[blowfish]

You know, the scale of the ship is dependent on very little.  Textures, turrets, even a lot of POF data can be done without even worrying about the scale.  What I'm trying to say is - it might be acceptable to have two versions - one destroyer scale and one smaller (though for a full destroyer it would benefit from a few more turrets on its broadside...)

And for anyone wondering, I'm pretty sure that the holes in the front of the engine nacelles are intended to be hangar entrances.

[Angelus]

You know, the scale of the ship is dependent on very little.  Textures, turrets, even a lot of POF data can be done without even worrying about the scale.  What I'm trying to say is - it might be acceptable to have two versions - one destroyer scale and one smaller (though for a full destroyer it would benefit from a few more turrets on its broadside...)

And for anyone wondering, I'm pretty sure that the holes in the front of the engine nacelles are intended to be hangar entrances.

Sounds like an Plan, but assuming there are going to be 2 versions, i suggest to alter the smaller version.
Having a exact copy isn't a good idea, and i don't mean only different textures.
The Hangar thingies should be closed, turrets placed in different places, the missile launchers removed and some small changes to the overall geometry.
Just my 2 cents.

[Snail]

Yeah on the frigate sized version, the hangars would probably not make much sense at all.

[FelixJim]

A small hangar for a wing or two could still be useful for minor repairs in the field and such, if a frigate + fighter support team was to be away from anything destroyer or larger size for any length of time.

[General Battuta]

Or escape pods!

Keep those hangars.

[Woolie Wool]

Yeah on the frigate sized version, the hangars would probably not make much sense at all.

Why? The USS Nimitz is smaller than an FS2 cruiser but can hold around 80 aircraft. The proportion of a destroyer's space devoted to fighters is probably rather small.

[Spoon]

This ship wouldn't happen to come in a more... managable format?

[headdie]

I'v imported it to blender but have yet to set the object tree back up, what format do you need?

edit:

I have noticed there is a minor issue with the geometry, the heavy plating along the upper central region is not symmetrical as there is a space missing, the geometry work has been started but it needs a few faces deleting to finish it

[Spoon]

If I import .3ds in max it becomes an editable mesh which is a mess to work with. Is this not the case for Blender?

[Angelus]

If I import .3ds in max it becomes an editable mesh which is a mess to work with. Is this not the case for Blender?

can you be more specific?

[headdie]

if there was material information and a properly set up object tree blander hasn't picked it up but everything is in separate objects where you would expect so I wont have to hack the model into pieces to make the different parts work as shown below.  sorting the geometry tree out is going to be a pain (edit: due to the number of turrets) but not difficult.   Hull1_FrontCol is the name of the main object.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Spoon]

If I import .3ds in max it becomes an editable mesh which is a mess to work with. Is this not the case for Blender?

can you be more specific?

About how much of a mess it is to work with?
Well for one, every single polygon seem to act like its a seperate object, its no longer attached to the ones next to it. Unwrapping it for a map produces a puzzle of hunderds of seperate little faces etc.
In short, its uneditable for me.

[headdie]

looks like it does but in blender select all and remove doubles tools fixed all but a few small regions which didn't join for some reason

[Scooby_Doo]

If I import .3ds in max it becomes an editable mesh which is a mess to work with. Is this not the case for Blender?

That's how 3ds files are imported.  You can then switch it over to poly if you need to.

[blowfish]

Well for one, every single polygon seem to act like its a seperate object, its no longer attached to the ones next to it. Unwrapping it for a map produces a puzzle of hunderds of seperate little faces etc.
In short, its uneditable for me.

3ds file split everything like that.  I'm not sure how you remove duplicate vertices in max so just listen to Scooby

if there was material information and a properly set up object tree blander hasn't picked it

There was never any material or uv information.

[Scooby_Doo]

Conversions are always a pain in the butt.  The easiest way to fix the broken up vertices is to go into vertex mode, select all the vertices, try using weld selected threshold at  0.01.  (in Edit Mesh it's the 0.1 thats right next to Weld->Selected,  in Edit Poly, it's the box thats right next to Edit Vertices->Weld).  That should get the vertex count down to normal.  (if it combines vertices that it shouldn't, use a smaller number).   


Also if you use polygon mode normally, you'll want to remove the unnecessary edges.  The easiest way to do that is to go into Edge mode in Edit Mesh, then select all the edges, and finally Surface Properties->Auto Edge choose something like 6 instead of 24 [for the angle], then click Auto Edge.   It's not 100% fool proof, but it'll get rid of a lot of unnecessary edges.  If it gets rid of some that are actually required, you should be able to go into Edit Mesh->enter Edge Mode, select the edge and click Surface Properties->Visible.

[Spoon]

Thanks Scoob, that helped!

[Commander Zane]

I've been wondering how things were going with the Capella, has a verdict been reached on its class?