Tinkering

BradMick

Vice Admiral
Howdy folks, well recently I decided i'd work on the one area I am seriously weak in (texturing) and also do some work on an original universe at the same time. Since i've not had a lot to do of late on Pioneer as Joel's still pluggin away at the flight demo I knocked these out. Clearly my inspiration as always is Wing Commander, but these ships have nothing to do with Wing Commander. Since we used a different version of the Wildcat for Pioneer I recycled my old design. So, here is the Soryu, CV - 04 a Light Carrier and the Wildcat (I liked the name). Enjoy!

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Brad Mick

- might add, they are both low poly ready for a game engine.
 
texturing is the thing I have the hardest time with as well.. I just don't understand UV mapping yet. but those look nice. Very utilitarian. Like a craft designed for practicality and heat dispersion instead of for looks and aerodynamics.
 
I really like the Soryu, it has a real Wing Commander I vibe, and I like the wind indicator thing painted on the flight deck

Is there any significance to the markings on the wings of the fighter?
 
The Soryu reminds me of some ships from Starlancer. The Wildcat doesn't seem up to your usual modelling standard though. The texturing is pretty good, but I would suggest making the shading differences between the panels more subtle. It would also help if your dirt was more "deliberate" at the panel lines and less splotchy in the middle.
 
Yeah, the Wildcat looks too low-poly - almost RTS-size. Would this be what you mean by "game engine"?
 
I cant do any of that myself, so I must say its awesome..... With all the talent I see here, I gotta wonder how many are out there in the game industy? If you guys arent, ever thought of teamin up to start your own studio? make your own games? Maybe one day you could buy off the wc copyright, pool with all the fans and carry on the story? sorry think I got caught in a dream there! anyrate I like the work! good job!
 
Yeah, the Wildcat looks too low-poly - almost RTS-size. Would this be what you mean by "game engine"?

Yup! Though not so much for an RTS as for a game engine in general.

Also, the symbols on the fighters wings were inspired by german fighter markings of WWII. They indicate they wingmen and not flight leaders in this case. I really like WWII, so picking elements was something fun I thought i'd try. The wind thing on the Soryu I thought appropriate since it was a common thing it seems on Japanese flight decks, kind of an homage or something.

The total tri count for the Wildcat (which is sitll lacking missiles) sits at 4,494 and the Soryu sits at 3,862 triangles. I do plan on adding some interior bits to the Soryu, but those will come later the hanger bay as she is on the Soryu will more than do for my aims right now. Anyway, thanks for the comments all! Will post some shots of the Wildcats cockpit as it progresses.
 
I'm glad I wasn't imagining things, that wildcat looks like it has been painted in FW-190 style :p

I still think "low poly" makes it look more practical than flashy.. not everything should have hoses and nobs hanging off it.

It looks almost like it was designed for atmosphere re-entry.
 
Forgot abotu this one. This ship is completely unrelated to the ships I posted before, but is another vessel I recently finished. (by finished I mean all of the main pieces not including weapons are done). It's design is firmly grounded in the 'Hard Sci-fi' realm of things. It's powered by an Inertial Confinement Fusion Engine, that dumps all of its heat and what not into the exhaust. If I hadn't decided to do it that way, then the drive would have had to be 60 some odd meters in diameter, and thats assuming only 2.5% of the drives waste heat reaches the walls. Ouch.

The ship is the Federal Slava Class cruiser. The four spin arms are telescoping, and rotate at 4.5 rpm to produce .5 G in the pods. Not great, but better than no gravity. The ship masses 10,397 metric tons when fully fueled and loaded, the drive section puts out 10,000,000 newtons thrust and has an exhaust velocity of 1,000,000 m/s. With the 5,425 metric tons of nuclear pellets used to propel the ship gives the ship a total Delta V of 738 km/s. Maximum acceleration for the ship is .1 G or .96 m/s/s. Which means in 36 hours she'll be moving fast enough to get from here to mars in roughly 35 days (straight line distance measurement used there, though I suppose if you use a non-hohmann transfer orbit with an eccentricity of .8 you can get there in 16 days and only have to have spent 30 k/s of your ships total delta V instead of 125 k/s for straight line also, that's a very very simplified formula I used which doesn't take into account the movement of the planets or their oribital planes - assume all the planets are on the same plane in otherwords). So she's got plenty of fuel to go tooling around the cosmos. It's pretty common for the Slava to not go out with a full fuel load, which allows for a higher acceleration as it significantly reduces the ships mass and also keeps the captain on a tigher leash. The radiators are 1600 kelvin radiators and there is 568 m2 of them on the hull which dumps 422 Mw of waste heat.

Phew...lotsa stuff there. Anyway, on with the pictures!

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Brad
 
Wow this is really cool. I like this last design. Looks like it was inspired by the scimitar.

Keep it up, It would be neat to say make this another human race that confed has to fight say before the war, or after.. Good job.
 
All the designs are cool, but I'm especially digging that Slava class cruiser, being a "hard" SF fan for ages now (not that I don't appreciate some of the "soft" stuff... after all, I am a WC fan :D ), particularly the thoughts you put into the practical physics. Am I seeing something that's not there, or do the pods retract if need be? I'd imagine not having them stick out in a combat zone would be a good thing, given how it makes for a bigger target.

[edit]
Duh, on rereading the post I see mention of the telescoping pod arms. My mistake.
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I do have one minor issue with the design, though, namely its armament. Are there other weapons besides the torpedo/missile racks on its top? And while I'm at it, why is there a defined top/bottom? I mean, the specifics of the application don't require it, considering the ship is either spinning or engaging targets in a 3D environment.

(Yes, that's a common issue I have with a lot of larger SF designs, mine included. "Human convention/tradition" doesn't quite cut it for me.)
 
There are other weapons for it, I just never modeled them. There are small point defense laser turrets. They're essentially just a ball thats placed on the hull.

You're definately not seeing things, the booms are telescoping to make them a smaller and more armored target in combat.

And...you know, I never really thought about the defined top and bottom bit. I'm so used to designing this way that I just never thought about not having a defined top and bottom. I apologize for not having a reason other than an ingrained design convention, heheh.

It's been a very busy weekend/week here recently so unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to work, but I do have a progress shot on the Wildcat Cockpit.

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There are other weapons for it, I just never modeled them. There are small point defense laser turrets. They're essentially just a ball thats placed on the hull.

Mostly I was asking because of that "3D environment" thing I mentioned. With angular momentum being a cast-iron bitch, I can't imagine requiring having to spin a certain way to unmask its primary weapons to be practical, especially without the availability of direct gravity manipulation (which would obviate the need for simulating it with spin).

And...you know, I never really thought about the defined top and bottom bit. I'm so used to designing this way that I just never thought about not having a defined top and bottom. I apologize for not having a reason other than an ingrained design convention, heheh.

Well, like I said, I'm somewhat guilty of it myself, at times. On the other hand, though, from an aesthetic viewpoint, a cylinder (or worse, sphere) is just so damned boring. :p
 
now what would happen if all the talented people here at the cic got together and made 1 awesome game? all the talent here is amazing! Your models are looking great!
 
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