I started modelling the station ages ago. I reworked nearly evering due to lack of detail and now it's time to finish it.
The core structure and the habitat ring plus weapon sails are done. I still have to do the pylon junctions, some windows and a lot of greeblies :argh:
I intend to make the plates and grid lines with normal maps.
Looks great so far. Only nitpick I have is that two of the fusion reactors in the core should be dimmed, they were deactivated by Starfleet due to safety concerns. It's nice to see this station. The last one I saw I don't think ever got finished.
-Side note, Is anyone else having issues with the gallery? Are they going to bother to fix that? It's been months since it worked properly for me.
The downgrade on the habitat to Docking ring pyons don't seen steep enough.
Check your docking ring level. It should be considerably below the habitat ring.
Thanks for your comments. Halo Buff, I really missed that story about shutting down two reactors. Thanks for that hint.
I think it was 'gpdesigner' who modelled the station at the same LOD, but he never did the texturing.
Check the support sub forum for the gallery issue. It looks like a never ending story.
Saquist, I rechecked it and you were right. I had to lower the docking ring a lot, so the connector's downward gradient encreased form 4A° to 5,5A°. I had to tweak that part so that the connection still fits to the central hull.
I started modelling the station ages ago. I reworked nearly evering due to lack of detail and now it's time to finish it.
The core structure and the habitat ring plus weapon sails are done. I still have to do the pylon junctions, some windows and a lot of greeblies :argh:
I intend to make the plates and grid lines with normal maps.
This looks great. One question is how did you do the windows? I have a model and its going be a bit window intensive.
It's looking excellent so far. You're right that it was gpdesigner who was working on a similar LoD version a while ago. Not sure how far that got in the end, but it'll be brilliant to see a model of this detail all textured up.
And then having Tobias's fleet dropping by for a visit, if I had my way.
This looks great. One question is how did you do the windows? I have a model and its going be a bit window intensive.
The windows on the habitat are seperat objects aligned to the hull, the others are just booled in. Thank god this is so repeatable: you need to build only a third of the hole station and only 60A° segments with variably aligned windows.
The windows on the habitat are seperat objects aligned to the hull, the others are just booled in. Thank god this is so repeatable: you need to build only a third of the hole station and only 60A° segments with variably aligned windows.
Ah. That what I was thinking of doing sectioning off window areas then doing windows in them in separate meshes. Although I would cut away at the original model. It would save a lot of time. Doing textured windows would be a pain. I'm using Blender. The Boolean doesn't work well for the design I'm doing.
Thanks for your comments. Halo Buff, I really missed that story about shutting down two reactors. Thanks for that hint.
I think it was 'gpdesigner' who modelled the station at the same LOD, but he never did the texturing.
Check the support sub forum for the gallery issue. It looks like a never ending story.
Saquist, I rechecked it and you were right. I had to lower the docking ring a lot, so the connector's downward gradient encreased form 4A° to 5,5A°. I had to tweak that part so that the connection still fits to the central hull.
...it was gpdesigner who was working on a similar LoD version a while ago. Not sure how far that got in the end...
GP is a lightwave user, and is still working on her. Last time I heared news from him, he was working on textures for her. Therefore, the mesh has a zigallion of pollys!!!!! The last wip renderings are still online: http://gpdesigner.deviantart.com/
Hey Nightfever, your DS9 looks excellent. For sure we can expect another beauty, as the Enterprise that you built. Go ahead. :thumb:
GP is a lightwave user, and is still working on her. Last time I heared news from him, he was working on textures for her. Therefore, the mesh has a zigallion of pollys!!!!! The last wip renderings are still online: http://gpdesigner.deviantart.com/:thumb:
I actually follow him on there (I think pretty much everyone on SFM is also on dA, albeit mostly by completely different names, so you only recognise them by their art). I'd forgotten he was texturing it, though.
I think in the future if a show or movie is ever done for DS9 or Defiant they'll have to finally resolve the stations size issue. They won't be able to simply make it exact according to the model because just going by the Cardassian Galor which should be able to dock at those pylons then the station has to be 2500 meters across. We've seen just about every major captial ship dock at them. Nebula, Galaxy, Galors, Dominion Cruisers and Excelsior...
Clearly when they created the model they had no idea how they would use these Docks right from the very first episode.
And of course at that Size Defiant would be tiny in comparison.
I think in Trek there is rather no need to dock anything to anywhere since people and cargo can be beamed on and off. But I could imagine they would still use pipelines to transport fluids or gases, that are to instable to beam over.
I don't have in mind how old the station is. Maybe it was build in a time where the Cardies had no transporter beams. So the docking ports are just relicts. But I can not explain to myself why the Fed is using docking ports. Maybe for nostalgic reasons... or dumb story writers
Keep in mind DS9/Terok Nor is a Bajoran station, the Federation mearly oversees its operations throughout the run of the series. And it is heavily frequented by Bajoran passenger and cargo vessels that are technolocially inferior to 'modern' Federation tech. Besides, at the rate O'brien had to repair/retrofit everything, I'd be aprehensive of Cardassian transporters. Federation types have enough 'interesting glitches'
You would still have need of docking ports for transfer of crew, cargo, and consumables (fuel, Antimatter, etc...). Also transporters are power intensive, to transport a person would require the power output of an atomic bomb, so ships with low power states or smaller reactors, fed or alien would still want to dock whenever possible.
Think of it this way, you have a ship with a crew of 1000, the power and thermal requirements of teleporting all of them, their equipment, supplies, consumabled would be prohibitive. Trek has never dealt with that well, but also consider the thermal dissipation required for that, you would have to throw all of the ships power and thermal dissipation behind that effort. Docking could provide an additional source of heat sinks in that case, using the stations heat dissipation system to assist the ship's.
I think in Trek there is rather no need to dock anything to anywhere since people and cargo can be beamed on and off. But I could imagine they would still use pipelines to transport fluids or gases, that are to instable to beam over.
I don't have in mind how old the station is. Maybe it was build in a time where the Cardies had no transporter beams. So the docking ports are just relicts. But I can not explain to myself why the Fed is using docking ports. Maybe for nostalgic reasons... or dumb story writers
Docking ports are proper in every space construction. They are entries and egresses that do not require power to operate. It is a basic function of life in space otherwise if merely having power were the only consideration then why have windows and other umbilicals when video and transporters will do? Everything in space most have a basic or fundamental redundancy that everything else is built around.
Power means transporter, turbo lifts, communication and visuals.
No power means hatches, stairs and batteries...
Simple contingency that everything today is designed by and just as well in the future.
In addition, there are some examples of non-transporter-able materials in Trek, which would require a dock or hangar configuration.
I've always wondered why they don't have automatic 'man overboard' technology built in? Fed ships should be able to detect a crewman exposed to vacuum and beam him back before the worst effects of decompression set in. But in many cases it's just "Ensign Redshirt was just blown out into space, Captain." "D'aww, now I have to inform his parents. They weren't on the same deck, were they?"
Anyway, I love the work on DS9. I've worked on a modification of one available mesh myself, and it isn't easy by any stretch, but yours looks quite nice.
Update: the pylon port is done. Looks puny but that was a lot of work to build and place all those tiny parts. Unfortunately I found no screenshot showing the port clearly. So I took Gpdesigners ideas as reference because I really like them. I hope he don't mind
Yeah, the physical model really isn't that detailed (though I can only find photos of the docking ring ports), but your design looks true to the style anyway.
Nice work, DS9 is easily my fave ST show, so it is good to see this cracking space station design getting done such justice, judging from the quality of these details I can't wait to see the final product.
Posts
As for the greebles, I know what you mean :runs:
JMoney
-Side note, Is anyone else having issues with the gallery? Are they going to bother to fix that? It's been months since it worked properly for me.
Greetings
Check your docking ring level. It should be considerably below the habitat ring.
Halo Buff, I really missed that story about shutting down two reactors. Thanks for that hint.
I think it was 'gpdesigner' who modelled the station at the same LOD, but he never did the texturing.
Check the support sub forum for the gallery issue. It looks like a never ending story.
Saquist, I rechecked it and you were right. I had to lower the docking ring a lot, so the connector's downward gradient encreased form 4A° to 5,5A°. I had to tweak that part so that the connection still fits to the central hull.
This looks great. One question is how did you do the windows? I have a model and its going be a bit window intensive.
And then having Tobias's fleet dropping by for a visit, if I had my way.
The windows on the habitat are seperat objects aligned to the hull, the others are just booled in. Thank god this is so repeatable: you need to build only a third of the hole station and only 60A° segments with variably aligned windows.
Ah. That what I was thinking of doing sectioning off window areas then doing windows in them in separate meshes. Although I would cut away at the original model. It would save a lot of time. Doing textured windows would be a pain. I'm using Blender. The Boolean doesn't work well for the design I'm doing.
There you go!
GP is a lightwave user, and is still working on her. Last time I heared news from him, he was working on textures for her. Therefore, the mesh has a zigallion of pollys!!!!! The last wip renderings are still online: http://gpdesigner.deviantart.com/
Hey Nightfever, your DS9 looks excellent. For sure we can expect another beauty, as the Enterprise that you built. Go ahead. :thumb:
Don't see many people tackle this.
Look forward to seeing more.
I actually follow him on there (I think pretty much everyone on SFM is also on dA, albeit mostly by completely different names, so you only recognise them by their art). I'd forgotten he was texturing it, though.
Clearly when they created the model they had no idea how they would use these Docks right from the very first episode.
And of course at that Size Defiant would be tiny in comparison.
I don't have in mind how old the station is. Maybe it was build in a time where the Cardies had no transporter beams. So the docking ports are just relicts. But I can not explain to myself why the Fed is using docking ports. Maybe for nostalgic reasons... or dumb story writers
Think of it this way, you have a ship with a crew of 1000, the power and thermal requirements of teleporting all of them, their equipment, supplies, consumabled would be prohibitive. Trek has never dealt with that well, but also consider the thermal dissipation required for that, you would have to throw all of the ships power and thermal dissipation behind that effort. Docking could provide an additional source of heat sinks in that case, using the stations heat dissipation system to assist the ship's.
Docking ports are proper in every space construction. They are entries and egresses that do not require power to operate. It is a basic function of life in space otherwise if merely having power were the only consideration then why have windows and other umbilicals when video and transporters will do? Everything in space most have a basic or fundamental redundancy that everything else is built around.
Power means transporter, turbo lifts, communication and visuals.
No power means hatches, stairs and batteries...
Simple contingency that everything today is designed by and just as well in the future.
I've always wondered why they don't have automatic 'man overboard' technology built in? Fed ships should be able to detect a crewman exposed to vacuum and beam him back before the worst effects of decompression set in. But in many cases it's just "Ensign Redshirt was just blown out into space, Captain." "D'aww, now I have to inform his parents. They weren't on the same deck, were they?"
Anyway, I love the work on DS9. I've worked on a modification of one available mesh myself, and it isn't easy by any stretch, but yours looks quite nice.
Will you be adding detail to the tranches?
I thikn I have to look for that technical manual then.
Some more greebles are done. I hope I'll finish the pylon tomorrow.