Model Dump

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:07 am

An early attempt; and still not entirely complete. Light police gunboat for local enforcement in a separate game-universe-thing, as part of an attempt to set up a clear division between military and civilian hardware; s'posed to be a lot less powerful than military vehicles of its size (small powerplant only, two small smart-missile racks and four light gunmounts), and somewhat weak in the drive and maneuvering departments as well. Somewhat low-poly, partly 'cos it's actually intended for usage in a setup that's going to be a lot smaller and more densely populated than the stock VS universe, partly 'cos I still ain't got this limited-poly thing down and consistently aim low.

Textures are the incomplete thing right now; aside from some flaws you can see just fine for yourself (that is to say, everything I didn't just steal from some other game's texture library), final version's gonna have an animated glowmap for police flashers, whenever I get the bloody glow to work like it says it should. Ignore the Hindi scripting; if y'all want it I'll cut that off the VS version and replace it with something relevant to that universe.

Total: 668 polys, two 1024x1024 .jpg maps (plus glowmaps).

Post by **loki1950** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 3:04 pm

like it even the hindi script.

Enjoy the Choice

Paslowo · Post by **Paslowo** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:02 am

Looks pretty cool.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:57 am

Nice ship, and a commendably efficient use of polys. Only immediate concern about its role in VS, though, is that, for the most part, the faster (meaning, greater acceleration) a ship has in VS, the greater its engine to body ratio. Not a hard rule but a rough one. Along such a continuum, this ship could not police anything faster than a cargo hauler. I'd like to see it in-game, but it seems to me that if it were a police ship it would be so more in a supporting role.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:07 am

Well, it's not intended to be that slow, but it's certainly not built for high-speed interception. It's neither maneuverable enough nor outfitted with sufficient armor and firepower- it's more intended to sit around stations and other big populated entities and launch disabler missiles at bad guys from stand-off ranges. The cops want interception, they'll call in fighter support.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:05 pm

Eh, this is gonna be a miscellaneous 'what I'm doing today' dump now.

And what I'm doing today is a little thing I've named the Astra- it's a private civilian vehicle, basically the spaceship equivalent of a sports car or racer. One seat, no guns, no cargo, no FTL drives of any kind, built for raw speed rather than maneuverability. Part of a set of civilian/"civilian" vehicles in production, little stripped-down ships to fill up the spacelanes and make the universe interesting.

Estimated 701 polys.

'Course, all that's contingent on it ever getting into the game, and at this point that seems improbable. Simply put, every time I try to add a unit to the game something somewhere fouls up for no damn reason and I waste hours bugfixing while the game crashes incessantly. I've had it. If anyone who's got the experience or patience to make unit entries work wants to give it a go, I can send you the file and we'll see how you do with it- I doubt it's the actual xmesh, it never has been, but I really am sick to death of spending more time looking around for whatever wierd goddamn problem it is this time than I do actually making the ship.

Post by **hellcatv** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:18 am

sweet! I likes

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:53 pm

Two things that, er, won't even work in this version of VS due to the lack of model articulation. Why did I waste my time on this, again?

Ah well, needed a lowpol of the fighter anyway.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:17 am

Start of new cargo pods. Least it's something marginally useful. From the left: liquids, gasses, fuel/explody, technical equipment and other valuable manufactured goods, and ammunition/weapons. There's also a consumer goods/contraband crate, but as it's basically a mapped cube I figured a WIP-shot would be less than enlightening.

Aaaand I'm done for the night. [crashes]

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:17 pm

Your ships are useful.

The problem is that the submission process for VS really needs work. There's too many 'dump' threads like this where mostly-finished models get left to rot. There needs to be an organised structure where models can be assigned a status and people who know a thing or two can pick them up and stick them in game or refer them back to the modeller for improvements.

Zeog · Post by **Zeog** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:57 pm

Well, there is a 3D model organization page in the wiki.
The submission process for VS is somewhat different from what is done here. Mainly because there are already specifications for all ships (if not in the wiki ask JackS). So there is only very little space for making up one's own ships. Most models are left to rot in some threads because they have no place in the VS universe or are not designed for the VS universe. Many people start like: "I've made a sketch of a model, I don't know what it should be in the VS universe, maybe [some faction] [ship type]?"

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:11 pm

You have a point; however as I've got little to no interest in working exclusively for someone else's idea and consequently none of these have a place in the overly rigidly defined main VS universe these wouldn't fall within a submission structure anyway. Well, except for the cargo pods, which were intended for that space-junk thread 'cept that I lost interest in them halfway through and only remembered them this week.

What I've been thinking was that I'd do a trade with anyone who could do the unit entries without going into a blood rage and waking up six hours later in a heap of severed limbs with no memory of what happened. If there's anyone who's less experienced in modelling and stuff but knows how to fiddle with the gamey bits to make them function I'm willing to model and (somewhat more reluctantly) skin their stuff in exchange for making ze tings VORK.

I'd also suggest that if y'all really want to get things done for VS Prime you lose the exact ship specifications. Design guidelines and such are well and good, but you'll find damn few artists and no good ones who're willing to be human xeroxes for someone else's sketches, especially when that someone else is hazy on what exactly can and can't be done easily and in your average 3D modeling suite. Having a good description of what categories of ships are needed for each faction and what they look like in general, maybe a wishlist of specific units and examples of what certain kinds of ships should look like, that's okay. But the current message I've gotten from the game content directorate is OMG THIS HAS TO LOOK EXACTLY THIS WAY AND DO EXACTLY THIS and really that's not appetizing at all.

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:00 pm

If a model is good enough it can be adapted into the game.

Beggars can not be choosers.

Silverain · Post by **Silverain** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:51 am

@ Ryder P. Moses,

We had problems previously with comments/criticisms concerning ship models of certain races/types looking like they have nothing in common whatsoever. The guidelines were developed in an answer to this - not so much to define 'this is how x ship will look like', but more 'this is how x ship should look like to fit a known type or species. However, use these guidelines as a rough basis from which to grow your own ship designs, since we do accept that there would be different designers for each species.'

Specific details in the guides, and sketches of ships get provided for those that do want some guidance on specific ships.

However, any models that get fully developed are usually welcomed, and shoe-horned into some ship slot, since what we do have is usually either non-existent, or of lesser quality to what you may produce.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 2:31 am

I agree. The nitpicking is annoying, it makes people not want to work on VS. Also I've seen so many models made and textured and so few put in game... it's like the dev's controlling the CVS access don't care. Model after model is left to rot.

PS: your ships and crates are great

. I do think VS should strive to be a universe simulator.. but if the devs won't even commit ships to cvs....

I remeber they asked for civillian ships, they're getting them, and not putting them in.

Also remeber that pirate "oil tanker" capship. Where the f**k is that ingame? It isn't, it was never committed.

Yea "VS isn't dead". The forum isn't dead, but cvs commits of media are because the devs will not commit what they are given.

Ryder P. Moses wrote:You have a point; however as I've got little to no interest in working exclusively for someone else's idea and consequently none of these have a place in the overly rigidly defined main VS universe these wouldn't fall within a submission structure anyway. Well, except for the cargo pods, which were intended for that space-junk thread 'cept that I lost interest in them halfway through and only remembered them this week.

What I've been thinking was that I'd do a trade with anyone who could do the unit entries without going into a blood rage and waking up six hours later in a heap of severed limbs with no memory of what happened. If there's anyone who's less experienced in modelling and stuff but knows how to fiddle with the gamey bits to make them function I'm willing to model and (somewhat more reluctantly) skin their stuff in exchange for making ze tings VORK.

I'd also suggest that if y'all really want to get things done for VS Prime you lose the exact ship specifications. Design guidelines and such are well and good, but you'll find damn few artists and no good ones who're willing to be human xeroxes for someone else's sketches, especially when that someone else is hazy on what exactly can and can't be done easily and in your average 3D modeling suite. Having a good description of what categories of ships are needed for each faction and what they look like in general, maybe a wishlist of specific units and examples of what certain kinds of ships should look like, that's okay. But the current message I've gotten from the game content directorate is OMG THIS HAS TO LOOK EXACTLY THIS WAY AND DO EXACTLY THIS and really that's not appetizing at all.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:05 pm

Guest: Well, to be fair, a good deal of the stuff in the Content Development forum is absolutely hardcore, and seems to be getting accepted into the game. Silverain's right that very little of the stuff posted in this forum is completed, let alone of really good quality like Tiny Paintings's models. My post wasn't so much a complaint as a statement- I lost my taste for the VS blueprints with the last model I tried, so I'm just gonna be doing my own thing and if JackS et al. want any of it they're free to it- glad to help- and the rest'll be going into Another Goddamn Mod.

Post by **klauss** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:43 pm

Guest wrote:Also I've seen so many models made and textured and so few put in game... it's like the dev's controlling the CVS access don't care. Model after model is left to rot.

Hm... all the models I've seen, particularly the good ones, have always been screenshots. But we need the model files per-se, not screenshots, to put them in.
Apart from that, I really believe the blueprints idea is a good one. And, as said, it's not necessary to be a living xerox, the blueprint is a guideline into style and concept... you can do work resembling the same style, and it will be OK, IMHO. Even a different style, borrowing a few elements from the proposed style in the blueprint would be ok, IMHO again. The whole point is to provide an anchor point for artwork to make it all fit together... not to tell modellers that their work won't be accepted if it doesn't follow the blueprint by the millimeter.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:52 pm

Well, that's natural enough; why waste time and bandwidth uploading something if there's not a use for it? I am unlike most in that I have a fair bit of server space, but still I'm not exactly big on just uploading everything and then sorting out whether there was any point in doing that later; site maintenance isn't fun, and these files tend to be pretty large.

Which, yeah, leads to certain problems as far as vetting the stuff goes. But if a fair amount of interest in one of my (or someone else's, for that matter) models based on the screenies is generated, I can upload it for anyone who wants to grab. I just haven't really seen much.

So let's put it this way? Anyone want any models they've seen lately? Tarran et al., you okay with sending your models to me if people want 'em uploaded?

Tarran · Post by **Tarran** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 9:10 pm

I have no problem sending my models to you.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:56 am

The Aeran Asteroid Base is not going well. I'm torn between calling it a learning experience and leaving at that (the lesson being never ever do Aera stuff) and chucking the entire fucking thing out for annoying me.

Concave geometry is no fun. To get that complicated little tunnel network as specified, I had to use booleans, and if there's one thing 3DS MAX handles ungracefully it's boolean geometry. I've been plugging away at those tunnel-surface interface polys for a couple days now, rebuilding the geometry from scratch, and it's little better for all the work. I'm halfway tempted to chamfer out the areas around the holes and let the crossing lines sort themselves out that way, but I'm trying to stick to at least some pretense of resource efficiency. Hopefully texturing will cover some of the model's awkwardness. Won't know for a week or so, though, I guess.

The external complex has been coming together in fits and starts; it was given a big boost when I realized that Aerans are just bad-tempered hood ornaments. I'm not a big fan of the rail thing covering it, it doesn't look very military, and more like a Rlaan greeble, but given a lack of better options I'm keeping it. Hadda link up the complex somehow. At least it provides a convenient turret mount, if I could figure out how to get the defense guns to travel along the rails E2160-style I'd be set. And somewhat happier about having to use that thing. Had I thought of it earlier, actually, I'd probably have used the rails as the tunnel entry points and had them permeate the base in such a way as that players could ride along them to get to the critical parts of the base.

The landing bay (big upper concavity) I've not got to work on yet, was going to see how much of a hog the complex was and from the looks of it I'm gonna be painting on most all of the internal details. Which is fine by me. I kinda wanted to stick an Aeran supply ship "docked" in there for color, though. Hey, less Aeran shite I have to deal with the better far as I'm concerned.

Aaaaand the fighterbay (hollowed-out area in lower section, with all the little tunnels) is a mess. No news there. Think I'll leave it a mess, since I can't think of anything better to do with it.

...It occurs to me now that I've got no idea what purpose the outer complex actually serves. That's bad. Maybe it's a big damn engine or something. Or a powerplant, since it's waay too off-center to be a useful rocket. Yeah, big explosive power-plant sounds good, if a bit Death Star.

Now I'm going to go cleanse myself with a nice nasty angular junkheap. Maybe a tank. Yeah, that sounds relaxing.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:43 am

M'beck home. And thus.

http://www.penguinbomb.com/donate/vs_models/courier.rar
(this one actually works ingame. I've seen it. Looks like crap, and has to use all the Llama files, but it works)

http://www.penguinbomb.com/donate/vs_models/Astra.rar
http://www.penguinbomb.com/donate/vs_models/gunboat.rar

Aaaand two new things.
A yachty thing. Possibly one of those Highborn dueling ship things. Or otherwise just a boat.
[url=
http://www.penguinbomb.com/donate/vs_mo ... rician.rar]

[/url]

And a crappy space linery thing that I'm positive I ripped off from something, though I've got no idea what. Has two skins, I'm not sure why the commie one exists except that I really can't stay interested in doing 'clean' textures for very long.

Both have pretty dull skins, in fact the starliner's downright suck, so I might go back and fix 'em if I ever have a better idea.

There was something else, too, but I'm too stoned and tired to remember what it was. So stuff. There. Yee.

Post by **klauss** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:09 pm

Nice stuff.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:43 pm

Yeah, I like that Patrician. Very unique style.

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:08 pm

Laying out the texture base for the Aeran asteroid base. I've been watching way too much Battlestar Galactica.

Halleck · Post by **Halleck** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:06 pm

Wow, cool.

Having different bases for the Aera will go a long way towards giving alien sectors a different "feel".
As in... 'Toto, we're not in Cephid_17 anymore'.