Topic: Opinions: Do we really need ANOTHER TOS Constitution?

[Rod ONeal]

:bump: How's she comming?

[TheStressPuppy]

Shes comming along quite well so far. I screwed up and collapsed all the layers of 1 texture and saved it by mistake, so now im gonna have to redo that texture in reverse from the model bmp. I got the dorsal base texture lite and bump finished. and i put the TMP style impulse glows in, and i corrected my red glowwy texture error on the dish.

 Its gonna be a while b4 this model is finished. theres ALOT of experiments i want try out, and to do with it still. once the base texture is finished then comes the fun part of weathering the ship as i said before theres no way that a approx 15 year old ship will look like it just came off the assembly line. After that im gonna make specular maps. this is gonna be the great experiment. im gonna try a faint aztec pattern for this ship using the TMP connie as a guide. it will almost be invisible to all but the steepest angles.

Heres some recent shots. I still need to bump map the deflector dish, and play with the bumps on the dorsal to make em stand out more.

[USS Mariner]

Neat impulse textures. Any chances for a blue version? It may be just me, but blue impulse engines give a little variety, especially since they'll be sitting near giant orange bussards. :p


Anyway, speaking of variety, is they by any change you would consider having an "armed" version of the Enterprise, with visible weapon ports (or hatches would do, not necessarily the phaser blisters of TMP or on LS's, but that works too.) Also, seeing this thing with a set of backlit warp grills and deflector (both of which Roddenberry originally wanted) would rock. You wouldn't need to change the mesh for the latter variant, just map the deflector housing to glow and then an effect on the back of the deflector itself. That's always something I've always wanted to seen done on a higher poly Connie, and so far only Atra's USS Potemkin has both features.

[TheStressPuppy]

Anyway, speaking of variety, is they by any change you would consider having an "armed" version of the Enterprise, with visible weapon ports (or hatches would do, not necessarily the phaser blisters of TMP or on LS's, but that works too.) Also, seeing this thing with a set of backlit warp grills and deflector (both of which Roddenberry originally wanted) would rock. You wouldn't need to change the mesh for the latter variant, just map the deflector housing to glow and then an effect on the back of the deflector itself. That's always something I've always wanted to seen done on a higher poly Connie, and so far only Atra's USS Potemkin has both features.

I wasnt gonna say anything, but once i complete the base texture set, I intended to make another texture set to "modernize" the ship.. the semi-canon version is what you see here, and i hinted in my last post about the aztec patterns, so yes im gonna do an "enterprised" version with glowwing warp nacelles, self illumination, aztecs, visable weapon emitters, thrusters, and a glow behind the main deflector (been wanting to do this for a while just never got to it). I may also alter the model itself for the "modern" version. theres things that dont quite make sense like the waifer thin nacelle pylons. they may need some re-enforcement where they connect to the hull and nacelle. just a minor rounding out at the connections and i may add a small protrusion on the nacelle where the pylon meets like on the tmp ship. I dont know about the blue impulse's tho dont look right to me.

[Kaenyne]

I say do as many variations as you feel you need to do. And now I'm very curous as to how this "modernized" version is going to play out.

And by the way, your current work is jaw droppin' good!

[ModelsPlease]

 
-MP

[Rod ONeal]

She's looking so sweet, man. Thanks for the update. It's tough to be a TOS junkie these days.

[Chris Jones]

Stress -

This looks really nice..

Unfortunately I don't have suggestions on your 4k problem - this is a show of support for your efforts and longevity in the community.

[TheStressPuppy]

Its comming very VERY slowly, but its progressing. I managed to rebuild that botched up texture, and bump the deflector dish. without the bump map the dish is  just a plain bronze disk (least untill i weather it). Im going for the smithsonian display look on the dish itself. where the dish is bronze, but the antenna itself is gold. I also enhanced the bumping of the dorsal so it stands out even in direct lighting. Starting on secondary hull texture 2 nite 

[FoaS_XC]

I dont think SFC Support Bump mapping....

[S33K100]

He said earlier in the thread that this is not for the SFC version, the SFC version textures will be done from renders of this one or some such.

[FoaS_XC]

oh well, i feel dumb.

[TheStressPuppy]

Nah, easy mistake. Yes i did say that the SFC version will use rendered textures being that it does not support bump mapping. (perhaps a new SFC is in order that does support all this eye candy)

Secondary hull 50% done ill post a shot later

[Rod ONeal]

Nah, easy mistake. Yes i did say that the SFC version will use rendered textures being that it does not support bump mapping. (perhaps a new SFC is in order that does support all this eye candy)

Secondary hull 50% done ill post a shot later

AMEN to that!

The model's looking fantastic, man! Looking forward to seeing the next update.

[Don Karnage]

                                              a ship question:


what is the yellow square on the saucer behind the bridge and the big yellow circle under the hull of all fed tos ship?

[S33K100]

There's probably some really complicated treknological explanation for exactly what they do but the real reason is - they're just random details that were never worked out. I always thought the circle on the bottom was the TOS equivalent of the warp core ejection hatch thingamajig.

[ModelsPlease]

According to the Franz Joseph deck plans, the yellow rectangle behind the bridge is a hatch for the astrophysics lab telescope, which I had always thought was funny because if they wanted to study some stellar phenonema, they could just go there instead of breaking out the telescope.

Perhaps it's use was in case they were on a mission and couldn't go "there" as they fly bye it would be deployed for studying said phenomena.Also with the vastness of space,they can't go everywhere so observations would probably be made on a regular basis of far off occurances perhaps the way we use the Hubble telescope today. Just a thought.

No clue about the other markings.
-MP

[TheStressPuppy]

I speculate that the markings under the hull represent duterium fuel cell jettison hatches, and the antimattier pod jettison area (the deck plans have em relitivly close to that region).  Problem is according to canon babble the antimatter pods were in the warp nacelles themselves. So really they could be anything. Reality is they just placed random details on with no clue what it was ment for. The shuttle bay for instance was never ment to be a shuttle bay until an episode came up where they needed one. fortunetly for the FX crew they modeled the aft area of the secondary hull the way they did, and added in the details of the bay door. if u note the early pilot episodes theres no detail on the shuttle bay area at all. Just a plain globe.

Anyways enough speculation, heres some shots of my secondary hull at 50%  the deflector area, and top/bottom isnt textured yet. Once again i tried a cylindrical map that met with disasterous results (major texture stretching). so im going plainiar again :/ which means slicing the hull into 4 sections and making a texture for each section. but it still gets the results i want.




Im detailing it to look good close up, but i dont expect anyone to zoom in this close in game, Im guessing it will take 5 or 6 1024x1024 texture sheets to cover her.

Edit: After some disscussion with Lord Schtupp, and studying some studio pics,  my attention has been brought back to the saucer. I may have to rebuild it after all. at least the superstructure area, may as well fix the lower saucer while im at it

To the one that mentioned that another set of blueprints exist. where can i get those prints?  id like to compare them with the reference i got.

[USS Mariner]

I speculate that the markings under the hull represent duterium fuel cell jettison hatches, and the antimattier pod jettison area (the deck plans have em relitivly close to that region).  Problem is according to canon babble the antimatter pods were in the warp nacelles themselves. So really they could be anything. Reality is they just placed random details on with no clue what it was ment for. The shuttle bay for instance was never ment to be a shuttle bay until an episode came up where they needed one. fortunetly for the FX crew they modeled the aft area of the secondary hull the way they did, and added in the details of the bay door. if u note the early pilot episodes theres no detail on the shuttle bay area at all. Just a plain globe.

Anyways enough speculation, heres some shots of my secondary hull at 50%  the deflector area, and top/bottom isnt textured yet. Once again i tried a cylindrical map that met with disasterous results (major texture stretching). so im going plainiar again :/ which means slicing the hull into 4 sections and making a texture for each section. but it still gets the results i want.

http://www.thegamingunion.co.uk/users/forumusers/testconnie10.jpg
http://www.thegamingunion.co.uk/users/forumusers/testconnie11.jpg

Im detailing it to look good close up, but i dont expect anyone to zoom in this close in game, Im guessing it will take 5 or 6 1024x1024 texture sheets to cover her.

Edit: After some disscussion with Lord Schtupp, and studying some studio pics,  my attention has been brought back to the saucer. I may have to rebuild it after all. at least the superstructure area, may as well fix the lower saucer while im at it

To the one that mentioned that another set of blueprints exist. where can i get those prints?  id like to compare them with the reference i got.

Well, the blueprints I mentioned were by Charles Casmiro, who has also spent time pouring over reference material. Although I know Alan Sinclair has too, when ever I look at his set of blueprints, the whole secondary hull just seems stretched out too far, and the lower saucer bulge looks too shallow.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~casimiro/blueprints.html

I hope these atleast point you in the right direction.

[TheStressPuppy]

Thanks for link

I dont really see much of a difference with ether Sinclairs or Casmiros prints measurment wise. Casmiro did however pay a little more attention to the details with his set. Which match to a tee with the 2000 smithsonian restoration model (obviously the only guide he had). I also  like the 3d renders he did.

With all of the photos of the model i have and between both sets of prints  im sure i can come up with a "reasonably" accurate low poly model. the only tweaking needed to the current mesh is mainly the lower saucer, and superstructure areas.