Original Frigate - the Edinburgh

[Furyofaseraph]

Hey guys. I recently started on a ship (you can see the render below). I have a few versions going - they all look identical, but there are slight differences in the way I've made them.

1) I have the armor and the internal structure as separate elements (9,142 triangles)
2) I have the armor and the internal structure as combined elements (8,994 triangles)
3) I have the armor and the internal structure as a single optimized (by the modifier) element (7,926 triangles).

My question is this: Is the optimize modifier something you guys use? Is it acceptable to use it or should I reduce the poly count manually?

[genty]

Generally, i'd say it is best to try and reduce it by yourself, optimise can leave it looking similar to what it was but from what i've found it leaves the wireframe view looking a mess. It is also useless if you have mapping done. I know in later versions there is another thing for reducing polies called multires which reduces polies while preserving mapping co-ordinates but i've not used it myself so I can't say how it works.

[Furyofaseraph]

well, I used the optimize modifier, then I went in and cleaned it.

Here's a side by side of pre-opt and opted.

[Furyofaseraph]

Yeah, I got it to work well :-)

[WileyCoyote]

I don't know what this ship is but it looks cool.

[Furyofaseraph]

Thanks Wiley, that means a lot coming from you.

This ship is an original design of mine. Years ago I tried making a fleet - it didn't turn out very pretty. After gaining a few years of experience I decided to try it again, this was the result.

[Furyofaseraph]

Ugh - the buzzkill of unwrapping.

[admiral homer]

looks like something out of homeworld or nexus jupiter incident, awesome work

[Billz]

It kinda has a 'Halo-esque' feel to it.

Its certainly an interesting design though. Looking forward to it.

[Furyofaseraph]

I know it resembles certain other universes. I'm more interested in what you guys think of the design itself, not how it compares to _insert some other sci-fi here_.

[Kirk]

I think it looks great!

[bankruptstudios]

The ship it's self is killer, and the textures your doing, wow, can you make a tutorial on who you did the awesome detail. Cookie.

[King Class Scout]

hmm...this will be interesting.  I just hope your not going for those nearly invisible industrial blacks, greys and silvers usually associated with these kinds of ships.  I'm kinda tired of grungy is real

personally, I think It could come from the Piers Anthony's "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series, or what a real earth "armed forces" could come up with for a starship.

[Bren]

I like what you're doing with the textures, though I was sold on the untextured look too, kind of a Portal aesthetic vibe going on there.

What sort of size is the ship going to be? It strikes me as rather vast, 800m to 1.5km in length.

Although, looking at the gun emplacements, it's probably considerably smaller.

[Furyofaseraph]

I hadn't thought of a portal look - should be rounder, I would think, to be a real GLaDOS ship.

I think I've settled into what the final texture look will be, at least for the armored parts. The underside will be more greeble-ridden.

EDIT:
Sorry I forgot to include: with the spinials at the front and the engines at the back she comes in at 320 meters.

[Furyofaseraph]

More texture work

[Dalek]

To me it looks like it could easily fit in to Halo and Babylon 5. Good stuff here.

[Jay Crimson]

If you want a hint to make it more original to play, make the turrets mostly fire sidewards only. The ship will actually have to flank enemies, using it's thin profile when viewed from the front to cut through enemy fire. ;)

[Furyofaseraph]

To me it looks like it could easily fit in to Halo and Babylon 5. Good stuff here.

Thanks for the "good stuff", but ...

I know it resembles certain other universes. I'm more interested in what you guys think of the design itself, not how it compares to _insert some other sci-fi here_.

If you want a hint to make it more original to play, make the turrets mostly fire sidewards only. The ship will actually have to flank enemies, using it's thin profile when viewed from the front to cut through enemy fire. ;)

I see where you are going - but to be honest, It doesn't make sense to restrict field of fire. Any sane captain would take advantage of the ship's narrow profile on an approach - but the ship has a pretty solid 360-coverage - all of them can fire to either port or starboard - about 3 can fire forward, 2 backward, 3 upward and 3 downward, plus you've got to figure that ship-to-ship missiles don't necessarily need a clear line of site from the turret to the target. Plus there is the forward pain-giver-weapon built into the hull.

[bankruptstudios]

A cool idea would have doing the turrents in MVAM an let the AI attack other ships wile you controll the main ship.