Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by chuck_starchaser »

This is starting to look real good.
Well, from the distance, that is; at close range it's full of shading artifacts, and that's because there are a lot of polygons at sharp angles across edges that aren't beveled or marked sharp.
Witness...

Image

But this gives me a chance to show you something.
First, let me mark some edges sharp that I *think* (but don't know for sure) your intention was for them to look sharp:

Image

This is what it looks like with subsurf on:

Image

As you can see, there are a few cob-webs, so, next I'm going to crease some extra edges like this:

Image

And now it's starting to look a bit cleaner, to my eyes:

Image

But there's a lot more of them to do I believe... Well, what I do know is that if you want edges to look
sharp you have to mark them so. If you want them smooth, then you have to avoid having sharp angles
with smooth shading. If what you want is "folds", like small radius curvature, you need to bevel. But
you can't have sharp angles smooth shaded; they will look like crap.
http://wcjunction.com/temp_images/frank ... n2cs.blend

Binormals are explained here, together with normals and tangents:
http://wcpedia.com/dw/doku.php/wc_info/ ... norm_bakes
Baking the binormal by itself helps verify the correctness of the unwrap in terms of orientation of the
islands. The correct orientation is where the front of the ship is UP in the texture, and the back of the
ship is down. You don't want islands rotated randomly, for many reasons, none the least of which is
that it makes texturing a bitch when everything is scattered around randomly. But also because when
you (if you) want to represent dirt streaks, scratches an air-marks that fade towards the back of the
ship, if your islands are oriented correctly, all you have to do is use a vertical smere from your point
sources on the whole texture at once; whereas, if the islands are randomly oriented, you'll have to
smere each island separately.
The binormal bake will give you a color representing island rotation, so if your islands are oriented
correctly, they all look the same color, roughly...
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

chuck_starchaser wrote:... let me mark some edges sharp that I *think* (but don't know for sure) your intention was for them to look sharp:

But there's a lot more of them to do I believe... .
Yes there sure are, thanks for the tip about creasing, I've found that any hole in the subsurf and any cobweb on it's surface can be fixed with some judicious creasing. Sometimes the result looks like origami though and it's better to just rip the faces out and start over, but it usually does the trick.

The big problem is that, as I hunt down and exterminate cobwebs and holes in the subsurf, I keep thinking of ways the mesh can be improved (more greebles, an airlock, more space in the passenger compartment etc. etc.), and as I improve the mesh I create more cobwebs and holes, and triangles :cry: .

It could almost be a never ending process, but I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. Some parts of the model are starting to look something like the way I want, though there's still a lot of work to do on the underside, on the airlock, and a few other places.. as usual any suggestions gratefully received. This forum has turned out to be a great source of feedback that doesn't bruise the ego too much :D :D

OK some pics and a blend file, so everyone can see what I'm talking about.

Image

Looking good fro this angle.. I think.

Image

The new airlock still looks a little low res, more work needed ( a view port, key pad etc)

Image

I've put a bright light in the blend file to show those greebles in stark relief. A lot of them are still a little melted and indistinct but it's on the to-do list.

Image

Not much going on under here yet, I'm intending some greebles for the aft near the engine and access panels further forward, maybe an aerial or two poking out too.

Here's the blend http://www.starbrightillustrations.com/ ... ip56.blend
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

@starbright IIRC about the airlock-

I might be wrong, but I think we could fake the keypad and such with good textures. At least, that's how we've done it in other games, where we want to preserve the poly count, but want the detail.

@chuck_starchaser-how do small ships dock in VS? Do they use grapples, magnetic fields, or (god forbid) tractor beams? Because this ship (and other ships) could use docking gear. The flat space on the bottom of this ship would be perfect for a set of grapples of some kind.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Neskiairti »

the airlock looks a bit big to me.. it seems larger than the space inside for walking.. you might try shrinking it down a little..

also as to detail, consider where the doors go when they open, how they open, and add a few bits of mechanism for that.. as well as something like a deadbolt pad at the center maybe.. sure it could all be internal, but why hide what would make it look better?

as to adding pieces making more tris and spiderwebs to deal with.. cut, cut again, then extrude your new piece.. then cut on that side.. and again :p so you never actually touch the mesh outside of where you are working.

(of course, cutting /can/ create extra detail, but thats usually not too hard to clean up from my very limited experience)
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by chuck_starchaser »

starbright wrote:The big problem is that, as I hunt down and exterminate cobwebs and holes in the subsurf, I keep thinking of ways the mesh can be improved (more greebles, an airlock, more space in the passenger compartment etc. etc.), and as I improve the mesh I create more cobwebs and holes, and triangles :cry: .
That's why I was saying, proper modeling takes weeks, not days; and wait till you start unwrapping... That's also going to take weeks. Not to speak of LOD's, texturing, conversions and integration... This is how it is; but most modelers start out with an idea that a model should take under a week from concept to flying in game, and take all kinds of short-cuts to try and make it so; then the models are garbage.
This forum has turned out to be a great source of feedback that doesn't bruise the ego too much :D :D
I'm a helpless ego-bruiser specialist; your resilience is golden; keep it up :D

I'll take a look at the blend file tonight.
-REBEL3- wrote:how do small ships dock in VS? Do they use grapples, magnetic fields, or (god forbid) tractor beams? Because this ship (and other ships) could use docking gear. The flat space on the bottom of this ship would be perfect for a set of grapples of some kind.
Damned good question. What I've done with some ships in PU was add little hooks front and back that could conceivably be used as handles for robotic arms to grab and capture a ship at dock.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Dragonseraph Angel »

Well, personally, I think its amazing. Certainly, adding more details and greebles would make it better, and it can not really be judged until it has a texture (more armor or some other form of metallic texture would probably be good) but as it stands now, I would say that it smashes most of the models currently in the 0.5 version :mrgreen:
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

I was thinking that, since we need docking equipment for so many ships (AFIK, none of the ships have docking equip-correct?) we should make some kind of unique-looking hardpoint that the equipment can be added to later.The hardpoint specifics a place for the docking equipment. For the Duelist, we could have the hardpoint go here.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

-REBEL3- wrote:I was thinking that, since we need docking equipment for so many ships (AFIK, none of the ships have docking equip-correct?) we should make some kind of unique-looking hardpoint that the equipment can be added to later.The hardpoint specifics a place for the docking equipment. For the Duelist, we could have the hardpoint go here.
It's an interesting idea. I'm still tweaking the mesh, real work - I do teaching and translations - has gotten in the way a bit lately :cry: oh and my birthday :D so it's taking some time, but I was also thinking about perhaps adding a docking claw. A spaceship could be proactive about docking, a claw/hose could extend and go looking for power outlets, reaction mass and data supplies. Two claws/mouths lurking in the positions you indicated above might look very nice.

EDIT-------

@Dragonseraph Angel, thanks for the positive feedback :D :D

EDIT2-------

Here are a couple of images of a possible docking claw configuration...

Image

Here they can just be seen poking out from underneath the spaceship.

Image

Here is more of a closeup of the claws, they need work of course, e.g. a hose coming out the back so they can funnel any reaction mass they find to the tanks, and some data cables etc.

Here is the latest blend file, not much changed (more detailed airlock, a new aerial, the proto-dockingclaws), but a lot neater with fewer pools of cobweb - twisted faces?.

http://www.starbrightillustrations.com/ ... ip68.blend
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

We need some kind of canonical idea of how the ships would dock. I would assume that, since we have tractor (and repulsor) beams, they would use those to dock-however, since we want to phase out that kind of tech, we should use...something else?

@chuck_starchaser-you've been here the longest. Did jackS ever say how ships were supposed to dock in VS? If not, do you figure we can safely create our own docking interfaces?

@starbright-to me, the claws look too smooth and organic-sort of what the Rlaan might use. The Duelist is a human ship, so I would think the arms would look more like this. This is actually a ship-can be found here. http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... ms#p112341. I don't think it was ever put in the game-I'm running the Linux SVN, and I've never seen it. The thrusters on the underside look like some kind of airlock (bit of a stretch, I know) and the arms look like...well arms. :D

EDIT-There's another pic of docking arms, but I can't find them. They're partly handdrawn, partly rendered. They were in some old collection of stuff that was gotten off of a damaged hard drive (I think). chuck_starchaser, you worked some on whatever the project was-do you remember where the post is?
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

-REBEL3- wrote:
@starbright-to me, the claws look too smooth and organic... I would think the arms would look more like this... http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... ms#p112341... the arms look like...well arms. :D
I've managed to find a couple of hours to work on the model here and there and the docking claws are now on the end of arms and less organic.
I'm slowly learning the best way to get the mesh the way I want it, though I still think it needs a lot more greebles.
As usual if you see an area of the model that could be improved, or if you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know. :D
Image
Less organic nose, more square bits, and more to come.
Image
Here the landing arms/fuel intakes can be seen.
Image
Still too smooth and featureless, needs more greebles.
Image
A closeup of the docking arms retracted
Image
The nose looks a bit bumpy from this angle, I'll smooth it a bit more and add some details to break up the smooth expanses.
Image
Here is a 3D sketch of how the claws might extend for docking.
And here is the latest blend, nothing much changed, more of a nightly build...http://www.starbrightillustrations.com/ ... ip77.blend
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

Very nice job so far-keep up the good work! :D

A few suggestions I had-
Duelist-suggested mods.jpeg
1) First, thicken the red bits. They look too thin, IMHO. If I was flying the ship, I would worry about those wings falling off each time I fired my guns. :D (picture below better displays what I mean for this)
spaceship_docking_arm_claw2 2.jpeg
2) The back wings-I like the look, but the wedge-shaped thing (green ridge) is too small. I would suggest widening it, as well as making it somewhat longer. The objects at the end of the back wings (guns? thrusters?) are nice-however, thicken it's connections to the wings.
3) The wings...AIFK, this ship isn't atmospheric. Therefore, the "wings" are not wings-they are likely radiators, for removing heat. Look over the redone Llama-it's whole bottom is a big radiator! I don't know exactly how to make a radiator (I stink @ Blender), but chuck_starchaser, Fendorian, or klauss might.

The docking arms are nice! Save the old arms though-we could use them on some Rlaan ship. One thing-they would probably fold back into the ship, so cut a hole in the bottom of the ship they can fold into. Right now, that kind of animation isn't supported, but we're working on it.
~R3
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

-REBEL3- wrote:Very nice job so far-keep up the good work! :D

Look over the redone Llama-it's whole bottom is a big radiator!
~R3

Thanks :D and do you have a link to the feature you mean, is the feature delicate with a large surface area like a solar panels? Is it a more simple vane? or a pipe behind a window - http://www.wartnaby.org/ideas/space_radiator.html? Spray nozzle and collection area http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3e.html#radiator? I like this for a combat ship because thin fins can not be armoured and it would make nice greebles.
Good links here http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=114988 and a great discussion.

And reeding this stuff I discovered that the radiators will glow a dull red - sweet! I love spaceships :D
Also two radiators are needed one for the engine, and a small one for the life support, because the heat must be dumped at different temperatures! I guess the life support system would go on the forward wings, only a small on is needed, a reflective looking surface on the wing, like the silver paper inside the shuttle doors, that's how the shuttle stops itself from overheating because of the astronaughts apparently.

I'm looking to keep the model as close to cannon as I can to avoid big changes later.
It also has a couple of heavy tractor beams on the rear wing, that's worrying me a bit. Someone mentioned they were going to be deprecated.

I totally agree about the forward wings being too flimsily attached, I might buttress them with a few more struts, so it doesn't end up looking too aerodynamic.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

starbright wrote:Thanks :D and do you have a link to the feature you mean, is the feature delicate with a large surface area like a solar panels? Is it a more simple vane? or a pipe behind a window - http://www.wartnaby.org/ideas/space_radiator.html? Spray nozzle and collection area http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3e.html#radiator? I like this for a combat ship because thin fins can not be armoured and it would make nice greebles.
Here's the link to the Llama-note that the radiator is mostly done in texturing. However, if you wanted to add some *tiny* ridges to the wings, that would help the texture-makers (i.e. YOU-modelers normally make the textures for their ships.) :mrgreen:
starbright wrote:And reeding this stuff I discovered that the radiators will glow a dull red - sweet! I love spaceships :D
Also two radiators are needed one for the engine, and a small one for the life support, because the heat must be dumped at different temperatures! I guess the life support system would go on the forward wings, only a small on is needed, a reflective looking surface on the wing, like the silver paper inside the shuttle doors, that's how the shuttle stops itself from overheating because of the astronaughts apparently.

I'm looking to keep the model as close to cannon as I can to avoid big changes later.
It also has a couple of heavy tractor beams on the rear wing, that's worrying me a bit. Someone mentioned they were going to be deprecated.
chuck_starchaser and others (including me) don't like the tractor beams much-I tolerate them, because they solve problems (such as docking) in a nice way. However,the tractor beams should go. They look a bit like thrusters of some kind to me-if you thickened that whole wing a good bit, you could embed thrusters in the tips. Canon demands thrusters! :D There is a good example of thrusters here: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... e%3A+llama

starbright wrote:I totally agree about the forward wings being too flimsily attached, I might buttress them with a few more struts, so it doesn't end up looking too aerodynamic.
Sounds good. Oh, and thanks for the links-I'll read them when I get some free time. :D
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

-REBEL3- wrote: Here's the link to the Llama-note that the radiator is mostly done in texturing. However, if you wanted to add some *tiny* ridges to the wings, that would help the texture-makers (i.e. YOU-modelers normally make the textures for their ships.) :mrgreen:
Thanks for the link to the Llama thread.
Beautiful radiator - done by Chuck, right? - but I'm thinking of going another way.
The more I read about liquid-droplet radiators the more I like them for a spaceship that must survive a hostile environment - (battle etc).
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi. ... 010920.pdf
Just two notches in the armour, one rectangular to shoot a stream of metal droplets, one circular to collect them again. No pipes, lighter and less likely to be damaged my micrometeorites or hostile fire.
I've ripped the old 50s ‘B’ movie rocket ship wings out. I'm now geeking about looking at NASA PDFs and trying to design something a bit more ‘hard’ SF.
Image

I've also ripped out the tractor beams and replaced them with a second heavy missile system on each wing.
I'm sure nobody is going to be too upset about that.
I love designing spaceships, it's fun. As usual feel free to chime in with input, I probably wouldn't have bothered about radiators, landing arms or making sure the edges looked OK if it wasn't for the feedback I'm getting here. :D

Edit--------------
oops bad link, should be fixed now
Edit-------------
still bad, good now :oops:
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

starbright wrote: Thanks for the link to the Llama thread.
Beautiful radiator - done by Chuck, right?
Yes, those were Chuck's creation. :D
starbright wrote: The more I read about liquid-droplet radiators the more I like them for a spaceship that must survive a hostile environment - (battle etc).
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi. ... 010920.pdf
Just two notches in the armour, one rectangular to shoot a stream of metal droplets, one circular to collect them again. No pipes, lighter and less likely to be damaged my micrometeorites or hostile fire.
I'd never heard of this before now-it sounds good though. :D

One thing I'd like you to do-could you create a *rough* model of what you think the apparatus could look like? Reason is, we *could* have interchangeable cooling systems (they could add reactor recharge, or something like that.) This would make it easier to have a pic for the system-we could just touch it up a bit rather then having to start from scratch. I'd rather it get done now, then have it wait for a while and cause problems later.
starbright wrote: I've also ripped out the tractor beams and replaced them with a second heavy missile system on each wing.
I'm sure nobody is going to be too upset about that.
Um....somebody might get mad about it, actually. :oops: I don't know if the Duelist is supposed to be able to mount torpedos-that's more of a bomber weapon. Anyone know if the Duelist can mount torps?
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Deus Siddis »

starbright wrote: Just two notches in the armour, one rectangular to shoot a stream of metal droplets, one circular to collect them again. No pipes, lighter and less likely to be damaged my micrometeorites or hostile fire.
One important disadvantage though, as jackS once pointed out, is that if the ship does any kind of maneuvering while using the droplet coolant system, the droplets that have already been launched will not hit the collector but will instead be lost to space, not recycled.

So solid radiators (like fins) still make a lot of sense (though they can certainly have a closed liquid coolant circuit(s) running through them.)
I've ripped the old 50s ‘B’ movie rocket ship wings out. I'm now geeking about looking at NASA PDFs and trying to design something a bit more ‘hard’ SF.
Cool, glad to hear it. Methinks sticking to a much more hard scifi theme can really help VS stand out from it's competition.


@-REBEL3-
This is the Franklin actually, not the Duelist. The Franklin can carry two special or normal heavy missiles according to units.csv. Torpedoes fit into heavy missile slots.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

Deus Siddis wrote: One important disadvantage though, as jackS once pointed out, is that if the ship does any kind of maneuvering while using the droplet coolant system, the droplets that have already been launched will not hit the collector but will instead be lost to space, not recycled.

So solid radiators (like fins) still make a lot of sense (though they can certainly have a closed liquid coolant circuit(s) running through them.)
@ starbright-do you know what type of metal they might use?
@Deus-That was my first thought too. However, it won't do that if the metal is metallic, and they use a magnetic field to contain it. Other races can still use the fins though-the Rlaan are prime examples! :D
Deus Siddis wrote: @-REBEL3-
This is the Franklin actually, not the Duelist. The Franklin can carry two special or normal heavy missiles according to units.csv. Torpedoes fit into heavy missile slots.
Oops-didn't notice that. :oops: Thanks for pointing it out!
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Deus Siddis »

-REBEL3- wrote:
Deus Siddis wrote: One important disadvantage though, as jackS once pointed out, is that if the ship does any kind of maneuvering while using the droplet coolant system, the droplets that have already been launched will not hit the collector but will instead be lost to space, not recycled.

So solid radiators (like fins) still make a lot of sense (though they can certainly have a closed liquid coolant circuit(s) running through them.)
@Deus-That was my first thought too. However, it won't do that if the metal is metallic, and they use a magnetic field to contain it. Other races can still use the fins though-the Rlaan are prime examples! :D
Magnetic fields aren't magic fields though, so there are a few important issues to consider with them.

The first possible problem is the two fold issue of the limited strength of natural magnets and power consuming, waste heat producing cost of electromagnets.

The second is how fast their strength falls off over distance. So trying to influence a stream of droplets not very close by to the magnets meant to control them would probably require a lot of power (probably compounding the first issue, and thereby creating more heat than is radiated).

The third is how the maneuverability of ships, with primary, retro and lateral thrusters delivering full six degrees of freedom would require a big and complex array of magnets to control the droplet streams from more than one angle.

So by the time you're done, I think you've eliminated the advantages of using droplet arrays in high maneuverability situations and then some.

A solution might be to keep droplets in magnetic grooves directly on the hull and radiator fins. But this would make little difference in how the ships looked (assuming it did work in the first place).

Summary: Radiator fins and hull surfaces still fill a very important role for all or almost all ships. Droplet radiators also have a role, but can't replace them.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

Deus Siddis wrote:
Magnetic fields aren't magic fields though, so there are a few important issues to consider with them.

The first possible problem is the two fold issue of the limited strength of natural magnets and power consuming, waste heat producing cost of electromagnets.

The second is how fast their strength falls off over distance. So trying to influence a stream of droplets not very close by to the magnets meant to control them would probably require a lot of power (probably compounding the first issue, and thereby creating more heat than is radiated).

The third is how the maneuverability of ships, with primary, retro and lateral thrusters delivering full six degrees of freedom would require a big and complex array of magnets to control the droplet streams from more than one angle.

So by the time you're done, I think you've eliminated the advantages of using droplet arrays in high maneuverability situations and then some.

A solution might be to keep droplets in magnetic grooves directly on the hull and radiator fins. But this would make little difference in how the ships looked (assuming it did work in the first place).
2 things:
-Remember, the ships should turn/move more slowly then they do now-the Llama is ~40m long, but currently turns in about half a second. Since the metal would be in flat grooves, I don't think turning would affect the function of the cooling equipment much.

-When I first heard of this, I thought of the magnetized groove idea. I supported it because we could create a nifty texture that looks like droplet streams. Since you'd have several grooves all along the flat bits of the hull, the textures could add quite a bit. Besides, lots of other ships already have radiators. This adds a different look to the ships.
Deus Siddis wrote:Summary: Radiator fins and hull surfaces still fill a very important role for all or almost all ships. Droplet radiators also have a role, but can't replace them.
Definitely agree! :D


@ Starbright: One thing. Here's what the wiki says:

Export models not intended for actual diplomatic usage have their defensive emplacements downgraded.

Make two copies when you finish the model-one without the torp emplacements. Dunno what defensive emplacements this has (I think it has a couple of rets?) but it seems to me like the OFFENSIVE emplacements would be downgraded, not the DEFENSIVE emplacements. :D
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Deus Siddis »

-REBEL3- wrote: Make two copies when you finish the model-one without the torp emplacements. Dunno what defensive emplacements this has (I think it has a couple of rets?) but it seems to me like the OFFENSIVE emplacements would be downgraded, not the DEFENSIVE emplacements. :D
No keep the torpedoes, look in units.csv, it carries EMP torpedoes. That's almost certainly there for defensive purposes, like knocking out the weapons and primary engines of most attackers.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

Oh, kk. What do you think should go then? The forward cannons?
Deus Siddis
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Deus Siddis »

All the standard outfits are listed in units.csv (including the civvie franklin).

But this stuff doesn't need to be reflected in the model geometry at this point. That fine tuning can be done when the mesh is nice and polished.

And beyond that, showing visible weapon load outs on models is something that might soon/ultimately be done at the sub-unit level anyway, like in PU/PR I believe. So the engine places the specific weapon model you (as the player) have loaded into that hardpoint, onto the designated part of the ship. In this scenario, the modeler doesn't place any weapon models on the ship himself, he only designates where the hardpoints are.
-REBEL3-
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by -REBEL3- »

I agree with you-however, weapons aren't handled that way now. The ship will look funny with no weapons, and swapping the engine to the "hardpoint" configuration (which I support) will take a lot of coding and will not be done in the near future. :( That's why I figured we should just put the weapons on the ship now, and then remove them later (if the hardpoint system gets implemented).

Do you know how much work it would take to remove the weapons? I don't do much Blendering...
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by Neskiairti »

PU did it, it shouldnt take that much... the code is already there, just needs to be extended.

really, if you must show weapons.. make a 'mounting' that can easily be ripped out of the mesh.. a carefully beveled square for instance. so when it comes time to change it, its just a few quick cuts then making a face.
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Re: Duelist Heavy Fighter, Hunter's Guild (I'm having a go!)

Post by starbright »

Neskiairti wrote:PU did it, it shouldnt take that much... the code is already there, just needs to be extended.

really, if you must show weapons.. make a 'mounting' that can easily be ripped out of the mesh.. a carefully beveled square for instance. so when it comes time to change it, its just a few quick cuts then making a face.
Erm.. I've started making my heavy missile launcher even more complex. But as soon as that code is ready I'll rip it out and replace it with a hardpoint I promise.

Image
Here you can see the missile launcher with missile loaded and the feed mechanism poking out from beneath the wing. It still needs more work of course.

The three shapes on the rear wing are the liquid-droplet radiators. Each includes a wide slot spraying droplets at a target. I've made them small and recessed them in the hull to make it less likely that coolant would be lost in a dogfight.

Image
Here is a look at the new wings from a distance.

I've included the blend file as usual. It's a bit of a mess (full of triangles and twisted faces) but replacing the wings is turning out to be a big job and time is tight right now.

As usual this is a work in progress, with a design evolving as it goes. I'm interested in everyone's input.

Blend file http://www.starbrightillustrations.com/ ... ip85.blend
I design spaceships. Take a look! http://starbrightillustrations.com
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