[Descenter]

Take this model, clean it up a little, and put a default texture, (or make up textures for it as long as I get the finished product), to this ship?  I made it in Google SketchUp, got it converted to 3ds max format, but I don't have 3Ds Max of any type to make it cleaner, or add the textures to it.  If someone could do this for me, I would greatly appreciate it. 

Here's the files: http://www.geocities.com/deacenter6/MyUntitledShip.zip

     Includes model, and what it should look like in the end.

One last note if for some reason someone chooses to use this model, just credit me for making it.

[Turey]

7zip doesn't like your .zip file. try making it again.

Normally I'm busy with my own stuff, but I'll consider doing this because it's such a small job.

[Scooby_Doo]

Winrar doesn't like it either.

[bizzybody]

WinZip 8.1 was able to pull the model and some of the screenshots out, so here's just the model.

Wayyy too many polies on it for what it is. The upper wing-ish structure needs to be more than just a single plane thick. I could subtract a cube in trueSpace 6.6 and get rid of all the triangulation on perfectly flat faces, but that broke it by making it non-solid, and flipped most of the normals backwards. (Could be a run through a converter like Polytrans would take acre of these problems.)

Those round barreled gun/launcher things are where a lot of the excess polygons reside. Also, they look like they're aimed at the bridge!    If they're meant to be turrets, they need to be completely seperate objects.

A nice overall design but needs some more work, especially some rethink in the weaponry areas.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Turey]

i opened this up in max just now and i can tell you one thing:

all those weapons have got to go. right now.

either you remake them in sketch-up with all the normals correct and see if it converts okay, or you go download Truespace and redo the weapons in the Worst Modelling Program Known to Man^tm.

quite honestly, I don't know if i could even select all the faces that need to have their normals flipped, much less UV map those monsters.

and bizzybody's right, those missle launchers are pointing directly at the bridge:



Missile operator: Sir, we have a problem.
Supervisor: What is it?
Missile operator: You know that Dragon that just flew past? The one with "/V\Y /V4/V\3 15 (4r|_" spraypainted on the side?
Supervisor: yeah.
Missile operator: Well, the shivan inside flipped me off.
Supervisor: so?
Missile operator: So i got mad and accidentally hit the "missile launch" button.
Supervisor: did you get him?
Missile operator: Sir, we didn't have a missile lock.
Supervisor: OH SHI- *bridge blows up*



 

[Descenter]

Ok......the thing is I suck at moddeling right now anyhow.  Considering this is only my 3rd model, I do think I'm making progess.  That is also why I asked if someone could clean it up a little and make it compatible with the game.  BTW I did know about the missles, just didnt really didn't want to bother fixing it at that moment.

[Turey]

Ok......the thing is I suck at moddeling right now anyhow.  Considering this is only my 3rd model, I do think I'm making progess.  That is also why I asked if someone could clean it up a little and make it compatible with the game.  BTW I did know about the missles, just didnt really didn't want to bother fixing it at that moment.

your third model? not bad at all. I'd start out with a fighter and work my way up though. That's the way I'm doing it.

It's so much easier to work on a model when it's smaller.

I recomend you model with Truespace instead of sketchup, as it will give you a fast in game route (you'll be able to set up the model as you make it.)

then, when you have the money for 3ds max, you be amazed at how good you are in an intuitive, easy to use modelling program.

[Descenter]

Yeah well, I don't have the money now for either Truespace or 3Ds MAX.  Sketchup is free, so long as you don't have the Pro version.  (On a side note, you have to have the Pro Ver. to convert to .3ds files)  There is a trial for the pro, which is an 8 hour trial, which not contiuous with the system clock, only when its running.  So what I have been doing is using the free version to create the models, then converting them with the Pro trial version.

Now......If I can get a free full version of a either Truespace, or 3Ds Max, I would be happy to download it and do this stuff on my own.....

[Turey]

Now......If I can get a free full version of a either Truespace, or 3Ds Max, I would be happy to download it and do this stuff on my own.....

Truespace 3.2 is free.

download here.

register again here if the first link doesn't give you a serial number.

[Scooby_Doo]

Theres also Blender which is free.

[Turey]

Alright, so I opened up the newer version you sent me, and i learned very quickly to hate the menace that is sketchup.

First, I went to work flipping normals. I was keeping track of how many normals I flipped, but I lost count at 932. 

and then..... I tried to autogenerate a UV map. 

THAT THING HAS 3266 TRIANGLES!

Words can't do justice to the horror of that UV map.

So here, for your viewing horror, is that UV map:

Click for full size.


and you know what? those two missle launchers are 47% OF THOSE TRIANGLES! A TOTAL OF 1547 TRIANGLES!

So i'm making two versions. Here's the .3ds with the normals fixed and (hopefully) a basic material applied. I'm still working on the one that will be UV mapped and converted into a .pof, because I need to redo those missile launchers. Don't worry, I'm staying as close to the original as posible.

btw, none of this post was written with the intent of insulting you. I like your model, it's sketchup i hate.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Raptor]

either you remake them in sketch-up with all the normals correct and see if it converts okay, or you go download Truespace and redo the weapons in the Worst Modelling Program Known to Man^tm.

In your opinion.  I use TS, and I find it very simple and easy to use.  Okay, certain things are an issue, but 99.9% of the time, I'm perfectly content with it.

It all depends on personal perferance.

And now that I've posted, this thread will die... :

[Scooby_Doo]

Turey did you try to weld the vertices together?

[Col. Fishguts]

For you third model it's not bad. But in its current form it's beyond hope to get ingame, the whole cockpit area is fubar. The rear section is alright though.

I would avoid TrueSpace like the plague, but as you see there are people here with other opinions

Blender is highly recommended and free.

[Descenter]

Actually im wondering if the conversion from .sku to .3ds made thoes triangles from the squares there.  I say this because in Sketchup, there are not many tiangles that I can see.  In fact they should mostly be quadrilaterals.

BTW I like what you have named the map file.

[Turey]

yup. They're just far enough apart that welding the vertecies doesn't do much good. it does shrink the num of verts from 5106 to 1602.

however, it only removes 5 triangles, and the new UV map still looks horrible:

Click for full size. It looks better on the white background as well.

i was planning on welding at the end. that's when i normally do it anyways. never know when a few extra verts could come in handy...


EDIT:

Actually im wondering if the conversion from .sku to .3ds made thoes triangles from the squares there.  I say this because in Sketchup, there are not many tiangles that I can see.  In fact they should mostly be quadrilaterals.

BTW I like what you have named the map file.

yeah, that's probably what happened. most 3d formats don't like four sided figures. While .3ds is normally fine with them, .pof hates them, so you'd get that effect anways.

the trick is to leave the part under the cockpit there, then make the cockpit hover above the quad a bit. As long as you don't break the surface, you actually use less triangles. Extruding from a face causes the triangulation on that face to go all weird, while making another part to the model and hovering it .0000000000000000001 meters above the main body doesn't change the triangulation of the main face.

it's a dificult concept to explain.


and yes, i like that name too. 

[Scooby_Doo]

Not sure where the heck all those rectangles are coming from but beside that, it doesn't look too bad.  I have a feeling its from the programs bevel/extrude control.

[bizzybody]

In trueSpace 6.6 (didn't try it in 3.2), boolean subtracting a cube (that's not intersecting the model) with delete edges selected (default setting) will clear away all the triangulation anywhere the poly either side of the edge is in the same plane.

That drastically cuts down the number of faces. Unfortunately what buggers the process are those single sided upper rear wings. To start with, the normals on a few of the missile launcher barrels are backwards. Those one sided faces make trueSpace go gaga and flip all the normals, which makes only the initial backwards ones the right way around.

Reverting that is as easy as hitting the Flip All Normals button, which gets back to the starting condition.

But still more unfortunately, those upper wings screw things up and cause tS to see the model as non-solid after the subtract, and tS can't do much with non-solid models. However, if you can find the hole(s) and select all the edges around them, tS 6.6 has an Add Face button that'll fix it. I don't remember when that was added, don't know if it was somewhere in the 4.x series or 5.x. Of all the advances in 3.2 (like cubic UV!), hole repair was sorely missed.

Probably the best solution is for the a bit of rework to be done in sketchup. Axe the missile launchers completely as well as the large collections of square-tube cannons at each side, and especially fix those upper wings.

[Descenter]

Oh forgot to mention that i did do a little rework on the single sided wings and the launchers.  Turney has the model uploaded already a few posts up.

[Turey]

bizzybody,

I fixed all the normals. and the wings are actually box-like things (they're not a single face.)

go grab the updated file from my post.

and the railgun-like things actually aren't that bad. He was very smart to make those square, as otherwise you'd be right. The two main problem areas are the missile launchers and the cockpit.

In trueSpace 6.6 (didn't try it in 3.2), boolean subtracting a cube (that's not intersecting the model) with delete edges selected (default setting) will clear away all the triangulation anywhere the poly either side of the edge is in the same plane.

yes, but PCS or Modelview will just re-triangulate it (because Freespace needs it that way) and then you're back where you started.

scooby's right, the only way to counteract this is through limiting the use of the extrude and bevel tools.