Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: Shadowknight1 on March 15, 2008, 10:45:12 PM
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Okay, this is my first ever attempt at any kind of modding, and already I'm ready to pull hairs out of my head. What I'm doing is attempting to adjust the glows of Khaliban's 1701-A to more accurately match the movie. Problem one with that is the only way I can do so is with a program called GIMP. The unfortunate part is that if I, say, wanted to darken the torpedo launcher completly, I can't. I can only adjust the alpha channels, or the glows. Which is fine, because those are the primary things needing adjusting. I decided to start with the deflector dish. It needed to be blue, so now it is! Next up is the spotlights on the dorsal saucer, which is a right big pain in the butt...especially if one forgets to back up said file before adjusting it. So, no pics of the saucer just yet, but I'm not giving up hope! If only I knew how to widen the spotlight...
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simply getting rid of the red dots for the torp launchers should be doable in some kind of free image editing program. You will probably need to convert the tga to bmp first, irfan is a free image converter that will do that. However you'll loose your alpha layer when you do, so you'll need a program that lets you use channels or simply send the finished bmp to any one of a number of people like myself who can copy and paste a lightmap into the alpha layer and save.
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Well, my main problem right now is trying to adjust the saucer lights to look right, but...well, I don't have the steadiest hands when it comes to erasing things using this computer.
EDIT: Also everyone, let me know if I got the right shade of blue for the dish. I'm a bit colorblind, so it's hard for me to judge.
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Well if you mean constructive criticism then no the deflector has all wrong shade of blue, it should be more sky blue, the best way to achieve desired effect is to simply pick the color from any screencap from any movie ;) also If you wan't to stay with khaliban's original textures then I suggest you to get rid of those dark lines on panneling (especially on secondary hull and pylons)
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Hmm, well I'll take a look at IV, V, and VI again. As for the lines, I'm not gonna try messng with them as I can only alter the alpha channels. As I said, I'm mainly altering the deflector and lighting to more match the movies. Speaking of, I think I have passable spotlights on the saucer, as well as blacked out torpedo tubes. Now, I don't know about the re-color I did on the nacelle glows, it looks okay on my end, but it might be a bit dark...comments please!
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yeah, looks a tiny bit dark on the nacelles and maybe even the deflector... lighten them up a little and I think you'll have yourself a good set of textures. :)
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Okay, tidied up the spotlights a little, lightened the deflector and nacelles, I also made the ceiling in the aboretum a little bluer.
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I think these glows and colors look very nice, almost majestic... good work.
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Thanks! Hopefully the colors are right now. Quick question, since I'm trying for canon-ness on this thing, should I remove the aft photon launcher?
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As far as I can remember, I read that the Enterprise-refit as well as Ent-A both had aft torpedo launchers that we never saw on screen.
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As far as I can remember, I read that the Enterprise-refit as well as Ent-A both had aft torpedo launchers that we never saw on screen.
Then where the heck were these aft launchers?
Also, if I remember correctly, somebody once said "if it's not on screen, it's not canon".
:arms: Again, i must ask where these supposed launchers physically are, as I've never seen them.
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I agree with Aeries. It's never been seen. Most people seem to claim that its right at the back of the neck, but there's no tube there.
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"if it's not on screen, it's not canon".
I know, I was thinking that as I posted.
Most people seem to claim that its right at the back of the neck, but there's no tube there.
I've seen it on an ornament I bought, but that was an ornament.
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Things like that (models, ornaments, toys, etc) don't count. At all.
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well, in TWOK, we do see a "Torpedo tube 4" being readied, I can only assume that it isn't one of the two in the launcher pod
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Things like that (models, ornaments, toys, etc) don't count. At all.
I know. If we counted every little illustration we'd have some very interesting looking Galaxy classes.
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well, in TWOK, we do see a "Torpedo tube 4" being readied, I can only assume that it isn't one of the two in the launcher pod
Well, I don't think that counts. If on screen readouts were trustworthy, then the Enterprise-E somehow has a different shape outside than what we actually see. I mean, look at the Master Situation Display Monitor. lol Besides, the only torpedo tube fired was the starboard tube above the deflector.
And I wouldn't say that the toys and ornaments and such don't count, but I don't think any of them have every shown an aft torpedo launcher on the Constitution refit. But you look at the Art Asylum TWOK Enterprise and you see how accurate it is. As far as I know, the idea of the Ent-A having an aft launcher came from "Mr. Scott's Guide to the USS Enterprise"
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As far as I know, the idea of the Ent-A having an aft launcher came from "Mr. Scott's Guide to the USS Enterprise"
That's the book I read.
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So far as I understand it, 'canon' is a term used to describe something accurately based off a movie, whereas 'canon' is a type of camera. Going from that, then it's safe to assume that the Enterprise A did not, in fact, have any aft launchers whatsoever, as such things were never once seen on constitution class starships. They were never seen on screen, in any movie, and it's obvious that there are a lot of discrepancies, as Trek seems to be the king of.
Therefore, I opt for the removal of this "aft launcher" you speak of.
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As far as I know, the idea of the Ent-A having an aft launcher came from "Mr. Scott's Guide to the USS Enterprise"
That's the book I read.
I don't trust that book. It claims that the Ent-A used to be the USS Ti-Ho rather than the Yorktown.
Now, I want to be sure that I have the colors right now, so please let me know what you think! Except Aeries as you've already stated your very much appreciated opinion. ^_^
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I have no big complaints, except: 1. Make the arboretum look more natural and 2. Lighten the lines on the hull. It looks to segmented the way it is now.
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1. What do you mean by more natural?
2. My editing program only lets me edit the glows, unfortunately.
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The arboretum just doesn't look right to me. I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like, but right now I can't imagine that that would be the ceiling of the arboretum. Perhaps a simulated sky? I don't know, I'm just tossing out some very small nitpicks. All in all you're doing very well. :)
Plus, I'm tired.
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Well about that aft torpedo tube, logically why they didn't use it when reliant was pusuing them into the mutara nebula, they had VERY clean shot there + sensors were still operational, my only explanation is that one photon torpedo wouldn't change anything as reliant had it's shields fully loaded, but still they could use it in few situations.
another explanation is that this tube could be retractable from inside of the hull, bottom of the shuttle bay maybe.
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The arboretum just doesn't look right to me. I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like, but right now I can't imagine that that would be the ceiling of the arboretum. Perhaps a simulated sky? I don't know, I'm just tossing out some very small nitpicks. All in all you're doing very well. :)
Plus, I'm tired.
It's blue because that's actually how the ceiling is, that's why those windows are typically colored blue when they're not see through. lol
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Nah for me that arboretum window looks great in my retexture it was more grey/blue tho I actually didn't like that effect so I like this one ;)
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Nah for me that arboretum window looks great in my retexture it was more grey/blue tho I actually didn't like that effect so I like this one ;)
Thanks Bones! Well, I'm in the process of switching computers as my old laptop was on its last leg. No updates until I get everything transferred over. Right now I'm transferring over messengers and BC's...well, everything except the data folder.
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I know this is a double post but...I just got my Connie ingame and for the heck of it, turned up everything, including setting color depth to "HIGH". When I did this though, instead of seeing pretty pretty colors on my Connie, I saw all the parts that I had erased showing up. Does anyone use "high" color depth, and if so, this may be a bust...
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i think pretty much everyone uses the high colour depth..
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Well bugger....anyone have some suggestions?
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Maybe it changed the texture sets? I really don't know... :/
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can you take a screen shot of the problem, i may have an idea what it is..
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Here's the saucer with the color depth set to high:
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The darker parts probably has got something to do with part of the alpha being lighter than the rest, but i may be wrong.
~Jb06
JLS
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Well, let's see...the darker spots used to be filled with spot light.
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I know why:
Khalibans alpha-maps are not completely black.
They are a tiny bit of grey to glow a bit ingame (like the connie model did in the movies.).
:D
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I know why:
Khalibans alpha-maps are not completely black.
They are a tiny bit of grey to glow a bit ingame (like the connie model did in the movies.).
:D
Thats what i said :P
~Jb06
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Well, as soon as I can get a good, stable internet connection that isn't running at 56k, I'm sending the saucer textures to Dr_McCoy1701A, maybe he can fix my screw up. >.< If we can get the saucer glows right, then I'll move on to making sure the deflector is the right shade of blue, and so forth. Then I'll start the HP adjustment. I'm going to speed up the reload time a little on the forward torpedo launchers to 1) compensate for the loss of the aft tube and 2) make it slightly more canon, as we saw the Enterprise-A firing about, what, six photons in a row at that poor bird of prey? lol
Also, assuming that good ol' Bones can get the saucer looking better, I may look into changing the windows. Maybe. I dunno yet. And if I can ever find a way to actually edit the ship's textures, I'll probably lighten some sections of the hull to try and get that pearlescent white that she has in ST4 & 6. I don't consider any colors that she had in ST5 to be canon, as they had to skimp a lot on the effects budget. Plus, I don't think I want my ship's lights to look like this:
(http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tff/ch13/thefinalfrontier1094.jpg)
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I think what everyone is saying is, the spotlights need work.
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Yeah, I know. I'm fully aware of the fact, and I'm actually in the process of trying something different, so I won't be sending it off to Dr_McCoy1701a just yet, and if I do, it'll probably be the stock saucer textures. :evil:
As it stands right now, the only things that I'm not changing again are the torpedo tubes, they're gonna stay black now, and the warp drive glow looks about right so it's staying. Now, the deflector won't change too much, but I'm gonna keep working on it until it's at least 95% perfect. So...the saucer. God it's a freakin pain in the kiester.
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Update! Thanks to Bones, the Enterprise-A no longer has weird saucer syndrome, and was also kind enough to send me a slightly higher res deflector...which I then re-colored. :P I believe the deflector is the right color now, and the aboretum should be close enough. I did make a small, nearly un-noticeable change. The original thrusters around the deflector were colored black, but on the actual Enterprise-A they were white, so I changed that. The warp engines are the same as my last update. One further addendum I did to the textures Bones sent me was to slightly alter the bottom of the saucer, removing the port and starboard spotlights. Feedback will be appreciated!
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Beautiful.
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Yup looking good :D btw. what color will have impulse glows on your retexture ? I've checked some ST4 screencaps and at the end when enterprise warped out, the impulse were almost yellow/ bright orange, warp grills are perfect as they are now.
As for glows I think we've made a mistake here cuz I just checked some screenies and in ST4 bottom and top saucer light should be a lot wider, also there should be very faint side lights on the bottom, in ST6 side lights are almost as big as registry light so I thing these are a little too small (they were fitted to NCC-1701 but not for NCC - 1701-A) if you wan't I still have those maps you sent me, I can easly fix it but which type do you want ST4 or ST6 ? first pic is from ST6 second from ST4.
(http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tuc/ch2/tuc0099.jpg)
(http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tvh/ch17/tvh1070.jpg)
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That's actually not a spot light, but light being cast on her hull. There are no side spotlights.
(http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tuc/ch12/tuc0579.jpg)
But I don't know if I need to change the impulse colors or not. And IMO, the ventral glows are fine now, but if you can adjust the dorsal spotlight to be wide enough ala. ST4, that'd be great! Thanks for your help Bones! And everyone, here's a video I made of her, I know it's off center, but that's how FRAPS records: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v6543815nyY86xy6
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Ah ok then, I'll fix those glows and send them tomorrow :D
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Sweet! Thanks a bunch :D
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kewl...looking great so far :)
:dance
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I like that video. Especialy the warp stripes you've made with the plasma venting. :)
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Thanks, I thought that was a nice touch myself. I may or may not create a new video once I get the new glows, I haven't decided yet.
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now that was orignal thinking using the plasma vents to simulate the stripe seen in the movies. I do hope u do make a new vid. Have a cookie
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Okay, a slight update. First off, the warp engine glows. I took a look at the texture and noticed that...well, it looked splotchy. So, I went in and fixed it, hopefully the color is still the same, and I made the circular thing on the top of the nacelles a little bluer. Second, I brightened up the impulse engine a little to try and match ST4, I don't know if it's right or not, but oh well, it at least looks better. Here's a comparison shot, left is old, right is new.
BTW, Dr_McCoy1701A deserves a few cookies for his assistance!
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I know this is double posting, but this is a new update. After a little talk with Dr_McCoy1701A, he thinks that the impulse engine needs to be a bit on the yellow side, and after looking at screenshots from the end of ST4, I agree, but I don't know if this looks right or not, so let me know what you guys think.
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it should still be more orange, if you look at your screen caps, you can probably see that the over all color is still orange, they just glow so bright in that scene that they look yellow
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*ahem* I'm a bit color blind, so yeah...this ain't easy. Nosiree, not one little bit. :arms:
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ohhh, ok, well, it should be about half way between the hue of the old one and your new yellow one.
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*ahem* I'm a bit color blind, so yeah...this ain't easy. Nosiree, not one little bit. :arms:
I see the problem now :D yeah it's a little bit too yellow, try to open a screencap of enterprise A when it's warping out at the end of ST4 and pick the color you need, that should work + you'll get as close as possible to movie effect ;)
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Yeah, it's bloody annoying, that's why it took so long to get the deflector right. Anyway, here's a slight update, hopefully the color's either right or a step in the right direction.
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perfect, now mess with alphas to make glow more intense ;)
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Like this?
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For being partially colour blind, you've done an awesome job. :) Cookie for you, Shadowknight.
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Thanks! To be honest, without feedback from you guys, I don't think I'd have gotten this far, and especially thanks to Dr_McCoy1701A for his help with the saucer and so forth.
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Well, you're in the right place for this sorta thing. 8)
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The new Impulse colors looks perfect now, nice work so far :D
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Right :D cookie for first mod efforts :D
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Thanks guys! I'm gonna get fat on these cookies... lol
Now comes the fun part of waiting on Dr_McCoy1701A to fix that dorsal glow. ;) LOL
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Here's what I've managed to do with dorsal registry spotlight :D take a look...
btw. check your mail Shadowknight, I sent you fixed glows ;)
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And here's an ingame shot. ;)
Everyone, Dr_McCoy1701A gets a cookie for this, good job!
EDIT: There are a couple of other textures being worked on, namely the secondary hull. When it's all said and done, I'll make a new video, then start packing the files up.
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Well, no real update, still waiting on the secondary hull from Bones...I really need to look into photoshop or something. :P In the meantime, I made a few pics with the textures as they currently stand, mostly in movie or movie-inspired poses, eg. the Ent & Excel pic has no planet or star and the Enterprise was never shown returning to space dock with the battle scars from the dogfight with Chang.
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nice pics. :)
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Very nice indeed. Keep it up, I can't wait to see more :D
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Ah yes I'm working on that sec hull, I think I'll try to rescale red nav lights above shuttle bay as they're way too big
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Sounds good to me Bones. I'll try and wait patiently. :P
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wow im digging those warp streaks
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Thanks, I'm fond of it myself. Though it's not 100% canon to that particular shot in ST6...to do that, I'd have to put a warp engine inside the engineering hull. :P So I made do with what I had and recreated my personal favorite warp flyby in ST6. Or any of the first 6 for that matter.
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Okay, still waiting on secondary hull/deflector prong textures, but beyond that, the Enterprise is more or less ready. As far as HP goes, she's pretty much the same, but no longer has the aft torpedo launcher, and can now fire three torpedoes each from the two forward launchers, giving a nice total of six forward torpedoes, which I believe was the same amount that Enterprise plowed into Chang's bird-of-prey.
Now. A brand spanking new preview video, this time captured on center and done as a fake opening for a Trek show with the Ent-A. Music from ST:TNG and sound effects from Art Asylum's refit TWOK Enterprise and BC. Inspired by Cordanilus's Ent-D preview video.
Link on YouTube:
Link on Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v8545342RgNyp6PY
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Update, as in, I am submitting the file to BCFiles as I type this. I do want to note that there was one other update since the video and the last pics, thanks to Dr_McCoy1701A, the hull lines on the secondary hull are lighter. I declare this a good place for a Version 1.0! Thanks to everyone for all your help and support! Here's a screenie of the new hull lines to wet your appetites!