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BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: Bones on March 14, 2012, 01:00:35 PM

Title: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 14, 2012, 01:00:35 PM
Most of you probably know I alrady tried to model and how it turned out :P one lifeboat that I never ported to the game ...

A thought came to me today while I was hardpointing Destiny Ascension (yes my goal of bringing Mass Effect ships for BC is still alive ;) ) that I can't find ANY decent 3d model of the Citadel that could be ported to BC ... so I made one :D

At the moment I really doubt I'll be able to finish it on my own but who cares :P I'll try anyway.

It's fairly low detail model (not that Bioware model was any better as it was only used for distance renders), If it would hit texturing stage it would be awesome and for now that's my goal - map it then texture it :D

(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/ME_Citadel.png)

(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/ME_Citadel2.png)

I'm not posting it in BC Modding as I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it to BC.
Title: Re: Modeling Practice
Post by: Killallewoks on March 14, 2012, 03:24:43 PM
Excellant mate! Hell its a simple station anyway most of the detail is in the textures, I doubt BC would be able to handle all of the buildings modled in.
Title: Re: Modeling Practice
Post by: Bones on March 14, 2012, 04:14:01 PM
Thanks Killa ;)

I've worked a liitle bit on the presidium area and remodeled citadel tower (which isn't just a horizontal tower but a horiontal pylon with a saucer like pod and then it's the tower running in line to the ward areas)

Dunno if this means anything at this stage, but I managed to port the model to NIF and it looks damn clean in Nifskope, even loads properly in MPE :eek

only thing I don't like is the ammount of nodes in blocklist

(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/cit_tower.png)
Title: Re: Modeling Practice
Post by: FarShot on March 14, 2012, 04:51:44 PM
Looking good.  I need to get ME3.
Title: Re: Modeling Practice
Post by: Shadowknight1 on March 14, 2012, 06:11:36 PM
Ah, the hand of God.  The good ol' Citadel.  Home to politicians, rich people, and dregs.  Need something?  You're gonna find it.

Can't wait for some of the other ME ships...namely the Alliance fighters and shuttles.
Title: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 15, 2012, 06:03:11 AM
Ok guys, I trust you can help me out on this one just a little bit :D

So the propblem is I can only do UVW on single part of the model ... but there are like 250 parts  :eek is there a way to connect these parts into groups (I know there is a group function but it only works inside MAX as a easier way of selecting parts), I'm struggling with attach/detach function but it doesn't seem to have desired effect :P

when I select that ring area, it shows me I've seleced 46 objects and there is no way to unwrap UVW them when in group...

any tips or ideas ??


Scratch that :D

I managed to overcome this setback :D all I had to do was to collapse selected objects into one object ! now I can UVW grouped parts instead of every single part !

UPDATE :

She's in game ! :dance ... tho there are no alpha channels yet so I'll hold off with BC pics until it's fully working ;) nevertheless, it's not the case IF i release this station for BC but WHEN i release it :D

for now here are some pics from Nifskope :

(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/MEcitadel2.png)
(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/MEcitadel1.png)

oh, and btw. could you guys (mods) move this topic where it belongs (BC modding) ? :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: limey BSc. on March 19, 2012, 06:18:18 AM
Consider it done...'Cos it is.
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 19, 2012, 08:16:42 AM
Thx Limey  :)

I've been playing with scale and found out I will be able to set almost the same size as ME codex states - namely 44 kilometers long so it will be really big :D

For now I've successfully ported the model to BC with around 50 % of actual size, it tends to disappear at some angles just like V'Ger

Here are pics  :
(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/SShot2.png)
(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/sshot5.png)
(http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz16/Bones_mccoy/sshot4.png)
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Killallewoks on March 19, 2012, 09:01:42 AM
I. LOVE. THIS.  :bow:
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 19, 2012, 11:06:37 AM
Realy good thing about it is that I'm starting to understand certain functions in Max :) still the ammount of tools and modifiers overwhelms me  :funny

I might going to adjust windows colors, they seem a bit too yellow right now, wards/arms need to have orange glow to them, presidium more white thn yellow
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: TheConstable6 on March 19, 2012, 11:48:06 AM
I. LOVE. THIS.  :bow:
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Shadowknight1 on March 19, 2012, 02:06:52 PM
Gimme a sec, my jaw dropped through the floor.  Amazing Bones!  And hey, you don't need Bioware's permission for this model since you made it! :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 19, 2012, 02:24:32 PM
Yep :D although I tried really hard looking for the model in game files I got tired of not being able to find one (Bioware never added actual model of citadel since it was present only in cinematics, just like Collector Cruiser and base) :D

Even tho this model israther low quality, I'm kind of proud of it since it's my first succesful model :)

next project shall be  : (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100127135652/masseffect/images/9/90/Collector_Cruiser.png)
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: sovereign001 on March 19, 2012, 02:30:26 PM
Looks very nice man! You have my cookie!
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Killallewoks on March 19, 2012, 02:50:29 PM
Hey Bones I just noticed something though I don't know if your aware of this (If you are ignore me  :)). The wards on the Citadel have an apparent border on the panels in the habitated areas.
(http://images.wikia.com/masseffect/images/e/ed/MassEffect_2008-08-12_11-12-14-85.png)

Good work so far glad you got her into game and HP'ing the thing should be easy it doesn't move or have any weapons.  :funny I Can't wait to get my hands on it! Torkies away!
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 19, 2012, 03:52:07 PM
I was prepared there would be some inconsistencies, I wanted to have it in game ASAP so textures wrer rushed on, I'll make all the needed changes, thx for heads up ;)
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Saquist on March 19, 2012, 05:28:47 PM
I think namely the biggest problem might the central ring being to big or the arms being too short.  the second most outstanding problem would be that the arms aren't simple rectangles, they have a tapering at the ends and there is also arching at certain segments in the arm as see in the picture above and as recently seen with the Citadel over Earth in ME3

But the pattern on the exterior is very good from I remember of it.  Perhaps the pattern of the lights on the inside of the arms needs more intricacy.  Try taking patters of cities at night in America or other places.
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: captain_obvious on March 19, 2012, 05:37:18 PM
This thing vs Planet killer anyone? :evil:

Looking forward to this bones :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: battlestartriton on March 19, 2012, 09:27:49 PM
I think this is a pretty good reference http://troodon80.deviantart.com/art/Mass-Effect-Citadel-Reference-277436229
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: battlestartriton on March 19, 2012, 09:29:12 PM
In fact looking at it closely It seems to me this is the actual model... :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: moed on March 19, 2012, 09:38:49 PM
Very nice Bones. Great work.
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: FarShot on March 19, 2012, 09:40:44 PM
Hey, what are you doing?  Shouldn't this be in the FSB Shipyards thread? :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Saquist on March 19, 2012, 10:35:59 PM
It is...or the best reprentation ever....
Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 20, 2012, 03:00:08 AM
I think namely the biggest problem might the central ring being to big or the arms being too short.  the second most outstanding problem would be that the arms aren't simple rectangles, they have a tapering at the ends and there is also arching at certain segments in the arm as see in the picture above and as recently seen with the Citadel over Earth in ME3

But the pattern on the exterior is very good from I remember of it.  Perhaps the pattern of the lights on the inside of the arms needs more intricacy.  Try taking patters of cities at night in America or other places.

Indeed arms might be a bit too short but also take into account perspective, even in Legacy you can have stretched perspective, in BC it's almost flat, then again I didn't bother to round it up a bit so it appears more rectangular than it should...

As I mentioned this was a practice, I thought this won't work with BC well, thus it's rather low detail (still learning basics)

These are very helpful tips, as soon as I have more experiance with MAX, I could rebuild it from scratch ;)

Hey, what are you doing?  Shouldn't this be in the FSB Shipyards thread? :P

Didn't know if it will work but I guess threads could be merged :P

UPDATE :

Saquist's tips concerning arms, motivated me to rebuild them from scratch :D so expect renders of the revised citadel later today, also I'm gonna make a run for more accurate textures, grabbed some screencaps from ME3 (too bad I couldn't make screengrabs of citadel loading screens tho) but with those and that picture of citadel from deviantart I should be able to achieve the goal :)

Title: Re: Mass Effect Citadel
Post by: Bones on March 27, 2012, 10:15:48 AM
I'm discontinuing posting about this project in this thread, moderators can go ahead and lock it down.

You can still follow updates about this project in FSB Shipyards thread

which means you can find new pics I promissed to post today, here : http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,9031.0.html