[Snail]

Found this monstrosity on the Volition site (yes, I know, I have no life, etc, etc)

Thought it might inspire someone to do a HTL Ulysses since the Ulysses was really lacking detail which was holding it back. Well here's your HTL model (if only 'd release all this sh1t then we wouldn't need to do it)!

[Einstine909]

i would try that... but i use blender, i cant figure how to get the proper hierarchy with it to export to PCS. VA mentioned that everything could be done in blender, but i havent seen anything yet. He uses blender though, so mabey if i model it he will do the rest. or ill PM him, and see how he does it.

[Vasudan Admiral]

It'll be in the upcoming tutorial, but I'll answer any questions you have any time.

Quoted from a previous thread:



There is a way to get your Blender models into TS ready for hierarchy conversion. It will require that you set up your parts so they look something like this in Blenders outliner view:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/BlenderTutorialStuff/OutlinerView.jpg

Notice that there's no hierarchy there. I did a lot of exporting experimentation and found that none of the formats will preserve that, so there's no point in assembling it in Blender.  TS is actually better for that bit anyway.

So, once I'm at that stage, I export it as a DirectX .X file (just press the export all button). From there, open it up in 3d exploration (D/L it here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/Downloads/3DExplorer_v181.rar) and re-save it as a COB.
Because of Truespace' crappy importing, that's the only way you can get it to keep the objects separate. You'll still lose the object names and centres, but it's not too hard to figure them out again and they will retain their textures, positions relative to each other, and you'd have to redo their centres anyway.

Opening it up in TS, you'll see something like this in the scene editor: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/VA--Twisted_Infinities/BlenderTutorialStuff/TS_ImportedHeirarchy.jpg

From there just figure out what is what, set it up in TS as you would any other ships hierarchy, save to COB or SCN and convert using TS. Have a look at Karajorma's turreting tutorial for more help there.

[Solatar]

A question about the Ulysses that's always been bugging me, but now that we might get a cockpit for it it's time to decide: Is the Ulysses cockpit a sit-down cockpit like most of the other FS fightercraft, or is it more akin to say...the Myrmidon, with a stand-up cockpit?

[jr2]

I think maybe sit-down TIE fighter-style.  IDK.

(if only 'd release all this sh1t then we wouldn't need to do it)!

has all their FS1 data backed up on tape drives, which have become corrupted.  If you want, I can post it.

[S-99]

That's a kickass ulysses. I'd fly it again if it looked that much more kickass.

[Snail]

I think maybe sit-down TIE fighter-style.  IDK.

(if only 'd release all this sh1t then we wouldn't need to do it)!

has all their FS1 data backed up on tape drives, which have become corrupted.  If you want, I can post it.

TAPE drives? As in floppies?

[taylor]

has all their FS1 data backed up on tape drives, which have become corrupted.  If you want, I can post it.

Do you have images of the tapes, or just copies of the content?  Recreating data like that is far easier to do from full images, at least for me.  I wouldn't mind taking a look at what you've got.  I'm not that great at data recovery, comparatively, but I have had to deal with more than a few occasions where I had to do it (from hard drives, floppies, and particularly tapes).

[RazorsKiss]

I think he was talking about reposting something where V *said* they had it on corrupted tapes.

[taylor]

I think he was talking about reposting something where V *said* they had it on corrupted tapes.

Well, that sucks.  I already knew that much.

I thought that someone had actually gotten ahold of the data so that some sort of recovery could be done.

[jr2]

I wish... I suppose I could contact them & see if they wouldn't mind... eh, but if they did decide to hire data recovery specialists (which they said they were considering), then maybe better let them handle it.  Couldn't hurt to try, though.

[S-99]

You know the response you're going to get from V. Best to let them handle stuff because they are apparently busy people with maintenance stuff for the fs series on the back burner. Best to be a little a bother as possible, and maybe they'll get to it.
Then again some people around here aren't afraid to let loose with messages back to V, so as long as we have those few courageous, we should take advantage of them in a responsible manner.
Really in the forums somebody should put up a stickied thread with all the messages sent to V and all of the replies, so we make sure we don't ask them the same questions a million times over again. I know many on this forum have done so without even thinking about it, and i don't mean one person. One person will send in a question to V, and a new member will join the hlpbb and send in the same question to V. This is just an example, there's other ways this has happened before too, mainly just from normal members with a curiousity not researching the forums to see whether or not that question they have was answered by V or not. Yet again, searching the forums is good.

Speaking of that picture, that's one high detail ulysses, and that's one averagely fs1 non-htl ursa Wierd combination, high not in-game detail, along with average in-game detail (the original non-htl ursa of course).

[Commander Zane]

So it is.

[Snail]

blady blady blady bla bla bla bla blah blady blady blah blah BLAH

Well The Mail Man^TM has gotten a response from before.

[CP5670]

I've thought about contacting Volition on more than one occasion about the high resolution textures and other content that we're missing, after seeing how successful Nix was with the music files. I never had time to write down anything seriously, but now that I'm on break I may give it a try at some point.

[Snail]

I think we should all stop people from mailing and all have our queries sent through a single person so gets to a) know that person and not delete his messages and b) they will stop getting the same request multiple times.

[CP5670]

Nix would be the logical choice there, seeing as he has already dealt with them, but he is quite busy these days.

I think the main thing we could use is the high resolution textures for the FS2-only ships. They were in the FS1 data files but not in FS2. They appear in the cutscenes and a few renders we have, and it's clear that they would provide a tremendous graphical improvement.

The other thing is all the cutscene material, including the various models and background art that was used. I don't know exactly who owns that stuff at this point though. I seem to remember some problem with that being part of the Freespace universe rather than any game, and consequently being Interplay property, although this issue last came up many years ago.

[Snail]

I'd like to see the original Shivan models...

I wonder if they have any unfinished concept models that were abandoned... Those would be seriously treasured by me.

[S-99]

It would now?

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Hmm i see. That would be treasured.

[Snail]

blablablabla BLADY BLADY BLADY BLAH!

Well it's true that they would be treasured since they are actual Volition stuff, not fanmade things. They would be more important than fan models even if they were not completed. They could be early concepts, old models or unfinished stuff. No matter what they are they would be valuable.