[Commander Zane]

While I like its appearance now, the way Talon's edit makes the subobjects have the same lighting effect as the ship's hull gives it a smooth, seamless look. As it is in BP, the missile pods and engine covers are a huge eyesore with their separate lighting effects, making them stick out too much when they're not being used.

[The E]

Uhhh, what? Sorry, but can you post a screenie of that? Because I'm quite sure all lighting is uniform on esarai's ship.

[Commander Zane]

With the panels covering the engines it's more subtle, it takes certain angles to really notice it, but the missile pods, always mess with the way light reflecting off the hull looks.

[The E]

The Uriel, Dariusified:

[Rodo]

ahh good, good

[Dragon]

I do miss some of the gritty, metallic look my normals gave the original, but this is also quite good.
I won't be able to recreate the effect without introdcing some nasty problems with the normal, so we'll have to stick with this anyway.
BTW, that Kent looks almost like from a TV show, what are your lighting settings, Commander Zane?

[-Sara-]

Works for me!

[FreeSpaceFreak]

*snip*
With the panels covering the engines it's more subtle, it takes certain angles to really notice it, but the missile pods, always mess with the way light reflecting off the hull looks.

Looks like simple smoothing errors; the Kentauroi (in released WiH) has no smoothing at all. Switch off the textures in the Ship Lab or PCS2 and you'll see what that means.

[Commander Zane]

I do miss some of the gritty, metallic look my normals gave the original, but this is also quite good.
I won't be able to recreate the effect without introdcing some nasty problems with the normal, so we'll have to stick with this anyway.
BTW, that Kent looks almost like from a TV show, what are your lighting settings, Commander Zane?

-ambient_factor 35 -ogl_spec 20 -spec_exp 15 -spec_point 1.2 -spec_static 1.5 -spec_tube 1.5

[Buckshee Rounds]

Got similar lighting settings, except ogl_spec 80 and spec_static 12.8...I love a glaring sun!

For what it's worth I think the Dariusified Uriel looks best, it would be even better with some metallic noise but with 43 fps I wouldn't want to mess with it.

[Commander Zane]

Got similar lighting settings, except ogl_spec 80 and spec_static 12.8...I love a glaring sun!

For what it's worth I think the Dariusified Uriel looks best, it would be even better with some metallic noise but with 43 fps I wouldn't want to mess with it.

This I agree with wholeheartedly. One Uriel alone isn't a hit of any kind for me but they eventually contribute on Delenda Est when they're seen in numbers.

[The E]

Note that those FPS numbers aren't actually indicative of anything

Those shots were made on my system, running at a medium load already. I can say that, with the new Uriel in place, I got a bit of a performance increase in DE. Not much, because there's still the Karunas and Sanctii in the mission, which drag the whole thing down, but at least a bit.

[Commander Zane]

I get 20 frames at the lowest on that mission.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The Uriel, Dariusified:

[size=9]MANY BLESSINGS[/size]

[The E]

Next up, the Izra'il:

[Venicius]

Cool! A beefed up Uhlan!

[General Battuta]

Heh, no, more like the Uriel's really psychopathic older brother.

[Venicius]

either way   

[pecenipicek]

glad to see that Cinema4D helped out there

[Kolgena]

Looks good.

(The normals only model looks so very much like a plastic polystyrene model)