3D modeling

[CaptKev]

@DH, The Stingray is 120 x 54 x 120, the Cobra Mk 3 is 130 x 30 x 65, so not too much of a size difference. Slightly reduced the colour saturation on the cockpit, but it's still not that great.

@KW, I did think about a transparent cockpit with a constant flasher inside generating light, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

@nebulous, Quite agree but if you did manage to buy a Stingray the HUD view might look a bit crap.

[Arexack_Heretic]

Transparent you can do with material-none (the blue default one in wings3d)
But I don't think a flasher would work too well, it is not a true light source unfortunately, but rather a 2D image of a coloured blur.
This means no lighting of your model from the flasher, and it will just clip through parts of your model if the radius extends beyond the dimensions of your hull.

Nice ship. It does need a few more distinct seams/greebles/dockingports etc though, specifically the main-hull/cockpit region.

[Killer Wolf]

@Heretic : don't use Wings, that sounds interesting tho, but if the material-none is a specific thing to Wings would it not bugger up in export to other stuff like Milkshape and Ultimate Unwrap? MS has some great ways of doing transparency different ways, like making the planes themselves transparent, or by using Alpha channels, Oolite just ignored all my efforts to use them - have you actually got anything of the Wings thing to work in Oolite?

[Arexack_Heretic]

actually I was mistaken, the materiel is named "Hole" in wings.
When exported to obj, this does not generate a facing.

a docking box is a simple cubeshape, with UV on all sides except for the front, which has 'Hole' material. (material in wings is UV-map+texture etc)

In-game (after exporting to *.obj and converting this in python through Obj2dat.py to *.dat) this looks as a box that is open on one side.
The texture will be visible on the inside as the inverse of the UV-map (unless the model was inverted).

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I haven't tried transparency ever, as I was told it wouldn't work.
But if a PNG with alphalayer can be used in-game all the better.
I have requested it frequently though, maybe it got supported while I was whining at Giles for decals and transparent textures and true lightsource-flashers etc.
Would be nice for those billboards.

[Dr. Nil]

I'm almost certain that you can have transparency by making areas of the skin you use partly transparent - I've used this for the SLAP-U domes. I did keep it rather opaque though, because I still haven't fixed an alignment issue.

[CaptKev]

Download the military Stingray here, I've still got some details to add to the texture and more tweaking of the shipdata.plist to do.

This is my first ship, so go easy on me!

[nebulous]

Work continues on the transport. I've put a couple of basic renders up for people to have a look at.

http://homepage.mac.com/tjs2/PhotoAlbum1.html

Any comments welcomed

(These are lightwave renders so it obviously won't look quite so smooth when in game, also, still messing about with textures and getting that sub entry/cargo module ejection thing sorted)

[Killer Wolf]

my comment is : damn!

are those pods frangible? ie, could someone shoot them off one by one? (if so inclined!)

[ramon]

That looks really nice. I like the little details you've added, I especially like the ariel with the light on top *makes a note - copy that idea*

[nebulous]

hmm, tricky one. The idea was to have it appear that, when under fierce attack, the captain of the transport opts to dump the modules (which then head for the station in the same way as an escape pod). To do this was I thinking that, if you chose to attack it, I could have a set of docking rings that attach the modules (unseen to the player). once the energy on these rings is depleted theres a bang and the transport and module become ships in there own right. You could then shoot them as you wished. Does this sound like a viable plan? Still workin the details.
Am also designing a mission to introduce these ships into the game. As with most of my ideas, it has become a bit of an epic and now involves adding planets/equipment and ships as well as a gas mining station idea. May have to scale it down a bit. lol

[Arexack_Heretic]

The design looks familiar, yet sleeker.

I like it. Is it a troops transporter?
For a mega-hauler (>1kiloTC cargo cappacity) it looks too small, with that bridge.
Looks like each pod could hold about 20-25TC?

[nebulous]

Looks familiar? most probably, lol. I'm new to the forum so if I've replecated anyones idea, I do apologise. As for capacity, no, not 20-25 tons, much bigger than that. In the full scale epic idea I've got, the ship is actually to big to dock. I'm designing a kind of space faring robo fork lift to handle unloading at stations (transport would sit just off the navigation beacon).
The idea was that the transport, being modular could have a range of applications. Mobile research station, survey vessel, colonisation vessel, gas tanker (6 modules replaced by 2 big gas tanks), field hospital/troop transport. You name it, the Masitech Modular Bulk Carrier can do it.
I had this idea that the bridge would be modeled around an oil tankers bridge but with big floor to ceiling windows all round. So, essentially the yellow light you see is a window about 9 to 10 ft high.
Will revisit my scaling and sort this out so it looks proportionally right though, thanks for the tip.

[Captain Hesperus]

The design looks familiar, yet sleeker.

I like it. Is it a troops transporter?
For a mega-hauler (>1kiloTC cargo cappacity) it looks to small, with that bridge.
Looks like each pod could hold about 20-25TC?

I suppose it depends on the size of the bridge. If it's the size of a python (just the bridge) that'd make the hauler huge (Bigger than a Behemoth). That would be a fair reason for the 'detatchable pods. Make the largest part of the pod exactly the same size as the station docking slot so that when the ship gets, say, within 10Km of the station, the pods detatch and auto-dock themselves. The ship itself never docks.

Captain Hesperus
"This gonna be a real pain to repaint!"

[Arexack_Heretic]

Nah, you didn't rip off anyones ideas. don't worry.
Anyhow, most of us wouldn't mind (much) if you did.

It looks similar in style (somewhat) to my own Armoured Transport.
I went for the blocky barge look. It is about the size of a cobra (sideways).
Was planning a range of similar ships, but nothing this huge.

Your design (edit: read texture) looks very plain now, and that is good:
for a huge vessel you don't want too much detail.
(it gives the sense of being close to it and thus makes the ship look smaller)
however to maintain sense of scale, give some interesting features, such as the bridge, more detail than average.

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I'm wondering how you will detach the modules from the main hulk...?

I suggest giving these solitary pods 4 (small) thrusters around the central docking hatch/clamp where they join the main vessel

[nebulous]

That was the plan, kind of like maneuvering thrusters. I'm going to post (a new thread as this is a bit off topic) a brief outline to the mission etc which will be full of questions so any help is greatly appreciated.