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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Fate of the Galaxy => Topic started by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 03:31:30 am

Title: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 03:31:30 am
I just finished a basic model of a Mon Calamari cruiser, and I'd like some feedback/advice. Keep in mind, this is not 'the' mc cruiser, if you a particular one in mind, but more of one that would fit into the fleet, as each ship was unique.

http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/ (http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/)
There's also odd bits of a black line wrapping around parts of the ship-this is a blender artifact, afaik, and is not in the renders
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Wanderer on May 29, 2007, 03:45:00 am
Engines (or thrusters do not look like Mon Calamari stuff) something like seen in light MC cruiser or something.. That is not so exposed, more recessed type design might look more MCish.

IMHO the aft section just doesnt look 'right' with such thruster pods
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 04:06:25 am
Looking at the side shots, I agree about the thrusters-they seem to stick up a bit from the hull, I'll fix that and update when I do.


rsaxvc

uh oh...my server just went down :(


_____________________________________
I went to the University of Turku once, I mean, I was in town and stopped by
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 04:13:45 am
server's back up-dunno why it went down. The Chief grabbed an imageset from me earlier, and its a bit older, but in case my box flips out again:
http://swc.fs2downloads.com/sshot.php?subdir=Capships/MonCal_rsaxvc/ (http://swc.fs2downloads.com/sshot.php?subdir=Capships/MonCal_rsaxvc/)

also, I shortened the engine housings on all 5 thrusters-should it be even thinner, or is it good at present?

rsaxvc


___________________________
Australia-We do have a wide-spread forum base, I'll say that
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on May 29, 2007, 09:07:59 am
well, it looks mon-cal ish

so i got 2 questions

polycount?

size? (relative to other SW ships)
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 29, 2007, 09:47:59 am


size? (relative to other SW ships)

Do you realy need to ask that ?? 


You;ve seen ROTJ i take it :D
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on May 29, 2007, 10:04:28 am


size? (relative to other SW ships)

of course, but this isn't one of the ships seen in return of the jedi, and mon calamari cruisers can vary greatly in size, but still have similar shapes, which is why i'm asking.

Do you realy need to ask that ?? 


You;ve seen ROTJ i take it :D
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 29, 2007, 10:09:17 am
I thought they were all an average of about 1.6k > 2k.

I may be wrong though :D
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on May 29, 2007, 11:41:55 am
Yeah, the big ones are all a bit larger than an ISD I think, and more heavily armored.  Don't worry either, he's eager to make this ship just right I think, so leave any other comments you feel necessary. :)
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 02:53:46 pm
I actually did this ship in relative space, so right now its one "something" long, about "1/3" something wide", and "1/4" something tall. However, this is easily fixed-how long should it be? 1.5 to 2klicks? This is my third model, and frankly, I have no clue how to do a poly count in blender-I'll work on that.

rsaxvc




___________________________
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Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Wanderer on May 29, 2007, 03:03:03 pm
IMO those thrusters should be closer to the hull like these have:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/MC80_Star_Cruiser_%28Home_One_type%29
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/MC40a_light_cruiser
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 03:15:03 pm
You guys remember XWing? Those engines was sorta the look I was going for. I don't think I'll bring the engine mounts closer to the hull, maybe shrink the cylinders and add more bubbles/stretch the main bubbles back so the hull is more continuous.

Polycounts:
Renders-3.1M
Dimension shots-200k

I guess...I guess that's a little much

This folder has some of the cut,camera angle shots, all the way to number 6, which is render-quality
http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/ (http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/)
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on May 29, 2007, 04:21:48 pm
too check the poly count go into face select mode and look at the right hand corner. it also says the total in object mode. :D
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 04:49:47 pm
What's the maximum amount of polys for an fs2 model to still be playable? Right now I've got a decent one at 12k and a much nicer one at 49k

There's a file here:
http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/polycounts.txt

that lists the poly counts for the files in
http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on May 29, 2007, 05:29:49 pm
I don't think it matters, but 49k will run very slow on most (read my) computers.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 29, 2007, 06:06:41 pm
I'm inclinded to use the lower res model (http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/2.png (http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/polyshots/2.png)) and try to make up for it with a good texture. Speaking of that, anyone have a good base texture for a mon calamari ship?
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on May 29, 2007, 06:17:12 pm
start from that model, but add details to it (actual turrets, smaller blisters in detail boxes, bridge structures, etc.)

then, increase the smoothness until youre at about say, 40k polygons

then we see how it works.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on May 29, 2007, 07:33:58 pm
One thing that's great about the moncal is that while we know it'll be high poly, we can use a fairly small texture for it, being as its simply randomly placed armour plates and the like, if you look at the ship, it could be accomplished with a small, tiled texture as long as it looks random enough.   Large textures eat up performance more than large polycounts
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on May 30, 2007, 03:22:51 am
More screenshots for the basic hull here:
http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal (http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal)

I'm going to start an MC80-liberty class as soon as I can find some good vertical schematic shots looking down and up. If anyone's interested in playing with the this model, let me know soon, as I disappear for the civilized world on Friday and with that my webserver goes down, likely for about 2 months.

Chief-snag those pictures off my box and repost on the swc page.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on June 04, 2007, 09:47:16 pm
Dang.  I just got on the internet for the first time in several days, I'm out of town helping the grandparents move, and haven't been able to do much lately.  If I do get those images I'll get them uploaded to the SWC site.  If anyone else saved them let me know.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Gank on June 16, 2007, 05:46:45 pm
You wont find any schematics for the liberty class bar the egvv ones and they're inaccurate. We did have a very accurate liberty model that a third party gave us permission to use but I never got around to texturing it. If you're capable of doing this I can send you the model after I clear it with its creator, was about 9k polys iirc.

Btw do you guys still have/want my old models?
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on June 16, 2007, 07:31:15 pm
Hey I made a texture for this but I just need to find it...
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on June 17, 2007, 08:03:34 pm
Btw do you guys still have/want my old models?

We'll take anything you've got.  You can e-mail them to me if you'd like, if they'll zip up small enough.  I'll get them on the FTP when I get back to my house in St. Louis.  [email protected] or @gmail.com, if one fails try the other.  Thanks a bunch too.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Gank on June 17, 2007, 10:43:26 pm
Had a gander at the site and it seems you have the assault frigate and stormtrooper transport, others I had done were the bulk cruiser and action 6 transport:
(http://img35.picoodle.com/img/img35/8/6/17/t_a6bcm_bdac4da.png) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?srv=img35&img=/8/6/17/f_a6bcm_bdac4da.png)
Both are rough meshs you'd have to convert them yourselves, textures need baking and models need smoothing applied etc, let me know if you want them. Most of the other stuff I have is untextured.

Couple of points on the ones you do have, neither were made for xwau, the stormtrooper transport was given to darksaber in return for models he'd let us use here and in the swnr mod I was part of before. Likewise the afrig, originally made for swnr and an updated version made for here, xwau's version is darksabers work based on the swnr one. Also please remove the tacky guns someones bolted on to the delta, I dont mind my work being modified to get it ingame but those arent accurate to the original and look ****.

You mentioned problems with the afrig on the site, what exactly are they, theres a mesh hole I knew about and fixed but textures on the wrong side of the mesh? Whats that mean?
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on June 18, 2007, 10:35:33 pm
Well, as far as those screenshots go, those were just stuff I found laying around on the ftp when I took over, I never took those screenshots.  So, the models for them may or may not match what's in the pictures.  If you have any material, I'd love to get it from you so I can know that I have the most up to date versions from the original source, and I can prevent issues like third party modding getting in the way.  The delta you refer to may be a different one from the one you made, I think I have two different models of it.  Also, the afrig model shows textures on the inside portion on the ship instead of the outside on certain areas, I think the normals are inverted is the proper terminology for what I'm seeing.  I've only seen this in modelview but haven't tested the model in anything else yet.  If you have a known working one I'd love to get it too.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on June 21, 2007, 08:12:19 am
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/th.ae53aba805.jpg) (http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?ae53aba805.jpg)

Here it is! I made it in 5 min, my best time ever, so I know it sucks
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: TopAce on June 30, 2007, 09:51:26 am
That texture is okay, Topgun. It would be an acceptable basic texture.

As for the bulk cruiser and the Action transport, I would be glad to have them as soon as possible.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on June 30, 2007, 06:49:00 pm
when we get them, can i play with the models and the textures?

there seem to be big areas on the action iv where bumps are painted on, very significant ones.  i'd like to fix that, as they can be bumped on the model and have the fake bumping removed.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on June 30, 2007, 09:45:25 pm
Well, I've yet to get the models from Gank yet.  I guess I'll PM him and doublecheck that he was gonna dig those out for us.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 10, 2007, 07:58:38 pm
topgun: I've rendered my two moncal models with your texture:
(http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/moncal/skinned_moncal_small.jpg)
(http://rsaxvc.zapto.org/starwars/liberty/skinned_liberty_small.jpg)
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on July 11, 2007, 05:49:01 pm
does the color fit? I don't know...
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 11, 2007, 07:40:15 pm
its a little dark, and kinda purple, but I like the pattern
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 11, 2007, 08:33:46 pm
I think there needs to be more contrast between the colours in it:

(http://www.amazingstarships.com/models/starwars/calamarifrigate_004.JPG)
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on July 11, 2007, 08:36:22 pm
hmm, that looks like it was done with spraypaint and technical looking cutouts in a piece of paper.

perhaps a photoshop technique could be devised to create a similar effect.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 11, 2007, 08:42:42 pm
Selection boxes and airbrush tool?  Feather each box to achieve the gaps in the colour which serve for panel lines.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 12, 2007, 12:01:22 am
It seems my main hard drive has crashed, and of course, I didn't make any backups of the model files. Moncal progress=0%.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 12, 2007, 12:19:03 am
Damn that sucks.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on July 12, 2007, 08:57:21 am
It seems my main hard drive has crashed, and of course, I didn't make any backups of the model files. Moncal progress=0%.
]

this seems to happen way too often around here. I still have computers and hard drives from the early 90's and they still work great.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 12, 2007, 11:49:59 am
looks like all the blender files survived. For a while it was refusing to boot, and most of my stuff is gone, but the moncals are ok. It'll still take a while till I'm up and running again, but all is not lost.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Topgun on July 12, 2007, 12:27:14 pm
I think there needs to be more contrast between the colours in it:

(http://www.amazingstarships.com/models/starwars/calamarifrigate_004.JPG)

OK, I did not really know what a moncal looked like. I've only seen them in ep6
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 12, 2007, 05:48:39 pm
I'd love to have you make another texture, based on the above art,. Texturing is something I'm pretty bad at.

Also, where should the guns go? I'm thinking somewhere along the ventral pods, in groupings.
Lastly, what do moncal turrets look like? Anyone have some artwork for them?
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 12, 2007, 05:50:29 pm
Unfortunately, they don't exist.  The model never had any.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on July 12, 2007, 06:30:22 pm
You may have to go with an invisible subobject method then.  Unless you can find a better idea.  Some people just have the little blobs themselves as the turret subobjects.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on July 12, 2007, 10:19:42 pm
there are small slits spaced around the model.  use those as firing points.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 12, 2007, 11:57:11 pm
Are those small enough to use a texture, or should I try and make a little recessed gunnery slot?                                                       




_________________________________________
Someday, I'll get my computer working, and I'll be free of this serial console bs.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Scourge of Ages on July 13, 2007, 03:17:44 pm
Hold a minute, if the Mon-Cal doesn't have turrets, or only has tiny firing slits, how are we supposed to disarm one with a TIE Fighter?
We'll be mincemeat!
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 13, 2007, 03:21:02 pm
That could be a serious problem, a single TIE fighter definitely should be able to take out a capitol ship over a kilometer long... :P
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: Turambar on July 13, 2007, 04:33:32 pm
Hold a minute, if the Mon-Cal doesn't have turrets, or only has tiny firing slits, how are we supposed to disarm one with a TIE Fighter?
We'll be mincemeat!

come back with a squad of tie defenders, soften her up with ion salvos, and come back with coordinated missile salvos.

that oughtta do the trick.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 13, 2007, 06:03:52 pm
One Missile Boat
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: brandx0 on July 13, 2007, 06:30:39 pm
That's the problem with the X-Wing games, capships aren't scary... ever

It's just a matter of "Damn, well this'll take a while I guess..."

A Star Destroyer or Calamari Cruiser should be scary!
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: TopAce on July 13, 2007, 06:33:43 pm
One Missile Boat

:lol:

Yes, game mechanisms. :D
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: chief1983 on July 13, 2007, 08:24:59 pm
I have a feeling that they will still be destructible, the slits will exist, but the turret will still be a destroyable object that should be large enough to hit.
Title: Re: Mon Calamari Cruiser
Post by: rsaxvc on July 13, 2007, 11:57:59 pm
I'd be completely content with a game consisting only of a B-Wing pilot and increasing waves of ISDs. Then again, it would be really neat to see multi-capship battles. All the xwing missions were so limited. We'll finally have the capability to plot entire fleets against each other.

On a more serious note...I'm getting nowhere on turreting. I may end up handing this model off to one of you for that,