Topic: My most recent project....

[Centurus]

gone back to a more traditional setup I see. it looks good.

The sacuer tut I based mine on was from deemon, where as you start with a slice profile out of a spline. (so, you think of what the saucer would look like cut down the middle and then make the left or right hand side from the centerpoint, ofcourse it needs to be round) With this you can make say a bell starbase for the feds (sfhq) or a ufo, ect. The I made the spline, did the lathe and forgot what other thing I pressed, weld core or something...to get rid of the extra crap. Since i lost deemons tut I forgot how to do it right and it took a couple hrs of tinkering to figure what I messed up on, but I got something close to the volantis from JOAT which is what I want to build. (my thread is on BCC if you were curious)

I remember Cpt. Hooker had made a tutorial like that as well over at BCU some time back.  I had studied that tutorial numerous times.  Not bad.  I like it cause it explains a different way of doing it, and you never know when that can come in handy.

But when it comes to making saucer phaser arrays, I like the extrude method the best, since no matter if you're using a Sovereign type saucer, Galaxy type saucer, or a round saucer like the Connie's saucer, the phaser array will always follow the shape of the saucer precisely.

[GotAFarmYet?]

GAFY.

Just wanted to let you know that I got that lightmap and attached it.  What do you think of the effect?

P.S.

For you Starforce, the render features one of the alternate warp textures.

I like the look better than the glowing grill definatily, the copper blends nicily with the red.

The Alternate wapside texture you used should also use the Alt_wrplit.bmp to get the silver matched on the back side of warp scoop area. When I read the post with out looking at the Picture I thought you did the renders using the wrpout_Alt4, wrpin_Alt4, and wrplit_alt4 in place of the orginals, as I know you liked the look of the warp engines using that build version. Either way i still like the orginal side texture over the silver lining one.

Ahhh, my mistake.  I had been thinking about that warp side texture for the longest time, and wondered how it would look if used, so I threw it in there along with the more traditional warp intercooler grille texture.  And the warp bus texture, yep, it does look nice, doesn't it.  And the red comes out just beautifully.

Happens not like I send out instrustions on how to use the altnerate stuff I sent with it. I try to label them so you know what goes with what but don't always do a good job with that, after all the Alternates is usually the rejects folder renamed. Just because I did not care forthe look of some things doesn't mean the everyone will share the same opinion, which is why I try to give you options to play with. I liked the Triangle arrangement of the phasers over linear versions, but you also have those options to explore just incase. Who knows you might find a bash you want to do where those might look good (will not hold my breath for it though).

In the end it is all about opinion and the options availble that you get to make them with, and everyone will have their own favorite, just as Fallen_Warrior liked the Purple/Blue Chabot.

Either way you should be getting close to the final build soon and putting a registry on it.

[Starforce2]

purple and blue chabot??!! I got to see that.

[GotAFarmYet?]

So texturing Changes seem to be all done now, So that just leaves one thing to do

Renders, Renders, Renders...

So where are they?

[Centurus]

So texturing Changes seem to be all done now, So that just leaves one thing to do

Renders, Renders, Renders...

So where are they?

Ran into a few problems concerning the warp engines and the registries for them.  I made the problem, but didn't discover it until now.

When I was prepping the engines at the beginning, what I should have done was modify them as a pair, not as a single engine and clone it a few times and mirror 2 of them.  That just cause the mapping to mirror as well, so when I made one registry for one side of the warp engines, 2 of them showed properly, while the other 2 showed them mirrored, and on the opposite side of where they should have been.

Took me a while, but I decided to cut corners.  Needless to say, problem is fixed, and no remapping was required.

What I would really like to know though if there is a way in MAX to merge identical materials into one single material.  Cause the fix I had to make for the engines caused the model to now have multiple identical materials for the engines. 

While this doesn't affect how the ship will work in game, it's a major pain when it comes to, say, attaching spec maps for rendering, or even porting the ship to another game like BC because of all the times the same texture would have to be reassigned from the BMP to the TGA in order to make sure the entire ship was mapped.

I'll post some renders, with registries, in a bit.

[Centurus]

Here are some quick renders.  Didn't want to play with the lighting or render effect much right now.

[Centurus]

Hey everyone.

I have come to the decision that I want to include an alternate registry set for this ship upon release, with the name U.S.S. Flying Dutchman.

Thing is, I can't think of a good registry number for her.  I'm open to suggestions.  The suggestion I like most of all I shall use.  :-D

[Centurus]

Hey everyone.

I have come to the decision that I want to include an alternate registry set for this ship upon release, with the name U.S.S. Flying Dutchman.

Thing is, I can't think of a good registry number for her.  I'm open to suggestions.  The suggestion I like most of all I shall use.  :-D

Bumping my own post to see if anyone has any suggestions.

[atheorhaven]

Hey everyone.
I have come to the decision that I want to include an alternate registry set for this ship upon release, with the name U.S.S. Flying Dutchman.
Thing is, I can't think of a good registry number for her.  I'm open to suggestions.  The suggestion I like most of all I shall use.  :-D

Bumping my own post to see if anyone has any suggestions.

According to Wikipedia, the Dutchman sailed from Holland in 1751.. so add 1000 = 2751, mix the digits to put it into a similar range as the registry that you have for the Mars = 2157, which puts it into the "Unknown" class in MP's registry and class list, and 5 digits away from what you currently have.

Just my suggestion..

[Centurus]

Hey everyone.
I have come to the decision that I want to include an alternate registry set for this ship upon release, with the name U.S.S. Flying Dutchman.
Thing is, I can't think of a good registry number for her.  I'm open to suggestions.  The suggestion I like most of all I shall use.  :-D

Bumping my own post to see if anyone has any suggestions.

According to Wikipedia, the Dutchman sailed from Holland in 1751.. so add 1000 = 2751, mix the digits to put it into a similar range as the registry that you have for the Mars = 2157, which puts it into the "Unknown" class in MP's registry and class list, and 5 digits away from what you currently have.

Just my suggestion..

Interesting idea.  I like it very much.  +1 for ya.

[Centurus]

Here are some renders of the ship, but this time, with more traditional phaser banks instead of the triangular ones.  Also I have changed the inner warp grille texture, again, to be more traditional.  Same with the hull.

When the ship is released, she will come with both variants, so if anyone wishes to choose between one or the other, they may do so. 

[GotAFarmYet?]

Dang it,
In that top Picture there is something wrong in the hulls light map the lights should not be in the middle of the pods door. Looks like another fix will have to done

Ok found it.
You are using the older hull light map for the orginal ship, before you changed the model. You need to use the newer one

[GotAFarmYet?]

Updates?

[Centurus]

The model itself has been hardpointed, and the SFC3 UI has been completed.  I've been working on the storyline for a while.  I've been half lazy, and half suffering from writer's block.

I'm hoping to have the story finished and begin on the specs by Sunday.  Also, I've decided to release a registry pack as a separate download.

[GotAFarmYet?]

The model itself has been hardpointed, and the SFC3 UI has been completed.  I've been working on the storyline for a while.  I've been half lazy, and half suffering from writer's block.

I'm hoping to have the story finished and begin on the specs by Sunday.  Also, I've decided to release a registry pack as a separate download.

Speaking of registry packs, did you ever release the ones or the blanks for the Chabot?
I know DarkThunder was waiting for those.
Never did finish the More Excelsior looking version of that ship either, guess I should see if I saved them somewhere.

[Centurus]

WHOOPS!!!!!

Let me see if I still have them somewhere.  :-p

If and when I find them, I'll upload them to SFC3Files.com.

I still need to find someone to make me some replacement parts for the original Chabot.  Then again you said you weren't interested in making textures for the pre-refit version. 

[Centurus]

Stories are done.  Specs, done.  The ship works nicely in SFC3.

Now, just have to make some registries for the other ships, pack them up, get some in game shots, and post the babies for download.

Anyone wanna help?  :-D

[Jay1886]

As suggestion for the registry of the flying dutchman: The first reference in print to the ship itself appears to be in Chapter VI of George Barrington's Voyage to Botany Bay. This was written in 1795. Thus how does NCC 1795 sound? (unless that's taken).

[atheorhaven]

Stories are done.  Specs, done.  The ship works nicely in SFC3.
Now, just have to make some registries for the other ships, pack them up, get some in game shots, and post the babies for download.
Anyone wanna help?  :-D

I wouldn't mind giving you a hand if you'd like.. if you don't have a blank, shouldn't take that long to create one..

[GotAFarmYet?]

He has Blanks for all 3 versions of the ship