[Thrilla]

Well I hate the old textures for the Vasudans.  They suck really bad.  I mean they look like a japanese cartoon and I hate japanese cartoons.  So I attempted to fix it.  I will load of Raa's HTL Sobek tomorrow and see how it looks with its new duds.

[Night Hammer]

so you make it pink?

[Thrilla]

NO...that is just a mess up I'm fixing.  Look at the scales!  The scales!  Plus pink is way better than purple!

[Night Hammer]

i thought they were brown, and now i notice the scales, look pretty good

[Trivial Psychic]

Impressive.

[Taristin]

I always imagined them more like how Lightspeed made the Anuket maps. Like cement pavers glued to the hull

[Hellbender]

Texturing work looks good, I like the shell tiles, not so big on the glowy stuff but I'm not really of the opinion that a warship should look quite as lit up as the FreeSpace styles, so that's not a reflection on the work itself.

To be to be honest, the ridiculous urge of sci-fi writers to insist on making space vessels look like organic animals or bugs is what gives it all the cartoonish look.

In rarly well thought out story universes there are sometimes plausible uses for the organically designed ships, such as living vessels etc... The main reason that the life imitating designs are used is apparently they "look cool".  (Hmm, Sathanas: giant spider's mutated lovechild?)

Pesronally I prefer more realistic designs. And while I'm on the topic, it is unlikely that any well funded and run military would operate ships routinely with all the access panels open exposing the internals of the vessel to enemy fire. And get this, military equipment is well maintained in any armed force with any sense, as they may have to depend on the things in life or death situations at any time. The maintenance also includes cleaning and finish repair when required.

If anything, the FreeSpace universe emphasises lack of maintenance and poor care about the vessels. I was working on some textures for a cap ship, and to my surprise I found several parts with what can only be described as streaks of rust. Some of the other textures have what looks like actual collision damage (denting).

The fighters and bombers are often worse, with dirt corrosion and battle blackening marks. It gives one the feeling that the GTVA military purchases all of their equipment from a shady used arms dealer.

That said, the FS universe is still one of the more compelling to play in. I guess it just wouldn't be the same without seeing space aquatics and spiky bugs flying around. It's just hard wrap in believability when I'm faced with a Turt...er, Tauret in my crosshairs.

[Mefustae]

[Off Topic]...Well, when you think about the ships in context, the wear and tear on ships, especially fighters and bombers, is certainly justified. I mean, both instances when you're thrust into the pilot seat in the FreeSpace Universe, the side you're fighting for is in the middle of a War. With Decent: FreeSpace, you started flying for the GTA in a War that had been going for over 14 Years, moreover you're on a front line Destroyer, meaning the the Fighters and Bombers, even the Destroyer and her escorts themselves, would be in frequent combat and thus be subject to corrosion and superficial damage on all their ships, as a ship Fighter or Destroyer, cannot retain its pristine state for long in a long term, battle-of-attrition situation.
FreeSpace 2 is even more justified, for while the conflict with the NTF has been going on for only a few months, there are Beam Weapons, and much more anti-capital class Weaponry available, leading to much more damage superficially to Capital Vessels, akin to the increased anti-fighter systems (AAA Beams, Flak) leading to much more wear on frontline fighters & bombers.
So really, the idea that ships could be pristine looking, with shiny hull plating, and looking like it just came off the assembly line, is just impossible during a time of War...[/Off Topic]

...anyhoo, that's a damn good lookin' vette, although you should keep the pink so the weapons never need to be fired again, as the enemy would simply laugh themselves to death...

[Imagine]

So really, the idea that ships could be pristine looking, with shiny hull plating, and looking like it just came off the assembly line, is just impossible during a time of War...

Aww, but it's so comforting to know your tax dollars are going towards new armor plates for every ship in the GTVA every time they are dented or scratched.

[NGTM-1R]

Well, some of them probably ARE new, you know...particularly the fightercraft.

[StratComm]

The fighters are admittedly less justifiable than the outer hulls of capital ships.  A navy ship or a tank it sort of makes sense to fix up cosmetic issues (especially ships) because you tend to want to keep your sailors/soldiers busy when they aren't in active combat.  Submarines less so, since you have to get out either underwater or take the whole ship into drydock just to patch a ding or dent.  And they get painted because if they don't get frequent coats of paint the salt sea air will corrode their hulls pretty rapidly.  With Freespace ships, you're talking about doing spacewalks/drydocking to fix that stuff (and FS drydocks aren't really even that at all, so the best you could hope for is the replacement of damaged panels) so once the air leaks are stopped and power is restored to normal operational levels, you're pretty much good to go.  The gaps in the armor are a bit more disconcerting.

[WMCoolmon]

I imagine drydock would involve pressurized air domes and such over damaged sections.

This way there would be less chance of, say, workers flying into deep space.

OTOH the GTVA does have those nifty little flitty repair thingies...I'm surprised no one has modelled those yet (Colossus cutscene).

Edit: thingies, not robots.

[Setekh]

That underside shot looks sweet. Good work!

[Ghost]

You guys are stupid, because this looks cool. I'm getting it when he uploads it.

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Ghost
You guys are stupid, because this looks cool. I'm getting it when he uploads it.

Oh I'm not knocking the new Sobek textures.  It's my hope that he's done this for all the vasudan tile maps, and I'm already secretly worrying about the need to upgrade a couple of derivative textures in my collection.

[BlackDove]

Originally posted by Thrilla
they look like a japanese cartoon and I hate japanese cartoons.

Your opinion on everything has been disqualified immediatly.

Anyway, seriously, the pinkness is throwing me off. The only real Sobek for me, is Raa's Sobek.

[Fineus]

The pink should be pale green - other than that it's very nice!

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by BlackDove


Your opinion on everything has been disqualified immediatly.

I know you're joking, but I kind of wish you weren't, so I could rip into anime fanboys. I mean... it's not that good - most of the stories don't make any sense, and the animation is, for the most part, pretty elemental looking. But I'm driving the thread OT.

I like the tiles - tried to do something similar myself awhile back (same ship too ), but it didn;t look anywhere near as good as this. Good stuff. Now - HTL sobek piccies please

Thunder - Pale green? Where'd that come from?

[Thrilla]

Oh, I'm going to fix those glowing pink textures as soon as I get out of class at noon and load of the HTL sobek.

I've already started on the Hasputertalsjdf;lajs thing.  It only has two tiles that need to be fixed.  Then I'll starting working on the Mentu and then the fighters.     It wasn't hard really.  Took me like 20 minutes in Photoshop 7.  Just a little bit of clouds, some unmask sharpening a few consumated V's and some other filter.

[Unknown Target]

The scales look awesome But I won't say anything about the pink cause it's already been bashed itno the ground by now