[maje]

So, um.....YEAH.    I actually have no idea why I picked this, of all ships to model.  If anyone's ever played X-wing vs. TIE Fighter or X-wing Alliance, you know that these ships are virtually death-traps whose shields may very well be non-existant (I'd rather fly a TIE Fighter then one of these things, at least the cannons are mounted in a decent position where you're more probable to hit your target).

Anywho.  It's been a while since I've modeled anything for game engine, and even longer since I've used 3DS Max for doing it, so here goes.











So, there you have it.  Granted, it's still missing things like a PILOT, fully decked out cockpit interior, and a few other misc. details, but in general, this probably the equivalent of maybe 8 or 9 hours of modeling, plus refamiliarizing myself with how Max operates (I'm primarily a Maya user).

There are probably a whole slew of polygons I can get rid of on the fly to make this baby more mesh efficient.  Likewise, if anyone can spot any errors or trouble-spots, please go right ahead.  Last time I modeled anything for a game engine was for a college-level Half-life 2 mod for class, and last time I implemented anything into a game engine itself was the year before that for Unreal 2K4 (and before that, X-wing Alliance for the XWAU).

Speaking of which, if any of you guys still play XWA, or visit www.xwaupgrade.com, I went by the name Admiral Andy and had made some models of the Supa Fighter, MC40a Lulsla-class cruiser, Mobquet Transport, Utility TUG, and space mines (those were my first models and textures, made in Rhino and Fireworks).

Granted, that stuff is hopelessly outdated, and I can do much better now.

[chief1983]

Wow, pretty nice.  The hump behind the cockpit needs some smoothing work I think though.  The cockpit itself may too, can't tell with the glass though.  All in all though, I think it does the ship justice.  There's a few missing features though, like the missile launcher tubes, I would like to see in the mesh.  May not be necessary with the new map support though.  I've played well more than my share of XvT on the Zone and actually preferred a game of Z's, mostly because they're one of the only ships I can do better than 1:1 in.  Are you going to be texturing it too?

[Snail]

Shouldn't it be triangulated?

[chief1983]

I think it is, but the renderer probably just doesn't show them.

[maje]

No, I'll carve the missile launchers into the mesh.  I might add a panel or two on the wings as well.

The only thing I'm not sure about is just how picky FS2 is with importing ships.  Is it any more of a pain then XWA is?  I think it should be okay.  I may make the hump a seperate mesh all together so I can just add poly rows where needed and not have that effect the main fuselage.  I'll have to see how it all works out.  How detailed should the cockpit interior be?  I'm thinking basic pilot's seat, and the general shape of the  console, and maybe the flight controls similar to that of the X-wings.  Also, should the Z-95 have the canopy brace?  I've seen some with it, and some without and have always attributed that to artistic interpretation.  Modeling it is no big deal.

After the modeling is all done, UV Unwraps ahoy, and then Texture painting.  Btw, is there a specific number of LODs that fighters should have?

After this is done, I might have a go at any priority 1 ships for texturing and UV-unwraps.

Speaking of which, in order to use the UV Maps, I'm thinking of about either two or three layouts.  I believe the cockpit interior should be its own seperate map (512 square), whereas main fuselage and everything else could be on a 1024 Square Map or two.  Is that unreasonable or should I consider smaller map sizes?

[chief1983]

There's really probably going to be two cockpits, one that everyone else sees, and one for people to see when using the draw ship commandline option, so that they see it as their own cockpit.  It will be a much higher detailed version of what everyone else will see flying around.  The internal one should probably be a detail box, and the externally visible one should too possibly, with different settings.  I think those are reasonable sizes, but remember that with the new mapping support, you'll have 4 or more textures of that size for each ship.  base, shine, possibly glow, normal, height, etc...

FS2 is fairly picky about ships, at least make sure you have an airtight mesh, and once you have it exported to pof, try to run it through the most recent build of PCS2.  It will tell you if there are any mesh errors, and when 2.1 comes out it will have error highlighting.

[MI123645]

Admiral Andy?

Holy hell man, I thoguht you were gone. You probably won't recognize me though.

Good to see you here. And it looks like you're better than ever before.

[Herra Tohtori]

Weren't the wings a bit shorter and thinner as well as somewhat wider at roots in XvT...?



Although, most of the other references seem to be having similar rectangular wings as this... and the XvT models are really low res. At any rate, these seem like orthographic shots which tends to make me see things look like something else than how they are... could we get a few perspective shots as well?

[spartan_0214]

Weren't the wings a bit shorter and thinner as well as somewhat wider at roots in XvT...?

Yes, but in canon, the wings are thicker.

[Herra Tohtori]

Ah, I thought it might be the case... I suppose TotallyGames thought the ship looked better with smaller wings (they're almost bare winglets in the game...) or something.

Where does the canon Z-95 appear in pictures, though? Some SW tech book or a comic book? I don't remember seeing it in any of the original trilogy movies, and I haven't really read either tech books or the comics...

[spartan_0214]

IIRC, it's in the Guide to Vehicles and Vessels...

Edit: It is, but here's a better picture:

[maje]

The Z-95 was based off of some old concept sketches for the X-wing before it reached a finalized version, so you won't see it any of the movies.  As for this model, I pretty much used the first edition of the EGVV to get my profile views, though it should be noted that there are certain features that simply don't line up properly.  Thankfully, the internet has access to hundred of kitbashed Z-95s out there to use as reference for certain features and to get a better idea on how to approach modeling different parts.

Herra Tohtori- originally I thought that the Z-95 had sleaker wings, more resembling that of an X-wing, but as it turns out, the Headhunter A4s are pretty rectangular.  In all honesty, I think that's a good thing, as it's just one of the many little things that makes it look less advanced compared to the X-wing.

MI123645- you're right I don't recognize you.  Sorry!    What was your name on the X-wing Alliance Upgrade forums?  I might remember it, though last time I posted there was about 5 or so years ago.  I still sometimes lurk in.  Can't believe that it's still going with over 50% done.

Anyhow, I've got 10 hours of joy working tomorrow, so the most I'll have done for Sunday will be mesh-cleanups, and maybe a few more details.
I want to see if I can get this in FS2 and just see how bad open/closed edges affect rendering.  As soon as I know I can get it in, I'll finish up any leftover modeling, and try to get this all textured up.

[spartan_0214]

In all honesty, I think that's a good thing, as it's just one of the many little things that makes it look less advanced compared to the X-wing.

You do know that aerodynamics doesn't matter in space, right?

[maje]

you're aware that the Z-95 is also configured to fly in a planetary atmosphere, never mind the fact that Star Wars Physics and Newtonian Physics are two different things, right?  (I kid, I kid)  .

Anyways, I've spent some time going over how to get ships into Freespace 2, and so far, from my test of converting the fuselage into a .pof, I seem to be on track.  I've also taken a look at some of the models used for the Battlestar Galactica MOD, mainly the Mark VII Viper and noticed that the cockpit interior and canopy glass seem to all have open-edges, and thus I am wondering if those will be applicable in how our cockpit interiors and canopy glass will be modeled?  It seems like a waste to create the glass and bump up the poly count by a little over two times just to make sure that the mesh is closed.

Well, among other things, I also made a little bit of progress in mesh refinement and some detail additions.

[Titan]

purty. you know, for a while (along with the Y) the Headhunter was the rebellion's primary small craft.... give it some respect. it got the job done.

[jr2]

  Beggars can't be choosers. 

[TopAce]

The Z-95 is an adequate ship. It's maneuverable, something that is important against TIEs.

[jr2]

Yea... but the TIEs have an insane rate of fire.  So, if you screw up once, you're dead.  Because, based on what I'm reading here, the Z-95 had crap armor and shields.  I mean, if an X-Wing goes down with a few bursts, then I guess a Z-95 goes down in one or two shots, right?

[TopAce]

Yes, but while the Z-95 gets one hit by an ace, an X-wing is hit ten times by a drunken half-blind Imperial rookie.

[Vasudan Admiral]

There's really probably going to be two cockpits, one that everyone else sees, and one for people to see when using the draw ship commandline option, so that they see it as their own cockpit.  It will be a much higher detailed version of what everyone else will see flying around.  The internal one should probably be a detail box, and the externally visible one should too possibly, with different settings.  I think those are reasonable sizes, but remember that with the new mapping support, you'll have 4 or more textures of that size for each ship.  base, shine, possibly glow, normal, height, etc...

For cockpits to work nicely, we need some new SCP features. There's a discussion on the topic going on in FS modding: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50349.0.html but if the SWC plans on using cockpits like that, could you add it to the list of supporting mods in the feature request page? The more major supporting mods a feature has, the more likely it is to be implemented.