This Klingon Starbase Models would be appropriate.


http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/files/Bridge_Commander/Stations/Klingon;1191

The Husnock ship

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Alien/AlphaBeta/HusnockShip.htm

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/file/;5428

The Husnock are already in my random events. But since we don't know for sure yet what form the Randoms will take in the game, I can't say for definite whether they will be in. Once we know for sure, i'm sure Kenneth will come up with a model.

It does look interesting. If you are or get serious about it put it on the list, page one of this thread. That way we can track it.

This Class is the Sherman Class



http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sherman-class-cargo-drone.php

Thanks for documenting all this Starfleet. It will help us keep rack of the ships that need to be replaced over time.

I've updated the shiplist with the new models that *may* be needed for the random events, but since we don't know yet how the randoms will work or even which ones will be used, make the random event models a low priority for the time being, Kenneth.

I added in the Hosnock, the Cytoplasmic Being, the Jellyfish, and V'Ger. Also note that i've written next to the Pirates one that we *might* be able to set the pirates to use random minor race ships. This would mean you wouldn't need to make a specific model for them, and this would would make the pirates more of a challenge then since you'll never know what ships they will be using. And besides, pirates really could be of any race.

At first blush that sounds interesting. They could even make off with a major race ship.

Hi all! I will be joining the project as a 3D artist, obtained my diploma a few months ago, 1000hr+ of 3dsmax formation... also was a graphic artist before that for 3 years, and did one year in multimedia.

I will help with any modelling/texturing needed and I am willing to share my knowledge with everyone who may benefit from it concerning modeling, texturing, animation, rigging, special effects etc.

I will begin by doing the Romulan fleetyard, and then see how it goes.

I had a talk with Kenneth about normal and specular maps, as they are used in most if not all next gen and pc games and he asked me to explain a bit about them.
I'm not sure if its what he meant, but hey, lets get started with the basics!

Normal maps are used to simulate shadows on a basic mesh in order to give it the look of a high polygon model without all the polys. It creates the illusion of height. In a way, you could consider it as a 'cheat' to make a model look more detailed than it really is.
Specular maps and used to specify the reflectiveness of certain areas of the texture. for example, a rust spot should not reflect as much light as chrome, thats where the specular map comes into play.

There are tons of other ways to make a model look more baddass in a game, but those are probably the more usefull in my opinion.
There is a very simple program that creates its own normal and specular maps from your color map called 'crazybump', its an easy way for beginners to understand and create their own maps without much problems ;-)
Of course, once you get the basics, its better not to use such a program, or to use what it gives you as a simple base to work from.

For organic modeling and normals, zbrush and mudbox are really good stuff, since they let you 'sculpt' from over 5 million polygons on a single object to later on project it on your low poly model!! It is also possible to do mechanic objects, but its a more complicated technique that I would not recommend.

That will be all for todays lesson since its kinda late here and I got to get up early
Its nice to join your team, hope it will give some great results

-Denis
btw; I'm a french canadian so please excuse my mistakes from times to times when writing, ty!

Welcome zeusqc

We are all very glad to see you here and I am especially happy to have some help with the models. Your English is very good.

Thanks for the explanation about the special maps. That helps a lot. They will be very helpful for the stations as the textures here are applied over very large surfaces as compared to the ships.

I have sent a private message to Mike requesting a SharePoint login for you. It may take some time for him to get back to us right now. He is super busy at work.

Hey zeus, i'm glad you managed to make the transition here alright.

Thanks for the quick little tutorial that you wrote above, the information will be useful for anyone else that offers to help make models.

As i've been on the forums for such a long time though, I know of a couple of threads that have been created to provide information like this; crazybump has already been mentioned in one of those threads Here. If you have any other links you can add to that thread, please do.

There's another thread that our modellers should have a look at Here as well; Strings wrote information on how to create different types of maps. If you could add anything else to that thread, our modellers would appreciate it, zeus.

By the way, I replied over on AFC about the sound effects you were looking for. I've zipped up a load of sound effects from Armada, BOTF, Legacy, and SFC2 for you.

I have been working on the Crystalline Entity and learning the program Blender at the same time. The entity appeared in TNG in the 80s so its construction for filming involved a glue gun and a wire coat-hanger but not a computer. You are never shown the whole model and the core is often obscured by a glare. There were some models of it online but they did not look very good. I am trying to create an acceptable version of it that can show up in whole on the screen. I have gotten this far but need to add in the coat-hanger still. Texture will likely have to be partly transparent.

it's a good beginning,Kenneth. Good luck.

Yeah, nice work Kenneth! The idea of having transparent textures is a good call as well; transparencies might help to make it look more crystal-y. Light reflections will probably be important in making it look good as well. One idea for the centre of the thing is to have some sort of light source inside the model, if it's possible to do that. It might help it to look more canon by obscuring the internal details, and it might help to show up the transparent or reflective areas better too.

To respect the canon Star Trek, certain ships should be renamed in their respective classes and prefixes:

The Enterprise Class should be renamed NX Class with his prefix NX: NX-02 Columbia



The Phobos Class should be renamed DY-100 Class with his prefix SS: SS Botany Bay


The Icarus Class should be renamed Neptune Class with his prefix NV: NV Intrepid


see below

@Starfleet- those ships are place holders for canon models, for example dy-100 is only place holder for phobos class until we get canon ship.

For other ships we have strong reasons why is enterprise class not NX class, as far i remember nx is designation for experimental ship but maybe i am wrong.

Be careful because all the databases of sites and even STAR TREK.com confirm what I have to say about these vessels. I advise you to re-consult them. One thing also to remember: in the ships class, NX is a prefix ship prototype. http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sd-miranda-nx-1833.php

This is just a first attempt. I used Blender to put together what could become a intro for a Supremacy game trailer. This is modeled on the Universal Studios intro. The music is from SharePoint. I want to redo the texture on the earth to make it an alien world. The aspect ratio is off. Give it time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TbeBAIyVrY

Blender Rocks!

Wow Kenneth, this is gonna be a great intro for Supremacy. But yeah, the aspect ratio is a bit off like you said. It would be more fitting if you could change the font to the one that Mike uses in the game as well. You'll find all of the font files in the Supremacy/Resources/Fonts folder. Or alternatively I can zip them up for you.

I am kind of busy today but will try to include a ship model or two as well. The music timing can be improved. The Blender fonts are 3D models so I have to find a close match or creat a new font set in 3D.

I noticed something about the Cardassian ships. The Hideki class is considered approximately equivalent to the Starfleet Danube-class runabout, and it's a small ship. In fact, the Cardassian Union is the only empire to have a ship the size of a shuttle.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hideki_class

I scaled it as a smaller ship. We put it in as a destroyer and it is on the small side for that as it is. The only war ship we have smaller than the destroyer is the attack ship. It will look very small next to the Big E.

@Kenneth- nice work on Crystalline Entity, model looks great, though i'don't know will you achive desired effect with tranparent textures after all textures come on solid object. Huh and trailer looks nice, very nice for first shot.

About Cards Hideki, is it ship scaled to it's actual relative size ,according to ex astris scientia Hideki is long 98 m, or according to Dafedz Botf 2 database ? Dafedz provided length information for all minor race ships but he left empire's ships without size

There are some nice things I can do with materials and textures in blender to give the crystalline entity a semitransparent look. I need to test if it will code in .3ds or not. Who knows what will happen in the combat engine.

I have scaled the models based on class with a little free hand tweaking as needed. It would be easy to build a 3d ruler as a model to compare to our ships. That is if indeed the length of each ship will be recorded in the defez data base.

We do run into a problem here. Bring the larger ships or even a starbase into the game engine view window and your attack ships and orbital batteries become invisible due to their very small size. In the end we likely will have to play with the scale to make it playable.

In my opinion, this station is a shipyard. Add it for a Cardassian advanced shipyard might be an idea, what do you think?

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Cardassian_repair_facility

That is something we can put on the list. For now I am still learning blender and working on the Crystalline Entity model.

The same thing for this Klingon Starbase. If it's possible?

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Alien/Beta/KlingonArmoredStation.htm

And the Romulans using this kind of cruiser in the TOS episode "The enterprise incident"

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Alien/Beta/RomulanBattleCruiser.htm

Kenneth any news on Crystalline Entity, I am looking forward to see final result, model looks awesome.

I have been busy with real work and family. Most of my time on Supremacy has been spent learning the animation section of Blender. I am adding in at least two of our models to fly around in the trailer introduction video for Supremacy. I want to get the texture of earth off the planet and put on the alien world texture used in the opening game screen.

I did get around to setting up the transparent features of the crystalline entity. If you use a texture image on such a model it has to be semitransparent but the material (faces of the wire frame mesh that hold a texture - for you that do not speak model) also needs to be transparent to some degree. It would block the view through the crystal. To make a material transparent (invisible) or semitransparent you need to add an alpha channel to the material. At least that is how blender does it. I hope all this will translate to .3ds. I likely will go without the texture as there are some crytalline featurs I can use on the material itself.

Thanks for asking. How are you doing?

Fine, after my last exam I had few spare days to work on graphics for Supremacy now vacation is over and I have to began study shortly.



Yeah I understand what are you talking about. Though in 3d studio max you don't need to have semi-transparent texture,texture can be solid but you have to change opacity of object to have semi-transparent model. KoB I like that Crytalline model of yours so much that I would like to draw textures for it if you let me do so .???