Hard Light Productions Forums

Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => Topic started by: Galemp on September 10, 2005, 03:47:34 am

Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 10, 2005, 03:47:34 am
I hereby present to you, Hard Light Productions, my painstaking remap of Bobboau's high poly GTD Orion,
with fixed geometry, adjusted LODs and debris, and animated glowpoints. Fully compatible with existing mods and missions; just plop it in your Models directory.

(http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/orion.jpg)

Enjoy. :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Singh on September 10, 2005, 03:52:33 am
Hoooooooly ****!

Now THAT is an Orion!
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Col. Fishguts on September 10, 2005, 04:10:37 am
Ooh baby :yes:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Fineus on September 10, 2005, 04:16:35 am
Very impressive indeed!

I don't suppose you could put up a comparison pic of the original, Bobs and your model side by side?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: NGTM-1R on September 10, 2005, 04:40:00 am
While truly beautiful, nothing can ever undo the chop-job that was the remodel...
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Primus on September 10, 2005, 04:49:05 am
Cool, I love it. :p
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Turnsky on September 10, 2005, 05:05:19 am
nice model, same old gripes with beam cannons on teeny or wrong looking turrets, however, but can be overlooked 'cuz of the sheer awesomeness of the model.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: MatthewPapa on September 10, 2005, 10:09:25 am
someone put this in the SCP media VPs
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Nuclear1 on September 10, 2005, 10:48:31 am
****ing beautiful.

*downloads i-****ing-mmediately*
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 10, 2005, 01:40:35 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Kalfireth
I don't suppose you could put up a comparison pic of the original, Bobs and your model side by side?


Certainly. They have to be pretty big to get any sense of scale or detail, so I'm going to link them instead of posting the images.

Starboard side, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b1.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g1.jpg). All the detail in the curved parts behind the fighterbay was lost with the original mapping.

Port side, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b2.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g2.jpg). I tried to follow the 'Rule of Four' when mapping this; there were so many individual modules that I mapped them with varying textures..

Antenna array, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b3.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g3.jpg). I'm particularly proud of the job I did on these.

Poop Deck, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b4.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g4.jpg). Note the new radar dishes, using fewer polies than Bobboau's.

Aft engine block, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b1.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g1.jpg). I think I did a much better job on the engines themselves, and used the capital01-01a texture to accentuate the rounded end of the extrusion edged with lights.

Overall I'm very happy with it. Bobboau's model did the Orion justice scale-wise, I'm only trying to carry that over to the texturing. Huge thanks to him for doing this in the first place. Thanks to Styxx, too, for his MAX converter and support.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Goober5000 on September 10, 2005, 02:12:26 pm
Dude.  You've actually made Bobboau's Orion look good. :eek2:

Well done. :yes:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Roanoke on September 10, 2005, 02:15:13 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Galemp
Port side, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b2.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g2.jpg). I tried to follow the 'Rule of Four' when mapping this; there were so many individual modules that I mapped them with varying textures..


"Rule of Four" ?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Flaser on September 10, 2005, 02:18:59 pm
This remap shows that texturing is still 50% of making a model.

Congratulations Galemp! This ROCKS!

Bobb did a really good job on the ship - the stock textures though actually hid all that detail.
Your job brings it to life.

I can't wait to see how it looks shine and glow mapped.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Mongoose on September 10, 2005, 02:36:10 pm
Your texturing finally gives Bobboau's model the justice it deserves.  Incredible work.  That's the way FreeSpace's best capital ship is supposed to look.  Plop that thing in the Media VPs ASAP! :D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Kie99 on September 10, 2005, 02:59:55 pm
Wow, that rocks.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ulala on September 10, 2005, 03:09:03 pm
:yes:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 10, 2005, 03:28:02 pm
I'll be honest - while I do like any notion of a better and more detailed Orion, I'm not too fond of those.
The model is detailed and good looking, but a bit too detailed in my oppinion. It has over 11000 polys (more then my Whitehall station) and I feel much of it is wasted. By the loojks of it, half of that polycount goes on the sensor array.

The texturing is good, but could also be better - especialyl on some places.

So ther you have it - it might look like I'm too mean or something but that's not the case. I do like them, but I feel as thought something is missing.

I actualy started work on my own higher-poly Orion, but it will be in the mid-poly range (5000-6000 or so). Work is going fast and smooth so far:D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 10, 2005, 03:48:47 pm
This is a perfect example of where being a poly-whore is a bad thing, especially when Modelview numbers are used.  The main body is only a smidgeon over 5k tris (and has far more detail than a lot of 5k poly models I've seen for it) and that's the real concern.  Now this orion has a TON of subobjects, which may be a legitimate criticism; its polycount however is not.

Also, while it's nice to see another version out there, I am not as fond of this mapping as I could be.  Call me a purist, but I don't like the use of the cargo texture.  The sensors array is very nicely done, however, and I'm glad someone made a better version of the radar dishes than my knock-up version.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ace on September 10, 2005, 03:56:52 pm
Same here, don't like the cargo texture. Replace that with something else from the original Orion and it'd be perfect though.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Flaser on September 10, 2005, 04:09:32 pm
Truth be told, IMHO the use of the cargo texture is justified - for no other reason than the fact, the ship need *genuine new* textures to improove it any further.

Yeah, it won't be really canon - but the ship's refinements went past the point where recycling would do.

Galemp did the the *best* that the canon maps had to offer, and made a sensible remapping that would be a good (and so far best) mapping to use as a reference when creating the new texture set.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 10, 2005, 04:12:58 pm
It's not adding another texture, it's THAT texture.  It is just so wholly out of place on an Orion that every time I see it I just think "that doesn't belong on an Orion".  I've got an idea, let me toy with something for a few minutes...
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: BlackDove on September 10, 2005, 04:18:26 pm
I think it rules.

Best one yet.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: WMCoolmon on September 10, 2005, 05:47:03 pm
Quote
Originally posted by MatthewPapa
someone put this in the SCP media VPs


Done. :)

:yes: :yes: :yes:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ghost on September 10, 2005, 06:12:51 pm
Wow. Galemp, you are a god.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: mikhael on September 10, 2005, 06:24:26 pm
I hate the Orion.

That said, great work, man. Your texturing really brings out the underlying geometry, resulting in a vastly improved final product.

And the chance to see Trashman complain about someone else's high polycounts was just too classic. :D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 10, 2005, 07:24:46 pm
If someone would like to make a replacement for the freighter tile, do so by all means... however, please keep the [X] support beams. They're lined up with the geometry in many places.

Quote
Originally posted by Roanoke
"Rule of Four" ?


The Rule of Four is an old cartographic theory; namely, that any 2D map (as of countries) can be colored in with only four colors, with no two sectors of the same color touching. I tried to apply this to the Orion; since it is broken into chunks, I made sure no two touching chunks had the same texture.

One more thing. I have a UV map for the light blue tile. If anyone wants to try making a new full-body texture that fits the geometry I'll provide them with the map.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: mikhael on September 10, 2005, 08:00:56 pm
Well, its actually a topological generalization of a cartographic idea, Galemp, but why nitpick. ;)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Martinus on September 10, 2005, 08:30:57 pm
[color=66ff00]This bloody rules! :yes:

Mighty work GE. :nod:
[/color]
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Mefustae on September 10, 2005, 08:34:12 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Galemp
Poop Deck, Before (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/b4.jpg) and After (http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/htl/g4.jpg). Note the new radar dishes, using fewer polies than Bobboau's.
Homer: "Uh, is the Poop deck really what I think it is...?"
Skipper: "Ha! Son, I like the cut of your Jib"
Homer: "What's a Jib?"
Skipper: "Ha! ...Promote that man"
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Goober5000 on September 10, 2005, 11:21:46 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Mefustae
"Uh, is the Poop deck really what I think it is...?"
It's the stern, naturally.  If they threw it off the bow it would blow right back in their faces. :D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Gregster2k on September 11, 2005, 02:33:56 am
Wow. Now all we need is for the Bastion version to incorporate the same textures...
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Raptor on September 11, 2005, 05:59:58 am
You managed to improve Bob's Orion.  Nice work there GE!

Thing is, I don't particularly like Bob's orion mesh.  It's just too 'Busy' for me.  I kinda liked the orginal better in that regard.  It may have been a box, but it had 'something'...

...Hence why I started my own Orion model too:nervous:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: karajorma on September 11, 2005, 06:39:38 am
Quote
Originally posted by Gregster2k
Wow. Now all we need is for the Bastion version to incorporate the same textures...


Ah. But if we keep the bastion the way it is now it makes it bloody obvious why they're decommissioning it :D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Singh on September 11, 2005, 07:05:42 am
Hmmm....how about this one for the regular orions....


And Raptor's more basic one for the Bastion? :drevil:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: BlackDove on September 11, 2005, 10:13:09 am
Quote
Originally posted by karajorma


Ah. But if we keep the bastion the way it is now it makes it bloody obvious why they're decommissioning it :D


"BAD TEXTURES - OFF WITH MESON BOMBS YOU GO!"
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Flaser on September 11, 2005, 11:28:56 am
Quote
Originally posted by Goober5000
It's the stern, naturally.  If they threw it off the bow it would blow right back in their faces. :D


(Somewhat OFFTOPIC)

Actually the poop place used to be on the bow of sailing ships.
The reason was two fold:
- It was downwind
- The splash of the waves kept it cleen

BTW Wiki is fanstastic, for us (non-native speakers) and the navy/ship wise not so initiated I recommend the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship

On a space-going ship though that place seems logical.
BTW, the following page is good for taking general ship design principles:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html

It has a very good article on why spaceships would inherit some of the sea-traditions; as well as a detailed explanation of how the parts of a spaceship are named.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 11, 2005, 03:18:33 pm
Gah! My mouse is drawing it's last breaths. I'm having trouble writing this as I have to hld the cord steady with the mouse hand or else it drops dead :(

Anyway, here's what I got so far:
(http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/310/orionu19nj.th.jpg) (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu19nj.jpg)

(http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/1612/orionu20oo.th.jpg) (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu20oo.jpg)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Goober5000 on September 11, 2005, 04:01:17 pm
Quote
Originally posted by TrashMan
Anyway, here's what I got so far:
I like it.  Not as overdone as Bobboau's. :yes:

I always thought that simplicity was better in models, at least as far as the overall shape goes.  Hi-polying should be done via greebles and detailing, not adding new subobjects all over the place.  (This doesn't detract from the quality of Galemp's texturing, of course. ;))
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Roanoke on September 11, 2005, 04:15:37 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Goober5000
I like it.  Not as overdone as Bobboau's. :yes:

I always thought that simplicity was better in models, at least as far as the overall shape goes.  Hi-polying should be done via greebles and detailing, not adding new subobjects all over the place.  (This doesn't detract from the quality of Galemp's texturing, of course. ;))


Agreed. Some of the mapping is slightly strecthed though. Better than overtiled though.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ace on September 11, 2005, 05:19:25 pm
Trashman, if you fixed the stretching and made the comm array more like Bobboau's, it'd be perfect.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ghost on September 11, 2005, 05:31:37 pm
I think I'm agreeing with Ace; to you, the "comm array" is the pokey things on the bottom, right? That needs to be cleaned up.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: BlackDove on September 11, 2005, 05:41:10 pm
Mmmmmmm

Galemp's.

Simplicity is not something I want to see in an Orion during a mission. The more detail, the better.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Mongoose on September 11, 2005, 05:58:41 pm
Sorry, Trashman, but I think those massive beam cannons just look ridiculous sticking out like that.  I also think that your antennae don't have nearly enough detail.  I was a fan of Bobboau's model to begin with, and with Galemp's improvements, it gets my full vote.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 11, 2005, 06:11:36 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Ace
Trashman, if you fixed the stretching and made the comm array more like Bobboau's, it'd be perfect.


I aim to do that. This is still early WIP. If my mouse wasn't acting up I would have posted more detailed screenhots (as I would have actually made som impovements today)

I was thinking - should I make the sensor array a destructable subobject?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ghost on September 11, 2005, 07:08:49 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Mongoose
Sorry, Trashman, but I think those massive beam cannons just look ridiculous sticking out like that.  I also think that your antennae don't have nearly enough detail.  I was a fan of Bobboau's model to begin with, and with Galemp's improvements, it gets my full vote.


I just figured that was an error. If you plan on keeping those, Trash, plan on having fewer downloads/people remodeling it for themselves. For now, I'm stickin with Galemp's.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: mikhael on September 11, 2005, 08:24:16 pm
Yeah, that Galemp/Bob teamup is TEH WIN. :) Very good work.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Turnsky on September 11, 2005, 08:39:58 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Mongoose
Sorry, Trashman, but I think those massive beam cannons just look ridiculous sticking out like that.  


methinks that's a side-by-side comparison between the 'beam' turrets and the older style plasma cannons.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Mongoose on September 11, 2005, 09:19:28 pm
If it was a mistake/comparison, and if you're still working on the antennae, then please disregard whatever it is I just said. :p I still prefer the Galemp remap, though; I can't envision the Orion looking any better than that. :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ransom on September 12, 2005, 02:10:58 am
Quote
Originally posted by BlackDove
Galemp's.

Simplicity is not something I want to see in an Orion during a mission. The more detail, the better.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: NGTM-1R on September 12, 2005, 02:16:59 am
The Orion is, was, and forever shall be, nothing more or less then an armored box with some guns and in engine slapped on. To treat it as anything else is to make it not an Orion.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Carl on September 12, 2005, 02:24:05 am
this one: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,11629.0.html
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Martinus on September 12, 2005, 02:39:58 am
Quote
Originally posted by ngtm1r
The Orion is, was, and forever shall be, nothing more or less then an armored box with some guns and in engine slapped on. To treat it as anything else is to make it not an Orion.

[color=66ff00]:yes:

The Orion looks like someone took all the subsytems that a destroyer required and built a space-frame around it. Bob's model conveys this idea perfectly.
[/color]
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: NGTM-1R on September 12, 2005, 03:46:47 am
No, it doesn't. It breaks up the outline, destroys the box. It doesn't have the feeling of power, of indestructiblity, the old version did, with its unbroken armor belts and few extensions. It's not a high-poly Orion so much as a re-interpreted Orion.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Turnsky on September 12, 2005, 04:11:41 am
Quote
Originally posted by ngtm1r
No, it doesn't. It breaks up the outline, destroys the box. It doesn't have the feeling of power, of indestructiblity, the old version did, with its unbroken armor belts and few extensions. It's not a high-poly Orion so much as a re-interpreted Orion.


you must learn to "think outside the box" Grasshopper :p
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 12, 2005, 07:07:45 am
Quote
Originally posted by ngtm1r
The Orion is, was, and forever shall be, nothing more or less then an armored box with some guns and in engine slapped on. To treat it as anything else is to make it not an Orion.


I thought that was the Elysium? :p
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: vyper on September 12, 2005, 08:04:22 am
I like this. Lots.

And yes to be fair Ryx's model is even better but who is actually going to be able to run it in-game?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Flaser on September 12, 2005, 12:46:29 pm
IMHO the modders/players should finally get rid of the 'HOW MUCH IS MUCH' poly attitude.

Omni has already prooven that the engine is capable of handling insane ammounts of polies on an average systems when you properly use its features, namely:

- LODing
(the main optimalization for fighter and smaller objects)

- Detail Boxes

Bob developed this for the WCSaga - to model high poly hangars.
It was expanded, and by putting a detail box into another (a method that can be accuratly dubbed 'recursive detail boxing', on can create really high-poly models with a very efficient rendering.

What sets apart a big detail boxed model from a simply LODed one, is that the RCBoxed will only render the portion close-to and in the field of view of the player.
This means the computer only has to wresstle with a portion of the model, therefore the so far unreachable limits can be broken.

By creating a new feature on the model in a DBox - and putting finer details on thesaid submodel into further DBox-es (effectivly RDBoxing) the resulting model will have a very fine detail revelation.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Cobra on September 12, 2005, 02:06:51 pm
:eek2: it looks almost EXACTLY like the original model! only with higher-polies and SCP goodness! in-****ing-credible! *downloads* all that it's missing now is raptor's turrets and it'll be everything that i dreamed for the orion. :D

you know, what always ticked me off was that you could never fly into the hangars of original :v: ships. you had to turn off collisions to do so.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 12, 2005, 04:13:41 pm
Got a new mouse and work on the Orion continueS!

Had to re-load the old scenes 5-6 times today due to [V] & TS crazynes (I had to delete a attached subobjests faces in a specific way or else the whole UV mapping on the ship would go bokers..immagine that. ..)
Finally that tricky part is over and now it's only some lesser modifications and UV map fixing left...

(http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/104/orionu31sa.th.jpg) (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu31sa.jpg)

(http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/9215/orionu48gt.th.jpg) (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu48gt.jpg)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: IceFire on September 12, 2005, 04:40:57 pm
You made an ugly but functional thing beautiful!  Well done!
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 12, 2005, 04:56:55 pm
I'm still in the process of adding detail to the bottom and the left side (second pic), and I may fiddle with the backside a bit more.

Funny thing, I spend more time trying to decide WAHT to add and hhow to add it than actually modeling/UV mapping...
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 12, 2005, 05:36:27 pm
Mm, chunks are still too big for my tastes. But whatever you want to do. I already have my ideal Orion. :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: deep_eyes on September 12, 2005, 07:58:49 pm
this model rules. im soooo making it a MK2 in some ideas i have... sorta liek that one that dude made with the rotating barrel like front....

BTW one suggestion, i know this is prob just a HIGHPOLY version or whatever u wanna call it, but i think what the orion has been lacking in is, more BIG turrets. i mean 3 on top and 2 or 3 on the bottom is fine but u know u'd think theyd have more turrets just as a moot point of firepower. i dunno besides the smaller ones and beam cannons i think for cosmetics it would look and be more powerful....
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Cobra on September 12, 2005, 07:59:54 pm
ohh, the Orion Phase 2 with the uber beams? i've never tried that yet. how good is it?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: deep_eyes on September 12, 2005, 08:01:57 pm
it rocks too.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: DrunkenPirate on September 12, 2005, 08:28:34 pm
wow! :eek:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Gregster2k on September 13, 2005, 12:18:30 am
I want both this model and Ryx's. This one for actually playing, Ryx's for just flying around with 5 FPS and drooling puddles on my desk.

;)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ryx on September 13, 2005, 07:44:07 am
Looks neat.

My hi-poly thing was, as far as I can remember, not really intended for in-game use. Was an attempt to do something beyond <1000 polys mainly.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Gregster2k on September 13, 2005, 08:05:34 am
why didn't you finish it? T_T
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ryx on September 13, 2005, 08:35:45 am
Problems with MAX, as I recall.

MAX boolean operations are not problem free. Sometimes it does them properly, other times not quite so. On those occcasions you would have to manualy fix the problems.
On low-poly meshes this is not typically a problem, but more polys mean more work.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: WeatherOp on September 13, 2005, 08:40:30 am
Quote
Originally posted by TrashMan
Got a new mouse and work on the Orion continueS!

Had to re-load the old scenes 5-6 times today due to [V] & TS crazynes (I had to delete a attached subobjests faces in a specific way or else the whole UV mapping on the ship would go bokers..immagine that. ..)
Finally that tricky part is over and now it's only some lesser modifications and UV map fixing left...

(http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/104/orionu31sa.th.jpg) (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu31sa.jpg)

(http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/9215/orionu48gt.th.jpg) (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orionu48gt.jpg)


Can I add a sugestion, can you be the first to add a turret base for the turret to rotate on, cause otherwise most of those turrets would be scrubing their butts on armor.;)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Cobra on September 13, 2005, 05:17:03 pm
*screeeeeeecchhhh* *turret comes back half-scraped away* that's gonna take a lot of metal to repair. ;)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: mikhael on September 13, 2005, 05:59:44 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Ryx
Problems with MAX, as I recall.

MAX boolean operations are not problem free. Sometimes it does them properly, other times not quite so. On those occcasions you would have to manualy fix the problems.
On low-poly meshes this is not typically a problem, but more polys mean more work.


I have the Lightwave conversion of yours around here somewhere, Ryx, with my Orion turrets on it. It brings my machine to its knees, since each of my turrets had about 1/5 the polies of your whole Orion. :D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Cobra on September 13, 2005, 06:01:08 pm
by the way, do the turrets on the orion do a recoil effect when blobs are fired? :) (sorry, haven't had enough time to test :()
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on September 13, 2005, 07:22:33 pm
i think the model rocks....i think the new textures make it look even better.....now can someone do something about the grasshopper head on the hecate?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ryx on September 14, 2005, 03:38:25 am
Quote
Originally posted by mikhael


I have the Lightwave conversion of yours around here somewhere, Ryx, with my Orion turrets on it. It brings my machine to its knees, since each of my turrets had about 1/5 the polies of your whole Orion. :D


:lol:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Cobra on September 15, 2005, 02:55:23 pm
wait... how many polys is this orion?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 15, 2005, 03:33:53 pm
Just under 5000 for the hull.  The quoted values I've seen flung around aren't really addressing that, but I've got the model triangulated in Max and that's what it is.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Roanoke on September 15, 2005, 04:02:21 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Ryx
Problems with MAX, as I recall.

MAX boolean operations are not problem free. Sometimes it does them properly, other times not quite so. On those occcasions you would have to manualy fix the problems.
On low-poly meshes this is not typically a problem, but more polys mean more work.


Reading the thread I couln't even see where you would need booleans. You should only be using then as a last resort anyways, especially high-poly render stuff.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 15, 2005, 04:06:04 pm
All of the little cutouts and depressions would have made use of booleans, IIRC.  And that Orion had a ton of those.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 15, 2005, 05:32:22 pm
Not always... some judicious dividing of polies and edges, turning edges, and negative-dimension extrusions could do it. It takes more time but you end up with cleaner geometry, and you have more control.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on September 15, 2005, 05:43:22 pm
Depends on how and where you use booleans..

I sometimes cut and add lines manually, but I very often use booleans (of course, I prepare the both objects before hte process)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: aldo_14 on September 15, 2005, 05:50:14 pm
Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
All of the little cutouts and depressions would have made use of booleans, IIRC.  And that Orion had a ton of those.


Nope.  Plenty of tools; extrude, shrink shape, for example.  Or create the object and manually create joining polys between it and the hull (after deleting the 'holding' poly).  Or slice, or use the editable poly tools to subdivide edges.

Loads of different ways.  I've not used a boolean in literally years; not using max atall, and only in TS to create debris from my blender-origin models.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 15, 2005, 09:13:20 pm
It's the circle-out-of-square cutouts that present the challenge, and that I was really refering to.  Ryx's Orion has a ton of those, and to the best of my knowledge there's only two good ways to go about doing them.  One is the method you described, which is manually creating the connecting faces.  The other is Booleans.  And given that those types of polys account for maybe 30% of all polys on a region where they are employed, and the render-quality level that Ryx was going for, the amount of work to do it correctly vastly exceeds the drawbacks of using Booleans.  As long as they work.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Black Wolf on September 15, 2005, 10:05:27 pm
Does anyone know why Slice (or boolean for that matter) in Max insists on creating all those seemingly random vertices all the way along your new edge?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: mikhael on September 15, 2005, 10:12:19 pm
Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
It's the circle-out-of-square cutouts that present the challenge, and that I was really refering to.  Ryx's Orion has a ton of those, and to the best of my knowledge there's only two good ways to go about doing them.  One is the method you described, which is manually creating the connecting faces.  The other is Booleans.  


I don't know. I used to use booleans to do that too, and just accepted the hellish geometry. Then I tried the manual faces thing. Now I just create the shape offset from the surface its going to be connected to and just loft a bridge. Perfect, clean geometry, all of three mouse clicks. Between that and the stencil/slice/tunnel/core, the drawbacks of booleans by far outweight the speed.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 16, 2005, 02:26:37 am
Quote
Originally posted by Black Wolf
Does anyone know why Slice (or boolean for that matter) in Max insists on creating all those seemingly random vertices all the way along your new edge?


Because Max can only boolean on triangulated surfaces.  Those random vertices correspond to the division lines on 4+ sided faces as Max defines them, which can be pretty arbitrary.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Boomer on September 16, 2005, 04:26:44 pm
Holy ****!

*bows down before the beauty of this ship*

Galemp, THIS is an Orion.

Particularly to me.  While I liked Bobboau's original, I always felt that is was the texturing that made the orion special not the model.  You have truly proven that point here.  

(although the cargo textures are a little out of place...)

but that's an easy fix.

But keep it up!:D
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: FireCrack on September 16, 2005, 04:59:32 pm
Beyond exquisite!

But it still needs proper turrets.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 16, 2005, 07:13:49 pm
Are these any better?

(http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/Orion_GE_1.jpg)
(http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/Orion_GE_2.jpg)
(http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/Orion_GE_3.jpg)
(http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/Orion_GE_4.jpg)

The difference being of course that the girders no longer contain black backgrounds and don't show up as much.  I'm still not quite 100% satisfied with the texture, but it's better enough for me to accept this Orion into the fleet.  I've also added in the blue runway lights that can be seen in FS1's cb_galatea.ani, though I doubt anyone would notice this change.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: BlackDove on September 16, 2005, 07:16:29 pm
I just had an orgasm.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 16, 2005, 07:53:49 pm
Now with added blue-girder goodness! (http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/bob-ge-strat-orion.zip)

I added a Bastion and Galatea model, so now the main campaign and the port can have the same model for the "special" Orions as for the generic ones.  I also made a proper white glow, rather than using the sun glow, and included all of the glows on the off chance someone doesn't have them.  And, most importantly, I matched the Max_POF_Radius with the original Orion one, so now it will actually jump in at the correct location and with the correct timing so it's truely drop-and-go.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Goober5000 on September 16, 2005, 08:39:59 pm
Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
I've also added in the blue runway lights that can be seen in FS1's cb_galatea.ani
Are they animated? :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 16, 2005, 08:47:16 pm
If by animated, you mean that they flow down the runway, then yes.  How else would I do it?  I already had the spacing worked out because of the way that I did them on the old conversion of Bob's Orion (which became very obsolete when GE remapped the runway) so all I had to do was slide the coordinates over.

Though I'm really just impressed that someone actually recognised what I was talking about.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: WMCoolmon on September 16, 2005, 08:50:44 pm
:shaking:

Blue runway lights...high-poly goodness.

Need more screenies!
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Goober5000 on September 16, 2005, 08:51:52 pm
Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
Though I'm really just impressed that someone actually recognised what I was talking about.
That was the first thing I wanted when animated textures were implemented.  I didn't know until know that someone had actually done it. :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 16, 2005, 09:09:06 pm
Oh, it's unfortunately not an animated texture.  The same issue applies to this orion that has to every instance before it; the runway map is used in a thousand places across the ship and animating it would make the whole thing look like a disco.  Never mind the fact that the map is tiled, so that wouldn't work anyway.  If GE wants to reconvert it with the capacity to do that (one planar map on the runway of the exact dimensions of the textured area and a unique texture), then I'm all for throwing together the animation.  But for now I've implimented it as the same sequence of glowpoints as you see in that animation, though without the ambient glow that they cast there.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: BlackDove on September 16, 2005, 09:34:47 pm
Hmm

An Orion Disco.

Welcome to... potential short campaigns.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Vasudan Admiral on September 16, 2005, 11:14:18 pm
Been done already...sorta :p (http://www.geocities.com/vasudanad/DiscoOnEnifStation.zip)
And may I add: well done to Bob and Galemp and more recently StratComm!
You've combined a brilliant high detail model with incredibly well used textures. I really love how complex it looks now - really gives an ISD sense of scale to the behemoth. :) :yes:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Trivial Psychic on September 17, 2005, 12:32:22 am
Hey VA, what's the news on your HTL release?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Vasudan Admiral on September 17, 2005, 03:48:40 am
I'm trying to do it in the snatches of free time I have, but it's not easy when you're *supposed* to be revising for your final school exams. :(
There isn't all that much left to do, so hopefully I will get it all done well before the exams start. If that begins to look unlikely, I'll split the pack and release the parts that are currently complete, and finish the rest (and more) afterwards. :)
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Fenrir on September 17, 2005, 04:21:04 am
Quote
Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
Been done already...sorta :p (http://www.geocities.com/vasudanad/DiscoOnEnifStation.zip)


I could watch that forever. :lol:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 19, 2005, 05:31:12 pm
Hm.

Anyone else having FRED errors when trying to use Strat's Orion?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 19, 2005, 06:11:44 pm
What kind o' Fred error?  It's been workin' fine for me.  I have been getting FRED errors, but those have been because of DaBrain's 3d shockwave tables.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on September 19, 2005, 09:22:43 pm
To be sure, it seems that whene'er I be placing one, or changing another model to th'Orion, that Fred crashes with nary a sound. 'Tis most odd, as th'previous model worked jes fine, and in game it's a fine lookin' dame.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 20, 2005, 12:42:29 am
That is indeed odd.  Anyone else seeing this?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Spicious on September 20, 2005, 01:48:34 am
It seems to be working fine in Fred for me, although it takes a while for it to show up the first time.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on September 20, 2005, 11:04:01 pm
Galemp and I figured it out.  Some people absolutely need -fredhtl for this to work.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 09, 2005, 08:16:25 pm
I realize nobody's posted here in a while, but can this also be used with FSPort?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ghost on October 09, 2005, 10:01:46 pm
Quote
Originally posted by CaptJosh
I realize nobody's posted here in a while, but can this also be used with FSPort?


Assuming you're running the port under FS Open, then of course you can.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on October 09, 2005, 10:23:27 pm
Sure. Actually the Port's doing pretty well; we have an Orion and a Fenris/Leviathan, an Aten and a Faustus, and a Hercules all hi-polied. There's VAs Lucifer nearing completion and a Cain/Lilith that's pretty far along (don't know whose it is though.) The Ursa's also in the works.

I hear TrashMan's got a Demon on the way and StratComm said he's try on the Typhon. After that there's still the Arcadia and Hades...
On second thought, maybe we aren't doing that well. :blah:
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 09, 2005, 10:36:21 pm
I most deffinitely am running FS Port under FS2O. I wouldn't dream of trying it with retail. Not modular enough. To easy to screw that up.

Anyway, one last question. Might sound like a dumb question, but better to ask a seemingly dumb question now and get an answer than to do this wrong. Do I need this in the models folder for the FS Port files as well as the FS2 models folder? Or will it work with it just in the FS2 one?
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on October 09, 2005, 11:26:07 pm
It'll work in the FS2 models folder. There's no new Orion model in the Port VPs. :)

speaking of which. I just spent ten hours playtesting Silent Threat: Reborn and my eyes are farking killing me. I think I'll go to bed now. >_<
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 10, 2005, 01:04:05 am
That's as bad as one of my old C&C: Red Alert sessions...
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 12, 2005, 07:14:27 pm
Ok, problem. Playing FS Port, when I saw the Galatae, in that asteroid field escort mission, it showed up incomplete. I could see space through sections of it, even though I couldn't fly through those sections. Eithere I got an incomplete set of files in the archive or I installed the model files incorrectly.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Galemp on October 12, 2005, 08:01:42 pm
Make sure you have the Galatea nameplate and the getile1 texture.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on October 12, 2005, 08:34:13 pm
The Galatea nameplate should be in the FS2 vps.  The getile1 texture is probably what's missing, but it's in the same archive as the Galatea model.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 12, 2005, 09:31:12 pm
I feel like an idiot. I forgot that dds files go in the effects dir. I hope I have all the rest of the files in the right place. There wasn't a readme with the archive.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on October 12, 2005, 09:33:57 pm
DDS files being used as maps belong in the maps folder.  Though they will not work elsewhere (and I'm honestly suprised that they work out of effects).
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 12, 2005, 09:39:47 pm
Dunno. I'm trying it out again with the files in the maps dir. Maybe it'll look different that way.
Title: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: CaptJosh on October 12, 2005, 09:47:51 pm
Ok, update. WOW! Does it EVER look different with the files in the right place. When in the effects folder, the dds files did make things show up, but they were dull and dead. It was enough to make the ship look whole, but it didn't look as good as it should.
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: redmenace on November 12, 2005, 05:14:34 pm
move me
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Ranger1 on February 12, 2006, 09:19:42 pm
Where is the download link?  I dont see it.
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: FireCrack on February 12, 2006, 09:48:20 pm
It's in the media vps'
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Janos on February 12, 2006, 11:52:31 pm
Rise from yer grrrraaaaaveeeeeeee
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on February 13, 2006, 06:06:54 am
I hear TrashMan's got a Demon on the way and StratComm said he's try on the Typhon. After that there's still the Arcadia and Hades...
On second thought, maybe we aren't doing that well. :blah:

Demon is coming along..slowly but surely.
I don't know how Stratty is doing with the typhon, but I have offered my typhoon model to anyone who wants to make a normal Typhon (just a few tweaks are needed). How knows - maby I'll takea shot at it myself after the demon is done..


EDIT - hte poll is incomplete..my Orion is missing :D
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: bfobar on February 13, 2006, 02:52:05 pm
Rise from yer grrrraaaaaveeeeeeee

I always thought that guy was saying "Rice from your grape."
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Taristin on February 13, 2006, 04:40:49 pm

EDIT - hte poll is incomplete..my Orion is missing :D

Look at the date of the post you quoted.
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: TrashMan on February 13, 2006, 05:29:59 pm
I completed my Orion soon after Galemp did hte re-mapping.. Can't recall the exact date, but it was close..

but you're right, I prolly did finish it after this poll was put up...
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: StratComm on February 13, 2006, 05:54:42 pm
I don't think so, but the point was never about your Orion.  Bobs was going in to the Media VPs regardless, it was just a question of the mapping.
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: WildWeazel on March 01, 2006, 10:20:20 am
Sorry to be such a noob, but where is the download link?  :confused:
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: karajorma on March 01, 2006, 11:09:00 am
Doesn't need one. The HTL Orion is in the Media VPs already. Just download them instead. 
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: Dan1 on March 01, 2006, 11:19:45 am
It'd have to be either one of two for me.  Either it's the Orion Majesty from Sol A History, or the Orion from the Revenge Final Conflict Campaign (gotta love white beams) and I'm sure it'd probably look even better with the SCP.
Title: Re: The Ultimate Orion
Post by: WildWeazel on March 01, 2006, 02:51:25 pm
Doesn't need one. The HTL Orion is in the Media VPs already. Just download them instead. 
Thanks! :)