Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: flarespire on August 09, 2010, 11:30:59 PM
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go straight to page 6, anything posted on the end of there and beyond is the MK2, the MK1 has been officially scrapped
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no screencaps? I hate my mac as it doesn't have the right decompression application.
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it wouldnt let me screen cap what i had(i had it all there its all just screwed up on part allignment(my program had a spazzout as i was making the ship....)
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ok so after resetting the configs of my program a couple of times i was able to rebuild the solaris class.
heres some perspective shots of what i have now(this is goona be difficult to texture me thinks...)
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Actually, this looks fairly simple to texture. The main hull doesn't have a very pronounced curvature at the edges, so there won't be much warping. The secondary hull isn't weirdly curved, so you can simply divide it in four lengthwise and get a good top, bottom, left and right. Those are Sovereign engines, so those should already have texture sets that you can either map to, or they should have come pre-textured from whatever ship you got them from.
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Why not just re-use the textures from the original Krakow & Sobieski models and ask Bones for blank registry textures? That is if you have permission already from him to utilise the kitbashed elements from Bones since its an unwritten rule to ask permission to make model modifications before publically showing images or announcing the mod.
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im still waiting for a permissions response from bones, and whoever the hell made the CG sovereign, i should soon, and i can hint its conna have 3 torpedo types, screw it ill tell ya, its gonna have quantum torps, phased plasma torps, and tricobalt torps. this should take out any powerfull enemies fast.
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look at the readme for the CG... chronological guy. (i KNOW i misspelled that)... holy crap tricobalts??!??!.... i was edgy about putting those in the arsenal.... thats an a$$ kicking in a can.
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i go for the best(hopefully BC will be able to handle this ship...) shes gonna be able to dispatch of 20 borg in 10 seconds(if hard pointed right) and its gonna have typeXXIII phasers so its gonna pack quite a punch(just like the solaris A does atm)
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(hopefully BC will be able to handle this ship...)
She will. BC can handle things up to 50k and more. CG nacelles and Bones's body parts wouldn't slow BC down in the slightest.
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i wasnt talking about the ship, but the tricobalts.....last time i used em it nearly fried my CPU(though i didnt have the healthiest of PC's....)
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its because whatever the tricobalt hits it sends it flying off like crazy... it chugs mine too unless i hit somehing big.... that and the huge frikkin hole it leaves behind
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i think we can compensate for that by making the impulse engines extra powerfull so you dont get as flung as much from firing them....all this talking about her makes me wnt to get started even more!!, but i have to wait for a response on the permissions.... :(
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and whoever the hell made the CG sovereign
look at the readme for the CG... chronological guy. (i KNOW i misspelled that)
wow does anyone else follow other threads in BC Modding forum?
i think there was a recent one about "Stuff I've been working on, New Sovereign Among Other Things"... hmmmm now if i could just think of who that author might be...
hmmmmmmm - i think there is a nomination for that guy in BCC's Modder of the Month this month also, a nomination for the CG Sovereign 2.0... now if i could just think of who that was that has been posting alot lately and possibly find that thread on page 1 of this forum or linked in the polling...
:P
guys - CG has been posting here very recently, i imagine PMing him would get a quick response...
oh, and a quick look at BC Modding forum and youll see Chronological Guy's name lol :P
(btw - it's "Chronocidal Guy")
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ugh jimmy, as soon as cyan1d3 told me who made em i immediatly pm'd them and im waiting on a reply....and what do you actually think of this little beauty im working on?
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Jimmy.. Get more coffee before posting more. Sarcasm doesn't suit you.
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your completely right Lionus ;) sarchasm really soesnt suit Jimmy......
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Sarcasm out of exasperation and possibly the inability to fully accept the fact that you had not even noticed that Chronicidal Guy was posting in this very forum.
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lol i already knew that, now can we get back on topic?
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That ship has a lot of mesh errors.
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the old one isnt needed anymore, i redid the mesh, and if its in the new mesh, how the hell can you tell from a picture?
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Because there are many apparent errors. How can you not tell? The underside of the saucer, nacelles, and the deflector are full of them. And the edge of the saucer is edgy to the point of not even being smoothed.
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ill send you a link to the mesh, it might just be that the image when saved cam out quite distorted...(ill attach it in a .zip file)
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It's not the image
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if you mean the torp tube on the back its like that for a reason, i had to model it and puts it mostly inside the hull so i got the desired effect
if you can give this a fix id appretiate it, or at least an explanation on what errors you find/found....
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Here you are! :D
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ill take a look at the mesh if you want real quick
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oh thats not an error, that just the way my program(metasequoia of metaseq.net) its actually fine(i looked at it in 3dsMax 9 and it was all fine...
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oh thats not an error, that just the way my program(metasequoia of metaseq.net) its actually fine(i looked at it in 3dsMax 9 and it was all fine...
I beg to differ.
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i did have to do a little fine tuning to the mesh so if you can just finalize the mesh and make it without any errors tha would be great.
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Looks to me like smoothing problems combined with vertex alignment issues (around the top of the saucer, etc) as well as either colocated vertices or no smoothing groups (around the edges of the saucer). Totally fixable, no reasons to worry. A little coaching and fixing should help you get those on track.
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yeah, im gonna have a look through the 3ds max tutorials tonight, in the mean while could one of you guys have a go at fixing this, i have a feeling it'll be along time before i get smoothing groups figured out...
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yeah, im gonna have a look through the 3ds max tutorials tonight, in the mean while could one of you guys have a go at fixing this, i have a feeling it'll be along time before i get smoothing groups figured out...
Smoothing groups are really VERY simple. Choose which polygons you want to look smoothed together (for instance, the ones around the rim of the saucer) and go to the smoothing groups section. Now, you can click the "Autosmooth" function, but that might lead to edges you want pronounced being smoothed out. So click on one of the dozens of numbered buttons in the smoothing groups section. It really doesn't matter which one, so long as it isn't one being used by any adjacent polys. That way, you can use either "2" or "34" for a smoothing group: it won't matter since they're all actually the same. I'll take a few screenshots after work tonight to show you what I mean. But try meddling with them yourself. In fact, open a new document and create a sphere or cylinder, then change smoothing groups a few times and see what you find.
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so basically(because mx qrouped the saucer, nacells ect) i just select that and use the auto smooth function and thats it?, hmm i was just about to look this up aswell, ill give it a quick go a send what i get to to you guys to see if its worked or not.
and i really apretiate all the help im getting here, i always threw off doing ships because they seemed too damn hard, but now its quite easy.
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ok i used the auto smooth and it looks like it has been smoothed, but im sending the file to make sure it has with no errors(attached)
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one thing is that you wont learn to do things on your own by asking other people to fix things up for you...
that is the very essential core of modding everyone goes through - the painstaking process of learning details by doing them again and again and again and again... you wont get far by doing things 80% and then handing off the last 20% of "touching up" to someone else...
instead of handing over an unfinished product and asking someone to fix errors, ask how to go about fixing them and then do it on your own...
youll gain alot of insight and experience that way and it will only serve to strengthen your skills...
that, and when you do finish a project for release, you cant necessarily only put your name on it if someone else put work into it (even if they only did 20% of the work)...
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jimmy, i have hardly any experience in 3ds max, i just wanted to make sure there were no errors by asking someone who knows how max works and knows what to look for, once i get to learn how to use max 9 then ill be doing around 90% (only thing i may not be able to do is texture it because of my laptop being an Rtard with TGA files and "keeping them how they were designed to be...)
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jimmy, i have hardly any experience in 3ds max, i just wanted to make sure there were no errors by asking someone who knows how max works and knows what to look for, once i get to learn how to use max 9 then ill be doing around 90% (only thing i may not be able to do is texture it because of my laptop being an Rtard with TGA files and "keeping them how they were designed to be...)
i understand... perhaps i misunderstood, i thought in your earlier posts you were asking someone to fix the errors for you rather than point them out to you and describe how to fix them so youre able to learn...
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thats ok jimmy i understand you misunderstood, im not very good and saying what i mean.... :facepalm:
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Apply an STL Check on the model, then check "Check" down the bottom. That will check for for a wide array of mesh errors and highlight them on the model and you'll see a count down the bottom. Just keep eliminating errors till they're gone. You can narrow the check to certain kinds of errors with the other check boxes.
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oh i didnt see that and ive had a go and its not showing any, but ive also asked CyAn1d3 just giving it a second check over just incase my pc isnt checking everything( usually happens on stuff like this)
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thats ok jimmy i understand you misunderstood, im not very good and saying what i mean.... :facepalm:
lol no worries :)
sometimes it can be difficult to convey a thought or meaning through text, it happens to me all the time lol
anyway, i like the design youre going with so far, so keep up the good work :thumbsup:
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i will, me and CyAn1d3 are gonna go against each other once my ship is finished, hes gonna use the arsenal class(i think) and ill use this ship, this should be interesting, at lease....
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lets get her out of the gates before we go to matches, not to mention i have NO clue as to how to set online for custom vessels.... if doable
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hmm.....we could always have a normal quickbattle(i use your ship on enemy with high AI and you do the same with mine) and then we compare the results, and did any errors come up?, i think im gonna make a deflector texture using the TMP connies and see how it goes...
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UGH I HATE MAKING TGA FILES, THEY NEVER WORK FOR ME!!!, ill try another approach, this should hopefully work....
EDIT: that didnt b****y work either, i guess this baby is not gonna be texturable by me.....damn shame too because i had the whole idea worked out, well ill wait for a reply on the permissions and go from there....
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UGH I HATE MAKING TGA FILES, THEY NEVER WORK FOR ME!!!, ill try another approach, this should hopefully work....
EDIT: that didnt b****y work either, i guess this baby is not gonna be texturable by me.....damn shame too because i had the whole idea worked out, well ill wait for a reply on the permissions and go from there....
have you applied the textures to the model?
and what program are you using to make the Targas?
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its not any of the programs, its my actuall laptop not liking the TGA file extension and causing saving conflictions and my antivirus then tries to delete em.....ill find a way around this in due time(and talking to my mates dad and seeing what he makes of this...) so ill wait for a go, no go on the permissions before i continue, but feel free to try and texture her yourself, it would be interesting to see what you can come up with...
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right, i didnt actually do the STL check, i didnt see the "check" checkbox, and i have 6 open edge errors, whats the fastest way of fixing this?
EDIT: so i looked on the master permissions forum and it seems that i have permission as long as i give credit to the creators of the meshes and (possible) the textures used.
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yeah, not much has happened to this ship, as i havent been able to fix the open edges issue, i looked it up and i just cant fix the mesh.....ive tried everything, could i get one of you guys to look at it and attempt a model fix, pm me if your willing, and on the textures issue dont bother having a crack at it, im gonna gather my resource files and see what i can do from there.....
EDIT: CMON GUYS HELP ME OUT OR THIS BABY'S NEVER GONNA GET OUTTA DRY DOCK......
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Daddy's back kids !!! :dance all permissions are granted as always ;) looks promissing especially as another variant of the PDW fleet :)
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you could call it that, it just started as a random idea, anyways some news, farshot and hobbs are addressing some issues, hobbs is trying mesh and texture fixed, while farshot is gonna try to rebuild the whole mesh. man i hope this baby get outta drydock...
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ok heres another update, me and hobbs have been working on this for a while now and hobbs remodeled the bottom of the saucer (looks epic) and now weve be able to start to texture her for a feel of what she may look like.
Also heres an update on the planned tech listed below:
Quantum Torpedos
Phased-Plasma Torpedos
Tricobalt Torpedos
MKXXIII Phasers
Cloaking device(special starfleet authorisation and orders)
hopefully this ship will be ready for beta testing soon, im not entirely sure, but i'll keep ya all posted.
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Sexy.
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:P lol yeah, weve only got to sort the problem of the weapons textures out and some other texturing, mesh and UVW errors and shell be ready for NIFing, hardpointing and all the rest of that stuff so shes playable.....
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it could just be the images, but it seems a little blurry somehow?
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on the textures its how my copy of max is showing the TGA's, it pixelates em.....
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I really don't care for the neck, but that's just my opinion. Maybe if you could raise it just a tad. Of course that would make it look like more of a Conni refit, but whatev. Still pretty coool ship you got there.
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that ok greg, there isnt an actual neck, its just a torpedo launcher wedge in between the saucer and hull.....
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Yeah, you guys can't tell, but I've seen the model up close. This thing is asymmetrical, you can tell if you draw a line straight down from the top of the bridge in either the forward or aft shots.
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Yeah, you guys can't tell, but I've seen the model up close. This thing is asymmetrical, you can tell if you draw a line straight down from the top of the bridge in either the forward or aft shots.
did you mean thisis a symmetrical, or asymmetrical?
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Probably symmetrical, because it's even if you draw it from top to bottom. To be sure render the image, and take like the left half of the shot, copy it, and put it over the right half. if it lines up, your good.
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i know its symmetrical because when i made it i hade the x,y,and z grids showing so its i definatly symmetrical.
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I think they referring to the model, not the textures. Only nitpick I found below in the file. Easier tell from the back. It might be just the angle, but for some reason it seems like the nacelles are not exactly parallel, but that just might be me, so I wouldn't worry about it.
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when i said x,y,z grid i meant when i was making the model, and it looks off because of the lighting angle....its fine...
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ok so ive now got the mapping problems sorted(apart from one which is a mis-map..) and ive tested the nif ingame(over the Sobieski's(backed up) it looked pretty good, this should be hardpointed and scripted VERY soon.
SCREENIES XD
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Can we get a better front view? Maybe possibly a side shot as well?
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sure, as soon as i get my cpu to stop crapping out....
ok cpu stopped crapping out, heres a front and side view.
whoops reposted the front view from before(soz ive removed that, the other one ive had is corrupt and im getting bad flickies on bc...)
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thats right, this baby is almoast ready to beta test, once shes hardpointed and scripted(which is underway) i will give you guys a chance to try her out for yourself and leave me some feedback: heres the rundown of her specs
type XXIII phasers
quantum torps
phased plasma torps
high yield transphasic torps(equaling strength of tricobalts)
cloaking device.
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Cool stuff man. Although I do like this design, ther have have always been a few things that bugged me about it. Namely the inset deflector and the nacelle pylons. But still a damn cool design. Hopefully I'll get the Orlando ready soon so we can have a showdown between them! :evil: :D
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wel i hope shes go a good defence against powerfull torps, cuz this ship is a multitask vessel, with a cloak.
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coming along nicely, i like alot. :yay:
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ok right update time, the ships ingame and working aside from a few hp updates and edited saucer textures so it has my ships registry, every thing works, we got tricobalts now, and the cloak is fully working. once i announce its ready ti be beta tested, pm me and ill send you a download link.
coming along nicely, i like alot. :yay:
im glad ya do!
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ok so im beta testing this now before i forget, there is still an update to the HP and the saucer textures to be done, it is a mediafire download link instead because it was to big to attach here, and i need feedback ASAP ok?
heres the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?y9j8j8wzweojfuk
again i need feedback on this ASAP.
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OK. I just tried it put. This ship as a big punch. But the ship status display showes me the conrinium and i don't have this ship in my install.
I think the lightning on the ventral saucer looks a little bit blocky.
Overall it is a great ship.
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thx for the feedback, what you showing on the saucer is supposed to be like that, and the icon just spazzed out as it was being made, ill try and make a new one before the final release. i promise. aswell as getting the saucer textures changed so it shows this ships name and resistry instead of the krakows and updating the HP so it has 100 tricobalts, 200 phased torpedos and 400 quantums (all in stock and ready to use duh) then were done and i can release her (i hope)
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About what Bashir showed you with the lighting:
The lights wouldn't be flowing up the curve of that central section, since light doesn't bend, and the projectors are behind the bend. Sort of like holding a flashlight on a table. The legs wouldn't get illuminated: just the tabletop and the floor.
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Locke is absolutely correct. What you have makes no logical sense.
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ahh, well thats only the default texture, im still learning(and waiting for photoshop to come back in stock and my local pc store) so at the moment im just sticking with that, if anyone wants to attempt a fix to show me what to aim for then go ahead, this is only the beta test.
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***!!!TEXTURER NEEDED!!!***
if anyone is willng to help me out (i would do this myself but my pc and making new TGA files dont mix) im looking for someone to fix the top and bottom saucer textures, heres a list of what is needed:
TOP OF SAUCER TEXTURE:
name and registry changint to the following
-name = U.S.S. Solaris
-registry = NCC-3526-B
Alpha channel changed to match
BOTTOM OF SAUCER TEXTURE:
Registry changing to NCC-3526-B
Alpha channel fixing so the following happens
-alpha matches the registry
-lights changing so they follow the new shape of the saucer
I will be very greatful for anyone who accomplashes this because it brings the mod to only needing a HP update.
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email me he works, and ill add a few touches here and there.
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ill pm you the mediafire link, my emails done at the moment.
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alright
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i needs email for your new lights
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ill pm it to ya
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sorry guys, but im going to be redesigning the whole ship due to alot of NIF and part allingment errors, the design will be similar to what you have seen, but smoothed, cleaned and alligned better. :thumbsup:
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sometimes it is better to scrap a project midway through and start over... as painstaking as that is, most of the time things wind up being much better in the end, and you learn a bit more about the processes...
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sometimes it is better to scrap a project midway through and start over... as painstaking as that is, most of the time things wind up being much better in the end, and you learn a bit more about the processes...
QFT yeah well hopefully ill still be able to use the same HP files XD, and this time im gonna ask for all the help i can get :evil:
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I've already learnt how to fix smoothing errors, but still I'm struggling with exporting model back to NIF properly, dunno how to scale it in MAX properly also model appears in game as a semi-transparent (all weapons fire goes directly through it as well as no speculars are showing up)... if I knew how to reexport models back to NIF I would happily finish it up for ya cuz I have 3 ships fixed awaiting to be exported properly ;)
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i can export em through max 9, you save what you want properly exporting as a .max file and ill export em for ya ok bones?
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you can ? all right then I'll pack Cortez first :)
btw. I have max 9 but only until my friend needs it again which could be even in few days, anyway, I do have NIF import/export plugin in it and I have some crazy stuff going on when I export model back to NIF, although I found a way to fix this either - NifSkope :) but still there is strange starting position (like it's not alligned to x-0, y-0, z-0) as well as some dissappearing parts when moving camera closer to the ship or whole chunks dissappearing when closer to the edge of the screen... I don't know WTF is going on... sometimes I think this modelling stuff is beyond my nerves... I think I'll go back to playing tetris :funny
here's the model : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3658970/cortez.max
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ok heres the onverted cortez: http://www.mediafire.com/?a4h4k88drwufbu2 hope its done ok :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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OK BIG PROBLEM
my laptop is heving a repair done and the redo of the solaris makes stbc crash, so im asking nicely here, could anyone attemp to reconstruct the mesh or fix the mis-alignment/"skewifishness" of the old mesh please?, i would normally do this myself but seeing as the situation is now critical, i would sincerely hope that someone can do this for me and send it back to me ASAP.
and bones, heres the nif ready cortez, hopefully it will work and not make stbc crash like the solaris does ATM.....
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I'm confused... the Cortez is now just perfect, I can smash it against anything and weapons don't pass through it but still I can't get speculars to work, I've already tried to change _specular suffix to _spec but that doesn't change anything, tried to redo ship plugin... nothing... but we're on the right track :) just speculars to go.
I've been working on PDW ships for a long time so I think I might be able to rework your Solaris ;) just send me over some pics on how it should look like and I'll kitbash it, then you can fix all the smoothing errors and all of that crap :P
btw. which parameters you leave when exporting back to NIF, I presume you're using MAX 9 NIF export/omport plugin righ ?
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yeah, ive also got mine on game auto detect, you might have exported it as the wrong game(by accident) by the stbc engine may have still used the model, and ill give you the wire frame veiws ASAP, that basically covers it, and its mainly a kitbash of your ships and on the underside of the saucer give it indents either side of the middle but leave where the registry is as it is and the bottom has to be flat so the torps dont blow the sucer to bits. anyways attached is the wire frame view.
and remember if you do make textures for her her registry is NCC-3526-B.
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Ok, I'm gonna work on it ;) and btw. here's a pic of the export screen, those are the options I have set during exporting
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well i know what the problem is, youve got an outdated exporter, my version is 3.4.2.4632, getting the updated one will probably fix the error.
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oh... that explains a lot ;) I'll dwnl it ASAP
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XD
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oh yeah, i already have a hardpoint file and other resources, also it should be on the same scale as the cortez ok?.
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and how do I scale it ? I'm a rookie modeller so treat me like one :P I wasn't able to scale Cortez in MAX, now I'm trying to figure out the scale in NIFSkope :P
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in max 9 look fo the icon highlighted in red in the attached image(image 1.jpg), from there you can scale a model easily by selecting the inner triangle in what is shown in the second image (image 2.jpg)
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yeah I figured out that already but how can I scale it to 310 meters (my official size of Sobieski class -> Cortez - which is virtually just a tactical refit), I saw I can set grid size to any unit I want but still it's not the best way to scale a model and then exporting ruins scaling anyway ... everytime I set scale in MAX and then export it to NIF it's again half the size of a shuttle :funny
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im not quite sure, just keep increasing the scale untill appropriate, then export it to a NIF and see how big the ship is.
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I usualy set scale via NIFSkope, then I can see either ingame or in MPE if the model fits to hardpoints, it's kinda tricky but it works :)
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well if you want the ship 310 meters, then set the grid scale on max to 10m squared, the keep adding 10 more meters untill the desired size is reached, and export.
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yeah, thought about the same way, never tried it as I have Max since few days :) still can't figure out most of it's functions...
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best thing to do is youtube guides on max and learn from them.....
oh yeah how have all the bridges been going?, if you need any help ill be willing to do what i can....
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not much on this part... I have kind of a tricky job to do first and I'm soo damn tired when I get back home I can barely see anything :( the worst thing about bridge modding is alligning displays animation frames :P takes too much time
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then the best bet is to limit animations to a few screens and leave the rest ast static images, the only real animations you have to do are the animations.
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yeah, I guess you're right,m anyway I never liked that epileptic blinking on every display, on every wall ;)
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well it cant be as bad as my christmas tree last year, every light on a fas, rapid....hypnotic..........blinking............ which could make any one have an epileptic fit......
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LOL :funny nah... I think I'll avoid this kind of anims, I remeber many people preferred subtle anims due to low frame rate (only 5 frames per sec, per each display screen, now if every single button / display would blink differently in every it would be an overkill for eyes)
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like my christmas tree lol :funny
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The best way to scale a ship to an exact length is to make a plane that is that length and then to scale the ship to that plane.
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Now that's something new :) I'll try it out on Minotaur class
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ok kirk, lolz at that image XD, and thats a good way of scaling too....
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MAJOR UPDATE: since the MK1 solaris class mesh had a MASSIVE meltdown and is now unuseable, im moving onto a MK2 design, agains this will be a kitbash, but will be a bit better done, with less mesh errors(hopefully) and wont have the same issue as the MK1 mesh, though im going to be designing the nacells, ill post them here when ive finalised the design.