[Droid803]

Uhhh...consider those teasers until I make an actual announcement, though there have been screenshots posted up here and there (not all by me even).

[Droid803]

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NO U.

finally i got off my ass and made a fighter. i don't count the ambrosium-R it is an abomination.


(this is actually already done UVed textured and in game I'm just teasing)

EDIT: **** HOW MIRRORING INTERACTS WITH NORMAL MAPS

[SypheDMar]

Oh hey! Cool fighter. Love the style.

[Droid803]

Bah, screw it, it the cockpit glass looks weird because of it but to hell if I care!
Alien cockpit glass is like that!
That shall be my reasoning to fix nothing.


AKF Eitr
(normal map disabled here, lol, just remove it if you don't like the glass warping)


(click for bigger)

Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?7ziy3uysczgll5f

Read of this what you will.
(No, this is not some DE2 thing okay)

EDIT: Added Download Link, asking to be bothered wasn't the best idea come to think of it (even though only one person asked).

[Legate Damar]

I have been wondering how to use mirror modifiers for a trilaterally symmetric ship in Blender

[Thaeris]

I would recommend the following procedure for ships of trilateral symmetry:

If each section of the ship exhibits bilateral symmetry, model half of this portion... it should exist on whatever cardinal axis of the ship that section resides in. Once the section is complete, mirror it on the axis.

Duplicate the section, and rotate it 120 degrees around the ship's line of action. Mirroring this section about the ship's "cardinal axis" will give you a ship with perfect trilateral symmetry. Max and Blender may be able to use modifiers which allow you to do the same thing without all the manual labor, but... that is effectively the procedure you must perform if you have no other means of achieving the result you're going for.

[Droid803]

I would recommend the following procedure for ships of trilateral symmetry:

If each section of the ship exhibits bilateral symmetry, model half of this portion... it should exist on whatever cardinal axis of the ship that section resides in. Once the section is complete, mirror it on the axis.

Duplicate the section, and rotate it 120 degrees around the ship's line of action. Mirroring this section about the ship's "cardinal axis" will give you a ship with perfect trilateral symmetry.

This is what I did for all the ships.
In essence, I only ever Model/UVmap 1/6th of it, mirror it, then duplicate and rotate it 120 degrees, and mirror it again.

[Thaeris]

Doing things manually, like a boss...

[The Dagger]

The modifier's way in blender:

1 - You model one sixth of the object with one of its borders aligned with an axis.
2 - You use a mirror modifier to get a third of the object.
3 - You use an array modifier using an empty rotated 120° and situated in your axis and using the modifiers "object offset" mode (http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Modifiers/Generate/Array).

You should have your object origin aligned with that empty too. Empty misplacing would give somewhat odd results. Once you apply the modifiers you should remove the double vertices, but that's simple.
I'm not sure of what would become of your UVs during such a process.

The only benefit I see from this method is that you get faster AO baking because it calculates the bake only for the original vertices instead of recalculating it 6 times for each face mapped to the same portion. I don't see any other benefit apart from that.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention it: Awesome ships man!

[Legate Damar]

How do you know how much is 1/6th of it?

[Thaeris]

Perhaps because 1/6 is half of 1/3?

[The Dagger]

How do you know how much is 1/6th of it?

1/6 of the turn makes it a 60 degrees portion.

[Droid803]

How do you know how much is 1/6th of it?

I make a hexagon and work along the top/bottom faces, to one side. This way the main bits are aligned vertically.

[Legate Damar]

I am very new at the program and still not sure how to do these things

[Droid803]

Not an excuse, seeing as I made one as my first model.
Just take your time and get familiar with the program and how it works. Explore.
Or just look up some basic tutorial videos and follow them, as nobody is going to teach you how to do everything in the program! We're here if you need specific help on how to do a specific thing.

[Legate Damar]

Okay, just asking as I am not working on modeling anything right now

[Droid803]

Sure. sure. (also, make your own thread when you actually do start and have questions instead of hijacking )


Anyhow, the next possible thing may be some sort of logistics craft (freighter/gas miner/etc)... still in the planning stages.

[Quanto]

Sure. sure. (also, make your own thread when you actually do start and have questions instead of hijacking )


Anyhow, the next possible thing may be some sort of logistics craft (freighter/gas miner/etc)... still in the planning stages.

Logistics vessels are hard to make because, while they have an important purpose, they don't exude that "killer" feel that making capships or fighters does. At least for me at any rate.

[Black Wolf]

Logistics vessels are hard to make because, while they have an important purpose, they don't exude that "killer" feel that making capships or fighters does. At least for me at any rate.

Surely that's the point? Seriously though, hard though they may be (although I'd personally disagree that they are, since function can inspire form a lot more than in a warship) they're a lot more useful from a FREDding perspective, hence the majority of my output these days.

[Droid803]

Welp, the same old cookie-cutter front with the silly giant panels actually make sense now, they protect the cargo pods from frontal hits. Which is good, lets me take care of one part without needing to think too much about the design.
The sides however...

I'm drawing a blank as to how to offer *some* protection to the canisters, yet allow for easy loading. I got the spokes in the middle area to hold out some panels or maybe a turret battery or something.



Probably gonna make 2/3 different types of cargo for it to lug around. Currently just has some gas/liquid canisters.