Bridge Commander Central

BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: Jb06 on February 12, 2011, 03:01:47 PM

Title: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on February 12, 2011, 03:01:47 PM
Originally made in mid 2008 by limey98, i have decided to completely redo the textures on the Equinox as my texturing skills have improved + I've got more reference pics than when I first attempted it.

The saucer is almost complete, just got a few things to finish off. Thanks to lurok I was able to make a screenshot of his Nova Bridge from the top view to make the bridge dome more realistc ;)

Anyways here's some comparison pics between version 1 and 2.

Cheers

~Jb
Title: Re: USS Equinox
Post by: Shadowknight1 on February 12, 2011, 08:34:43 PM
Holy cow!  That looks fantastic!  Will we get an updated clean version as well as the battle damaged one for the Delta Quadrant Pack?
Title: Re: USS Equinox
Post by: Dawg81 on February 12, 2011, 09:45:49 PM
Wow i can see alot of changes u made to the textures such as the open sensor arrays and the torp launcher and areas around the bridge. Looks alot more in line with what i seen in trek mag. will u be redoing the RI as well :s
Title: Re: USS Equinox
Post by: moed on February 12, 2011, 10:39:32 PM
Very nice!
Title: Re: USS Equinox
Post by: Jb06 on February 13, 2011, 07:05:52 AM
Holy cow!  That looks fantastic!  Will we get an updated clean version as well as the battle damaged one for the Delta Quadrant Pack?

Yep i'll release a clean version first and keep the damaged one for the DQP.

Wow i can see alot of changes u made to the textures such as the open sensor arrays and the trop launcher and areas around the bridge. Looks alot more in line with what i seen in trek mag. will u be redoing the RI as well :s

Yeah its most likely that ill redo the Rhode Island as well, then you never know, i might release that early :P

Cheers people :)

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on February 15, 2011, 01:27:22 PM
Had some more time to do more on the Nova.

Pics below & hopefully a bit more feedback than my last post considering the amount of viewings the pics had.  :dontcare:

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Shadowknight1 on February 15, 2011, 01:45:45 PM
What more can I say than that is a definite improvement. :D
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: 007bashir on February 15, 2011, 02:47:02 PM
Looks great. Question: is the hull color really suppost to be so brown-greyish?
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Darkthunder on February 15, 2011, 04:06:00 PM
Looks great. Question: is the hull color really suppost to be so brown-greyish?

Considering that there are no speculars applied as of yet, i'd say the texturing looks spot-on so far.
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: crazyhid on February 16, 2011, 06:23:34 PM
Amazing work and to my surprise the colouring on version 2 is correct, wheras V1 Colour would have been used on the rhode island. The only reason the spine of the ship looks like v1 in the tv show is actually because of the massive glow coming from the warp nacelles. so u r spot on jb grats !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: JamesTiberiusKirk on February 17, 2011, 04:06:17 AM
not so sure about the phasebanks. other then that, it looks awesome!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on February 17, 2011, 12:12:34 PM
not so sure about the phasebanks. other then that, it looks awesome!

That's because I haven't changed them yet :P They're from the V1 , i'll get round to them eventually.

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: JamesTiberiusKirk on February 17, 2011, 06:42:56 PM
That's because I haven't changed them yet :P They're from the V1 , i'll get round to them eventually.

~Jb

That explains it. Looking forward to the completed version!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Locke on February 17, 2011, 10:05:01 PM
Groovy!  I like where you're going with this.  Something I would do if I were making this: on the hull plating lines, give the impression that there is depth there.  A darker stripe down the center of each line, and a blur.  That will show that there is a curve down to the center of the line, fooling the eye into thinking there is depth where there actually is none.

EDIT: Also, a subtle but perceptible set of "plate" backgrounds would do nicely. Something that would sit underneath the more visible aspects and give them depth.  Then, when you do speculars, you can "raise" certain areas by making them a bit brighter or duller than their surrounding "plates".
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Bren on February 18, 2011, 01:01:57 PM
Are you going the texture the afformentioned glow from the warp engines onto the spine of the ship? She looks crisp! However, compared to the V1, she seems to lack texture, are you planning to underlay a hull plating pattern in the specular, or is there an aztec in the works?
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on March 01, 2011, 01:01:05 PM
Right the clean and damaged versions of the Nova are complete. I did add a slight texture to the hull, similar to Voyager's as I want to keep this one canon.

Here's the pics

Enjoy

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on March 01, 2011, 01:02:49 PM
Damaged version.

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Killallewoks on March 01, 2011, 01:10:21 PM
Horay!  :dance
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Morgan on March 01, 2011, 01:15:24 PM
Very nice work JB!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Shadowknight1 on March 01, 2011, 01:28:27 PM
Indeed awesome job.
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: JimmyB76 on March 01, 2011, 01:43:07 PM
will you guys be doing one of these with the USS Nova registry?  or just the Equinox?
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on March 01, 2011, 01:53:33 PM
Cheers people ;)

will you guys be doing one of these with the USS Nova registry?  or just the Equinox?

Already done especially for you Jimbo :P

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: JimmyB76 on March 01, 2011, 01:56:09 PM
awww *hugs Jb* :D
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Lurok91 on March 01, 2011, 02:16:35 PM
Lovely job, JB  :thumbsup:    Have a cookie.
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Vortex on March 01, 2011, 02:37:14 PM
Looks awesome!!!

I just wish Voyager had that sort of damage when it got home. Not one UFP Base in the DQ and 7 years later she still looked liked she'd only just left the dock. xD

Have a cookie!!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: ACES_HIGH on March 01, 2011, 02:52:46 PM
From what I heard, they wanted to do that, but they couldn't for budgetary reasons, (can't use stock footage)  That's why they went all out on Battlestar.

This thing is looking awesome so far.
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: 086gf on March 06, 2011, 12:35:06 AM
Those textures look absolutely wonderful!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on March 18, 2011, 11:22:24 AM
Ok im back up and running with my new laptop, so I can restart finishing these mods. The Nova is all ready to go, just need 2 testers for this, just to double check it's fine.

Enjoy

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: JimmyB76 on March 18, 2011, 11:54:01 AM
beautiful :D

ok im sure this was asked before but memory and me dont get along very well and im too lazy to go back and read lol  :dontcare: :P
any plans on a USS Rhode Island?
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: 007bashir on March 18, 2011, 12:01:54 PM
Tester? Here is one!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: deadthunder2_0 on March 18, 2011, 12:07:11 PM
Tester? I can!
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: flarespire on March 18, 2011, 12:07:51 PM
Tester? I can!
ditto, me too XD
Title: Re: Nova Class
Post by: Jb06 on March 18, 2011, 02:35:25 PM
beautiful :D

ok im sure this was asked before but memory and me dont get along very well and im too lazy to go back and read lol  :dontcare: :P
any plans on a USS Rhode Island?

Well i restarted the Rhode Islands textures shortly after I finished the Nova, but that was before my old laptop crashed, so Ill have to search my files for the V.20 Rhode :P

First two who replied got the Nova beta ;) Sorry flarespire, but there's some more mods which will need testing soon so watch out.

Here's the beta for you two.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20137495/JL+Studios+USS+Nova+V2.0.rar

Please report back in a pm

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 21, 2011, 05:21:02 AM
Ive been working on something Cordanilus found a few months back to see what the results would be like.... adding the glows on a separate texture using the multi-texture feature in nifskope.

This allows the glows off the engines to be seen in the dark, but not so much in the bright light, like it's supposed to.

The results are promising, but are no-where near the final result.

What do you guys think of this idea?

The last image shows the Nova in light with the glows hardly showing.

Cheers Cord ;)

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: mckinneyc on March 21, 2011, 06:22:40 AM
Amazing. Very realistic
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: 007bashir on March 21, 2011, 06:23:13 AM
Yes very cool. Go on with that
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: King Class Scout on March 21, 2011, 09:26:46 AM
I should try that with the Concours.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: cordanilus on March 21, 2011, 12:06:57 PM
Sweet ride.  :yay:

The cool thing about the multi-texture node is that the glows are completely separate from the base texture.  Bonus is that the glows are in full color instead of using any alpha channels.  No idea if you can set this up in Max and export it to BC.  I have taken DJ's Galaxy into battle and it damages good, but most likely...the blinking lights (before explosion, silent running, etc) will not work at all.  Never tried it but feel free to try it JB.

All in all, super job.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 21, 2011, 01:15:49 PM
Cheers Cord :D

Well The only thing which doesn't work is silent running, which I'm not entirely bothered about.

Anyway's I redid the glows & I'm pretty happy with the results so these will probably going to be the final ones for the Nova.

Enjoy

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Morgan on March 21, 2011, 01:18:07 PM
It looks similar to the differed lighting in the NanoFX GE renderer.  Very nice JB!  :yay:
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Shadowknight1 on March 21, 2011, 01:29:58 PM
Looks pretty good...wish it would look that good on my laptop.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: 086gf on March 21, 2011, 08:57:20 PM
That is really cool.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Bren on March 21, 2011, 10:34:56 PM
Agreed, it does look like the deferred lighting in Nano-FX.

The only suggestion I have is that the spine running back from the impulse engine was bathed in a lot of blue from the nacelles in the show, iirc. The effect is spot-on, Great work, guys!

Imagine that! 9 years on, and we're still finding new ways to exploit the engine!

This ought to become a standard feature of modding from now on :)
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: moed on March 21, 2011, 11:50:20 PM
Beautiful.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Phaser on March 22, 2011, 12:23:45 AM
Very nice!  I wish I had dropped by sooner.  I've got a bunch of images of the Nova Class that have been sitting on desktop for a couple of years now.  I was helping someone make a new Nova Class model a while ago; don't know if anything ever came of it, nor do I remember who I was helping.  Meteorafallen, maybe?  Anyway, looks like most of them are of the model itself, but there are a few reference shots.

If you want them anyway, shoot me a PM.  I'd be happy to send them over to you.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 22, 2011, 04:42:07 AM
Agreed, it does look like the deferred lighting in Nano-FX.

The only suggestion I have is that the spine running back from the impulse engine was bathed in a lot of blue from the nacelles in the show, iirc. The effect is spot-on, Great work, guys!

Imagine that! 9 years on, and we're still finding new ways to exploit the engine!

This ought to become a standard feature of modding from now on :)

Cheers people :D

Ill give it a try on the spine see what it looks like.

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Dawg81 on March 22, 2011, 09:57:24 AM
most impressive JB. I wonder how that deferred lighting would look on an intrepid class.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: crazyhid on March 22, 2011, 11:36:18 AM
Those glows are very near the show, but the blue actually continues onto the spine of the Nova, also the glow from the deflector is much greater on the underside of the saucer its almost like a half moon. I wish someone would do this for voyager, i was the last season last week and the glows are Amazing, The underside of voyager is very blue from the glow.

Amazing work with the glows i really love them, and wish alot more feds had this level.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Bren on March 22, 2011, 11:37:57 AM
most impressive JB. I wonder how that deferred lighting would look on an intrepid class.

Yeah - the glow from the deflector on the underside of the saucer, and all of the registry lighting should be done this way.

Gentlemen, is the technique secret, or are you able to tell us a little about how you've managed this?
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 22, 2011, 12:31:45 PM
Well if Cord doesnt mind, its all to do with adding a multi-texturing node into the nif. From there, as far as im aware you can add up to 5 nodes in there without bc crashing, but as you can see in the circled area in the first image, we've only got 3 slots, however, just got 2 running...

The deflector_LM.tga is the new way of adding colour glows, no black or white alphas, so there is no need to name tga's with _glow or save at 32bit.


This is all down to Cordanilus, I've just started using his method, so a huge thanks for this :D
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 22, 2011, 12:40:43 PM
Straight double post :P

Glad people like it. :D Might take requests soon on which fed ships you would like to see this on as long as I've got permission from the creator :P

Well Ive been tinkering with the spine glow, & decided to add some red from the bussards in there as well even though it wasnt in the show. so what do people think?

The last image shows the ship in light again just to ensure the glows arent as bright as in the dark ;)

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Morgan on March 22, 2011, 12:54:34 PM
You're really loving this new glow technique aren't ya JB?  Lol, I can see why, it looks great.  Enjoy the cookie.   :yay:
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 22, 2011, 02:03:06 PM
I wish someone would do this for voyager, i was the last season last week and the glows are Amazing, The underside of voyager is very blue from the glow.

Funny you should say that as Ive got permission from Luiz to retexture the CGI Voyager, so stay tuned for pics once I start on V2.0 :D

~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: King Class Scout on March 22, 2011, 02:26:26 PM
you might wanna make a tutorial for this "glow job"...we should make it a new standard for all ships.  i'd also like to use this to give som,e glows BACK to one of the ships I have that had the property accidently removed from the model.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: JimmyB76 on March 22, 2011, 03:21:15 PM
amazing Jb!!  :D
Might take requests soon on which fed ships you would like to see this on as long as I've got permission from the creator :P
lol and so opens the flood gates :P
you may want to make a new request thread for that...  watch how fast it fills up :P

you might wanna make a tutorial for this "glow job"

that would be a good idea, so Jb doesnt get a million requests all at once; other people could help him out :)
we should make it a new standard for all ships.
agreed...
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: moed on March 22, 2011, 04:54:26 PM
Looks great JB!

The Bussard glow looks good but it's a bit strong IMO. Maybe make it more subtle and tone it down a bit?

Cookie for you!
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Tally on March 22, 2011, 05:17:21 PM
looking sweet...love looking at a pert pair of nacelles regardless of size  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: 086gf on March 22, 2011, 07:42:19 PM
Sexy!

coooookieeeeeeee
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Phaser on March 22, 2011, 08:50:08 PM
I'm with moed: Tune it down.  You'd be surprised how much realism you can get through subtlety.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Shadowknight1 on March 23, 2011, 12:33:27 AM
What are you guys talking about?  The bussards look fine to me.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Bren on March 23, 2011, 01:13:59 AM
We're talking about the reflected red light on the hull, not the actual bussard glow.

I'm with the others, keep it, but reduce it's area and strength. Also, the spine reflection looks great, but it petres out a bit too soon, going aft, it ought to really spill a bit beyond the endpoint of the field grills
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: moed on March 23, 2011, 02:30:53 AM
Yes, I'm talking about the reflected Bussard light off of the ship.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: JamesTiberiusKirk on March 23, 2011, 05:10:19 AM
I'm with moed: Tune it down.  You'd be surprised how much realism you can get through subtlety.

long time no see! and agreed.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: King Class Scout on March 23, 2011, 08:03:06 AM
Shadow: he's saying that it looks too much like P81's take on the trick.  when Mr. Knox did it, he tacked the reflectives right onto the main texture along with the main glows...that made textures even harder to repair,  change, or use elsewhere later.

however, sometimes you do NOT want to get into the "real is Brown" school.  desaturating is cliched because when most companies did it, they OVER did it.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: cordanilus on March 23, 2011, 09:59:00 AM
Well, it's a good thing this technique doesn't have to bake the glows onto the base texture so you can make plenty of changes. :)

As for the NiMultiTexture, there are 5 available slots but the 5th one cannot be used as it will crash BC upon loading the ship.  Seems to be no way around it.  I have been doing extensive testing with this and I do believe that slot 2 is a Light Texture while the 3rd slot is the Dark Texture.    The 2nd slot is much like the glow but it lightens the entire texture.  The 3rd slot does the opposite.  I could be wrong but it is what it seems.

Hey JB, which slots are you using?

Take your Light Map and move it to the 2nd slot and take off the 4th slot.  Give it a try.  Or even add the LM to the 2nd slot (Should see 2 LM's).  I haven't tried that yet.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Jb06 on March 23, 2011, 10:33:50 AM
Just using the 4th for the Lightmap & the other two just have the normal texture.

Taken it off the 4th and changed it to the 2nd... LOL definitely a light texture :P


~Jb
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Nebula on March 23, 2011, 11:30:06 AM
hmm I wonder if this could somehow be linked to an impulse engine mod... say increase power increase glow?
or maybe not... just a thought.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: 007bashir on March 23, 2011, 11:33:15 AM
LOL why not use these technique for thes beeings from Encouter at farpoint?  :P
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Dawg81 on March 23, 2011, 12:19:56 PM
perhaps some more experimenting is ino order to see how far u can go with these new techniques
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Vortex on March 23, 2011, 03:35:00 PM
COOL!! A glow in the dark spaceship. xD
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: cordanilus on March 23, 2011, 03:38:30 PM
Lol, worth a try anyway JB. :D

But, this kind of glow cannot be modified by script unless you can access the nif code via python, which I'm sure is currently not possible.  Also, I cannot see a way to increase or decrease the glow in percentage through nifskope other than actually making changes on the texture.
Title: Re: Nova Class - Glows
Post by: Phaser on March 30, 2011, 08:39:03 PM
Just using the 4th for the Lightmap & the other two just have the normal texture.

Taken it off the 4th and changed it to the 2nd... LOL definitely a light texture :P


~Jb

:funny I love it when that happens.