Replacement of the basic ship set - building a dream team.

[ramon]

Is this the kind of thing everyone is after, or something a little more radical like the DW Cobra??
( Ramon, I don't suppose you would post your model to me for a look? - Thanks )

Hi Charlie, I've uploaded the original .obj files of the DWCobra and all it's subentities here - www.bluelocust.com/inhouse/dwcobra_objfiles.zip

I'm pretty sure you can load .obj files into Wings3D.

I'm working on an Anaconda at the moment, I'll post a few pencil sketches up here to see if it's the kind of thing we're all after, also some cockpit ideas.
I think for the Anaconda the interior should look something like a big Boeing or Space Shuttle.

Also the idea of doing the UVMap is a good idea. In fact I could post an empty UVMap with the new designs so that people could do their own textures too.

For those that don't know a UVMap is a bit like....hmmmm.....how do I describe it. Okay, my little baby girl has got a colouring in book and she has to keep her colours inside the lines, that's like a UVMap. (Someone else describe what it is)

[Captain Hesperus]

I'm working on an Anaconda at the moment, I'll post a few pencil sketches up here to see if it's the kind of thing we're all after, also some cockpit ideas.
I think for the Anaconda the interior should look something like a big Boeing or Space Shuttle.

I seem to recall, there was a pencil drawing of the interior of the Anaconda/Boa (can't remember which, senility and all that) in the old Elite manual. Kind of like a Hercules interior with a ceiling-mounted crane.

Captain Hesperus

[ramon]

true, but it didn't give an example of the cockpit. Although I imagine the cockpit of a Hercules is probably similar to a big Boeing so I'm proably on the right lines.
What I want to do with the cockpit is give you the idea that you're flying a huge, lumbering, slow beast of a craft, not a nimble fighter or small trader.

EDIT: In fact, here's the picture you're talking about from the C64 manual

[Captain Hesperus]

true, but it didn't give an example of the cockpit. Although I imagine the cockpit of a Hercules is probably similar to a big Boeing so I'm proably on the right lines.
What I want to do with the cockpit is give you the idea that you're flying a huge, lumbering, slow beast of a craft, not a nimble fighter or small trader.

Maybe, then the cockpit would have several crew seats, Astrogation, weapon control, power management, pilot (and co-pilot with co-axial flight controls?), scanning, comms, etc. similar to the ST ships.

Captain Hesperus
"No-one sits in the commander's chair except me. Besides, it's taken ages for me to adjust the headrest comfortably."

[ramon]

yes I suppose. It wasn't the direction I was planning to take, but the Frontier manual does say it has a crew of ten. However, I don't think they would all be in the cockpit. Would probably only need a maximum of two to fly it, I reckon the other eight are just glorified baggage/cargo handlers.

[Captain Hesperus]

yes I suppose. It wasn't the direction I was planning to take, but the Frontier manual does say it has a crew of ten. However, I don't think they would all be in the cockpit. Would probably only need a maximum of two to fly it, I reckon the other eight are just glorified baggage/cargo handlers.

Engineers, technicians, chicken soup dispenser repairmen.....

Captain Hesperus
"No. More. Goat. Soup. !."

[ramon]

....gloried baggage handlers

No sorry, you're right. I just think if you were to have a lot of crew seats in the cockpit view then they'd look silly empty, so you'd have to fill them, but then that wouldn't look so good either considering it just a flat 2D image, which doesn't even animate.

[reills]

Cap'n H. Is that "No more Goat Soup1" or "No, more goat soup!"

[Star Gazer]

mmmm... "engineers, technicians.." = 'glorified baggage-handlers' ...!!!

...come into my office and say that!! (Chief Technician)

[Charlie]

Ahhhh - happiness...

@Dr Nil:
Great idea for a thread.

@Ramon:
My thaks for the posted .obj files ( I'll have an intersting evening checking them out )

Some general points...
Cockpits?
Once I'm hopefully up and running again my intention is to bang-out this set as quick as I can while making a genuine improvement over theoriginal set...

Doing something as complex as Ramon's wonderful DWCobra may well be beyond my current abilities if it's not to take a VERY long time.

On a related subject my plan was to see these models remain fairly traditional if somewhat more complex to help improve their look. More complex is fine but will take more time & may impact on low-end systems. Does this matter?

UVMaps: I really don't mind. I'll do models + maps, or just models. Just models is more flexable, but may exclude some who want to contribute but don't have 3D experience. Thoughts?

The more contributors the better in my opinion. I guess the basic set should have a consistent style. If true how best to maintian that consistent style?
One option may be to split such a pack up by company. One contributor to the model set for each company. An inconsistent style may then be a good thing... How then to make sure all the ships look like they came from the same 'universe'?

Questions, questions...
Why?
As I seem to have voulnteered myself for this ( I hope that's ok ) I want to get up & running without too many mistakes.

[Charlie]

It Lives! It Lives!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2aa3oQRM

Rolls up sleeves...

[DaddyHoggy]

Just a thought - if the ships do get remodelled - can we leave the thargons mostly alone? I like the eightsided thing - they're insectoids - they probably have eight limbs - it could be a spiritual or ritualistic thing...

[Charlie]

TBH - like you I like the Thargoids much as they are - I even like the standard texture they come with...

So... Unless general opinion is against us I would only do subtle mods

I must fire up Oolite now my 'pute is working again ( hence the odd post ) & see if smoothing them will make a positive change.

What I may try is going bezerk with flashers rather than messing with the models much - give 'em a sort of other-worldly glow.

I hope in the next couple of days to get 'the mk2 demo cobra' out as a rough example of what I'm intending. I'm glad to say it seems to work with a more traditional texture - I was worried that the model I did ( with Sung's textures in mind ) wouldn't do so well with an alt look.

Hmmm, the more I think about it the more I think the bigger ships are going to be the hardest part of this.
No simple update to the standard models, may need a wholesale redoing...Bah!

[DaddyHoggy]

@Charlie - glad 'pute' is up and running again. (phew - for all of us!)

When S did his textures and he had that red band going round near the bottom I started working on a flasher sequence that raced round and round in red to match the band - bit like the cylons but without going backwards and forwards - to look really good it would need potentially hundreds of flashers though and I don't know how many Oolite can handle without killing off fps.

Anyway like all my oxps it will have to wait - my missus gave me a real scare today - 6 hours worth of contractions which at week 32 is not a good thing! She's sleeping now - and I'm having a whip through the BB while I finish a "calm down and relax a bit" single malt - to get my nerves back...

[Charlie]

@DaddyHoggy:
Ahhh - single malt! Good plan.

I hope things remain quiet for you both on the baby front for a few more weeks - My congrats when he/she makes an appearance.

PS
FWIW: 32 weeks is a tad early but apart from the 'suprise & worry' of parenthood earlier than expected its not likely to cause any long-term problems. ( all things being equal )
I hope that helps a bit.


-Guess what I do in the real world-