[BlackDove]

I'd do it but I have no fracking idea how on this old HLP system.

If all you need is this, go for it.

[Black Wolf]

Something ****ed up serverside - I got a "You are not Authorized to view this page" at the very, very last screen of the process (i.e. the "Congratulations! You have successfully navigated the treacherous waters of the Highlight system" type screen. So the highlight works, but the image doesn't. Hopefully an admin will be able to fix it at some point.

[BlackDove]

Oh well.

Let's get back to objects of obsession then.

HEEEEEEEEEKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

[Vasudan Admiral]

lol, thanks you two. - much appreciated, and the error will probably work better at drawing attention anyway.

Edit: lol, it overrode all the highlights on the main page

Originally posted by TrashMan
Well, i have made it look how *I* think it would look with 5000 polys. So what's hte problem?

Nothing's really *wrong* with it, but to me it looks like the regular hecate with details tacced on, which is not a good way to HTL.
It doesn't look 'built' or 'more realistic' so much as it does the old model with more details. What you want to aim for when HTLing is to take the features of the original, and not so much add stuff to them, but improve them and make them look neater/more real/built/alloftheabove.
THEN you can add details like the part on the radar dishes pylon to really finish off the job.

Eg, the textures and design of the Fenris are solid and good, but the model was restricted by polycounts. Karma fixed that by modeling in those dark recesses and the stuff inside them, the structured and windowed sections on the rear, smoothed off the rounded engine parts etc, and it looks brilliant for it - the details really bring the model to life.
If instead, he'd just extruded little boxes here and there, added little trim sections to some edges etc, it would probably look worse than the original, or at the very most like a fenris with boxes and little trim sections on it.

Edit - forgot this bit:
Now granted that a lot of the FS2 ships like the hecate, aeolus and triton etc, are just so poorly built and textured that this sort of approach needs to be modified. In these cases, you will usually have to just pretty much rebuild the model - keep the design and overall features, and then add whatever looks like it would improve the 'character' of the ship, but not unnessecary parts.

Eg, antennae would look really out of place on the aeolus, so neither me nor Raptor put em on. However, the overall middle sides and top of the original looked like they were meant to look heavily armoured - moreso than the rest, so we made em look chunky and relatively unbroken by detail.

Originally posted by Flaser
I think you could retin the hard-edges (they are very characteristic IMHO) on the arms.
However the hardness should also have a function.

You could overlay them with big pieces of armor plates, somewhat extruded from the base geometry.

That would convey, that the interior is complex, and has an intricacy to it, however the system itself demanded heavy plating (which is sensible given, those are the main arnament of the ship).
The roughness shows how thick and brutal the armor is - NO COMPROMISE.

I might be mis-interpreting you, but do you mean bump additional crab-plate-like chunks out of the arm? If not, well, here's some pictures you could draw the modifications onto if you like.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/Lucifer/LuciferArms2.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/Lucifer/LuciferArms3.jpg

[StratComm]

Wow, massive breakage on the main page

On the lucifer; how deeply is the "shivan triangle" depressed into the nose now?  It looked a bit hard to see in the pics earlier, and I'm worried it might have dissapeared.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by StratComm
Wow, massive breakage on the main page

Muah ha ha ha ha ha!

[Vasudan Admiral]

I used the lucy's very first appearance - where it emerges from subspace in the FS1 intro to guage how deep to set the shivan triangle bit.
It's located here.

Basically, I always thought the 'gaping maw' look of the FS1 cutscene version was much more fearsome than the flat front with three low res dots on it.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
Nothing's really *wrong* with it, but to me it looks like the regular hecate with details tacced on, which is not a good way to HTL.
It doesn't look 'built' or 'more realistic' so much as it does the old model with more details. What you want to aim for when HTLing is to take the features of the original, and not so much add stuff to them, but improve them and make them look neater/more real/built/alloftheabove.
THEN you can add details like the part on the radar dishes pylon to really finish off the job.

I actually did build several sections of it from scratch - liek the tail fin nad the engine blocks..

Eg, the textures and design of the Fenris are solid and good, but the model was restricted by polycounts. Karma fixed that by modeling in those dark recesses and the stuff inside them, the structured and windowed sections on the rear, smoothed off the rounded engine parts etc, and it looks brilliant for it - the details really bring the model to life.
If instead, he'd just extruded little boxes here and there, added little trim sections to some edges etc, it would probably look worse than the original, or at the very most like a fenris with boxes and little trim sections on it.

No, no-- don't get me wrong - I LIKE the Fenris/Leviathan (who wouldn't).. the only beef I have is with the upper part of hte command tower..it just looks...wierd

[MetalDestroyer]

Woooauww, awesome work here ^^

[Vasudan Admiral]

I actually did build several sections of it from scratch - liek the tail fin nad the engine blocks..

Yes you did, but you didn't really change much. The engine sections just have the odd plate segment extruded and a couple of recesses in nearly random locations - which is where the whole 'details tacced on' appearance springs from, and the tail fin is less interesting than the original - it has less shape without the ridge down the front of it.

Actually, it strikes me that you appear to have adapted the hecate to suit your modeling style, rather than the other way around. Eg: Things like the extra engines on the wings, the small bits of trim here and there, the many squarish extrusions and slightly too fat barrels - they're all very common in your models I've seen.
While they're individually decently modeled (though they could be a lot better with more variety of shape, less sharp-edges blockyness and more slanted and chamfered blockyness), overall, they just don't suit the hecate's design or shape.

So, my advice is to be more flexible in your modeling style. Sharp edged blocks get boring real quick, so you need to add variety and detail to them to counter that - like blend boxes together etc. An example I can provide is Blackwood Station from TI: here
See how if you look really closely, the individual details are fairly simple, but they mesh together and build each other up to create an aesthetically pleasing overall complexity. If you want something to look big, real, or even just plain cool, that's the way to go.

No, no-- don't get me wrong - I LIKE the Fenris/Leviathan (who wouldn't).. the only beef I have is with the upper part of hte command tower..it just looks...wierd

I was using the Fenris as an example of how a good HTL modeling job works, not trying to get you to like it or any part of it if you didn't already - that wasn't the point.
Just compare the old and new: here
and notice how Karma really did 'bring the model to life'.

(BTW, the little flat balcony like thing did it's job I reckon. It breaks up what is otherwise little more than a boring stick.  )

[Flaser]

Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
lol, thanks you two. - much appreciated, and the error will probably work better at drawing attention anyway.

Edit: lol, it overrode all the highlights on the main page

Nothing's really *wrong* with it, but to me it looks like the regular hecate with details tacced on, which is not a good way to HTL.
It doesn't look 'built' or 'more realistic' so much as it does the old model with more details. What you want to aim for when HTLing is to take the features of the original, and not so much add stuff to them, but improve them and make them look neater/more real/built/alloftheabove.
THEN you can add details like the part on the radar dishes pylon to really finish off the job.

Eg, the textures and design of the Fenris are solid and good, but the model was restricted by polycounts. Karma fixed that by modeling in those dark recesses and the stuff inside them, the structured and windowed sections on the rear, smoothed off the rounded engine parts etc, and it looks brilliant for it - the details really bring the model to life.
If instead, he'd just extruded little boxes here and there, added little trim sections to some edges etc, it would probably look worse than the original, or at the very most like a fenris with boxes and little trim sections on it.

Edit - forgot this bit:
Now granted that a lot of the FS2 ships like the hecate, aeolus and triton etc, are just so poorly built and textured that this sort of approach needs to be modified. In these cases, you will usually have to just pretty much rebuild the model - keep the design and overall features, and then add whatever looks like it would improve the 'character' of the ship, but not unnessecary parts.

Eg, antennae would look really out of place on the aeolus, so neither me nor Raptor put em on. However, the overall middle sides and top of the original looked like they were meant to look heavily armoured - moreso than the rest, so we made em look chunky and relatively unbroken by detail.

I might be mis-interpreting you, but do you mean bump additional crab-plate-like chunks out of the arm? If not, well, here's some pictures you could draw the modifications onto if you like.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/Lucifer/LuciferArms2.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/Lucifer/LuciferArms3.jpg

You *did* get me right.
However upon closer examination of the pics above I saw that to an extent you already did that.

The only improovement I can see would be tinkering with the edge on the side of the arm - bevel/extrude it so, that we can see an edge.
A fat, massive edge where the armor finally reveals the massive heat-sinks the gun reallies on. (IMHO that's the glowing stuff on the side)

[Col. Fishguts]

It would look better if the red glowing parts on the arms were completely in the recessed area, and not on the raised plates too.

[Roanoke]

Originally posted by TrashMan
Well, i have made it look how *I* think it would look with 5000 polys. So what's hte problem?

Originally posted by StratComm
That would be something if it weren't too similar to the retail hecate; a lot of regions recieved absolutely no detailing. I'm also not really thrilled with the addition of two new textures (neither of which fit the model IMHO, especially the Orion deck lights) and quite frankly that "upgrade" is nothing compared to either of the two other HTL Hecates currently out there in progress. And the others didn't add extra turrets for no good reason (I know they won't fire. But they still show up on the model.)

I'm beginning to think you two might be married

[TrashMan]

Damn! They're on to us!

[Vasudan Admiral]

Originally posted by Col. Fishguts
It would look better if the red glowing parts on the arms were completely in the recessed area, and not on the raised plates too.

Comes from recessing an area involving a glow on the textures I'm afraid - not much more I can do about it than what I already did. The third pic shows best where the glow area is on the raised plates still. There's not much of it, and so it shouldn't really be noticable in-game though.

Originally posted by Flaser
The only improovement I can see would be tinkering with the edge on the side of the arm - bevel/extrude it so, that we can see an edge.
A fat, massive edge where the armor finally reveals the massive heat-sinks the gun reallies on. (IMHO that's the glowing stuff on the side)

Uhh, sorry, but I'm quite lost.
Can you ms-paint it or something if possible? :\

[Fearless Leader]

non relevant comment

[Galemp]

I think he means that instead of the arm bending like this: \/
He wants you to chamfer the edge, like this: \_/
But not much.

[achtung]

I can't get over the fact that that aeolus looks like something straight out of Doom 3 (Graphics quality and General looks wise)

The other models are superb!:yes:

[Vasudan Admiral]

Hmm, it seems I'm about to run out of bandwidth on my freewebs account. Can anyone else host the files till at least the 21st of October? I expect them to go offline any day now.

Thanks.

I think he means that instead of the arm bending like this: \/
He wants you to chamfer the edge, like this: \_/
But not much.

It's already beveled not much on the tops (and sides to some extent) of the arms though. :\

[redmenace]

I'll talk to inquisitor about mirroring them off of warpcore