Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 05:27:43 am

Title: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 05:27:43 am
Did the Basestar in the trailer annoy you? I know it bugged the living piss out of me. So I re-modelled the mesh and retextured the beast.  At 3500 polygons, this will be LOD1 (SECOND level of Detail). Expect a more detailed 15k poly version SOON.

(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/Basestar3.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/Basestar.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/Basestar2.jpg)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Singh on November 22, 2005, 05:36:13 am
'tis a good thing that I just brought myself a stick of 512 MB Ram, coz that there ship is sure as hell going to need it!
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Flipside on November 22, 2005, 05:38:24 am
Lovely looking model! The texturing on that is awesome :D

To be honest, the Cylon basestar contains so many flat surfaces that I doubt you'll push all 15K polies for it, especially if/when bumpmapping is introduced.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 05:40:21 am
LOL

Believe it or not... the Viper model has more polygons than this mesh. Need I mention the Galactica's 35,000 polygons? I'm aiming for 15,000 as the LOD-0 version of the model.

Once i model the detailing currently faked by the textures..and the hangar bay, and Boomer orgy room... I think 15k will be easily reached.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Flipside on November 22, 2005, 05:52:37 am
Heh, true, the models you do are absolutely mindblowing though, so no complaints about 15K polies here ;)

:lol: @ Boomer Orgy Room ;)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Lt.Cannonfodder on November 22, 2005, 05:59:40 am
You can always count on Omni to skyrocket the polycount. Not that I mind though, I love detailed models even if it costs me a few frames per second :D
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 06:04:23 am
With Bob's subobject LOD code, I want to make models as insane as my Deathstar trench model.

Hey Bob, any updates on that code? Specificaly the nonfunctional radious settings. I'm still stuck using invisible boxes to assign visibility radious.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Lt.Cannonfodder on November 22, 2005, 06:14:41 am
From what I remember, the details with subobject code appear out of thin air (space). Any way to make the transition smooth?
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Mefustae on November 22, 2005, 06:22:56 am
[StupidQuestion]Is it going to have the coolies 'slotted' Cylon-Raider launch mechanism as seen in the series?[/StupidQuestion]
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 06:43:42 am
You betcha. I dont think I will make every slot a dock point. I think having 40+ dock points will be a living hell for me and the Fredders. I dont think Goober ever intended for that many, in his multiple docking code.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Turambar on November 22, 2005, 06:54:28 am
however, you gotta admit

if you managed to pull off all the raiders coming out of all the slots at once, it would be BAD AS HELL
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 07:00:40 am
With current AI stupidity...they will probably all die from the attempt to undock. Either from collissions from each other or the base star. lol If that happens I'll capture it and show a BSG blooper reel. LOL
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Setekh on November 22, 2005, 07:06:56 am
It looks like it's right from the show. Awesome. :)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on November 22, 2005, 07:14:19 am
damn omni, you are a machine. a cylon even. :D
it takes me 2 months do do a vette 3 weeks a fighter. and thats just the basic ship and texture, no spec maps lods and the like. you seem to be godlike in your production speed and do it without sacrificing detail. maybe i should get a bigger mod team. :D
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Martinus on November 22, 2005, 07:25:33 am
Omni recieves a "+1 asskicking of the extreme" helm.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: c914 on November 22, 2005, 01:13:00 pm
Very good looking mdel :)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 01:15:27 pm
BTW... these are IN GAME screenshots. I was asked by some if these were renders.... I guess SCP's engine does wonders for the noob eye.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 22, 2005, 03:23:25 pm
Goobs... eat your heart out.....

(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSDock.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSDock2.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSDock3.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSDock4.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSDock5.jpg)


At the moment I only have 1 Dock array finished. I filled every other row with raiders, totalling 47. 5 more arrays to go which will total at a whopping  282 docking points. I'd rather not fill all the rows, otherwise it will be DOUBLE what that number.

It was a tedious process to uniquely name each dockpoint individually as to not make Fredd go stupid with random LETTER assignments to unnamed points. If You Fredd programmers can tell it to autoname using numbers... my life would be MUCH easier.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Col. Fishguts on November 22, 2005, 04:45:29 pm
Bad.Ass.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Setekh on November 22, 2005, 05:08:56 pm
:jaw:
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Lt.Cannonfodder on November 22, 2005, 10:01:28 pm
Holy ****!

Omni damn you! You make everyone else here look amateurish and bad!

;)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Turnsky on November 23, 2005, 02:51:17 am
:jaw:

seconded
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Sandwich on November 23, 2005, 03:10:48 am
<img src="http://www.hard-light.net/forums/Smileys/HLP/jaw.gif" valign="bottom" />2
:jaw:

Squared.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Jetmech Jr. on November 23, 2005, 07:21:04 am
Good GOD, man! You can't be stopped!

:jaw:
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Flipside on November 23, 2005, 10:28:00 am
I am ashamed...

It's not that Omni is privy to special knowledge, though being a great modeller helps, it's the fact he gets off his arse and actually does stuff. I really need to get back into that habit ;)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: c914 on November 23, 2005, 12:26:20 pm
/want to see all those tiny fighters lunch at one time :D
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Prophet on November 23, 2005, 01:21:46 pm
U want to pay for all that food?

:lol:
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: BlackDove on November 23, 2005, 04:56:29 pm
Star's awesome. I hope it can run in the end.

I am ashamed...

It's not that Omni is privy to special knowledge, though being a great modeller helps, it's the fact he gets off his arse and actually does stuff. I really need to get back into that habit ;)

Less talk more walk.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Goober5000 on November 23, 2005, 07:56:37 pm
:jaw:

[Hall Fight Soldier] Whoa. [/Hall Fight Soldier]

Now I'm glad I finished the FRED interface when I did. :)

Unfortunately, those letters aren't random.  They're named in the order that they're parsed from the POF file.  Which means "A, B, C" would correspond to what "1, 2, 3" would be.

Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 23, 2005, 08:22:55 pm
Is there possibilitie of reassigning the parsing to use numbers instead? Its a real tedious process to individually name the docks. The alphabet contains less than 288 characters :). Fred does not save the docked ships assigned to docks with  lower case letters. I can dock them in Fred, but the save
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Ace on November 23, 2005, 09:37:20 pm
I can't wait to see the ultra-high detail version :)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Goober5000 on November 23, 2005, 10:30:41 pm
Is there possibilitie of reassigning the parsing to use numbers instead? Its a real tedious process to individually name the docks. The alphabet contains less than 288 characters :). Fred does not save the docked ships assigned to docks with lower case letters. I can dock them in Fred, but the save

...and it looks like the board ate your post.  Anyway: I could do that, but you're not supposed to rely on the temporary names even with the alphabet system.  There's no guarantee that the docking points will load in the same order if you edit the POF later, and since the names are generated only at load, it would massively screw things up.  Plus I'm not sure how FS would like it.

What you might be able to do is beg either Bobboau or Kazan to add a dock name generator to their respective POF generators. :)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: stithe2000 on November 25, 2005, 06:37:18 pm
Looking good!
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on November 25, 2005, 08:50:51 pm
Is there possibilitie of reassigning the parsing to use numbers instead? Its a real tedious process to individually name the docks. The alphabet contains less than 288 characters :). Fred does not save the docked ships assigned to docks with lower case letters. I can dock them in Fred, but the save

...and it looks like the board ate your post. Anyway: I could do that, but you're not supposed to rely on the temporary names even with the alphabet system. There's no guarantee that the docking points will load in the same order if you edit the POF later, and since the names are generated only at load, it would massively screw things up. Plus I'm not sure how FS would like it.

What you might be able to do is beg either Bobboau or Kazan to add a dock name generator to their respective POF generators. :)

any upgrade to the current pof tools will be greatly apreciated. there hasnt been a patch for pcs in ages. pcs2 isnt moving forward at all. if you just fixed the glowpoint import bug in pcs2, and made autogen code for all the chunks that dont already have it it would be great. pcs2, the way its described, would offer better data manipulation and a more streamlined interface. none the less we want some upgrades to the tools we currently have.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on November 25, 2005, 09:37:46 pm
I'm more of a 3dsmax pluggin user moreso than PCS and I made the request to Styxx's pluggin thread. Such a auto-naming feature would also be great for PCS2 if only it could  include support for importing max or 3ds models . I really dont want to get back into Truespace again. :)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on November 26, 2005, 04:48:10 am
i cant pull myself away from truespace. max is like an overwealming alien predator and im afraid of its learning curve. i try for awhile to do something and spend more time figuring out how that i could have jhust made it in truespace faster.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Ace on November 26, 2005, 07:43:00 pm
I'm more of a 3dsmax pluggin user moreso than PCS and I made the request to Styxx's pluggin thread. Such a auto-naming feature would also be great for PCS2 if only it could  include support for importing max or 3ds models . I really dont want to get back into Truespace again. :)

Uggh Truespace. The first convertors were coded to use Truespace because it was the one 3d program with a freeware version at the time. Of course PCS then later on didn't support the version of Truespace that was freeware, the very reason that .cobs were chosen... Needless to say, it's time to see convertors focus on apps like 3ds.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on December 08, 2005, 04:09:43 pm
converters should be compatable with as many formats as possible. having to port models through a bunch of formats always tends to cause problems. plus there are those who have gotten comfortalble with truespace modeling, it would be sorta wrong to abandon them by not continuing to enhance the mod tools. if only they could fix the glowpoint import bug and add some more autogen features, id be happy with the current pcs. i dont think its a good idea to support max only.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on December 09, 2005, 01:07:27 am
In case you folks haven't been visiting our forum updates... here is a finalized LOD-0 of the Basestar.

(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSFinal.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSFinal3.jpg)
(http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/staff_images/Basestar/BSHidef2.jpg)
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on December 09, 2005, 01:31:31 am
damn omni, your really making a sweet ship there.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: karajorma on December 09, 2005, 07:23:21 am
vertors were coded to use Truespace because it was the one 3d program with a freeware version at the time. Of course PCS then later on didn't support the version of Truespace that was freeware, the very reason that .cobs were chosen... Needless to say, it's time to see convertors focus on apps like 3ds.

Contrary to what you state PCS does work fine with TS 3.2 (the last free version). I've never heard of PCS not supporting any version of TS. It's certainly not been a problem for the last 4 years.

Kazan has repeatedly stated that he would code a converter is someone would find the information on the .3ds or .max formats. No one did so PCS 1 only deals with cobs. AFAIK he's still waiting for someone to give him information on any format other than .cob. Dropping support for TS basically means dropping actually having a converter in PCS and that's just ****ing retarded.  The only option would be to get hold of a copy of MAX and use Styxx's plug-in. Why on Earth should anyone limit themselves that way?

Even if we can support other apps in PCS II, I see no good reason why we should concentrate on other applications just because you don't like TS. There are plenty of people who like TS and who get good results with it. It's a widely used tool within the community. Why should TS users be forced to export to a foreign format just for your insane desire for karmic payback :p
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on December 09, 2005, 01:49:52 pm
truspace 3ds export doenst even work half the time. it seems to be libited to a single object. for fighters this is tolerable, but for capshps with a huge number of turret parts it would be hellishly laborous. if it does work then ocasionally the model is corrupted during convesion.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: deep_eyes on December 09, 2005, 03:47:05 pm
OMFG!
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Taristin on December 09, 2005, 04:01:15 pm
vertors were coded to use Truespace because it was the one 3d program with a freeware version at the time. Of course PCS then later on didn't support the version of Truespace that was freeware, the very reason that .cobs were chosen... Needless to say, it's time to see convertors focus on apps like 3ds.
Even if we can support other apps in PCS II, I see no good reason why we should concentrate on other applications just because you don't like TS. There are plenty of people who like TS and who get good results with it. It's a widely used tool within the community. Why should TS users be forced to export to a foreign format just for your insane desire for karmic payback :p

So...w e should continue to concentrate on TS so that max and LW users have to export to a foreign format for your insane desire to maintain the status quo? Nice. :doubt:
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: StratComm on December 09, 2005, 04:21:11 pm
While maintaining the current COB support is probably a good idea (since there's working source for it) I don't see anyone capable of coding putting much effort in to improving that.  PCS works.  Right now, PCS is all that reliably works for everything (Styxx's exporter is close, but it still does something really screwed up with the insignia chunk) and there are very few cases where PCS doesn't work, so there's no reason to make new tools that do the same thing for the same format.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: karajorma on December 09, 2005, 04:38:26 pm
So...w e should continue to concentrate on TS so that max and LW users have to export to a foreign format for your insane desire to maintain the status quo? Nice. :doubt:

Of course not. We should give all the formats a fair amount of time. Not concentrate on 3DS and Lightwave to the exclusion of everything else :rolleyes:

My whole point is that the reason why PCS 1 doesn't support those two programs is nothing to do with some stupid choice of Kazan's and all to do with the fact that no information existed for him to be able to support them.

Has anyone actually found him the info?
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on December 09, 2005, 05:52:21 pm
i dont think either converter is capable of making a working insignia. also pcs has a couple annoying bugs. all converters need continuing development so as to make available support for new features. it would be nice to have an embedded model converter in fred, it already has an htl rendering system. any improvements that can save modders time when converting their models would make mod development shorter, which is good for the community.  pcs 2 would be great if it ever gets done.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Taristin on December 09, 2005, 06:18:37 pm
it would be nice to have an embedded model converter in fred,

Ack! No! No no no no no! I do not want my modelling and converting having to be carried out in fred!
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Nuke on December 09, 2005, 06:38:05 pm
knew id scare ya all with that one :D
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: WMCoolmon on December 09, 2005, 06:57:22 pm
The best way to get formats supported are to have descriptions of the format that are accurate enough that you can code a converter for them. Of course that assumes there's a program in active development.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Flipside on December 13, 2005, 05:14:52 pm
I seem to recall I posted the details of the LWO format once, since Kazan made a comment about how it used Amiga byte-orderering (LSB->MSB iirc). But that was more towards PCS 2, not the current version.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: knn on December 13, 2005, 05:21:26 pm
So...w e should continue to concentrate on TS so that max and LW users have to export to a foreign format for your insane desire to maintain the status quo? Nice. :doubt:

Of course not. We should give all the formats a fair amount of time. Not concentrate on 3DS and Lightwave to the exclusion of everything else :rolleyes:

My whole point is that the reason why PCS 1 doesn't support those two programs is nothing to do with some stupid choice of Kazan's and all to do with the fact that no information existed for him to be able to support them.

Has anyone actually found him the info?

I have a .3ds description if you need one.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Ryx on December 14, 2005, 09:38:01 am
Looks great! Looking forward to this one.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Ashrak on December 15, 2005, 04:04:45 pm
prudddddy
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: StratComm on December 15, 2005, 06:31:46 pm
i dont think either converter is capable of making a working insignia. also pcs has a couple annoying bugs. all converters need continuing development so as to make available support for new features. it would be nice to have an embedded model converter in fred, it already has an htl rendering system. any improvements that can save modders time when converting their models would make mod development shorter, which is good for the community.  pcs 2 would be great if it ever gets done.

Bullocks.  PCS works just fine for adding an insignia.  You just have to know how to do it.  It's the only thing that will let you add one correctly though, so for those of us using the Max exporter for EVERYTHING else, it's sort of a moot point.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Taristin on December 15, 2005, 08:33:53 pm
So...w e should continue to concentrate on TS so that max and LW users have to export to a foreign format for your insane desire to maintain the status quo? Nice. :doubt:



Of course not. We should give all the formats a fair amount of time. Not concentrate on 3DS and Lightwave to the exclusion of everything else :rolleyes:

My whole point is that the reason why PCS 1 doesn't support those two programs is nothing to do with some stupid choice of Kazan's and all to do with the fact that no information existed for him to be able to support them.

Has anyone actually found him the info?

I have a .3ds description if you need one.

I have the max 8 SDK too......
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Sandwich on January 10, 2006, 07:51:27 pm
I hate to mention it, but it seems fairly clear from the latest episode, Ressurection Ship, that according to the scale models of the Cylon Basestars (which aren't merely something similar pressed into model service, they are actual models of Basestars), the spokes are NOT divided up equally among 360 degrees. Look:

EDIT: Oh, hey, guess what... it looks like you know that already. I'm an idiot. :p

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Ace on January 11, 2006, 01:29:07 pm
vertors were coded to use Truespace because it was the one 3d program with a freeware version at the time. Of course PCS then later on didn't support the version of Truespace that was freeware, the very reason that .cobs were chosen... Needless to say, it's time to see convertors focus on apps like 3ds.

Contrary to what you state PCS does work fine with TS 3.2 (the last free version). I've never heard of PCS not supporting any version of TS. It's certainly not been a problem for the last 4 years.

For a long period only TS1.0 was free, and PCS was not supporting 1.0.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: StratComm on January 12, 2006, 11:12:10 am
I'm pretty sure PCS would work with 1.0 models but the naming limitations in that version would have prevented autogen from doing anything.  It was really turrets that were the problem, IIRC; everything else (as long as you didn't try to use the 0X numbering notation) was fine.  To the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any major changes to the COB format that would have prevented it from working.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Pythia on January 16, 2006, 02:15:10 pm
having trouble playing the mod....the FS launcher won't lt me load hte mod into it-- it complains that it can't work withteh Mod folder (names 'data') because there's a space in the folder name. There's no space in the folder name. Any help or pointing me to the correct forum would be appreciated.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on January 16, 2006, 09:29:40 pm
Olive branches and peace offerings aside.....

I still think ILL of Mr. Bschott.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Sandwich on January 17, 2006, 12:11:48 am
Who?
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Omniscaper on January 17, 2006, 12:22:12 am
The bugger from the Sci-fi forums who leaked and seeded our BSG Alpha material to the public.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Taristin on January 17, 2006, 12:45:56 am
having trouble playing the mod....the FS launcher won't lt me load hte mod into it-- it complains that it can't work withteh Mod folder (names 'data') because there's a space in the folder name. There's no space in the folder name. Any help or pointing me to the correct forum would be appreciated.
Olive branches and peace offerings aside.....

I still think ILL of Mr. Bschott.

That's the nice way of saying:

"Because of that twat there are people coming looking for help installing and running the leaked alpha", which is what it sounds like Pythia here wants to do... And.. well, I for one will not help to get the leaked alha working for anyone. Sadly, it's difficult to tell who is using the leaked material and who isn't when they come looking for help tring to get it to run :/
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: karajorma on January 17, 2006, 05:24:31 pm
Yeah but that's not really Pythia's fault and I don't want to make it look like we're a snobbish bunch who have a go at innocent newbies who may not know the history behind the mod they've just downloaded.
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: Unknown Target on January 18, 2006, 10:09:21 am
So tell him before you yell at him :p
Title: Re: Cylon Basestar v2.0
Post by: karajorma on January 19, 2006, 07:28:44 am
I've told him in that post. You may commence yelling now :p