideas from your textures to use on the ship below?