[Scooby_Doo]

Alrighty next release:

same as with the raptor.rar
excalibur2.rar comes with two file:
          excalibur2.vp       = contains data specific to this model (model pof and main textures)
          additional.vp        = contains shared data that this model and future releases will use (common textures like cockpit, weapons, and sounds...)

Also included is a couple of missions (a modified Lion at the Door, letting you fly the Excal. and a simple viewing map)

Models specs:
32meters
LOD 0 = 2365 polys according to truespace
LOD 1 = 1443
LOD 2 = 961
LOD 3 = 135

• 1 main textures used (1024*1048 at LOD 0) each halving for each additional lod
• 8? small additional shared textures (cockpit, pilot, glass....etc)
• This model was based off the if I remember correctly, the Homeworld's WC Excalibur mod.
• Engine been reconfigured
• Cockpit hull and engine hull unified
• Several meters shorter
• Carries 2 gun mounts (4,3)
• Carries 3 missile mounts (1, 1, 2)

The next release will be a built from scratch Encantona.
btw do the engine inlet glows look better now than with the raptor?

Enjoy
http://rapidshare.de/files/15135900/Excalibur2.rar.html

[Flipside]

Looks very nice indeed, though be careful of falling too far into a single modelling style, whilst that's certainly more 'real' from an engineering point of view, people like variations in their game

The Cockpit looks good, if a little Lo-Res, but that's always been my problem with 3D Cockpits, what size texture are you using for that?

[Scooby_Doo]

The image was 512*512.

I did a little work there upped the res to 1024*1024, replaced the panel.  The canopy frame got a new larger texture and I like it. I do have a question though.. is it possible to have the HUD defined on a per ship basis now? I remember there was talk about implementing it last year.

Detail work can come latter, as long as the UV cords don't change all the ships use the same cockpit, so changes are easy to do.

[Getter Robo G]

I would suggest posting a thread in the Wing Commander forum to get Starman and Lar's input. Plus you get to see what they've got planned for ships/cockpits, maybe they got some tips.

Looks good but the bottom still looks pixelated.

[Fineus]

You're definitely doing some great work there. That's exactly what I figured a cockpit should look like on a starfighter (a little more sci-fi would be nice but whatever). Nice stuff.

[Scooby_Doo]

Opps let me restate... the entire cockpit (minus the pilot and chair) was 512*512 now at 1024*1024 (although i suppose i could drop it back down again)

Heres some more updates... took all afternoon, I seperated the hud console (what is it really called?) from the cockpit and placed a 1024*512 map just for it.  Found a really nice F-16 on google and did some "sci-fi"ing to it.

It would look a lot better if I could move the helmit hud info onto the panels, at least the your ship and targetted ship's shield info

[Flipside]

That looks very nice indeed! I agree with you, it will be great once we get a way of applying the Hub gauges to textures in the Cockpit, that way you could seperate out polies for the Radar and other displays and apply the gauges to them.

[Scooby_Doo]

Outside the fact that space sims seem to be fast/action oriented, one could also put lighting effects on the console buttons to a variety of things... like match speed light, and  double image for switches (on/off), would work great on slow paced games like flight sims.

[Scooby_Doo]

There seems to be a problem with the ship model or the game. Freespace locks up after a few minutes into a battle. However, the latest build 20060306 seems to solve that problem.

[Cobra]

Isn't that an F-16 cockpit?

i like it, though.

[Solatar]

Are these original models, heavily modified existing models, or hi-polied existing ones?

In any case, they are very nice.

[Scooby_Doo]

Cobra:
Yup thats a modified F-16 display... I couldn't find any good F-22 consoles :-(

Solatar:
So far these two (Excal and Raptor) are heavily modified versions, I don't think they had any texturing or UV done, so that was hand made.  The next one I'll release will be scratch built from a couple of images.

[taylor]

1 main textures used (1024*1048 at LOD 0) each halving for each additional lod

If you are using mipmaps then DON'T make more than one map.  UV map the same texture for LOD0, LOD1 and LOD2 so that you have only the one texture map period (except for the extras that you are using).  So basically what I'm saying is that you currently have 0-Excal0.dds, 1-Excal0.dds & 2-Excal0.dds and you should only be using the 0-Excal0.dds one for the other LODs too.  Same for the shine and glow maps for those.  The mipmaps will then automatically provide you with the smaller versions of the textures.

See: Creating efficient models, a coders point of view...

Also, you should avoid using PCX textures like the plague.  glass1.pcx should be a DXT3 image, with the alpha, and glass1-shine.pcx should probably be DXT1.  That will enable the use of mipmaps for those images and reduce the size of the file in memory by as much as 75%.

[Scooby_Doo]

Sweet that'll make my life easier.  I was misreading how it handled mipmaps... I thought it was in-between lod levels (Lod 0-mip0, lod0-mip1..., lod1-mip0....)
and finally figured out how to make transparent DXT3 (the images were Indexed and not RGB)

Also found the cause of the weirdness in the shine-maps, now all I need is bumpmap support.

[Scooby_Doo]

Heres another finished model... I'm going to look for someplace better than rapidshare to store the models...

The Encantona

[Unknown Target]

I think I like that one the best...and I'm really fond of your cockpits. They're like the one's I've always wanted to do/done in my models;  they look very good, I'm loving them
Why the D-Day stripes though?

[Scooby_Doo]

LOL not sure about the black/white stripes myself, if you look at my first message, a lot of the fighters have that stripe.  I must have seen it somewheres and just went with it...


and for something different...
the Goran (I just need to convert it to pof again)

[Scooby_Doo]

Btw the Ecantona (which is the correct spelling opps) was based off this image:


and the Goran:

[Scooby_Doo]

Now introducing the Goran....
Think I'll work on the corvette... errrr cruiser next, see if I can figure out whats wrong with the turrets.

[Flipside]

Great Stuff! And well done on making thenews on the front page

Yeah, turrets seems to be a real pain for anyone who makes them, I think that's why more people make fighters than capships to be honest, In theory, they should be easy to do, in practice, they are a pain in the bum.