[SPECTRE87]

Hi, first post here...

I'm just another fan of the Freespace games and just like the rest of you folks I've been pretty tired to see how badly the game has fallen behind, visually, compared to the awesome graphics we see to day, and sadly no gaming company has a place in their heart for us Space-Sim fans anymore, which is a shame really... Anyhow I decided to re-model the Orion-class Destroyer from the bottom up using SketchUp and a few reference pictures coupled with my own imagination of what the Orion should be like - Given enough polygons.

Hope you'll like it, and hope it's not too over detailed to be useful... My best guest puts it around 40-50k polygons.






So far the weapons are also 100% custom, but this can of cause easily change as they have been made as separate objects...

[Rodo]

hey that's nice! I like it 

[IceFire]

Looks really good!

[Droid803]

Nice!  I like what you did there with the antennae.

I wish someone would do something that wasn't already done before...twice...though.
Oh well, I can dream on I guess.

[Galemp]

VERY impressive!

Wait till Goober sees this. He's been pushing harder than anyone else for a new Orion.

[StarSlayer]

Heh nice to see you made the jump over from SFM.  Looks good.

[Unknown Target]

VERY impressive!

Wait till Goober sees this. He's been pushing harder than anyone else for a new Orion.

Unfortunately, since it's a Sketchup mesh, it's pretty much useless in a game engine.

Still, nice work, very nice model/design.

[Goober5000]

Hey, awesome!  This looks very impressive, especially for a newbie!  Welcome, and great job.

There are a few places where this looks weird, or not quite right -- most notably the engines and back-top slope.  But overall I like it.

[Woolie Wool]

VERY impressive!

Wait till Goober sees this. He's been pushing harder than anyone else for a new Orion.

What's wrong with the two versions done by you and Trashman? Not that it's not a great mesh, but it's effort better spent on the Colossus or Hatshepsut.

VERY impressive!

Wait till Goober sees this. He's been pushing harder than anyone else for a new Orion.

Unfortunately, since it's a Sketchup mesh, it's pretty much useless in a game engine.

Still, nice work, very nice model/design.

Why is Sketchup useless, exactly? Can its models not be converted like models from Blender, Max, Truespace, or even Rhino?

[General Battuta]

Hi, first post here...

I'm just another fan of the Freespace games and just like the rest of you folks I've been pretty tired to see how badly the game has fallen behind, visually, compared to the awesome graphics we see to day, and sadly no gaming company has a place in their heart for us Space-Sim fans anymore, which is a shame really... Anyhow I decided to re-model the Orion-class Destroyer from the bottom up using SketchUp and a few reference pictures coupled with my own imagination of what the Orion should be like - Given enough polygons

Have you played the game with the MediaVPs turned on? It doesn't look much (if any) shabbier than modern games in most respects.

[kalnaren]

Not bad at all. Has a very star warsy look to it. Not sure if I personally like it or not (I almost like the original orion better than the new one), but nonetheless excellent work.

[Herra Tohtori]

Why is Sketchup useless, exactly? Can its models not be converted like models from Blender, Max, Truespace, or even Rhino?

It tends to create all kinds of wonky autogenerated polygons inside the mesh and leave holes to the main mesh and converting it is a pain in the ass, from what I've heard, and from my limited attempts at doodling something in sketchup I can say I would probably agree.

It's great for simple stuff like simplified houses, but try and create anything more complex on it and you'll be sweating acid and crying caustic soda after a while of fighting the system that wants to make a face to every full "circle" you draw.

[Galemp]

What's wrong with the two versions done by you and Trashman? Not that it's not a great mesh, but it's effort better spent on the Colossus or Hatshepsut.

First, that was Bobboau's mesh, I just textured it. Second... I'm spending some effort on the Colossus. See below.

Why is Sketchup useless, exactly? Can its models not be converted like models from Blender, Max, Truespace, or even Rhino?

As Herra stated, models made in SketchUp don't translate well to real-time rendering. I've been spending a few hours just cleaning up the Colossus (which was done in SketchUp) and it's quite tedious.

[blowfish]

I thought the Colossus was made in Cinema 4d...

[Galemp]

Maybe it was... but it's still a mess.

[blowfish]

Maybe it was... but it's still a mess.

I've seen the model.  I know...

[SPECTRE87]

I've made a couple of larger and more detailed models for another independent MMO, which didn't have any problems in converting skp. files into 3DS. However I have heard about the export problems before but my later models weren't the ones that was causing pain among the developers. Anyhow what kind of polygon budget are you guys working on for the ship classes?

[Dilmah G]

Wow, that looks *Borat Voice* "Highly sexual"

Although the rounded back isn't something I'm a fan of, it still looks great.

[Hellstryker]

How many times do me and blowfish have to go over this? If you've got weird faces inside your model in SU, then you're doing something wrong. Exporting in 3ds format exports with no problems, and you need only find somebody who has SU pro or download the trial. That said, it's not the best program feature wise. You're going to want to use something else if you're working on a more rounded ship. (Well, UT Managed to do it, but I have no idea how, and I imagine the process is long and frustrating).

That said, the model itself is gorgeous. Send it to me and i'll sort out any errors and convert it to .3ds for somebody to UV map and texture. 

[SPECTRE87]

Well, I'm interested in knowing the exact poly-count and of cause if it can be successfully exported without too much pain and frustration.
So, you you guys have a FTP server I can upload it to?