I thought I posted a much less detailed explanation before I left the office. Guess not. But yeah, I bet if you turn off shadow casting it will help a lot. Also make sure that the decals didn't get "shmooshed" in the conversion process.
Ooooh. All the markings and window are AâGeocalsAâ. The geometry is 0.1in above the surface. Some of these like the registry and name are a broad surface utilizing an alpha channel in the material.
All of these surfaces should be set to only receive shadows, but not cast shadows. In addition, the name/registry type surfaces use the alpha channel in the specular/diffuse channels to prevent double highlights. The blotchy shadows that may appear on the markings anyway are dealt with in Max with the Shadow Bias settings, which of course will be entirely different in Blender.
Thanks OneBuck. It was a fun project. Good to know its very-latest forward compatible. I only have Max 2008 at work. I'm glad the mesh is getting use and would love to see the images.
I just came across something while looking through my old files you all might get a heartbreaking kick out of. My friend Gillies, who made the concept sketch the Phobos was built from, built a detailed bridge specific for this ship (see attached image).
Sadly before we could upload it for release here on SFM, the disk it was on was somehow ruined and he couldn't find any other copy!!! (He had just moved back from overseas). All that remains is this panoramic image.
Do you think your friend may still have the texture references for the various displays and panels? I realize I'm reaching here, but I figure it's worth a shot to ask...
Not to get too off-topic, but here is my preliminary conversion of Wil Jasper's bridge set. The textures aren't the best, but for this room shot, it does the job (in fact, when I asked Wil about converting this mesh, I asked him for some pointers - he told me to re-texture! heh!)
Looks good, with that styled bridge I always prefered the TMP/Reliant styled chairs to the ones the Enterprise had in TWOK and TSFS, dunno what ship stype your aiming your bridge for but if its not the Enterprise you could mayb use a variation of the older chair.
Coplanar polygon issue:
From your email its sounds like its not (at least entirely) a shadow settings issue with the Markings Mesh, but rather a AâZ-FightingAâ issue.
The 0.1in offset was a minimum distance I found in Max that rendered well. Any less and Z-Fighting could occur. It's possible that Blender's sorting threshold is not as fine. Or as Bill suggested the mesh may have imported with a slight error causing the polygons to become coplanar in places.
A good experiment would be take a piece of the mesh, a small section of dish with the red pin-striping for example, and create a new pin-stripe. My method was to take duplicated polygons from the area, Boolean/ShapeMerge/etc the marking shape, extrude the resulting faces 0.1in, and delete the leftover sides.
If the shimmer/blotchy render disappears then it's a Z-Fighting issue. If not, then it could still be shadow or Z. Maybe try with a 0.2in offset.
Bridge:
Brian and I had lots of Bridge reference way back when. He even built a physical Science Station console for the FASA RPG. The plan was for me to not talk with the players whenever possible, but rather reveal data screens for pre-scripted events or move dials on their console. Thus the players would have to interact more with each other rather than talk through me.
We got pretty elaborate for the game, I even had a music score. But the console idea never got played as we all grow'd up and got busy (see the ReadMe.txt in the model file).
Brian's Bridge image got squeezed down when uploaded. The original is even higher-res. The graphics are crisp, the chairs have a weave texture, and even the walls have a subtle mottle pattern. This was exactly the era style we aimed for. The exterior was styled after TMP, but the rest is all TWOK.
I haven't heard from Brian in over a year. I doubt he has the graphics anymore as they were probably lost with the Max files. He was pretty disappointed and didn't plan to do it over. Last I talked to him he was working in California on the Sam&Max games.
We're getting ahead of ourselves with the Bridge though. Eric still has a ship to convert first.
<snip>... Good to hear Jayru. I tried to build for long term platform independent survivability. I figured the Video Post settings would become obsolete though, theyAâre just a render perk anyway.
Oh, and when I said 5.5 I was thinking of my old Photoshop. Doh. The original Phobos model is Max 3.1.
She still renders up very well, and is still one of the best TMP models out there. I have to admit, I've learned a lot form looking at how you made her.
Although i don't use blender - good to hear that this mesh is being ported over.
The watcher in the tower... Waiting, hour by hour...
- Mike Oldfield
Very interesting project. The ship looks good. The bridge looks also good and original, and there size allows me to fully appreciate it. I hope to see some high rez. pics of the ship too.
All hail the mighty Phobos. Honestly this ship should be the poster ship for this site along with a few others. I'm surprised to have not seen it in a show or fan film yet.
One Buck & Maverick Eagle: I hope its a "Star Traks" style parody. Though I'd love to write a TMP/TNG "Lost Years" prose fan fic story to go with this "Valhalla-Class" starship. Perhaps something regarding a young (Lieutenant?) Commander Morgan Bateson's last assignment, right before the U.S.S. Bozeman?
Actually Hellsgate, I was thinking about the Phobos (Loknar Class) and WOK Bridge sets.
The fanfilm would be set in the Movie era, and be designed such that the audience would not get bogged down to references to everything else in Trek lore.
A simple story, well told, possibly the maiden voyage of a Starship, and the first mission.
This way, we would avoid the trap of being too self referential.
If someone with little knowledge of Star Trek cannot follow the plot, a movie becomes a moot point.
In addition to the Phobos herself, our fellow member Basill has granted me permission to convert and incorporate his Phobos add-ons he made as a side project to his Perimeter Action Craft.
Can anyone say "Shuttlebay"?
So, I'm making the various geometry changes (which I have gotten approval to do from the respective modelers) to ensure a seamless integration.
Oh, and I guess I can't make an announcement like this without a bit of eye candy...
Posts
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
I just came across something while looking through my old files you all might get a heartbreaking kick out of. My friend Gillies, who made the concept sketch the Phobos was built from, built a detailed bridge specific for this ship (see attached image).
Sadly before we could upload it for release here on SFM, the disk it was on was somehow ruined and he couldn't find any other copy!!! (He had just moved back from overseas). All that remains is this panoramic image.
Enjoy.
My heart just broke a little bit...
Wil Jaspers has been letting me play with his ST2 Bridge set, but I think the graphics on this bridge are better...
Oh, well...
...back to slaving over meshes...
Eric "GuitarEC"
Do you think your friend may still have the texture references for the various displays and panels? I realize I'm reaching here, but I figure it's worth a shot to ask...
Eric "GuitarEC"
Eric "GuitarEC"
Excalibur Bridge, Bridge Commander Downloads, Bridge Commander Sets
From your email its sounds like its not (at least entirely) a shadow settings issue with the Markings Mesh, but rather a AâZ-FightingAâ issue.
The 0.1in offset was a minimum distance I found in Max that rendered well. Any less and Z-Fighting could occur. It's possible that Blender's sorting threshold is not as fine. Or as Bill suggested the mesh may have imported with a slight error causing the polygons to become coplanar in places.
A good experiment would be take a piece of the mesh, a small section of dish with the red pin-striping for example, and create a new pin-stripe. My method was to take duplicated polygons from the area, Boolean/ShapeMerge/etc the marking shape, extrude the resulting faces 0.1in, and delete the leftover sides.
If the shimmer/blotchy render disappears then it's a Z-Fighting issue. If not, then it could still be shadow or Z. Maybe try with a 0.2in offset.
Bridge:
Brian and I had lots of Bridge reference way back when. He even built a physical Science Station console for the FASA RPG. The plan was for me to not talk with the players whenever possible, but rather reveal data screens for pre-scripted events or move dials on their console. Thus the players would have to interact more with each other rather than talk through me.
We got pretty elaborate for the game, I even had a music score. But the console idea never got played as we all grow'd up and got busy (see the ReadMe.txt in the model file).
Brian's Bridge image got squeezed down when uploaded. The original is even higher-res. The graphics are crisp, the chairs have a weave texture, and even the walls have a subtle mottle pattern. This was exactly the era style we aimed for. The exterior was styled after TMP, but the rest is all TWOK.
I haven't heard from Brian in over a year. I doubt he has the graphics anymore as they were probably lost with the Max files. He was pretty disappointed and didn't plan to do it over. Last I talked to him he was working in California on the Sam&Max games.
We're getting ahead of ourselves with the Bridge though. Eric still has a ship to convert first.
Although i don't use blender - good to hear that this mesh is being ported over.
- Mike Oldfield
I'd love to see this mesh and the WOK Bridge mesh converted to Blender.
I have a fanfilm in mind ;-)
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
The fanfilm would be set in the Movie era, and be designed such that the audience would not get bogged down to references to everything else in Trek lore.
A simple story, well told, possibly the maiden voyage of a Starship, and the first mission.
This way, we would avoid the trap of being too self referential.
If someone with little knowledge of Star Trek cannot follow the plot, a movie becomes a moot point.
...trust me, I think folks will think it's worth it...
Eric "GuitarEC"
Can anyone say "Shuttlebay"?
So, I'm making the various geometry changes (which I have gotten approval to do from the respective modelers) to ensure a seamless integration.
Oh, and I guess I can't make an announcement like this without a bit of eye candy...
Eric "GuitarEC"
Still need to start getting the mesh smoothing in place, but yes - that's Blender Output right there... :thumb:
Eric "GuitarEC"
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
That is very cool. I always wanted to see the shuttle bay installed.
- Mike Oldfield
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
^ Blender is the way forward.!!