Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Swamp_Thing on February 13, 2005, 07:38:06 am
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I´ve been playing around with this stuff, gathering experience for a more serious thing i´ve got in mind. I´m going to model the inside of the Galatea, with bridge, landing bay, mainhall (the one in the starter screen of FS2), crew quarters, etc etc. And then, if possible, stuff it all inside a real Orion.
;7
Assuming no one has done it already, that is. I ´ve never heard of anyone doing it, so i´ll give it a go. However, i need every piece of pothograph and concept art ever made of the Galatea, or any other Orion, so that i keep it as real looking as possible. I will need textures to match aswell. All in all it should keep me busy for the better part of the year.
:D
For now, here´s some stuff i have for the Galileo. Still very raw, no lighting, and no glow maps and stuff. But you get the picture.
(http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/Swamp_Thing/Hallway1.jpg)
(http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/Swamp_Thing/Hallway2.jpg)
(http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/Swamp_Thing/Hallway33.jpg)
(http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/Swamp_Thing/Hallway4.jpg)
PS: The ships you see through the bridge windows, are from a Nexus desktop theme. Best i could find for the moment, i didn´t have any FS related ones.
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:eek2:
:yes2: looks awesome :yes:
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Interesting idea, but, if I may ask, what are you doing that for? It's a big task, it surely has a purpose?
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Looks pretty good. A bit too undetailed and blocky for my taste and some of those textures look awfully familiar. Got them from a certain game, perhaps? ;)
Good job, nonetheless :yes:
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:jaw:
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you play too much Jedi Academy
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Originally posted by Nico
Interesting idea, but, if I may ask, what are you doing that for? It's a big task, it surely has a purpose?
He's probably doing it to stop the boredom...
Unless he's going to put it into another game.
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Who cares why he made them? They look DAMN good. :)
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Cause they want to know if he's planning cutscenes or CB Anims with them :D
I do too.
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You could make some sort of ingame cutscene with it if fredded cleverly.;7
Of course there won't happen much in there, but it could feature the player walking around on the ship in 1st person perspective. *dreams of a briefing in a fully 3d briefing room*
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Insert my zero-g blues:
Add rails, more rails. Safety nets and break-proof glasses.
Danger strips near doors.
Add some serious looking pressure-holding doors + airlocks.
If I were to desing a spaceship I would put a bulkhead-class door with a locker before any critical space - bridge, engineering, main observation deck, CIC center, labs on a science ship,
Paternoster / Moving handle belts for quick low-g/zero-g movement. (A conveyor belt with handles you can grab).
An over/under rail to support small trolley cars - would be a godsend for moving stuff. Only for apropiate corridors.
If the corridors you depict are for moving personal only make them smaller. Too much space on a corridor is troublesome on a spaceship - in low/zero-g or just under high-g manuevers its hard to grab on.
If the corridors are purposfully big to move equipment put in the aforementioned utility features that would make it easier.
Don't forget: safety first. Not so much of the passengers, but the ships and the equipment - if either can be damaged through careless act it was poorely designed.
Don't hesitate to put pipes and loads of wires into areas that are meant to be utilitarian and act as service levels.
Beside railing, put handles everywhere! On the "roof" and especially on the "floor"! No more stupid Trekkie falling out of your seat. The first thing you do is either sit down and buckle in (I hope you put harnesses on those seats) or at least put your feet into these handles.
About the seats: for general low-cost and especially big ships with massive inertia the ones you made are good.
However on stations where great accelerations can arise the seat should be put on spindles and hydraulic suspension - current automobile design also uses this principle. Let the forces take their toll on as long a distance as possible.
Buckling down the person without other measures as hard as possible is the sure way to insure the greatest harm to him.
Did I mention you're wasting space? Those stations look impressive, but in the middle of manuevering or just looking at critical readouts, do you want to stand up and jump to different portions of that massive panel?
I would rather have easly acessable keypads at my hands, above my head, on my sides.
You don't have to put everyone on the same level - arrange work stations in a cascading manner to save space.
Overall your progress is good, but its too generic corridor of any given space flick without a sensible layout so far for my taste.
It's good, but IMHO a lot of thought can still go into the actual design.
The FS mainhalls were pretty utilitarian and wasted little space - although they were big and spacious you had a sense that this was the heart of the ship where everything went through therefore the space seemed called for.
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Flaser, while adding all that stuff is fine and good it's going to take a huge amount of polys. And that's bad if you want to animate it. Remember the TVWP ship corridor? It ended up with almost 400k polygons with only half the stuff you want to add in :lol:
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Originally posted by Lt.Cannonfodder
Flaser, while adding all that stuff is fine and good it's going to take a huge amount of polys. And that's bad if you want to animate it.
But good if it's for a proper cutscene animation.
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^Even just making every room and coridor cuboids would take a toll on your system. Orion destroyers are MASSIVE!
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Originally posted by aldo_14
But good if it's for a proper cutscene animation.
You want to spend 40+ minutes rendering one single frame, not to mention a whole anim? And then to notice a tiny mistake and start over? Been there, done that, won't do it again. For a while. :D
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Originally posted by Turambar
you play too much Jedi Academy
Is that Jedi Academy? Looked like Outcast to me, but Outcast looked better IMO.
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Originally posted by Lt.Cannonfodder
You want to spend 40+ minutes rendering one single frame, not to mention a whole anim? And then to notice a tiny mistake and start over? Been there, done that, won't do it again. For a while. :D
Such is the cost of quality.
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Needs more railings... look at the number of them in the main halls. And the signs hanging from the ceiling would make it more familiar, as would the trapezoidal doors we've come to know and love. And please, ditch the lights on the stair risers. That's virtually a Star Wars trademark.
Otherwise, very nice. I'm looking forward to this.
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its Academy textures, the walls and one of the doors is from Academy, not Outcast
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:D Great job with this, very nice work! Shame the FS2 engine wont allow us to walk around ships, only fly them.
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Considering Orions have artificial gravity, say no to extra detail.
Also, I thought I'd point out that the interior shots we have currently are rather dimly lit.
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Originally posted by Galemp
And please, ditch the lights on the stair risers. That's virtually a Star Wars trademark.
Actually, those stairs make a lot of sense. Think about it - if main power fails you are in allmost total darkenss. Lit stairs with their own power source would contribute the safety...
But htan again, if main power failed, so would artificail gravity..:doubt:
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Wow, neato.
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Originally posted by TrashMan
Actually, those stairs make a lot of sense. Think about it - if main power fails you are in allmost total darkenss. Lit stairs with their own power source would contribute the safety...
But htan again, if main power failed, so would artificail gravity..:doubt:
Well, you'd imagine a backup generator would exist for emergency cases, such as evacuation; in which case you might also have guidance lights to the exits as in jet airliners.
But those would be along the sides, not down the front.
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Originally posted by ngtm1r
Also, I thought I'd point out that the interior shots we have currently are rather dimly lit.
Maybe that's why science ships have solar panels ;)
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Regarding the "poorly lit" thing:
Read the opening post. It has none. The screens were taken using texture lighting. The only light you see is the one that emmanates from them.
@Flaser
Are you insane? :D
I´m planning to spend the better part of the year doind it, not the better part of my life. Besides, it´s not like TS can even handle such a monster poly count. Some things i will put in. Some others will be left for textures.
Wich reminds me, the texture were taken from SW Jedi Academy.
I will not use them in the final product, they are just placeholders. I don´t want some greesy lawyer knocking on my door.
Now for the fun stuff:
A few weeks ago there was a thread regarding the Galatea, where lots of inside shots were posted. I got most of them, but there is one i couldn´t find, wich is te one showing the landing bay, with a few ships being serviced by the service crew. Anybody has it? The search came up empty.
I have the pics of the bar, and some hallway, that i will try to copy to the infimous detail.
What´s it for, may you ask? Well, basically it´s for fun. And because it hasn´t been done yet. There are very few things left to do in FS that haven´t been done to exaustion.
However, once it is finished, can you imagine the cutscene potential? It´s humongous!!
We can have Bosch in his cabin, writing his journal.
Or we can have Command having a party at the bridge, while Alpha 1 gets owned outside.
Or we can have the pilot´s briefing room, with Alpha 1 picking his nose.
The possibilities are endless. :p
Obviously, i will want to have moving doors, lit up computer panels, lots of klaxon lights, and stuff. I will want it to be as much an animated environment as possible.
I will need some help making the textures later, but we´ll cross that bridge when we get there.
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Originally posted by Swamp_Thing
Now for the fun stuff:
A few weeks ago there was a thread regarding the Galatea, where lots of inside shots were posted. I got most of them, but there is one i couldn´t find, wich is te one showing the landing bay, with a few ships being serviced by the service crew. Anybody has it? The search came up empty.
I have the pics of the bar, and some hallway, that i will try to copy to the infimous detail.
http://www.descent-freespace.com/goodies/gallery/
NB: offhand, it's not clear if the bar is on the Galatea, and the Hallway looks almost identifcal to that of the Arcadia / Riviera installation (which makes me think the pilot-running animation might have been inteded as part of a 'scramble' sequece)
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Make a mainhall in that general style, and I will kneel before your graven image and pray. And I might even FRED something for any campaigns you might be making. It doesn't even have to be animated. One frame would suffice. We need more mainhalls.
Just a couple of suggestions for your pictures:
-Make the rails hazard-striped like in the FS2 mainhalls. It looks cool.
-Add more railings so no poor crewman falls off, especially if there are any Bottomless Shafts of Doom (tm) on the ship.
-Lights on stair risers are not only silly, but too reminiscent of Star Wars.
-Lower ceilings in corridors and minor rooms. The decks on a modern warship can be as little as seven feet apart.
-Find an FS screenshot or render and put that over the bridge windows. Check the art forum.
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Originally posted by Woolie Wool
-Find an FS screenshot or render and put that over the bridge windows. Check the art forum.
nonononono.... you want to have that animated, be it actually rendering the models outside or pasting on an AVI texture.
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Originally posted by aldo_14
nonononono.... you want to have that animated, be it actually rendering the models outside or pasting on an AVI texture.
Definitelly models outside. What better way to render stuff than place it ingame in the middle of a big arse battle?
:D
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I'm not crazy - I don't want you to put a dozen several-k models into the render.
I just wrote that so far the corridors seem huge, the workstations too spacious and inefficient.
You got to jump around to reach all of that huge panel.
In case of an emergency these huge corridors without any railing, or backup measuer are hard as hell to navigate.
No I'm not exclusivly speaking about the failure of AG either - ever thought what it would be like to be inside a ship that's bombarded with nukes?
It would also be a pain to haul anythign through, unless you use a lifter. However then the corridor is actually too small and the place isn't properly setup for day to day use of lifters.
You'd put danger strips and or paint the route of the lifters on the floor, maybe add a rail (I don't think a rail is that much waste of polies, it could be a texture as well) for the lifters to move on.
I don't want a lot of modeled things.
I'm just asking for a bit varied geometry - some rails here and there, a safety-net on the corner where the some thing may fall on your head...that sort of thing...
...or a work station where you can reach all the controlls from your seat.
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What would you need lifters for? I'll admit that I've never been in an aircraft carrier, but surely lifting material and safety nets are restricted to workrooms and the maintenance areas rather than the controls decks or whatnot?
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Pillar of Autumn!
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Originally posted by aldo_14
What would you need lifters for? I'll admit that I've never been in an aircraft carrier, but surely lifting material and safety nets are restricted to workrooms and the maintenance areas rather than the controls decks or whatnot?
Somtimes I feel like I should stick to a very didactic versing of my sentences.
Statement-1: Those corridors are way too big unless you wanna haul things around.
Statement-2: You can't haul things around them unless you use a lifter. Using a lifter right now would be dangerous.