I'm currently collecting ideas for scenes, so if you have something special in mind...
Fleet Battle. You see it taking a hit, launching some drones, as well an enemy drone being shot down with the close in defense. The main laser is deployed but you can't see it doing anything, except there is a very distant explosion. The radiators are glowing unusually strongly. In the background are other, even smaller, explosions seperated by great distances surrounded by yet smaller explosions. They're ships firing on each other with successful point defense fire surrounding them.
Emergency Atmospheric Breaking Maneuver. The ship has damage from a fight, has its point defense guns retracted, and is ejecting remaining drones so it can safely break engine first in a gas giant's atmosphere. Maybe it will deploy an inflatable heat shield. Or, it's just a normal orbital breaking procedure, using the gravity well to bleed speed, combined with an engine burn to correct course.
Back to Base. The scorched ship is depleted of drones but near base, when it witnesses an enemy fleet attack. All the ship can do is offer its laser and point defense as a cloud of gas and vaporized metal spread around it, incidentally highlighting its laser. We see a few ships in the process of emergency undocking, launching their own drones and firing their lasers. A few still docked ships desperately fire drones and weapons while still docked. The station also has a couple huge laser turrets of its own and sizable point defense, but for the most part, stations are sitting ducks to long range bombardment.
The station is a huge ring with ships docked to the outside. The docking and undocking maneuvers are complicated and dangerous, but make embarking and disembarking easy and allow numerous ships to be docked to a single station at once.
Fleet Battle. You see it taking a hit, launching some drones, as well an enemy drone being shot down with the close in defense. The main laser is deployed but you can't see it doing anything, except there is a very distant explosion. The radiators are glowing unusually strongly. In the background are other, even smaller, explosions seperated by great distances surrounded by yet smaller explosions. They're ships firing on each other with successful point defense fire surrounding them.
Emergency Atmospheric Breaking Maneuver. The ship has damage from a fight, has its point defense guns retracted, and is ejecting remaining drones so it can safely break engine first in a gas giant's atmosphere. Maybe it will deploy an inflatable heat shield. Or, it's just a normal orbital breaking procedure, using the gravity well to bleed speed, combined with an engine burn to correct course.
Back to Base. The scorched ship is depleted of drones but near base, when it witnesses an enemy fleet attack. All the ship can do is offer its laser and point defense as a cloud of gas and vaporized metal spread around it, incidentally highlighting its laser. We see a few ships in the process of emergency undocking, launching their own drones and firing their lasers. A few still docked ships desperately fire drones and weapons while still docked. The station also has a couple huge laser turrets of its own and sizable point defense, but for the most part, stations are sitting ducks to long range bombardment.
The station is a huge ring with ships docked to the outside. The docking and undocking maneuvers are complicated and dangerous, but make embarking and disembarking easy and allow numerous ships to be docked to a single station at once.
Scene ideas? Hm... Santa Claus. Every year, two starships escort ol Saint Nick to various planets and it's broadcast on video for all the excited kids to see.
Excellent ideas, Major Diarrhia! I will certainly realize one or two of these ideas! Currently I'm working on the hangar bay. Updates will follow as soon as possible...
This ship has no FTL cabability but I think I will frame out this universe in the future a bit more. And who knows ...
Actually, with the station ambush I realized I was accidentally leading to that.
Station Rescue. The enemy has stopped firing for some unknown reason, even so there is no time to waste. The station is deorbiting thanks to weapon impacts and emergency undocking errors. Some ships have even crashed into each other while trying to hastily undock, and other ships simply glow from gaping holes, drifting dead. Station keeping thrusters burn themselves red but can't push the station back into orbit in time, so some of the few remaining intact ships redock or stay docked, and use their engine to pull the station into its original orbit.
It's harder and worse than it may seem at first, because the station is the anchor for an array of space elevator ribbons. The station is not falling down to the planet below, but out into deep space because a lucky shot blasted the primary tether lock. Not only does the station need saving but an emergency tug is launched to connect a rescue line from the station to the falling elevator ribbons as remaining warships aid in the ribbon rescue. That is why there is little time to get the station back into position, the ribbons must be reanchored.
The Battle Continued. Reinforcements arrive from the other side of the planet to aid in the reanchoring effort, just in time. In flashes of light, Space French, surround the station! But, they were overconfident, or rushed. The remaining Space Germans counterstrike without hesitation.
****_****
So, yeah, Space French were behind it all along and they have faster than light movement.:D That's how they were able to catch the station fleet with its pants down. There's no other way they could have surprised the station, unless the station knew they were coming but thought they were peaceful. That actually works, but not with the preceding battle, and I like faster than light Space French, from Earth.:p
those are some really funky looking shuttles, heh. The funny part is that it totally looks like it works, but I dunno, I think they are just a liiiiiittle bit too fat.
The ship needs no comments, as I said some 20 pages back, one of the best design/execution I've ever seen
those are some really funky looking shuttles, heh. The funny part is that it totally looks like it works, but I dunno, I think they are just a liiiiiittle bit too fat...
You are right. The shuttles are tiny little fatties. But that's intentional. The shuttles are used mainly in space for the transport of personnel between ships and stations. For maximising their interior room I built the fuselage as lifting body. So landing on a planet with an atmosphere is possible.
Update! All of the main parts have now a half-decent UV unfolding. Currently I'm creating the shader trees for the different parts. The textures are still far away from beeing finished. At the moment only the bumpmaps for the weldseams and a few greyscale and colour maps for the hull plating and specular reflections are integrated into the shader trees. More hull markings, weathering, dents and other interesting stuff will follow...
Your texture work is far and above what I can do. Great work! Aside from plain old experience, are there any books or other resources you'd recommend for texturing?
Besides constant exercise and many try-and-error efforts during a WIP a good understanding of how your 3D tool of choice manages texturing is essential. The fundamentals of good texturing and many other usefull tips can be taken from a book I read a few years ago. It's the "3D Photorealism Toolkit" by Bill Fleming. It was published in 1998 so it is rather old but still not outdated. I would recommend it although it's not cheap. Copies of that book should still be available.
RL and my job left me only little spare time so the project proceeded in a rather slow but steady pace. In the last weeks I unwrapped most parts of the model. Some minor details still have no UV sets but that isn't a big problem. The basic textures for the different materials are finished and will be refined in the next steps. Markings and stress marks will also be added.
Posts
Fleet Battle. You see it taking a hit, launching some drones, as well an enemy drone being shot down with the close in defense. The main laser is deployed but you can't see it doing anything, except there is a very distant explosion. The radiators are glowing unusually strongly. In the background are other, even smaller, explosions seperated by great distances surrounded by yet smaller explosions. They're ships firing on each other with successful point defense fire surrounding them.
Emergency Atmospheric Breaking Maneuver. The ship has damage from a fight, has its point defense guns retracted, and is ejecting remaining drones so it can safely break engine first in a gas giant's atmosphere. Maybe it will deploy an inflatable heat shield. Or, it's just a normal orbital breaking procedure, using the gravity well to bleed speed, combined with an engine burn to correct course.
Back to Base. The scorched ship is depleted of drones but near base, when it witnesses an enemy fleet attack. All the ship can do is offer its laser and point defense as a cloud of gas and vaporized metal spread around it, incidentally highlighting its laser. We see a few ships in the process of emergency undocking, launching their own drones and firing their lasers. A few still docked ships desperately fire drones and weapons while still docked. The station also has a couple huge laser turrets of its own and sizable point defense, but for the most part, stations are sitting ducks to long range bombardment.
The station is a huge ring with ships docked to the outside. The docking and undocking maneuvers are complicated and dangerous, but make embarking and disembarking easy and allow numerous ships to be docked to a single station at once.
This is how novels start. *wants more*
This ship has no FTL cabability but I think I will frame out this universe in the future a bit more. And who knows ...
Actually, with the station ambush I realized I was accidentally leading to that.
Station Rescue. The enemy has stopped firing for some unknown reason, even so there is no time to waste. The station is deorbiting thanks to weapon impacts and emergency undocking errors. Some ships have even crashed into each other while trying to hastily undock, and other ships simply glow from gaping holes, drifting dead. Station keeping thrusters burn themselves red but can't push the station back into orbit in time, so some of the few remaining intact ships redock or stay docked, and use their engine to pull the station into its original orbit.
It's harder and worse than it may seem at first, because the station is the anchor for an array of space elevator ribbons. The station is not falling down to the planet below, but out into deep space because a lucky shot blasted the primary tether lock. Not only does the station need saving but an emergency tug is launched to connect a rescue line from the station to the falling elevator ribbons as remaining warships aid in the ribbon rescue. That is why there is little time to get the station back into position, the ribbons must be reanchored.
The Battle Continued. Reinforcements arrive from the other side of the planet to aid in the reanchoring effort, just in time. In flashes of light, Space French, surround the station! But, they were overconfident, or rushed. The remaining Space Germans counterstrike without hesitation.
****_****
So, yeah, Space French were behind it all along and they have faster than light movement.:D That's how they were able to catch the station fleet with its pants down. There's no other way they could have surprised the station, unless the station knew they were coming but thought they were peaceful. That actually works, but not with the preceding battle, and I like faster than light Space French, from Earth.:p
But no escorts for Santa? NORAD tracks him every year...
That's a funny idea, too! But it would happen in a totally different universe...
The ship needs no comments, as I said some 20 pages back, one of the best design/execution I've ever seen
You are right. The shuttles are tiny little fatties. But that's intentional. The shuttles are used mainly in space for the transport of personnel between ships and stations. For maximising their interior room I built the fuselage as lifting body. So landing on a planet with an atmosphere is possible.
" http://faki.fizteh.ru/index/space_and_robotics/n_da9s.html " .
I like those little non-symmetrical details you put in there.
RL and my job left me only little spare time so the project proceeded in a rather slow but steady pace. In the last weeks I unwrapped most parts of the model. Some minor details still have no UV sets but that isn't a big problem. The basic textures for the different materials are finished and will be refined in the next steps. Markings and stress marks will also be added.
deg
Great work so far. Love that Prussian eagle.