[aldo_14]

The Iceni always struck me as something of a blockade runner warship (it's even shaped like a battering ram); it might not even be all that effective as a combat warship in fleet action.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Mefustae
It would be a small nameplate, it's not exactly part of the superstructure we're talking about here. Should knn put it on, the arguement could be made that he just slapped it on there either at Polaris Shipyards, or when he sunk it into the Boadaecea. Either way, it'd be a great addition to the model, and would look really great illuminated with spotlight ala the Orion nameplates (but blended in so as not to stand out)
 

Well, fair enough, but what about non NTF Iceni class ships? Derelict's Cypher for example? Why not just use a standard nameplate system the way every other HTL ship is these days?

Originally posted by aldo_14
The Iceni always struck me as something of a blockade runner warship (it's even shaped like a battering ram); it might not even be all that effective as a combat warship in fleet action.

It's none too shabby actually - beats up Deimoses no worries if the approach ancgles are right.

[Mefustae]

Originally posted by Black Wolf
Why not just use a standard nameplate system the way every other HTL ship is these days?

...You know what you are? You're an ideas man!

[knn]

Umm, I think I should have said this, but I thought it was obvious. That's just a temporary nameplate, because I was too lazy to start up Photoshop. It' way too much polygons, it's just there for me to see how it would look finished. BTW, the nameplate is also missing from the other side, because I modell only one side usually, then mirror the whole thing.

I still think I wasn't clear enough.

   I'm sure there are others as well but atleast i would like to have a possibility to use the Iceni (not as NTF command frigate) also in some mods so IMHO do not put modelled nameplate to it. Just use the same method as in other HTLd ships.

That is exactly what I am going to do. The same method first used on the HTL Fenris/Leviathan: A separate plate object located just above the surface of the ship, with a texture with green background. The green background gets cut out and only the text is displayed. By default there's no text, just a green background, and you use texture replacement to change the text.

To clarify, I've made the nameplate object, a nameplate texture, and rendered the scene without the nameplate texture and with it. I've used an opacity map to hide the white background of the nameplate texture, but that background should be green and thus hidden by the FS2 engine automatically:



As you can see, part of the text cannot be seen, because it is hidden by the cylinder. That's not a problem, you just compensate for it when making the nameplate texture (i.e. you do not write there).

Anyways; still a bit plain, but the detailing on the top midsection looks great, so use the same sort of principle on the rest of the ship (within reason) and it'll be tip-top.

The ship is nowhere near completion. I'm working on it.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by knn

compensate for it when making the nameplate texture (i.e. you do not write there).

What if you wanted to make, say, the GTF Bellerophon?

You'd either have to break the long word up or write Bellerophon really tiny. Too much fiddling around IMO for too little gain.

[FireCrack]

I agree with BW


Also, using green fr the nameplate tex is bad, best go for a tga wiht transperency, you can make it look better too..

[StratComm]

You could wrap the nameplate around the dockpoint, if you've got a program that can generate circular text easily.  That'd be different without incurring the penalty of arbitrary lengths on each side.

[knn]

Okay, here's the new nameplate and dockpoint. I don't know where to put the NTF logo yet, or wether I want it on the ship at all.
NOTE1: The beam turrets are from the original model
NOTE2: The dockpoint is not final, it's just a quick 5 minute stg I made to show the placing.


One more question: I'm going to start making new small turrets now, try rounded barrels and see how it looks. Should I also change the big ones to have rounded barrels, or are they okay the way they are?

[StratComm]

I was starting to wonder what had happened to this.  Good to see it's still alive.  I like that dockpoint/nameplate configuration, but watch your polycount with the roundness on the edge of that raised portion.  It's a tad overboard right now.

If done properly, the squareness gives the big barrels character.  Smaller turrets have been a challenge to everyone who attempts them, and no two people seem to be able to agree on how to tackle the problem.  I say round out the buttons that are there, since that's the look seems to have been going for.

[knn]

I was starting to wonder what had happened to this.  Good to see it's still alive.  I like that dockpoint/nameplate configuration, but watch your polycount with the roundness on the edge of that raised portion.  It's a tad overboard right now.

If done properly, the squareness gives the big barrels character.  Smaller turrets have been a challenge to everyone who attempts them, and no two people seem to be able to agree on how to tackle the problem.  I say round out the buttons that are there, since that's the look seems to have been going for.

buttons? where?

EDIT:

[knn]

[OFFTOPIC] Aren't edits supposed to appear as new posts on the index page?[/OFFTOPIC]

[Admiral Nelson]

Just as an aside, I am delighted to see that you are still working on this!    The current turrets make the Iceni amazingly ugly.  I am normally partial to rounded barels, but the big Orion turrets do look pretty good, for example.

[Galemp]

Those nameplate polies had better not be sunken in.

[knn]

Those nameplate polies had better not be sunken in.

Why?

[Galemp]

Because it A) arbitrarily sets a fixed length for the name plate that most nameplate's won't fit into and B) makes it really obvious it's a nameplate texture, defeating the purpose of having alpha-mapped nameplates.

[StratComm]

Galemp's right.  The nameplate should just barely "float" above the texture that's supposed to be under it, and that texture should be relatively unbroken.  No special geometry is almost always a good thing.

[knn]

Because it A) arbitrarily sets a fixed length for the name plate that most nameplate's won't fit into and B) makes it really obvious it's a nameplate texture, defeating the purpose of having alpha-mapped nameplates.

Galemp's right.  The nameplate should just barely "float" above the texture that's supposed to be under it, and that texture should be relatively unbroken.  No special geometry is almost always a good thing.

True. Fixed

[knn]

[StratComm]

Excellent work.  I'm loving the level of detail.

Remember though, multipart turrets on the bottom of the ship should point backwards.  I know they don't on the stock model, but they don't work correctly either.

[knn]

Excellent work.  I'm loving the level of detail.

Thx

Remember though, multipart turrets on the bottom of the ship should point backwards.  I know they don't on the stock model, but they don't work correctly either.

I didn't know that. Now I've got them the other way around. They're correct on the stock model, because the top ones are with their steep side forward, but when I made the new turrets, I decided to turn them because I liked them better this way.