Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: supernova on May 13, 2006, 09:25:56 pm
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Okay, so i haven't posted any new work in a while, so i thought i'd get started on finishing that fleet i started...i'm too burnt out of working on cap ships for DaBrain, so back to work on my "own" universe...
Here's a light interceptor...just fast, lightly armored, and fast.
Comments, suggestions, flames and opinions?
Oh, and i just started it, so it'll be a couple days or so before you get the finished project...
WIP:
(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5967/i1qc.jpg)
(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3052/i26ql.jpg)
(http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9515/i36ze.jpg)
(http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3268/i49bs.jpg)
Oh and yes i'm aware that vertical and horizontal stabilizers have absolutely no function is space...they just look cool.
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I associate this to Viper Mk.VII, though abnormally elongated and extra radiators added below the fuselage. At least they look like radiators, other possibility would be secondary weapon banks but they certainly do look more like either radiators. Or auxiliary engines. What are they?
Oh, and the fins most likely are useful in atmospheric flight, giving the vessel aerodynamic stability. It looks like it would produce a sufficient amount of lift by the radiator/auxiliary engine thingsies, considering the frame is quite thin and lightweight.
In functional sense the nose is absolutely too long. What does it do with it? Does it has massive sensor array, or ammunition storage there? Because if it's just empty space, it'll increase the ships angular momentum relative to pitch and yaw axes and thus decrease maneuverability. Roll rate would be excellent, however, but that's really not that useful in dogfight. The long nose would only come in handy if you want to move the center of gravity forwards, giving the ship increased aerodynamic stability.
Of course, if it has multiple long range missiles, maneuverability is not really an issue. I could see that fighter using hit-and-run tactics against bomber wings - approach with high speed, destroy targets of opportunity with missiles and guns, swoop away before the escort fighters have time to engage you - and even if they do, you can outrun them. By the way, what kind of primaries does this thing has? Ballistic (projectile) or energy weapons?
EDIT: Forgot to say - it's not a bad thing if it resembles a Viper a little... It's an universal, versatile design, so naturally people want to use it regardless of it being already "taken". :D It's quite natural - whopping big engines in the back, cockpit in front of them, some stabilizers for atmo flight, a longish nose and perhaps some random stuff attached to fuselage, and you got a basic space fighter/bomber, depending on proportions and size. The most simple starship design, and it cannot be credited on BSG alone... X-Wing and Z-Wing being perfect examples of this design.
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Uh...i think you're talking about the "thingies" on either side of the fusulage: they're both engines...and may contain weapons.
The elongated nose...is for weapons storage, and radar array. I firmly believe that "energy" weapons are a goof and are extremely unrealistic...though they are cool, my entire fleet uses ballistic weapon types, except for the one or two "beam" weapons onboard cap ships.
"lasers" can work, but need such a ridiculous power requirement, that they realistically would have to be mounted on large vessels, and would in effect "burn" a hole in other ships, or at least raise the tempurature of the hull surface increasing the internal tempurature of the ships and frying the occupants of the ship.
All weapons must be stored internally on the fighter so there is a need for a large payload bay, and it happens to be directly ahead of the pilot.
Edit: Main engines are the pods on either side of the fuselage...afterburners aft of the cockpit.
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Figure that all of these ships are fusion powered, and that bullets, even traveling at their maximum muzzel velocity, don't move anywhere fast enough to do damage to warships capable of surviving the first blast of a supernova. (Somhow the Maxim works, but it wouldn't in real life.)
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view of the weapons bay: it's the space between the two pods...you should be able to see the seem from the bay doors...
(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9016/i58ds.jpg)
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Figure that all of these ships are fusion powered, and that bullets, even traveling at their maximum muzzel velocity, don't move anywhere fast enough to do damage to warships capable of surviving the first blast of a supernova. (Somhow the Maxim works, but it wouldn't in real life.)
I beg to disagree...in the case of a supernova...the blast would exceed several million degrees, turning even the strongest alloys into liquid very quickly...plus, say for instance a rail gun, is capable of penetrating nearly any armor, coupled with explosive rounds, would be devestating. Again, Freespace isn't the judge of what is realistic, neither are my ships, that's why they call it scifi
Muzzle velocity of machine guns in an atmosphere are drastically different than that of BSG or this universe...instead of say 2K feet per second from an M1 rifle, the weapons would produce about 100x that speed...plus there is no drag to limit effective range.
oh, and if something can survive a supernova, what makes you think that a meson would have a more powerful blast than a star...
in real life, there are no lasers, or fusion drives to begin with...mankind has used ballistic weapons for hundreds of years, and they don't seem to be losing their edge.
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Cockpit
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1333/i62wp.jpg)
A little bland but i figure you won't see it much anyways
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Cockpit looks cool, but the shape is a little...blah. I mean...the shapes don't seem to work together, especially the inward pull at the rear of the intakes.
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mkay
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Why don't you elongate the main engines so that you can integrate them with horizontal stabilizers? I don't know what it will look like, but you could try. Technically, it would
a. give the ship more atmospheric capacity, by increasing the lift area
b. move center of lift backwards, by adding athmospheric stability.
I myself think that even if space fighters are ever needed, they must be able to operate on athmosphere also. At least to some extent. Adding atmospheric capacities of course might increase the mass of the ship and decrease space flight abilities, but as your ship looks quite aerodynamic to begin with, I'd bet it was planned to have at least some kind of a role in atmospherc operations, so... Anyway, if it doesn't look good, don't do it. :)
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I like it, although maybe just verging on the wipeout a very small tad.
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I like it, although maybe just verging on the wipeout a very small tad.
I agree 100%. Perhaps more so.
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hmmm, honestly, i don't know what the wipeout looks like, nor do i know what it is...maybe a picture?
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Wipeout. Y'know, the PS1/2/P futuristic racers with sort of dart-like hoverracers.
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never played the games...i avoid consoles like the plague...except of course my trusty Famicon(Jap NES)...
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never played the games...i avoid consoles like the plague...except of course my trusty Famicon(Jap NES)...
Here is an example of a Wipeput ship
But i like the design of your ship. Before anyone makes any assumptions i would like to see that shipped skinned to see how it looks then.
(http://www.portablereview.com/screens/wipeout/3.jpg)
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I'm trying to finalize the UV mapping coordinates, but i think i'm gonna move some things, i'm not super happy with placement, but this is where it's at:
(http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/4270/i4wu.jpg)
I think the stars aren't bright enough, i'll have to fix that for final render...
(http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/4882/i20kf.jpg)
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(http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8751/i36di.jpg)
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Woah, very nice. :D :yes:
Personally, I'm one for a bit more paint on my ships but it looks pretty darn swoit. :)
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It's a really long medusa.
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It's a really long medusa.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make that statement...although the only piece that looks anything like it is the two engine pods, which aren't missle launchers in this case, so i don't really see a resemblance.
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I can't see anything in the last picture, but all the other rock!
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It's a really long medusa.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make that statement...although the only piece that looks anything like it is the two engine pods, which aren't missle launchers in this case, so i don't really see a resemblance.
If you don't see a resemblance then how could you have been expecting someone to make that statement? :wtf:
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Well, the reason is because everyone in this forum, is so attuned to certain attributes of nearly every FS vessel in existence(as they should be), and well, what ship in FS has two mid mounted "pods" in the sit about a 25 to 45 degree angle to the body of the ship, well, the obvious answer is the Medusa...but other than that, it has nothing in common with the FS universe...but that one feature, i agree does make you think of the Medusa...regardless of the differences
(http://volition-inc.com/fs/images/spacecraft/gtb-medusa.jpg)
judge for yourself i guess...
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Awesome! The fighter looks great. I really like the cockpit. Is it textured already? Some interior shots would be nice. ;)
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I never thought of it as a Medusa of any kind. Main difference is not the "pods" being engines in stead of weapon bays, but the cockpit being in the rear end of the ship rather than on the front.
I still think it looks more like a Viper VII than any other ship, but the mentioned pods do bring quite a bit of originality onto it. I only see one logical problem in this - having the elevators (horizontal stabilizers, if you wish) directly behind the main engines cannot be actually good for them. That's one of the reasons I would try elongating the pods and integrating the pods and the horizontal stabilizers and check what it would look. At least on sketch book.
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i figure you're probably right about it not being good for the stabilizers...but i don't know, i think i'd kill the look if i changed the pods too much...maybe not, but hey, think of it as free thrust vectoring, cause the fins are directly in the middle of the exhaust flow ;)
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Here's another cheap render:
(http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8756/i43xa.jpg)
As you can see, i'm too lazy to model the pilot and copilot
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Are they on Autopilot? :p
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I see more of a resemblence to a Viper Mk VII then a Medusa...
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Yeah, i'll admit there's some similarities between the Viper and this baby, it probably hast something to do with function as well, because the function of a vessel has a lot to do with it's resulting shape...and the fact that my universe for the most part uses ballistic weapons as well
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supernova I really like the design. It reminds me of a number of different ships (and cars) and the cockpits look really nice. They compliment the outside design quite a bit. I like how you've taken some chances with the length and with the engine pods but I like it.
Kudos!
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can you give us a link for the model, textures, and table file? i would love to see that in-game. :D
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Well i could, but then i'd have to kill you :D
But seriously though, i'd need to change a couple things on the model first to make it FS friendly, obviously getting rid of the refract maps, raytracing, bumps....basically just keep the diffuse color map, and i need to make the model just one texture map, cause there are four maps at the moment...so if you want it in game, you'll have to wait just a little while
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Just do a texture bake onto the model using a neutral lighting scene and whip up a shine map. :)
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Yeah, that actually won't work unfortunately...hehe, the texture back function doesn't work on my copy of MAX5
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BUMP! :bump:
2 months................. done yet?
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WOW missed this one...
Awesome, BTW to me it sorta resembles the BSG Blackbird... Any chance of you altering a copy of it to make it so?
FS2 meets NeoBSG, I like.
I especially like the part where you indicated about making it "FS Friendly:... Now when you're done go back and do up some of those awesome cap ships you made... :D
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:yes: Nice Job. I like the Sleekness of the design.
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holy ****ing **** this is awesome :D
i wanna know how to model like that :p
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It looks good, even though it looks like a cross between a Medusa and a Viper Mk7.....
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wow...haven't been here in a while...
sorry guys, i've been busy with some other stuff for a while. trying to finish some stuff up for SoL and Infiniti, so i never really got these models "converted" for making them FS friendly...don't have time either. honestly i don't think i will either, i just feel like it's not worth my time. i have to juggle too many other things like work, school, family, and free time
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OOhh!! You ship-tease you!!! :lol:
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Ok then, (in diplomatic voice) how about a linky then? I'm sure someone will make the time. :D
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sure if someone wants to put it ingame...but you'll need to do a little work (uv map it, texture painting, etc)
i'll put a link up when i get some time...i'll put it up if someone really really wants it.