[Raven2001]

Can't help you out when it comes to sketchup, because I never used it, sorry

As for the arms, just some minimal detail will suffice, maybe having them in the following shape when they're seen from below:
   _
_/  \_
|_   _|
  \_/

Fear my skillz

[blowfish]

I think I'm over the poly budget right now but will not be able to tell were I stand until its converted. Any one know a quick way of finding out?

A good general rule is to find out SketchUp's polycount and then multiply it by about 2.5 to 3 to figure out the final polycount.

[BrotherBryon]

So by that reckoning I should be sitting somewhere between 6500 - 7000 now that I have eliminated some the excess pollys in the engines. Quick question when you go to export the model where should the ship sit in relation to the axis? I played around with exporting and got it into truespace but the ship was facing a completely different direction and the whole back end was below the plane.

[blowfish]

The axes should be at the center of the model.

[Hellstryker]

Bryon, once you're finished, just give it to me or blowfish and we'll handle conversion. Then we'll have to find someone to texture it... *looks at FS king and begins coughing uncontrolably* 

[Aardwolf]

freespaceking's textures (or at least the ones I've seen, which may be out of date) are kind of ... weird. There are odd little doodads and things that weren't in the original.

[BrotherBryon]

Sitting at around 7000 pollys. What do you all think, Final?

[Vasudan Admiral]

Looks great.

The one thing more I would recommend you do is remove the teeny tiniest details, as those will work better as normal maps, but that's just a minor thing.

[BrotherBryon]

Looks great.

The one thing more I would recommend you do is remove the teeny tiniest details, as those will work better as normal maps, but that's just a minor thing.

So lose the two panels on either side of the top engine and the 4 vents on either side of the hull?

[Aardwolf]

It looks nice. A thought: rather than adding those 2 (4, counting both sides) additional engines on the sides of the side-pods, what about something else to fill the space but not an engine (too many engine glows can look kind of funky).

[Droid803]

The engines are good as-is IMHO.

[Vasudan Admiral]

So lose the two panels on either side of the top engine and the 4 vents on either side of the hull?

No I more meant the tiny little square indents on the outside of the arms - anything bigger is fine, but normal mapping on the tiny bits would look like a little glitch if you could see it at all.

[Raven2001]

Looks gorgeous, get it ingame

[BrotherBryon]

Ok, I've removed the small the indent on the arms and extended the trench to cover the space. I'm thinking of removing the panels on the sides of the top engine as they are probably better handled by the normal map any way. I'll hold on to it for a few more days and If I can't think of anything else send it on to blowfish. Should I do the cargo container as well? It doesn't look like it would need too much more than better textures which I don't know how to do at the moment.

[Mongoose]

Don't remove everything that isn't smooth hull; some of us are stuck without normal maps for the foreseeable future.

[BrotherBryon]

Those 4 panels are kind of skinny and don't protrude out from the hull significantly. They look kind of out place unless I was to go around the entire hull adding slightly raised panels. Besides removing them will give whoever decides to texture this thing more room to play with. That and there is plenty of other details to look at so a few raised panels won't  be missed.

[BrotherBryon]

Unless there are any objections this will be the final. I will send it on to blowfish for conversion tomorrow.

[blowfish]

Still need someone to UV and texture it...

[Raven2001]

No objections from me

[BrotherBryon]

Sent, check your email blowfish. If you notice anything that I could do to make future conversions easier let me know.