[Raptor]

Okay, so I'm bumping this thread.... so what.

I've been rethinking the main hull a little, in preperation for the HT&L stuff, and I've been considering adding extra hull along the keel.

Pics to help you remember what it looked like. All slightly out of date BTW




What do people suggest should go on the keel, opposite the flying bridge superstruture? I'm thinking something along the lines of a cruiser docking bay (kinda like the ISD's main bay)

Also, I'm thinking about changing the name to GTD Hera, to fit in with the other Terran FS ships.

Still in need of an expert UVmapper for this ships hull, LODs and turrets....

[karajorma]

And I'm still at a loss for how you managed to make such beautiful turrets and yet still need a UVmapper

[Raptor]

Originally posted by karajorma
And I'm still at a loss for how you managed to make such beautiful turrets and yet still need a UVmapper

Well, the flat plate ones were easy: appled a Planer UVmapping to the basic form.  The others are a little misleading.  In TS, that is how they appear, correct.  But in game, they are messed up.

The barrels were formed by unioning a plate turret with a cylinder,each with their own UVmapping, which was then modded around the 'base'

I know what: I'll get In TS/In Game shots for each type, then you'll see what I mean.

To be fair, the turrets are not really the problem.  It's the mapping on the hull thats the problem.

I can create textures, but I can't really apply them, except in the simplest cases (ie flat plate turrets).

[Raptor]

Well what did ya know, it worked ;)

[karajorma]

Are you using a texture repeat value of less than 1 anywhere? That can screw things up in FS2.

As for the texture corruption most of it seems rather minor to me except for the stuff on turrets 1 and 2 which in my opinion actually improves the turrets

Seriously though. You seem to be doing a bang up job there. Hiring a texturer is hard. There aren't that many around and you actually seem to have some talent in that area so I'd hate to see you give up due to minor problems.

BTW what program are you using? I ask cause I often had UV problems with TS4. They disappeared the second I moved up to TS5.1.

[Raptor]

Originally posted by karajorma
Are you using a texture repeat value of less than 1 anywhere? That can screw things up in FS2.

Really? great. And yes, I am on the ends of the barrels.  Makes the caliber seem larger

As for the texture corruption most of it seems rather minor to me except for the stuff on turrets 1 and 2 which in my opinion actually improves the turrets
[/B]

Well, the thing is I wanted these turrets to be able to traverse BELOW the horizon slighty (5-10 degrees), so the 'slot' has to 'seem' to allow that.  I might remake the 'base' bits with the slots modelled in.

Seriously though. You seem to be doing a bang up job there. Hiring a texturer is hard. There aren't that many around and you actually seem to have some talent in that area so I'd hate to see you give up due to minor problems.
[/B]

Why, Thank you.  I guess I should TRY to work out Lilith then

BTW what program are you using? I ask cause I often had UV problems with TS4. They disappeared the second I moved up to TS5.1. [/B]

TS 3.2

[karajorma]

I suspected the problem may have been Truespace 3.2 (I had no end of problems with similar dodgy streatched textures on early versions of the Styx) so I took the last version of the Saturn you put up for download and played about with it.

BEFORE



AFTER (This literally took 20 seconds. I loaded in the model into TS6.0, selected the hull and changed the UV map to cubic).



No doubt a few textures need moving about/resizing to fit better on the UV map but did that solve your main problems with the model? If there were others with the hull tell me and I'll take a look.

[Raptor]

Originally posted by karajorma
No doubt a few textures need moving about/resizing to fit better on the UV map but did that solve your main problems with the model? If there were others with the hull tell me and I'll take a look.

It definitivly looks like you fixed the main flaw:nod:. That shot dosn't really show what is happening in the trenchs but it looks good.  If you could, have a look at the back of the engines.  It should have four ports on the 2ndry engines ( the ones on the 'arms') and 8 on the main pair, all in rows of 2.

Funny how when I told TS 'Use cubic mapping' it did a planer from the bow:doubt:

Hate to spoil your hard work but I am planing on updating the meshs (hull slightly, turrets possibly quite a bit). Before I do though, I need to decide if I should add anything to the keel.

BTW I think I've cracked Lilith, thanks for the tutorial ! (I couldn't follow it before since I had a older version!)

[Raptor]

Here is what I was thinking about:



Note that one can get both an Aeolus AND a Fenris in the bay at the same time, with clearance! (not much, but a little, though this was without turrets)

Comments?

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Raptor
Hate to spoil your hard work but I am planing on updating the meshs (hull slightly, turrets possibly quite a bit). Before I do though, I need to decide if I should add anything to the keel.

BTW I think I've cracked Lilith, thanks for the tutorial ! (I couldn't follow it before since I had a older version!)

If you lithUnrap the tutorial was IP Andrews not mine but yeah it's a good tutorial

As for "my hard work" it actually took longer to upload the pics than it did to make the changes

As for the new pics they look pretty good If you can't solve the problems once you've finished PM me and we'll sort it out.

[Raptor]

Thanks man, I'm planing on UVmapping the turrets (well, the problem ones), since they are (relativly) low poly.  The hull would look great if it was lilithed, but the shear size if the ship, not to mention the no. of polys, could make it impossible.

We shall see.....

[Eviscerator]

Umm... call me crazy, but maybe Aldo could help you? have you asked him? I think it's likely that he maybe able to help fix your problems and may even be able to get those gatling turrets back in there. I know I would see to see them back in there myself.

[Raptor]

Originally posted by Eviscerator
Umm... call me crazy, but maybe Aldo could help you? have you asked him? I think it's likely that he maybe able to help fix your problems and may even be able to get those gatling turrets back in there. I know I would see to see them back in there myself.

I did invite the Modelling Gods, such as Aldo_14, to comment, did they never did....

Unfortunatly, the twin gatling gun turrets will never work.  They have too many vertices in the arms, taking the ship over the 4000 limit (this is standard FS2 limit, not the HT&L build).  Besides, the turret only fired from 1 of it's 4 firepoints, and even then it would not have been able to do its job because of the spread of shots.

[Eviscerator]

Why not consider a simliar yet smaller turret with two,single barrel, chain guns instead of the gatling?

[Raptor]

Maybe, for the HT&L build;).

But for now, the quad gatling gun in a smaller version of the other MP turrets will do.

[Raptor]

Okay, thanks to Karajorma, the GTD Saturn has had a bit of a face lift, and I've redone the mapping on some of the turrets and added LODs. Just needs debris and pathing for the turrets (all other paths done:D )

but....

Game messes LOD's up.  Modelview shows them fine.  In FRED and in game, We see LOD3 only.

[Raptor]

Come on people help me out here!

I have no clue as to what is wrong here, so even if I manage to UVunwrap it (with Lith/Lilith), the effort will be wasted...

[karajorma]

Didn't notice that update earlier. If you want me to take a look at it Raptor feel free to drop me a line on AIM.

[Stunaep]

That's the Excalibur. Only with an extra wing-thingy

[Raptor]

'....and it absolutely will not stop, ever!'

Sorry, Listening to 'The Terminator' Theme tune as I post this;)

New Pic:


[EDIT:] I just noticed how narrow that 'BBlue' beam is (the beam fring with the large glow). Have to fix that.