Danube class interior

[newman]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum (although I've been downloading and modding my
installation of BC for years now). One thing I alway felt we needed more was bridges.
For a while now, I had this idea to make a danube class runabout interior as a bridge for BC.
The idea is to make not just the cockpit, but the rear part of the craft's interior as well,
enabling the player to move about the ship using the walkfx plugin (it's not exactly a galaxy
class - although I'm by no means a programer/scripter, I feel that making the runabout's
interior is feasible). Also, my plan is to make two versions - the 'early' and 'late' versions of the
runabout interior (the early has the transporter in the cockpit, while the late has a small room with
the transporter behind the cockpit, and a tactical panel where the transporter used to be). Both would install as separate bridges into the game.
I'm an experienced modeller, so I can model and texture the interior, as well as export to .nif.
I can also animate (doors and stuff). Unfortunately, that's where my expertise stops - and I need
someone's help to get it all in game when it's done. I'd learn to do it myself, but I have a lot of real
(as in, paying) work to do as well and I'll be stretching myself to make the textured model as it is.
I just wanted a runabout interior in BC for a long time now, and I'm tired of waiting for someone
else to do it 
I use 3DS Max 8, as I said I have the nif tools pluging for it and I can export.
I need someone - preferably someone who's done bridges before - to place the crew around, help
me with animated lcars, do all the scripting, generally all that's needed with getting it in game.
If you decide to join me you'll of course be credited with your part of the work. You should also
know that if finished, this will be a completely free project, anyone will be able to download and
use it at will, and I won't make a dime out of it. And, neither will you - I'm doing this for fun
Interested? Leave a message here and I'll get back to you.

In short:

My part of the work: modelling, texturing and animating
Your part of the work: everything else needed to make it a viable bc plugin

[bsilver2988]

I'm in, i can do textures, Bridge plugin scripting, texture swapping.  we'll need someone else for character placement and character animations

[newman]

Perfect! Welcome aboard! That brings the total number of team members up to.. 2!
We still need someone for character placement and animations, so if anyone can assist we'd appreciate it.
Sending you a private message to arrange the details.

[Legacy]

max 8 and niftools are not a way to get a bc useable model.
Models need to be exported using max 3 or milkshape at most.

Animations were never tried at other than max 3 with character studio.

As for the request you've made, it's the same we heard before. You have a model and want it ported.
Sadly i must give the usual reply, only 3 of us at the 3rd era team can actually put a bridge ingame, and time is something we don`t have plenty.
Only help we may give you is offer to teach you how to do it, or put it on the queue.

LC

[newman]

Actually, I already have someone who'll script it into the game (bsilver kindly offered his expertise in scripting for BP). What we still need is someone to place the characters around.
A question about max3: is it really neccesary? When installing nif tools into max 8, it specifically asked me for what games will I be using it so it can configure itself properly. Bridge Commander was on the list, and I installed it specifically for BC. If that won't work, can I import 3ds into milkshape and avoid the very old max 3 - I haven't seen a copy of it in years?
And of course, if there's a bridge modding tutorial out there you can point me at, or just offer advice along the way, I'd be very grateful.

[FekLeyr Targ]

I can look for sounds for the interior. I also can test the interior.

[newman]

I can look for sounds for the interior. I also can test the interior.

Yeah, sounds shouldn't be a major problem, there's plenty of them around on the net. The ones used on existing bridges in BC are also quite good, imo. But, if you want to look, knock yourself out - but we'll need pretty darn good ones if we're to replace the ones already in the game..
As for the testing, as I said in the other forum, provided we get to that stage, you can test all you want. The main problem now is to get someone to help out with the scripting bit. Bsilver will script it into the game and he can script for BP, so we just need someone to help out with the character placement.
But first, we'll need the textured model, and right now I have some work to do so I won't be able to work on the mesh for at least a couple of days.

[Legacy]

Actually, I already have someone who'll script it into the game (bsilver kindly offered his expertise in scripting for BP). What we still need is someone to place the characters around.
A question about max3: is it really neccesary? When installing nif tools into max 8, it specifically asked me for what games will I be using it so it can configure itself properly. Bridge Commander was on the list, and I installed it specifically for BC. If that won't work, can I import 3ds into milkshape and avoid the very old max 3 - I haven't seen a copy of it in years?

Nifskope compatibility is still under development, i don`t actually know if it can actually generate any nifs the game can work over.
As for milkshape, teorically it could do the job, but it`ll depend much more on the third part plugin written for it then anything else, and it were never tested with any kind of animations, however i know it can handle models.
Like i said, we never tried anything aside max 3 in deep, simply because the alternative were no better.
So, sadly i`m afraid max 3 is still a need.

And of course, if there's a bridge modding tutorial out there you can point me at, or just offer advice along the way, I'd be very grateful.

Nope, i never got the time to write one, and so far, only i, mark, sean and LJ - i think (and the retired Viper) could ever port a bridge ingame properly.

[newman]

Nope, i never got the time to write one, and so far, only i, mark, sean and LJ - i think (and the retired Viper) could ever port a bridge ingame properly.

That would explain why there's relatively few new bridges compared to new ships out there..
I'd still like to try. If your offer about teaching me still stands, I'd be happy to accept.
Right now I just wanted to see if I could get people willing to help, first thing needed for this mod will be the model and textures, and I can't work on them for the next couple of days (weeks?) due to work piling up. Once I do complete and texture the mesh I'll be back..

[newman]

Ok, I started modelling. On the attached pics you can see the initial mesh of the cockpit, old danube class version with the transporter pad inside the cockpit. I'll do the more modern version as well. I'm still missing the chairs, and the rear of the craft, plus some details before starting to texture, but it's getting there. Hope you guys like it.

I have a question: does anyone know what kind of a polycount I should be aiming at? Thanks.

[Jb06]

looks good so far.

on the poly count issue 20,000 is the average size for a bridge. the intrepid was 23,000 but people started moaning on lag issues. so yeh max prolly 23,000. i think

~Jb06

[Legacy]

It looks pretty, but i see it`s also intensive.. lots of segments at the smoothing edges.
i would say 20k is a target with all the furniture, if possible, better keep it around 15k.

[newman]

looks good so far.

on the poly count issue 20,000 is the average size for a bridge. the intrepid was 23,000 but people started moaning on lag issues. so yeh max prolly 23,000. i think

~Jb06

It looks pretty, but i see it`s also intensive.. lots of segments at the smoothing edges.
i would say 20k is a target with all the furniture, if possible, better keep it around 15k.

Ok great, I'm in the clear then.. I'm at about 8,000 atm. And that's the newer version then you can see posted, with the chairs and the corridor behind the cockpit. Might even make the aft section of the craft, then, with the table and the chairs.. I just hope I'll manage to get it ingame
I was worried you'd say 7-8 k as the maximum. When I imported nifs from existing bridges into max that was the usual polycount. Didn't try intrepid though..
Do you count the bridge crew into the polycount as well? If so, I'll have to deduce about 4000 polys from the 15-20 limit for them.
At any rate, thanks!

[Sean]

Ok great, I'm in the clear then.. I'm at about 8,000 atm. And that's the newer version then you can see posted, with the chairs and the corridor behind the cockpit. Might even make the aft section of the craft, then, with the table and the chairs.. I just hope I'll manage to get it ingame
I was worried you'd say 7-8 k as the maximum. When I imported nifs from existing bridges into max that was the usual polycount. Didn't try intrepid though..
Do you count the bridge crew into the polycount as well? If so, I'll have to deduce about 4000 polys from the 15-20 limit for them.
At any rate, thanks!

It was thought along time ago 7 - 8 K was the max poly count, tho through test Me and mark discovered that we could up that to 20K giving us more polys to create smoother, more detailed bridges. and no you dont count the crew in the poly count for the bridge

[newman]

Ok, I'm more or less done with the mesh od the old version of the runabout interior. I'll need to add a few details here and there, but nothing drastic. As you can see, I've added the central and aft compartments, furniture included. Current polycount is at around 14200, and with a few minor details added I still don't think it will go over 15k.
Soon I'll need to start texturing, and I have some quetions regarding that.
First of all, what kind of textures should I go for? Obviously the game uses .tga format, and that's not a problem, but what about resolution? Should I go for few larger textures, or make more small ones? Any special rules that I need to observe when making and naming textures?
Also, how do I make the viewscreen? I've noticed it comes in a separate .nif. As the runabout has two forward looking windows, I thought I'd place the viewscreen behind them. Will this work? And, can the viewscreen be in other shapes then planar? For example, the runabout windows are curved, they can be divided into upper and lower segments which are at different angles. Can the viewscreen be of that shape too?
If not, I hope I'll still be able to just put it flat behind the windows.

[Legacy]

First of all, what kind of textures should I go for? Obviously the game uses .tga format, and that's not a problem, but what about resolution? Should I go for few larger textures, or make more small ones? Any special rules that I need to observe when making and naming textures?

No rules to name then, we just keep using the _lm as suffix for easy identification.
As for size, it depends on if you want animated maps. We tend to use small ones tiled for normal surfaces. but it's up to you.
Also, keep the sizes power of 2 (64,128,256,512,1024)

Also, how do I make the viewscreen? I've noticed it comes in a separate .nif. As the runabout has two forward looking windows, I thought I'd place the viewscreen behind them. Will this work? And, can the viewscreen be in other shapes then planar? For example, the runabout windows are curved, they can be divided into upper and lower segments which are at different angles. Can the viewscreen be of that shape too?
If not, I hope I'll still be able to just put it flat behind the windows.

The viewscreen must be a hole at the actual model, so the two windows will work, just keep the glass away.
The actual viewscreen is a nif with only the surface you want to project it at.
As for curves, they tend to cause strange effects, so, better go with a flat behind the windows.

[newman]

Thanks for the info Legacy. Animated lcars are not planned for the moment. I did plan, however, on baking in ambient occlusion and direct shadows into the textures. Which means, no tiling and bigger maps.
Or can the new bridge plugin add shadows in real time?

[Legacy]

No, no real time shadows.

Actually what you said about baking lighting is what we call lightmapping.
And we use 2 different texture channels, one for diffuse and one for lightmaps, so, you can actually use tiling, which in fact we did at all bridges up to the moment.

[leemason]

 :lol: If this comes off I think it will be up there with the KM mod cannot wait

[startrekw_george]

this is really cool!, defiantly would use walk FX on it!