Oolite Bulletins

Ok ,now i have your attention...lol

I have been reading the forums and I have been looking for a ship midway between a Cobra capacity and the 100T ships.... something around 60 to 75 Tons.

having read about ship OXP's and trying a few a thought struck me that i could start by just looking at a std Cobra MkIII and modding it to see what happens.
So that got me to thinking that i would need a new model to make sure it wasn't just a Cobra with cheaty extra capacity. I want it to be bigger physically as well.This got me to musing about how i would want the ship to look and so started a nostalgic look at the SciFi shows of my youth and what ships did they have. Inspired by other ships brought into the ooniverse like the planet express ship , I started my search. Nothing from Dr Who caught my eye, i couldn't see a Police box/Tardis being suitable, besides the bigger on the inside thing makes a mockery of cargo capacity. I then thought of ships from The Thunderbirds, Thunderbird 2 is a great transport but i think it is more in the 150 to 200 ton capacity in my eyes. then by chance i was reminded of Space:1999 and the Eagle.. it seems to me about the right size to be 75 Ton capacity, long and flat like the oolite ships,not tall and thin like most "rockets" we actually use are.

so i have my look but i am no artist so i looked around and found a site that has some 3D models of the eagle for download. I havent done 3D modeling so what format do i need to use for oolite? these models are available in 3DS and 3D studio max others are lightwave,povray and moray. at least i have heard of Povray..lol

i have read of wings 3D on several threads is this the Program i need and if so can these models be imported into it?

oh, the slippery slope of the darkside...

spud42 wrote:

i have read of wings 3D on several threads is this the Program i need and if so can these models be imported into it?

There is also Blender.. opinions vary as to which is better.. I've gone with Blender as I've had no luck whatever with getting Wings3D to run on my laptop. I can't help on the importing question, but we have lots of very experienced 3D modellers here who will probably be along soon to help with answers.

You'll also need a good graphics program for the texturing side of the job.. most of us favour GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) for this, it's free, and on a par with the very expensive Photoshop.

(The OXP section of the board has an excellent tutorial thread for Blender, as well.)

spud42 wrote:

oh, the slippery slope of the darkside...

A fresh batch of cookies has just arrived, as it happens.. feel free to help yourself.

mmmmmm cookies...
i have photoshop but i think it might be overkill. i dont know how to use it past manipulating my raw files from my camera....
will check the tut out and check out blender...
have done quite a bit of research today and found some paper 3D models and plans to help out. obviously i cant go for full realism as the tubular framework is too much but to
simplify the mesh to flat panels and add impressions of the framework with the textures and graphics....

for those not familiar with the TV show here is a pic of the Eagle...



this is a blender image i got from google image search......

Before you get going, it might pay to read up some on the "scaling issue" in Oolite. Essentially, all models in Oolite need to be around 3 times bigger than "normal" in order to look right.. (long story) These two links will get you up to speed on things:

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5613

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7503

It's also worth a read through the The Shipyard at the End of the Ooniverse. Modeller's bit thread.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Before you get going, it might pay to read up some on the "scaling issue" in Oolite. Essentially, all models in Oolite need to be around 3 times bigger than "normal" in order to look right.. (long story) These two links will get you up to speed on things:

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5613

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7503

It's also worth a read through the The Shipyard at the End of the Ooniverse. Modeller's bit thread.

sweet... gonna need another plate of cookies to read all that.... just as well i am on holidays...

Thargoid wrote:

Also I think the Eagle has been done before. May be worth a check on the wiki before you get started in case it changes your objective.

duh... should have thought of that !!
will check asap... though i have had fun researching the ship... found some 3D models and some papercraft models....
now where are those cookies.. got some searching to do.........