Now that's an interesting thought.
This particular "clipper" ship I've been working on has sails that need an animated type transparent/active texure.
Thanks for the plug and credit on the 88WASP.
That's nice framwork on the canopy, something I haven't thought of attempting on that model since the cockpit had a lot of details in it.
I see the original pilot is gone. Did you manage to get a "generic pilot" to show up in it while in space? (Thats something I've never figured out yet)

I also couldn't help but notice the lack of intrumentation in the cockpit.
(that was one of it's features) It use to have a nicely detailed cockpit.
It also had some nice "logos" on the tail pieces. I'm guessing you couldn't keep Calico Jack's logo on the outside faces? I see where the reposition of the secondary weapon mounts would have covered the "Bad Karma" logo.
I notice that the primary texture of the overall ship model is now one texture. I think I had a total of 12 textures incorporated into it. From the looks of it, it appears to have mainly 3 textures now including the feature you incorporated into the intakes. I must admit my confusion on the use of the "nozzels" on the front of the engines..but I'm guessing that is one of the animated parts you're refering to. I'd like to see what that looks like in game.
I have to give you credit on the "firey" texture rendering for the intakes. I suppose you did that also with the exhaust ports? That was a nice job.
Since the cargo pod is gone from that model, did you find a way to make an attachable accesory cargo pod? ( I'm certain that could be done )

Overall, my compliments on the "active" texture.
Here is the original rendering in MS and as it basically appears in game.



Edited by - Rankor on 12/20/2006 5:04:04 AM

well, basically i was really concerned about optimizing it for performance (there's something about a 3000+ polygon ship with several .tga files and animation that screams *framedrop* to me )- the sensor pod was a very high poly part that was disposable, and also taking room for the attached-reactor so i removed it.
the textures were reduced by reusing the nozzle-texture, and not using the decaled' textures (i had to put hardpoints over them anyway, as you noticed, to make having destructible fins worth the effort). anyways, i'm very satisfied with the complete ship now so I can send it back to you along with my source files if you'd like a copy.
Getting a generic pilot to show up is really no problem- if you _never_ see them it may simply be an LOD problem with your gfx card. the only requirements for the default pilot model are 1. an HpPilot and 2. a pilot_mesh = generic_pilot line

As far as the generic pilot not showing up, I have a feeling it's something really simple that I overlooked. I tried the HpPilot hardpoint using the cmp editor, so it seems if it would have worked, it should have showed up. I'm guessing it may be as simple as a missing HpConnect possibly? The LOD seems to be already set in the generic pilot file anyhow...unless I missed that one.
ooops.....I see where I missed it now. It's that second line.
I took the original "pilot" file and reworked it into the new fella you see in the orignal pic...but kept the original pilot safely tucked away in the game where it belongs without trying to swap it out. lol....I wanted this guy to look different from the usual space cadet.
The usual generic pilot shows up in nearly all the npc ships.
(Some kind of clone LOL)

The ship on display is actually the 3rd generation of my first original 88WASP. (also my very first ship)
You've just made a 4th generation type. Good work.

Edited by - Rankor on 12/20/2006 5:23:26 PM