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1:1 Scale model of Enterprise-D (Longish)
halkun0
Posts: 0Member
There is a story attached to this, but there is also a point in the end. I just need to set the context first...
When I was in Jr. High school there was a huge abandoned quarry about a mile away from my house. Using a friend, some string and a bunch of angles, we were able to determine that the hole in the ground was just big enough to fit an entire Galaxy-class starship in. It would be cool, we thought, to build a 1:1 scale model of the Enterprise-D in there. There we would bury it, and turn it into a fantasy cruse starship. When you walked the halls underground, it was like being on the Enterprise in space. Every window would have a "view" of fake stars. The idea was you would pay for a "cruse" in space, We also made plans to rent out parts of the ship for schools, scientists and other parts of academia.
I had a big imagination as a kid.
Anyways, for the last few months I've been playing with Blender. I've decided to give myself a project. Out of nowhere, my dream of building a 1:1 scale model of the Enterprise came back from the past.
I decided to make this with blender...
I decided to use the *game engine*
I want to be able to walk the halls of my creation in real time. I would like to see all the things in the ship that were talked about, but ever shown. I think I can do this.
I am armed with a copy of "U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints" by Rick Sternbach, Jeanne Rogers, and Todd & Dan Gauthier. I also have a very old copy of the Star Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda. Looking at the blueprints, the whole ship was built in a modular fashion. Taking the "building blocks" from the last page, you can use those to build rooms, and then halls by linking them all together. Because the ship was actually a set on a sound stage, the interlinking modules work in real life. Putting all the pieces together, I can make my 1:1 scale model I've always wanted to walk around in.
Now for my questions.
I'm going to have to section up the ship. There is going to be WAY too many polygons for me to even think of walking around the ship in real time with all the levels loaded into memory. Anyone have any experience with "scene swapping" with Blender? I'm most likely going to have to break each "level" up by deck. My first project is to do just the bridge module (deck 1 and 2) as one piece to get a "feel" for the engine. After that I will have to start making small "parts" to construct the modular rooms on the ship. I'm also thinking of "disconnecting" the jeffries tubes/turboshafts as a separate "level" to keep the complexity down. I may also have to break up the saucer section decks of they become too unwieldy for the game engine to handle.
My question is this; Do you think this is a worthy project? Can someone offer input on how to tackle the ship partitioning? I'm I completely bonkers?
In a perfect world of puppy dogs and rainbows, I would like to put some network code in there, so I could run around the ship with a few friends. Maybe even make the thing interactive enough to pilot.
Also, if anyone knows a good Enterprise-D bridge mesh I can use as a template, that would be cool. I'm actually scanning in the blueprints and working off that as a floor plan layout. I also have the Technical Manual on CD-ROM so I can pull all kinds of 3D views and material from that.
I'm crazy... Aren't I.
When I was in Jr. High school there was a huge abandoned quarry about a mile away from my house. Using a friend, some string and a bunch of angles, we were able to determine that the hole in the ground was just big enough to fit an entire Galaxy-class starship in. It would be cool, we thought, to build a 1:1 scale model of the Enterprise-D in there. There we would bury it, and turn it into a fantasy cruse starship. When you walked the halls underground, it was like being on the Enterprise in space. Every window would have a "view" of fake stars. The idea was you would pay for a "cruse" in space, We also made plans to rent out parts of the ship for schools, scientists and other parts of academia.
I had a big imagination as a kid.
Anyways, for the last few months I've been playing with Blender. I've decided to give myself a project. Out of nowhere, my dream of building a 1:1 scale model of the Enterprise came back from the past.
I decided to make this with blender...
I decided to use the *game engine*
I want to be able to walk the halls of my creation in real time. I would like to see all the things in the ship that were talked about, but ever shown. I think I can do this.
I am armed with a copy of "U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints" by Rick Sternbach, Jeanne Rogers, and Todd & Dan Gauthier. I also have a very old copy of the Star Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda. Looking at the blueprints, the whole ship was built in a modular fashion. Taking the "building blocks" from the last page, you can use those to build rooms, and then halls by linking them all together. Because the ship was actually a set on a sound stage, the interlinking modules work in real life. Putting all the pieces together, I can make my 1:1 scale model I've always wanted to walk around in.
Now for my questions.
I'm going to have to section up the ship. There is going to be WAY too many polygons for me to even think of walking around the ship in real time with all the levels loaded into memory. Anyone have any experience with "scene swapping" with Blender? I'm most likely going to have to break each "level" up by deck. My first project is to do just the bridge module (deck 1 and 2) as one piece to get a "feel" for the engine. After that I will have to start making small "parts" to construct the modular rooms on the ship. I'm also thinking of "disconnecting" the jeffries tubes/turboshafts as a separate "level" to keep the complexity down. I may also have to break up the saucer section decks of they become too unwieldy for the game engine to handle.
My question is this; Do you think this is a worthy project? Can someone offer input on how to tackle the ship partitioning? I'm I completely bonkers?
In a perfect world of puppy dogs and rainbows, I would like to put some network code in there, so I could run around the ship with a few friends. Maybe even make the thing interactive enough to pilot.
Also, if anyone knows a good Enterprise-D bridge mesh I can use as a template, that would be cool. I'm actually scanning in the blueprints and working off that as a floor plan layout. I also have the Technical Manual on CD-ROM so I can pull all kinds of 3D views and material from that.
I'm crazy... Aren't I.
Post edited by halkun on
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Posts
Just bear this in mind, for every cool room (engine, sickbay, bridge), you will have 50 identicle bedrooms.
Plus if you just want to wander round a ship using a game engine you can probably pick up elite force in the bargin bins, I know its voyager and not the E-D, but the experience will be similar.
Sick Bay == Modelmodelmodelmodelmodelmodel....
Bedrooms == copypastecopypastecopypastecopypaste....
That's why I think I can handle it...
I cant help you with the technical questions, unfortunately, as I have no idea of blender and didnt even know it had somthing like a game engine. But maybe you can build the seperate moduls and export it to a more capable game engine like Source Engine or the upcoming Crysis Sandbox. I think they might be able to handle a lot more polygons in realtime.
Anyway I wish you best luck and hope to see some progress soon!
Regards,
Merlyn
Blender Artists Forums - Powered by vBulletin
and ask there. That's where the Blender gurus hang out.
The lighting in that game is killer. Mind you I have no clue about modding that game or most others for that matter. I'm still trying to make my own ships for Homeworld 2.
I only run linux.