Post your space station concepts and designs

[chrisdn]

Alot of people seem to be modelling ships, how about we start a concept forum for stations, I know a member called kangaroo22 has a great design and I'm sure there are plenty more out there. If you aren't into modelling then post a written concept and I'm sure someone will try and model something rough for you.

I think more station designs are crucial to the expansion of the universe but try to keep into consideration the fact that there will a need for some sort of standard docking arrangement. Chuck Starchaser has used a cargo hatch modelled on the Soyuz capsules door and perhaps that is something we can work from. If you want to see the design have a look at the post of small Cargo Ship by Chuck himself.

It would be good to get a collection of station concepts and try to tie them into different factions then submit them to the main Vega Strike development team for approval.

Remember that stations should be split into categories of production, accomodation, supply, military (battle stations).

I look forward to seeing the ideas. In the mean time here is a concept I have for a station based on the inside of an asteroid:


A view from outside of the asteroid


Showing a vessel docked at one of the entrances next to a transport tube


Showing the exit from the station and some of the internal structures




A rough view of the stations internal workings

[Kangaroo]

For those of you who want to contribute some models but haven't done it before, I'd recomend trying Wings3D because it's easy to make simple models in there. Although now i've gotten too much used to the Wings interface that it's very hard to switch to other interfaces.

EDIT: Since you started talking about standards, i made a concept for a module of a place where people of various stations could live, or some additional space for people in factories, refineries, etc.
It's supposed to be made with cheap and light materials for easy construction and transporting.

Here is a picture:



And another variation:

[chrisdn]

Bolt on structures are always good ones. By having a spahere split down the centre I take it that you'll be using an artificial gravity source for the modules? Have you thought about the docking system for the structures? If you look at Chuck Starchasers thread you can see his work. I would however suggest going for something alot simplaer for objects of this size.

I'm just about to put up another station which is theoretically modular and is based on hemispheres.

I see you like wings3D, I can't get away with the interface myself but each to their own eh? I've been using AC3D and I really like it, you get a 14 day free trial for it after which it costs 59.95 USD. Try it out, it's very easy to use.

[chuck_starchaser]

I think that, if we could all agree to a common hub or set of hubs, sort of like this...



... then all kinds of modules are possible, that would enjoy artificial gravity without appealing to magical gravitics, simply by attaching to the spokes. All we'd need to do is formalize the size and length of connecting tubes, to make sure all our modules are compatible, then anyone could assemble a station any way they want by combining one (or more, stacked coaxially) hub(s) and modules in multiples or 3 or 4. Needless to say, ships dock at the center.

[Kangaroo]

Bolt on structures are always good ones. By having a spahere split down the centre I take it that you'll be using an artificial gravity source for the modules? Have you thought about the docking system for the structures? If you look at Chuck Starchasers thread you can see his work. I would however suggest going for something alot simplaer for objects of this size.

The module was supposed to be attached to a station that already has gravitational source. Or maybe it could use tubes for moving so that one could use some kind of pressure capsules to move from the module to the station. I'm not sure, but I think that it would be cheaper than adding additional gravitational devices to a living place when the station has one already.

[rigelan]

You probably wouldn't want to have a square opening for the ships to fly into the center . . . Unless that section is just to connect it to another hub. I could only imagine flying a ship into that square while it was rotating. If you were in the wrong place, you could go straight in and then suddenly the wall comes crashing in on you.

[chuck_starchaser]

Good point.

[chrisdn]

Here's something I thought could work based on modular hemispheres. The whole thing is spun around it's central axis causing G on the floors of each hemisphere. Ships can dock from underneath each hemisphere or at either end of the structure. Tubes connect each module and transport is facilitated by vacuum trains.

If anyone wants the file to have a play with or greeble up then give me shout.


A single spoke












Showing the clamps that anchor each unit in position

[chuck_starchaser]

Nice concept!
Couple of details I'd refine:
1) Rather than UV-spheres, I'd use iso-spheres (Buckminster Fuller style structures), which help you avoid vextex concentration at the apex, and are better-looking, and amenable to "tubulization" of the edges in the geometry, if I may coin the term. In Blender you press space bar and click on Mesh, Isosphere, and give it a 3 for subdivision.
2) The floors of the subunits would rather be cylindrical than flat, radius centered on the hub, so you're not climbing a ramp when walking from an edge towards the center of the habitat.
3) If these habitats are as big as they look, you need the central rods they hang from to split into many thinner spokes, radiating to an even distribution over the base disc; as a flat surface hundreds of meters in diameter would need huge amounts of material to be able to support buildings and stuff on top of a horizontal plane only held at the center.

Looking great, tho.

[Kangaroo]

Another concept of mine, a base that generates electricity from solar energy, but still isn't complete, as it seems that there will be some standards applied to stations at all, so I made only the crucial parts of the base.

Here are some pictures:

A look of the rear side:


The station's allignment engines (in case it turns away from the star)


The front side:


Station's pipework:


Probaby the energy output wouldn't be big, but should repay in some time, because the power generation is relatively the same all the time.
The electricity could then be stored in acumulators and then transported to the planets required as a cheap source of power.

[chuck_starchaser]

This is what I meant:



Here's the file.

Of course it needs double-sided floors, buildings and greeblings. In Blender you could use the Discombobulator script to generate the buildings. But discombobulator will only discombobulate quads, not tris; so you need to subdivide the floor surface. And you probably want to leave space for streets between blocks, so you might as well use the bevel tool after subdivision, and manually select city blocks to discombobulate. Finally, you'd probably want to inspect for buildings that clash with the supporting rods and remove them.

[chuck_starchaser]

I said what the heck, and did it:



And it's only 20k polys; 11k vertices. We could stack half a dozen without as much as tickling the GPU.

Here's the file.
Still needs some greebling, if anyone's up to it.
Anyways, I'll definitely use this station for my mod, but if any other mods want it, just grab it.

[chrisdn]

You're a much better modeller than me Chuck so what I'll do is post concepts I have for different stations and then you can polish them up to a more finished look. It would be nice if we could see a frame of sorts supporting the domes, would make it look very large indeed that way.

I'm more interested in getting a load of great concepts out than finishing them all myself. I like you're idea for the satndard docking arrangement and we should do a 2d plan to show the sizes etc that are concerned and the amount of spokes. Once we have that sorted we can then start on diferent module types...factory, accomodation, power generation, hospital etc etc.
One thing we must make sure of is that all different module types have the same mass and centre of Gravity.

I'm still thinking of some more conepts and I'll keep posting the rough ideas when I do them.

I just wish I could use Render like CHuck does...life would be so much easier.

[chuck_starchaser]

You got Blender; you got render. Just need to spend a few hours and learn how to use it. If you don't want to use Blender for design, you could still just use it as a renderer. Just export your models to object format, open blender and import it, then render it.

Yeah, standards...
I think the hub would have 12 "sockets" at each axial position. That way, 2, 3 or 4, or even 6 could be used. But the next ring of sockets would be girated by 15 degrees, to allow closer packing. I'll extend the hub tonight.
Sizes:
How about diameters in meters, by Fibonacci numbers starting at 8, so,
8,13,21,34,55, etc.?; both for socket fittings, and for hatches. Diameter being internal diameter. Why Fibs? Well, they grow sort of exponentially, yet they are integers, and they don't jump as harshly as powers of two.
They also have the wonderful property of adding and subtracting within the family. So, if you have a 55 meter module, and a 34 meter module beside it, and you need to match lengths, you can stack a 21 meter module onto the 34 meter module and you match the 55 meter module exactly.

I'll try to come up with some examples of modules and arrangements later tonight, after work.

[Kangaroo]

I agree with Chrisdn that more space station designs should be posted, therefore at least one thread like this should be stickied, so that there wouldn't be so many threads about this topic. And more - we might need more artists that would make something good from the concepts that are to be drawn here. What i'm trying to tell is that if anyone it these forums know some professionals, i think that we might need them soon.

[chuck_starchaser]

We can't afford professionals, but we got ourselves. Seriously, if we don't finish the designs, nobody else will. There are probably 50 metric tons of unfinished designs in this forum, including the finished designs
Somewhat kidding, but a lot the capital ships in VS, if not all, in fact, are radically lacking detail. You fly into space stations and it's all naked walls and pixels bigger than your ship, there. PR/WCU has more detailed ships and bases. Anyhow, me, I don't care about VS the mod and whether it may or may not use any of these stations. I'd rather other mods take them, personally; and the feasible ones (no gravitics) I'll take for my mod.
I still intend to work on that factory, btw; just got really into my work on the cargo ship at the moment. Who knows, I might use the factory myself. Just need to figure out what's best made in zero G's. I know metal foams are easy to make in zero G, as gas you inject into the molten metal doesn't "bubble up". Titanium foam... Magnesium foam...

[zaydana]

That is *very* cool. One question tho, wouldn't the gravity be towards the center of revolution, sooo... wouldn't the "floor" you've modelled actually be the "sky" ?

[Ryder P. Moses]

Er, no. Centrifugal force means things go out. There is, presumably, negligible gravity.

Or, really, that they go perpendicular to the center and at a tangent to the arc of rotation. Swing a chain around sometime and notice how it doesn't bunch up all around your hand.




Multiple-module station thingy will go up when I've had some sleep and stop seeing the invisible machine elves out of the corner of my eyes. Bloody machine elves.

[chrisdn]

Zaydana....the station will spin around the centre spindle causing outawrd G to act on the flat surface of each section. One thing about this design is that when you construct skyscrapers in the modules the gravity will get less the higher up in the building you go. Each unit is interchangeable and various other pods include a spacedock, pwergen plant, refinery and a few others I haven't thought of yet.

Its a very simple concept and the pods could even be attached to large exploratory vessels.

I am willing to devote as much time as I can to any project we're willing to develop further but we'll have to decide what stays and what goes and what aspect of the design people work on. Chuck, maybe you can have a word with the guy who's great with texturing...is it moses or Ramses or something? Kanagaroo, you seem very keen and we'd love to hear more of your input. Chuck, any particular part you want to work on? Maybe you can finalise the spokes of the station?

If no one else minds, I might have a think of different types of modules beyond accomodation and see if I can design something around that.

Chuck...should we all work from your mesh? If that's a yes then could you post a link to it? Just the mesh will do.

If people are up for doing this then just give me a nod and a wink and we can get it going and put something really special into the game.

[Halleck]

A link... you mean like this?

Here's the file.

[chuck_starchaser]

Chuck...should we all work from your mesh?

Go for it. It's free for all. I'm off to work on WCU stuff for a while.

[zaydana]

Haha, you are right. I guess I shouldn't try to think physics at 1 in the morning

[Kangaroo]

Kanagaroo, you seem very keen and we'd love to hear more of your input.

As long as you talk about science, i'm no good, because i'm fifteen and I don't know much about technelogy. (i'm still learning at school, you know )
Anyway, I'll have a look at the station and see if I can think of anything.
I'd also appreciate if someone taught me to retexture my concepts.

[chrisdn]

Kangaroo...don't worry about the science stuff. If there's anything complicated I can always put it into simpler terms for you. What's more important is the ideas, if they're good we can always make an excuse for them using science As far as texturing goes I get a bit lost but Chuck knows what he's talking and so does Ryder P Moses.

As far as it goes though you're going to be best off using blender to do texturing or you'll have to spend a fortune using something like 3D Studio max or some of the other commercial wares about. Chuck knows a shed load about Blender and Ryder P Moses seems to everything about the other bits of kit.

It does seem a bit of an involved process and I would concentrate on the modelling first and once that is pefected then move onto texturing. I use AC3D which is quite an easy to use piece of kit but it's lame when it comes to texturing and materials whereas blender does everthing with bells on but has a very difficult interface to use.

[Halleck]

You can use Wings 3D for texturing, but its AutoUV tool is grossly underpowered for some jobs. I think it would be able to handle the station prototypes you made... but for stuff like chuck's blender enhancements, forget it. It, like the rest of wings, works best when you're dealing with low polycounts- wings generally lacks the neccessary tools for dealing with high-resolution models.

Personally, I use Wings for all my texturing jobs... but most of those have been for low-poly elite strike models.