[yearrgh]

I was bored, so I made my first ship model.  Probably a few too many polys to be useful, but the shape is pleasing.  It also needs a skin.



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[takashi]

it looks like an ancient ship.

maybe an AD -insert minoan name here-?

[diceman111]

Looks like a sword 

Very good

[Water]

Nice to see an organic looking ship for a change.
The rear section looks like it would be happy in the Alien universe

[yearrgh]

Unfortunately, "organic" takes 8,488 polys.  Somewhat organic takes about 2.5k.  How many polys should I be shooting for for if I want to make something FS can handle?

[JGZinv]

Tis the brother of the SeaQuest. 

Some fighters have been kept around 2.5K, caps higher.

[Tempest]

You can approximate that shape with 3 or 4k easily. Pollies aren't usually the big issue; textures are. Smart usage of textures can also simulate organic shapes quite well. Because of the flatness of the design, you really can do it with less than 8k. Better than most, if not all, first ships i've seen, and certainly better than my first one.

I'm not sure what class of ship that is, but an array of turrets would be nice, as well as maybe adding a distinctive feature to the design. It's currently really bland, and could use maybe a raised section running down the spine, or something. Since that's your first, it only really gets better from here, so I wish you luck!

[Water]

Unfortunately, "organic" takes 8,488 polys.  Somewhat organic takes about 2.5k.  How many polys should I be shooting for for if I want to make something FS can handle?

FSO is getting to the stage where you can throw as many polys as you like at it. But it is a game engine and the players hardware will be the final judge. Stuff is starting to turn up with 120k polys.

8k - It depends on what class of ship that is. For a fighter go way way lower. Most cap ships (currently) are under 6k.

Freespace 2 - Fighters 100 to 300 ---- Cap ships 300 to 1.5k

Current FSO - Fighters 1 to 3k ----- Cap ships most below 6k

You are trying to create the illusion of complexity. Tempest said it well - good use of polys and texture will allow you heaps of scope far below 8k.

[yearrgh]

I made some changes and I'm working on a skin.  Here's some screenshots of (relatively) low and medium poly versions.  Any comments or suggestions?

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[Water]

I made some changes and I'm working on a skin.  Here's some screenshots of (relatively) low and medium poly versions.  Any comments or suggestions?

The low poly loses the smoothness that the medium has. How many polys in each?

[yearrgh]

About 2500 for low, 4400 medium.  I think if I redo the engines I can cut that in half without loosing anything.

[haloboy100]

it looked like a missile...until i saw the pics afterwards. now it looks like a gas miner.

[Black Wolf]

That looked friggen awesome... until you textured it. Err, get rid of the grey and make it dark green or purple or whatever, then make it an alien corvette.It's the kind of design strategy that needs very little model detail to look good, so lap that up, and use quasi organic textures. Trust me - it'll look sweet. And 8k polies, for the record, is no big deal.