propose model for a human medium interceptor/fighter

Thinking about improving the Artwork in Vega Strike, or making your own Mod? Submit your question and ideas in this forum.

Moderator: pyramid

Post Reply
GAlex
Mercenary
Mercenary
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 10:33 am
Location: Italia

propose model for a human medium interceptor/fighter

Post by GAlex »

some forums ago, oblivion said something like "never put a WIP", and I totally agree. but it is always a temptation to show what is "boling in the cauldron" (an italian idiomatic phrase).

however I found no time to texture my easter space sheep until now, and so... here are the results: (btw, the following are VS0.4.3 game screenshot, as I always add every ship I model to the game as to see how it looks like ingame, and also try to fit the stats)

let me know what You think. :oops:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

I don't have time now to upload the files, will zip if later and post it on a second time. by :wink:
"Eppur si muove ..."
(Galileo Galilei just after abjuring to the Inquisition)
Kangaroo
Venturer
Venturer
Posts: 543
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:55 am
Location: Baltic States
Contact:

Post by Kangaroo »

Thumbs up man, good looking ship!

...although there seem to be problems with smoothing. Did you convert it to xmesh or straight from obj to bfxm? All that I know is that conversion to xmesh erases smoothing data. If so, you might want to re-export it directly from obj to bfxm.
(correct me if I'm wrong)

Also, to make the ship look better, I suggest making a reflection map (Howard's modles are a good example) to make the ship's texture look more detailed.
There are no stupid people on Earth; they are only alternatively thinking.
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Post by klauss »

Cool ship.
Nice looks.
Doesn't feel too WIPpy.

Though it could use some improvement. Namely, and in order of importance:
0) smoothing - get it fixed, please... it kills the model.
1) main fuselage - has too many parallel surfaces, makes it look much blockier than it should.
2) specmap - let the tiny features shine.
3) ambient occlusion bakings - they really do wonders, and there's even a tutorial in the wiki on how to do it.
4) at round places, you can afford some extra polies.

I hate to ruin your UV map, though - if you follow those points, you'll have to remap.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
rigelan
Confed Special Operative
Confed Special Operative
Posts: 291
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:58 am
Location: Des Moines, Iowa

Post by rigelan »

I like the design
Paslowo
Mercenary
Mercenary
Posts: 121
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:01 am
Contact:

Post by Paslowo »

I don't know if he could re UV Map, I think he spend weeks working to get the model looking like that.

Same thing with mine.
Oblivion
Artisan Extraordinaire
Artisan Extraordinaire
Posts: 1269
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:55 am
Location: Philippines

Post by Oblivion »

I never could understand the arrows and whatnot that seem to go nowhere. :wink: But they seem to contribute making textures look better. hehe.

Like it. :) Looks very VS-sy. The cockpit coloration (or I should say tinting) doesn't match with hull color. :)
Other than that. nice. :)
A Step Into Oblivion

Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
zaydana
Site Administrator
Site Administrator
Posts: 478
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 10:05 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

Post by zaydana »

Looks nice :-) Very much in the style of VS' other terran ships.

One thing tho apart from what other people have already pointed out. The front thrusters seem to be pointing directly at another piece of the ship which is poking out from the main body. The problem with this is that a large portion (or all?) of the rocket plume from the front thrusters will hit the back of the ship. While it might not matter too much in terms of heat or damage, it will slow the ship down, basically doing the reverse in terms of force that the rocket originally did in firing. Maybe if you raised them a bit, or put them a bit further away from the ship?
GAlex
Mercenary
Mercenary
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 10:33 am
Location: Italia

Post by GAlex »

Thanks a lot for all Your feedback. :D :D :D

@Klauss
0) smoothing - get it fixed, please... it kills the model.
is it too smooth or too sharp? it was exported from blender to .obj and then directly to bfxm, and the ship looks quite like a blender render.
where do you think it should look sharper and where smoohter?
1) main fuselage - has too many parallel surfaces, makes it look much blockier than it should.
I know... sob! it was a modelling procedure error, since it's an extruded cube (in fact the blender mesh is named "cube"), but after having the cube extruded I liked the revolver-like structure, and left this shape as you can see. anyway I agree with you, will try to give it a less boxy look.
2) specmap - let the tiny features shine.
it has a specmap (am I right map_Ks?), but maybe some control on .mtl file was not so good. should I set Ks property to 0.05-0.10 for RGB instead of 0.00? my first attempt was that parts of the ship where like a total-reflection mirror, and the other where graphite-covered surfaces with albedo <0,01 (argh!)
3) ambient occlusion bakings - they really do wonders, and there's even a tutorial in the wiki on how to do it.
that method does not work with my 2.41 version of blender, or at least it does not work for me. after 2h of my precious (and few) spare time of trying (at least 5 times) it fails totally on baking the vertex colour to the texture. if ou have some advices...
4) at round places, you can afford some extra polies.
yes, I can, but it's made of steel (or whatever new material we will have in the future) plates assembled, and it's still a mass product. however I think that in the cargo bay at the top and in the nose, a 2-step subdivision could do the work, while the bevelling of the main fuselage has to remain like it is IMHO.
I hate to ruin your UV map, though - if you follow those points, you'll have to remap.
no problem at all, since once I have the texture, remapping is a straightforward procedure, and many, many polys doesn't need to be remapped. blender can remap also portions of a mesh, leaving the rest mapped. however it tooks me no more than an hour to have the mesh UVmapped last time :wink:

a last question: in blender the model also had a glowmap, better, an emitting texture that made the exhaust grids emit light (a great effect in dark space or in penumbra lighting), but map_Ke seems not to work in VS. namlely it crashes the engine at first load, with the addiction of a 1GB core dump (time to disassemble? :shock: )

all the above implies it's a WIP :cry: (maybe not so much)

@zaydana:
the front thrusters are for enhancing manouvrability, and are needed for sharp bends and, of course their implicit countereffect, when combined with the usage of opposite thrusters on front and rear configuration, make this ship turn very fast also at high speed. too bad VS engine can't render all this and all thrusters are fired together every time you hit + on the numpad. but you can always imagine it 8) .
If I remember well Elite2 and FFE's ships fired various thrusters as to render the different kind of accelerations, but the flames came out of nowhere from the mesh, and all looks very weird.
[/quote]

EDIT:
@oblivion I had oblived You :lol: in my re. changed cockpit colour to shiny black (my preferred colour) with just a bit of blue (reg 10 on 255). thanks a lot.
"Eppur si muove ..."
(Galileo Galilei just after abjuring to the Inquisition)
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Post by klauss »

Map_Ke kills the engine?
Cool - first time I hear that.
Why don't you send the model (with the Ke) so that I can check that out?

Ks needs to be higher. If you use a specmap, you can safely set it to 1 and the specmap will handle the moderation aspects.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
Halleck
Elite
Elite
Posts: 1832
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2005 10:21 pm
Location: State of Denial
Contact:

Post by Halleck »

That looks great! Reminiscent of something out of FFE but with Howard Day-style textures, which means that it should fit right in to VS.
My only gripe is the windshields, maybe try all black with 100% specularity.
GAlex
Mercenary
Mercenary
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 10:33 am
Location: Italia

Post by GAlex »

@klauss:
ok, last try ke doesn't crash the system, but it does NOT emit any light.
attached is the archive (.zip) with everything into. You can also try to adjust levels and smoothness as you like, my models are all GPLv2 8)

only let me know what has to be done (or what You have done) as to learn everytime something new.

verrry thanks to all.

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room17/435897/cube.zip

if You experience problems downloading, pm me, I will reply with attachments.
"Eppur si muove ..."
(Galileo Galilei just after abjuring to the Inquisition)
Post Reply