Cool beans man.
I'll need an email address to send the files to you. Also, do you want the full file on each one that contains the scripting too, or do you want just the basic folder that contains the cmp/3db/mat/sur/cockpit.ini file.
On the pilots, I don't know if you can remove them since they were cmp'd/3db'd and matted into the file. You'ld have to split the file open for that. But, you're welcome to give it a try.
I always wanted to "customize" that standard pilot so it would just show up in space. But that particular cmp looked so messed up that I scrapped it and made my own custom pilot. (I was even able to customize the pilots face to anybody's photo.) So the person who "owned" the ship would actually see their face in it.

@ Visceral: That's a mean looking freighter man. You're doing good work!
You don't have to have a high poly count to make a ship look good. It's mainly how you skin it out that makes the difference. Attention to detail is the key.
I don't think I would do much more to your freighter than you've already got on it.
The max limit any flyable ship should not go over is 10,000 polys. Milkshape doesnt like it and Freelancer tends to get annoyed with it.
You can easily double the faces on your freighter and get away with it. That will give you more intricate faces to work with if you want to add details.
Did you make that out of one cylinder? (if not, did you know you can?)
That's how I did the CSV2. The main part is all from 1 cylinder. Additions were the equipment mounts and claws.

What do you have for texturing your model out? There is a texture exchange in here somewhere that they have alot of cool looking textures I'm sure would add the character to your freighter you're looking for.



Edited by - Rankor on 11/19/2006 8:40:06 AM

Rankor: Thanks for the feedback! Been a bit hesitant to post screens of some of these, my texturing skills leave a lot to be desired (So I left them off), I can't draw to save my life but give me a tub of lego and.. you get the drift. The Freighter actually did start with a single stack 12 slice cylinder believe it or not, which then quickly became a 6 slice, and I had to backtrack quite a bit aligning vertices etc. I think I would have liked more curves on the model, tho a sharp edged model lends the craft a more menacing look imo. Gonna clean up the front end tho, maneuvering thrusters and raised weapon hardpoints are next, possibly redesign the cockpit entirely (that Tie-looking ball annoys me somehow).

For textures, I have a fair collection of metal textures, but none suitable for spacecraft. The texture exchange has one or two that could be adapted to suit, but I'll look into permissions there first.

(And the Caddy Police interceptor on your site rules, hehehe).

Cheers, Visc

@Viceral,
You should see what that Caddy does with a Sunslayer. LOL (I couldn't believe the destuctive power of that torpedo when I adjusted its damage and range output..but also adjusted it's angular velocity to 5.something. Anything that didn't get into cruise to get out of the way...was blown up). It's hilarious to watch this torpedo actually track it's target.) It's slow...but it follows & tracks the target till it gets in range...then BOOM. It's notorious for taking out a whole formation of capital ships. (Maybe I made it too powerful) I'll make a new torpedo and set it up with those stats then put the sunslayer back the way it was. I think I'll call this one the "Armaggedon Torpedo"...with a logo on the sides that reads, "Abandon All Hope".
*Cough, cough.... The Caddy has Three thrusters. (zoom zoom).
Anyway...
Did you want to make a "visible" cockpit or a simple "no see through" canopy?
I think what I would do, is dump the Tie cockpit. Then extrude a few faces right out of the front of the freighter. A few extrusions then scale them down as they go foward. Once set up, you can look at it from the side. Select a few faces by vertex and duplicate that section. (Hide it) then go back and reselect those
non-hidden vertexes and just pull them down (just make sure the selection doesnt overshoot the duplicate)....(instant cockpit) when you unhide the duplicate, select it and assign a glass texture to it.. (use black and slide the transparency slider to the left). It becomes very transparent. Trick to keep it that "color" is to do a UTF edit on that "glass" material after it's been exported in a FL Mat 1.0
0.254000
0.254000
0.254000
0.000000
(Opacity)
then
0.300000
0.000000
(Transparency)

I know this is shooting too far ahead at the moment. sorry.
You can practice making cockpits by using your cylinders and spheres.
You just have to make sure you make a "duplicate" first and hide it before you go back and pull the original vertices down/back.
I can post some photos if that will help.


Edited by - Rankor on 11/20/2006 1:17:53 PM

Re: Rankor

re: Caddy *rofl*

Hehe, good stuff Took your advice on the cockpit, and I think it turned out reasonably well, and I've put that juicy tidbit on the transparency into my notes, thanks a bunch . I made a few small changes and added a few raised edges here and there for depth, and came up with this:

(weapons hardpoints, accessory mounts and light fixtures pending)
Triangles: 2442



Front Right
Right
Right High
Right Rear
Rear
Front High
Cockpit

Getting warmer?

Cheers, Visc

I had to make a change in my previous post on the first set of numbers. (I typoed) so check your notes since I corrected it.

Pull your cockpit out further so it doesn't look so stubby...unless that's how you want it to look. You don't have to extrude it, all you need to do is grab the vertexes just behind the cockpit and move them forward.
Cockpits are pretty easy to make actually once you get the hang of it. The trick then is separating the individual "sides" of the cockpit so you can place different textures on those to make it look more realistic. (see the CSV2 above).
Since you've pulled the faces right out of the front of your freighter, you already have the basic shape of your new cockpit.

Try to complete your overall freighter first, then add "mounts" (simple 4 sided cylinders that have a nice "cross hair" to place the hardpoints on. (Hard CMP looks for that, and when there already lined up on a "crosshair" it becomes incredibly easy. The weaps and equipment almost need no adjustments)
To create a mount, I create a 1 stack/4 sided cylinder then delete the one vertex on the bottom that won't be seen anyway. Then, from the left perspective, select the vertexes across the top of the cylinder and scale them down by 0.8 on the x/z axis.
It will look like a quasi pyramid that a hardpoint can be placed on later.
Since you're working with a Triangular shape ship, make sure your ship is dead centered on the x/y/z. Especially when looking at the wireframe from the front or back. When you make a mount and place it on one of the "nodes" of your ship, then copy that and rotate the duplicate (by origin) 120 degrees. If your ship is centered and equally distributed, the duplicate with show up exactly on the next node/face where it should be. IF you happen to already have a hardpoint on that particular mount, after making a duplicate of the hardpoint with the original duplicate of the mount..(when you select them both and rotate them, you won't have to worry about going back and putting hardpoints on it since they're already there. All you'll need to do is just rename them.

That's looking good. One question though, the nodes extending out the front....what are they for?

When you're basically finished and ready to layout the textures on it, I'll help you along. Since its triangular, this is gonna be tricky.

Edited by - Rankor on 11/20/2006 1:30:12 PM

Edited by - Rankor on 11/20/2006 1:32:53 PM

Ok, did some minor tweaking and tidied up a little, added HP's for weapons and accessories (still pending: single triangles for engine, tractor etc etc) added some strobes, running lights, finned the engine collectors (intakes in the vacuum of space, hrm) and.. ah I can't remember. I'll be breaking up the model into parts next, it's halfway there now, but I'd like to have it almost entirely disassembled - faces in the same orientation on the same sub-section of the vessel would be grouped etc.

>One question though, the nodes extending out the front....what are they for?
Just didn't like how plain the bow looked.. and from an RP viewpoint, having forward crush zones on such a large vessel that would also serve to shield the bridge from attack would be a good thing. That and I just liked the 'lines' of the ship Gives it an aggressive and predatory look, almost shark-ish.

Even if it is a glorified garbage-scow. But it's an *evil* garbage-scow. Eeeevvviiillllll.

Triangles to date: 3248 (still no texture, shaded for effect)



Front Right
Right
Rear Right

Cheers, Visc

Edited by - Visceral on 11/21/2006 1:00:08 PM

That is looking hot. I could not have done better. I like it because it's unique.
Here is one of my freighters....(kind of ordinary in a way).



Edited by - Rankor on 11/21/2006 1:58:48 PM

Rankor, just send the cmp/mat/sur files and I'll worry about the scripts myself- my email adress is the same as the one in my profile The freighter's looking real nice Visceral

Cold, I'll get them wrapped up and sent to you.
Also, there IS a pilot hard point in the maintenance pod..although I could not get a pilot to show up in it. Have fun with that one especially.
If you wouldn't mind, let me know how you do that. Thanks.

Vic,
Depending on the size of your finished freighter, you could probably get away with mounting 3 Reinland Engines at each engine nacell. (total of 9 engine hardpoints)
I used 7 Reinland Gunboat Engines on this model to fill out the open space.



Edited by - Rankor on 11/22/2006 8:52:50 AM

Due to "special request"....I've taken up a sort of odd project.
Yeah...we've seen them before in sci-fi movies.
Here is the first crude rendering of the Hispanola Clipper ship...



Edited by - Rankor on 11/22/2006 1:46:33 PM

It looks like a boat that they used years ago. But apart from that nice design

Thanks. I think it's a pain in the neck ! LOL
It's acutally quite crude in design. A sphere and alot of cylinders.

Re: Rankor
Don't underestimate ordinary (interesting idea there btw.. what about a 'solar sail' idea?) When all is said and done, eye-candy doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot when you're running a barge. It's 'where are the pirates now..' or 'I hope this load of plastic dog-doody fetches a good price' or 'Hey should I finish my route, or fly into that really spiffy sun over there.. I wonder..' .

SO yeah, I took a bit, and did some textures, uvmapped, went a little mental, and came up with this.. the containers and bridge aren't done yet and the textures lack seams shading etc, but..



Front Right
Right
Rear Right
Rear
Front High
Head On

Edited by - Visceral on 11/29/2006 10:42:46 AM