Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Bridge Modding => Topic started by: andyp on April 19, 2011, 04:00:57 AM
-
Hey all,
ive decided to get of my backside and start modeling again, my first few attempts were never very successful. I just thought i would post some WIP shots of what i have on my latest bridge effort, i would like to eventually get it into bridge commander, but that would require a lot of learning on my part. I have been working on it very slowly in my free time.
Things i still need to work on for the modeling / texture phase:
-Ceiling (episode did not have many references so ill have to make it up)
-Standing consoles
-Railing behind Captains Chair
-Displays behind Captains chair
-Captains Chair lcars
-redo the doors, or retexture
-Create a turbo lift. (will be a generic on similar to the one for the Pasteur)
The side chairs are from the Enterprise: Temporal Cold War Mod for HL2, and i put in temporary L-cars. Everything else i made my self. This is the set rendered in blender 2.55
-
Looks good so far.
-
Nebula Bridge Mk1 :yay: cool :P
keep your work :thumbsup:
-
Built the turbo-lift today, was trying to go for the feel of the lift as seen on all good things for the Pasteur. The first image shows a railing, i didnt really like how it looked to i deleted it for the second.
The Lcars are from Robert aka explorer over at Lcarsc
-
Nice work so far and not an easy bridge. Keep going with it.
-
NICE bridge there.
-
Nice so far, though I'm not sure about the Transporter LCARS in the turbolift...I'll have to see more to give my final word.
-
quick question - the chairs on the side consoles, they look like office chairs... wouldnt it be kinda difficult if the ship were in battle and the bridge was shaking around, with the chairs on wheels rolling around? shouldnt the be like "anchored" in place or something?
just a quick random thought...
-
Nice so far, though I'm not sure about the Transporter LCARS in the turbolift...I'll have to see more to give my final word.
I may modify them and remove the energize bars, and replace them with a display, that way i can reuse the same texture for the standing consoles, however i think i would have to ask permission from Explorer first. the other solution would be to take the standard helm/ops lcars and use them instead.
quick question - the chairs on the side consoles, they look like office chairs... wouldnt it be kinda difficult if the ship were in battle and the bridge was shaking around, with the chairs on wheels rolling around? shouldnt the be like "anchored" in place or something?
just a quick random thought...
thats a good point, and was thinking of the same thing a few days ago. ill take a look at modifying them, and doing that would even reduce the poly count. However, i am pretty sure these chairs were also used as equinox chairs on voyager. I choose them because the bridge illustration that i found had them.
Sadly i wont be able to work on this today, i have to leave for class right now, its just afternoon in Milwaukee, and right after class i have to go to work, which i get done at 11. we'll see what i can do tomorrow.
-
However, i am pretty sure these chairs were also used as equinox chairs on voyager.
youre prolly right, and im sure chairs-with-wheels might have been seen on other bridges...
to me, thats a weird idea; im not sure why set designers would have done that lol
-
youre prolly right, and im sure chairs-with-wheels might have been seen on other bridges...
to me, thats a weird idea; im not sure why set designers would have done that lol
maybe they put magnetic restraints to the wheels or some stuff like that ;)
on a side note... this looks very much like the bridge from that Nebula Data was given command of when they had to stop that Tasha-Yar-like Romulan Bitc... I mean lady :D
with some minor texture chages this would perfectly fit it, tho IIRC they had a tactical table there ... not sure tho, it was long time ago since i saw it
great work so far ! cookie !
-
The bridge is the USS Sutherland from TNG Redemption Part 2 which Lt. Cmdr. Data commanded. So far for a WIP, he is off to a great start.
-
Wow, the directing of that episode really hid how cheap the bridge set was.
That's not to cast aspersions on your excellent job!
I'd like to chime in on the lift LCARS. I think we're all big enough nerds here to know that that is a transporter control panel. Perhaps a vague turbolift network map, like the non-ship-specific one in the Defiant turboes would be more appropriate - recoloured to match the period of this bridge, with maybe a few controls on the side?
-
Wow, the directing of that episode really hid how cheap the bridge set was.
I'd like to chime in on the lift LCARS. I think we're all big enough nerds here to know that that is a transporter control panel. Perhaps a vague turbolift network map, like the non-ship-specific one in the Defiant turboes would be more appropriate - recoloured to match the period of this bridge, with maybe a few controls on the side?
It also appeared as the galley in the undiscovered country, maybe ill do a kitchen variant when i am done.
as far as the panel, ill think ill be modifying it.
-
ok not much of an update, but i modified the chairs, fixed a texture issue, adjusted the AO and added some keypads.
-
It also appeared as the galley in the undiscovered country, maybe ill do a kitchen variant when i am done.
as far as the panel, ill think ill be modifying it.
Didn't they also use a part of the Galaxy-Class Observation Lounge for that also? Seems like I remember that?
Either way your bridge is starting to shape up!
-
Didn't they also use a part of the Galaxy-Class Observation Lounge for that also? Seems like I remember that?
Either way your bridge is starting to shape up!
in season one, sick bay was redressed for the observation lounge? Otherwise in the Undiscovered country the used the observation lounge as the formal dinning room which was the movie they also used this set for? Or else in insurrection the observation lounge, redressed from First contact, redressed from tng, was used as the mess hall, or something like that for the scene when they had the first contact with the short race, the Evora?
-
in season one, sick bay was redressed for the observation lounge? Otherwise in the Undiscovered country the used the observation lounge as the formal dinning room which was the movie they also used this set for? Or else in insurrection the observation lounge, redressed from First contact, redressed from tng, was used as the mess hall, or something like that for the scene when they had the first contact with the short race, the Evora?
That's it! LOL
-
alright had some more time to work today. Added a few more keypads, redid some keypads and displays, and modified the turbo lift Lcars
let me know what you think.
-
Looking very well done. in fact great work!
-
While I've personally never been a fan of the Southerland bridge, I must say this is a quality recreation you have here. Good work! :yay: *cookied*
-
ok added the standing consoles today. The blue prints show them angled, but i made them straight for now.
let me know what you think.
-
Although the Sutherland bridge is fairly small, it's certainly functional and "to the point" of what is needed. A bridge more fitting for military assignments, rather than exploration.
Attached an image of "likely" station assignments.
-
i know it isnt "canon" but i think the bridge would have been so much more "normal" if it had a front console, like Defiant and Intrepid bridge...
perhaps take some creative license and add one? lol :)
-
I agree with Jimmy. The lack of any front console(s) is probably my biggest gripe about the Southerland bridge design.
-
The Sutherland Bridge design is unique go for canon as possible who needs the backside of someones head in the way any how :funny
-
i know it isnt "canon" but i think the bridge would have been so much more "normal" if it had a front console, like Defiant and Intrepid bridge...
perhaps take some creative license and add one? lol :)
well I am toying with the idea of just creating a bridge pack because with this basic layout i can think of 3 easy types of bridges
1.) Freighter / generic fed bridge: add the helm horseshoe console from the Pasteur / raven and change the side consoles to the ones seen on the defiant bridge in the search
2.) Cardassian bridge: change the colors a bit, modify the veiwscreen, change the side consoles to the ones often seen in quarters on ds9, change the captains chair
3.) Romulan: Change the side consoles to the one as seen from the sao polo bridge / defiant engineering / romulan warbird bridge change the captains chair add the console from nemesis in front of the captains chair, change the viewscreen, Get a giant romulan logo to replace the computers behind the captains chair
For laughs:
1.) Create a computer core control room: This is for another project of mine, get rid of captains chair, add the voyager standing console
2.)the Gally: Replace the standing consoles with the tables as seen in the undiscovered country, turn one side of the lcar displays into replicators
-
you could do a "traditional" Sutherland bridge whereas it is a big empty space and such as it is...
and perhaps a "Dominion-War refit" one (which is totally your creative artistic license of course) where perhaps a front console is put in and maybe some more consoles on the sides where the chairs are, with a "darker" feel to it or whatever...
perhaps during the Dominion War that ship got an upgrade or whatever and more stations and consoles and whatever were put in? i dunno, just a random idea...
-
well I am toying with the idea of just creating a bridge pack because with this basic layout i can think of 3 easy types of bridges
I think that's a really good idea :) I never liked this bridge and always thought was dull (hence why would never even consider attempting it). But I think you've done a really nice job and its very blandness makes it ideal as a bridge module, along the lines you've suggested. Bit like the Ent D battle bridge set kept being recycled (but that was even more distinctive than this). Look forward to seeing your 'remakes'... Oh, and would make an ideal Klingon bridge too :)
-
i started some work on the ceiling today, obviously its still not finished (the lights in the column where the light is being emitted is just empty right now) I also noticed some things with the upper wall section. 1.) i just noticed that i never assigned a material to it, but like the lighter grey so need to do that. 2.) there are some shading issues due to faces sharing the same space. Also noticed that some material stuff that i missed for AO on some of the lights, so fixed that too.
-
ok another small update, created the dedication plaque today, used a plaque template created by explorer and used it to make the sutherland plaque
-
Looks more like a CiC than a bridge...
-
Looks more like a CiC than a bridge...
ya know i had the same thought, this is the weirdest looking cannon bridge ever. Maybe ill add a CIC variant to the list of bridge pack ideas...
-
sorry but CIC? someone explain what that is to me ( :facepalm: i probably already know but...)
and andy, this bridge is brilliantly done, lets hope any future bridges you do are equal or higher than this skill level
WELL DONE MAN!
-
sorry but CIC? someone explain what that is to me ( :facepalm: i probably already know but...)
and andy, this bridge is brilliantly done, lets hope any future bridges you do are equal or higher than this skill level
WELL DONE MAN!
It stands for combat information centre all modern warships have them, think of them as the nerve centre of a vessel. They are like the bridge in star trek hence why i like this one it seems more contemporary. Hope that helps! :)
-
sorry but CIC? someone explain what that is to me ( :facepalm: i probably already know but...)
and andy, this bridge is brilliantly done, lets hope any future bridges you do are equal or higher than this skill level
WELL DONE MAN!
the CIC, combat information center, is the BSG version of the bridge.
I realize that it looks awesome at the moment, but the difficult part is next to come i have no experience with bridge scripting, and idk if there is a way to do the animation in blender so that it works with BC.
But should i be able to figure that out, or possibly get some help with it, i think the next bridge i'd want to do would be the captains yacht / bajoran interceptor bridge as seen in insurrection, then redressed for DS9.
-
yeah thx for explaining CIC, and for the captains yacht, some of the newer sovereign bridges textures can be used there, i would try and model it, but the program i use is arkward to model with but yeah i cant wait to see how you do the yachts bridge, and another tip for the yachts bridge, dont make massive lcars screens, itll just make thiings look weird, but anyways, cant wait to see all you hard work pay off.
-
yeah thx for explaining CIC, and for the captains yacht, some of the newer sovereign bridges textures can be used there, i would try and model it, but the program i use is arkward to model with but yeah i cant wait to see how you do the yachts bridge, and another tip for the yachts bridge, dont make massive lcars screens, itll just make thiings look weird, but anyways, cant wait to see all you hard work pay off.
yeah no when i do it will be slightly more cannon then IRML's yatch's cockpit.
-
Alright folks the modeling phase is just about done. Today I added the rail.
only thing left to do, make exit walkways, for the rear doors, the door opposite for the turbolift, and add the back displays. I also noticed today that the plaque should be a bit higher so ill need to fix that, as well as add the tool kit to the opposite side.
-
added back displays, need to retexture the upper circuitry to be the more conventional chips.
let me know what you think.
-
bio-neural or whatever-called circuitry looks too out of place here, isolinear chips would be much better IMHO
-
bio-neural or whatever-called circuitry looks too out of place here, isolinear chips would be much better IMHO
agreed, though who says there cant be a later variant that was never seen.
-
of course there can but since it's WIP we're giving him C&C right ;) chips would look much better because they were standerd issue in starfleet (actually not only in SF but who cares :P ) while bio-something stuff was experimental tech designed for Intrepid class if we go extra nerd in details, besides this bridge reminds me of good old early-TNG times so chips rulez :P
-
of course there can but since it's WIP we're giving him C&C right ;) chips would look much better because they were standerd issue in starfleet (actually not only in SF but who cares :P ) while bio-something stuff was experimental tech designed for Intrepid class if we go extra nerd in details, besides this bridge reminds me of good old early-TNG times so chips rulez :P
QFT
-
Hey guys, when I get a chance ill redo the circuitry to the chips, if not tonight then tomorrow.
What does QFT stand for?
-
Either Quite F-cking True, or Quoted For Truth.
-
ok redo with chips, hope you like.
-
thats much better...
quick question - this bridge wont have animated maps, im assuming?
-
quick question - this bridge wont have animated maps, im assuming?
as of right now, no. BUT if i were to gain knowledge of how those work in bridge commander i would be willing to give it a shot. Animated maps allow for blinking lights, and a transition from green, to red alert i am assuming right?
-
or animated LCARS ;) I'd love to have those animated :P still this is going to be my another reason to get my BC back on my HDD with this bride as default.
-
Only thing that looks REALLY out of place, is that all the displays are extremely... symmetrical. The side-displays on the left, look exactly like the ones on the right, and all of the isolinear chip panels (and the small displays on the same wall), all look alike. Some variation would be welcome :)
-
He'll learn, pretty good for first . takes time
-
Only thing that looks REALLY out of place, is that all the displays are extremely... symmetrical. The side-displays on the left, look exactly like the ones on the right, and all of the isolinear chip panels (and the small displays on the same wall), all look alike. Some variation would be welcome :)
ok ill fix that the next time i work on this, will probably just replace the back displays from the keypads, to just normal displays like the cannon bridge has.
-
animated textures are pretty simple to do, just open up notepad and create a list of the animation textures in the cycle:
anim1.tga
anim2.tga
anim3.tga
then save it as a .ifl file,save it with the rest of your textures and link to that as your material within max. You can change the timing properties under the "time" section of the bitmap window.
:thumbsup: good luck.
-
animated textures are pretty simple to do, just open up notepad and create a list of the animation textures in the cycle:
anim1.tga
anim2.tga
anim3.tga
then save it as a .ifl file,save it with the rest of your textures and link to that as your material within max. You can change the timing properties under the "time" section of the bitmap window.
:thumbsup: good luck.
wow, the boss showed up. long time no see.
would that work with ship textures, too?
-
wow, the boss showed up. long time no see.
would that work with ship textures, too?
How do you think animated bussards work :P
Great work on the bridge btw
~Jb
-
ok cool thanks guys!
when i get the textures finalized, and the model stage complete ill start creating the animated maps. The only drawback is that i am using blender not max so ill have to export, then import, then do the animated maps. The good thing is that blender has the ability to create light maps soooo yeah.
-
ok redid the displays, let me know what you think.
-
much better!
(animated lcars is what i meant earlier not animated maps lol)
-
Its looking really good
-
Is it me, or is the Step to the Command chair, to high?
-
Is it me, or is the Step to the Command chair, to high?
It looks fine to me.
-
Hey all
sorry for lack of updates, between work, school, exams, GTL, and trying to have a social life, i have not had time for my modeling. I will try to pick it back up sometime this week.
-
good to hear. Take your time. Real Life comes first.
-
This bridge has grown on me over the last few weeks of following this thread good work.
-
Is it me, or is the Step to the Command chair, to high?
He cares about Capn's fitness ;)
-
trust me i tried (http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,8443.40.html) i got as far as light mapping my bridge but when no one wanted to assist with teaching me the scripting or how the animation system in the game works i gave up.
I took the nitpicks and rolled with it, adjusted some textures even redid parts to meet the demands...
but this is baz's thread so awesome job baz :D
Brought this over from Baz's thread so not to derail it. I'm just a bit confused at criticisms you have raised. It appears Mark did give you advice on animation. If you can be specific about what you need to know/learn etc I'm sure Baz, Mark, BR, myself (and anyone else I've forgotten) would be glad to help, offer advice in same way we've been helped. But as BR said in other thread, a lot of this is trial-and-error, and picking up stuff from google, other websites or just trawling previous bridge threads.
-
i just found this thread....
this bridge is great!
made my eyebrows raise in surprise... so simple and elegant....
i kind of agree with the comment about the forward console making it look more normal but...
may i suggest something that i have always wanted in a bridge...
Captains console: a console directly in front of the captains chair showing all info ie: conn, opps, tactical, science and engineering. maybe with an active shield and hull display like on the tmp bridges. give the Captain stuff to do and also provides instant info without having to wait for a report from a bridge officer.
again great bridge :bow: :yay:
and a cookie :D
-
Just to echo Lurok there are people that will help if asked.
The main issue that is the lack of Max 3.1 which today is the only package (using the plug-in from the SDK) that can export bridges properly. It took me nearly 3 years to get my bridge in game and almost 8 months to learn the tricks to get it working.
The way I learned was I took an exsisting donor bridge (in this case the Ent-A) for the TWOK bridge and renamed the file names to suit. And one by one you replace each animation for the customer ones needed for your bridge and finally you have you a full working bridge that is full of bugs. So then you have another go around fixing the lightmapping issues, animation issues or crashing to desktop when you go to red alert some other issue. Then you beta test and after you fix all the minor things you missed ( and you will miss something small ) you are ready to release.
I've done acouple of bridges now and I'm still learning, I'm a model maker and other than renaming scripts and file names have little idea of how the scripts actually work.
Saying that don't get discouraged, I have offered others help with converting their bridges in Max 3.1 even animations where needed so all is not lost :)
-
ok so if i am getting this right now that i have the bridge light mapped i now import it into max3? i'm seeing used copies on amazon, other places list a Kinetix 3D Studio Max 3.1 i doubt its the same as max 3.1 since that was made by auto desk.
following the advice i'm trying to think of which bridge to use as a template, thinking either the intrepid or the nebula since they already have two standing officers.
here are some updated pictures after i adjusted the ao settings
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8298/7992570704_6be0350cda.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992570704/)
Sutherland Bridge (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992570704/) by andrewbrianis (http://www.flickr.com/people/81282251@N08/), on Flickr
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8436/7992561843_76d5d9e642.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992561843/)
Sutherland Bridge (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992561843/) by andrewbrianis (http://www.flickr.com/people/81282251@N08/), on Flickr
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8452/7992562351_85b2284e7e.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992562351/)
Sutherland Bridge (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81282251@N08/7992562351/) by andrewbrianis (http://www.flickr.com/people/81282251@N08/), on Flickr
-
uhh... andy... autodesk has always made Max....
otherwise the bridge looks great :thumbsup:
-
well digging into wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodesk_3ds_Max) it says originally by this other company,
i think ill probably just buy the used version off of amazon unless i have other suggestions.
EDIT:oops wait what amazon has is a book my bad lol :banghead:
-
The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by the Yost Group and published by Autodesk. After 3D Studio DOS Release 4, the product was rewritten for the Windows NT platform, and renamed "3D Studio MAX." This version was also originally created by the Yost Group. It was released by Kinetix, which was at that time Autodesk's division of media and entertainment. Autodesk purchased the product at the second release mark of the 3D Studio MAX version and internalized development entirely over the next two releases.
that would be the very first version of max released, under the name Max.
the build of 3DSDOS4 became 3DSMax
3.1 was released well after Autodesk bought the software.
good luck finding an old copy. they are VERY hard to come across these days...
-
I still have it laying around somewhere. PM if you need a copy (of if admins would allow it, I could post a link publicly). Such an old version, i'm not even sure what the legal ramifications are for it. Is it considered Abandonware?
-
I still have it laying around somewhere. PM if you need a copy (of if admins would allow it, I could post a link publicly). Such an old version, i'm not even sure what the legal ramifications are for it. Is it considered Abandonware?
its still filesharing software unfortunaley
-
uhh... andy... autodesk has always made Max....
Sorry not true, Max3.1 was made by Kinetics. I see there logo every time I start it. I believe Autodesk took them over and rebadged the future releases. Make sure it included charactor studio or you will be able to export the bridges but you won't be able to animate the crew.
-
alright you guys i now have max 3.1 installed, luckily i have like 2 older computers because i couldn't even install it on my newer pc running win7 64bit.
so my next advice seeking question. ive been told the best way to Max 3.1 is via a Back from 5 plugin in the latest version of max, so since i modeled the bridge in blender the best bet work be to port it to a current version of max, then the bff plugin, then should work in max 3.1 correct?
-
:yeahthat: :thumbsup:
-
Hey all,
uploaded this model to sketchfab in case anyone was interested.
For those wondering what became of this project, I was never able to get Max 3.1 to work on any of my 3 machines, so unless anyone wants to finish it, I've hit the end of the line.
edit: apparently the embed object wasnt updated with the correct link.
Star Trek: Sutherland Bridge (click to view in 3D (https://sketchfab.com/nm54jic))
(http://sketchfab.com/urls/7dcbb60473164f36a0a4f39df11b34c1/1390257095/thumbnail_448.png) (https://sketchfab.com/nm54jic)
-
Andy, I use my max3.1 on a VM with XP. That's the only way, it's a pain but I need it that way in order to keep playing with my SFC models. It's a shame to let this go. So beautiful.
Adam
-
yeah i had tried it on a machine with XP but it still didn't start, that was a few months ago and have since put a newer OS on it...
-
Andy, I use my max3.1 on a VM with XP. That's the only way, it's a pain but I need it that way in order to keep playing with my SFC models. It's a shame to let this go. So beautiful.
Adam
SFC .Mod model format have gmax plugin. It works just fine.
This is a example of converting sfc model in gmax:
https://sites.google.com/site/sfc3rex/Home/guides/gmax_1
BC .Nif format also have gmax plugin, but I'm not sure if you can use it with bridges.
-
the way that it's been explained to me, max 3 has some specific export features for Bridge commander bridges that is not available on other programs.
-
Well I have exported from nif to mod using Gmax but whenever I mess around with hardpoints or damage points, Gmax crashes. It doesn't let me do anything other then convert the ship. That's why I use max3 to fix hardpoints and stuff.
Adam
-
Shame to hear still having problems with Max 3. I've used it with XP, Vista and now Win7, and different rigs from CoreDuo to Quad/i7 and works ok. May be installation problems your end, as can be a little buggy and if one thing goes wrong it won't work. PM me if still keen to try and need any advice :)
-
Shame to hear still having problems with Max 3. I've used it with XP, Vista and now Win7, and different rigs from CoreDuo to Quad/i7 and works ok. May be installation problems your end, as can be a little buggy and if one thing goes wrong it won't work. PM me if still keen to try and need any advice :)
Thanks I may take you up on that, some day. Wayy to much going on in real life for me to revisit BC modding. Gotta find a job first...