My First Model

[Starfox1701]

Here we have straight from the 1000 yarn war a Cylon War Star. Textures to come I hope. Last pic is what I based it on. C&C please

 

[Avon]

Very nice man. I like the detail.

 

[Majestic]

Looking good, pretty good for a first model what's the poly count by the way?

 

[Terra_Inc]

Looks good, I like.

 

[thunderfoot]

Looks good. I would imagine the ploy count is going to be vey high with curves that smooth. May be hard to place in A2 without a lot of lag.

 

[Adm_Z]

Looks sweet man.:Y I bet the poly count is pretty high though.

 

[Starfox1701]

Its not insemountable; she's only 12,043 polies. War Stars are like mini basestars so they aren't intended as a mass build ship. Combine that with lods and she should run fine

 

[Majestic]

12,000 Poly's? :Y

That way too big for A2, a 3k poly model is really the largest you should have. Lods or no lods that's way to big mate. Trust me, I've been in this game for over 10 years.

 

[Ryderstorm]

It looks ok as a wip. I have to agree though 12k for what I see there is a lil high. Some spots look smooth shaded while others look flat shaded. I see lots of places which I would add detail via texture radther than with the mesh. But its a wip and your first model. You may find that you will rebuild it a few times just because you learn something along the way. There is no better way to learn than by actually doing and seeing how the tools work.

When you add things such as guns or outcroppins it really drives up poly counts very quickly. For me I find that is the most dificult thing is adding the lil details that cant be presented via textures while keeping polys down.

 

[Majestic]

Indeed, cylinders really drive poly's up. You really should use cylinders larger than 12 slices. Perhaps at most a single 18 sliced one for the main saucer, but the rest should be at absolute max 12.

Also I would go with Ryderstorm's suggestion at adding the fine detailing via the textures, it's something that a lot of high poly modellers find difficult when converting to low poly for game useage, especially Armada.

May I also suggest as Ryderstorm has indicated keeping turrets off. Since we don't have movable turrets on models in A2, they become really pointless. At most just have a circle or something on the texture to indicate turrets.

All in all, a great first model. Mine was the Daedalus class from Star Trek, and it was like over 3k in poly's and not very good. Yours looks great.

 

[Starfox1701]

There arn't any turrets on this ship I only used high slice count on the 3 major parts and these 3 parts only acount for about 10% of the polies. The other 90 % is all details. This is going to be the largest model I have ever convereted to run in A2. As long as I can get the 3 lowest LODs below 3000 I should be ok

 

[Majestic]

I look forward seeing her completed. As for textures, if you don't know much about creating them I strongly recommend Achilles texture tutorial on A2Files. Plus either Photoshop or Corel Paintshop Pro. I use a combination of both myself, though I personally prefer the former, though the latter had features that photoshop doesn't.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I totally agree with Majestic on this, I also use Paint Shop Pro (and that's the program used in the mentioned tutorial I think), because it is a good program too.

Maybe you should make two versions of you Warstar, one the one you already have, and a light version, with most details drawn into the texture file, that should make for a great version ingame while the heavy one could do it for eye-candy pics or even renders or videos you'd like to do.

 

[Starfox1701]

Been going through the texture process. I found some usless polies and found a part I could rebuild and the mesh is down a bit over 8600 polies. I don't think I'll shave anything else off but after release if their are proformance problems some one is welcome to do a lower poly version. I'll post some fresh pics tommarow after I get some more textured

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
8600 polies is far better than 12000, and that sure will help with ingame perfomance, even though I do agree that 3000 should be the maximum limit for mass-produced battleships, but maybe this ship is a limited unit.

Can you give some more info about it?

 

[Starfox1701]

The Warstar is one the larger and older Cylon base ship designs. The class predates the Hades class Basestar by more then 300 yarn. Aproxamatly 1500m in diameter the Warstar was the main force advicary of the Pulsar Class Gunstars and the driving force behind both the Battle Nova upgrade project and the desgining and building of the first Colonial Battlestars.

Warstars carry 150 fighters and the facilities maintain and to a lesser extent replace losses. They are armed with 22 twin turbo lasers cannon, 10 Mega Laser cannon, 2 Pulsar Cannon, and 1 Megapulsar. A fearsome enemy even a Batlestar must be wary of such firepower.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
The Warstar might be older, but it sure looks like it has quite a punch... and i still think it can be a more restricted unit, maybe some special ships you might get and that could be used as an asset in your fleet.

Keep it up! I look forward to see how your model is progressing-

 

[Starfox1701]

Warstars carry half the fighters and firepower of a Basestar. They are command line ships like Basestrs and Battlestars. The way I read the limited TOS history they did Large scale fleet battles where rare during the 1000 yarn war. They usally ended in horrific losses for both sides and so were avoided. This however made truly decicive engagments rare which is 1 reason that the war drug on so long. Most engaments where raides or squadrons ambushing other ships or squadrons.

Heres sime oics of the developing texture

 

[Avon]

Looking nice mate, good job so far.
Why on earth did you wait this long before taking the plunge with modelling? You are clearly capable

 

[Majestic]

Indeed nice start on the texturing.

 

[Achilles]

looking good Starfox. Just one point, all those boxes/greebles you placed over the surface, did you delete the back faces as they will kill your poly count.

 

[Starfox1701]

Looking nice mate, good job so far.
Why on earth did you wait this long before taking the plunge with modelling? You are clearly capable

Modeling starships can be very intimidating. I have been tinkering for over a year. This is just the first ship to get this far.

Indeed nice start on the texturing.

Thanks

looking good Starfox. Just one point, all those boxes/greebles you placed over the surface, did you delete the back faces as they will kill your poly count.

Yea I did but I'm double checking as I texture things hust in case.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
It is very good to always double-check, I do that with my models too because there might be that sneaky polygon around that hides way to well .

The texture sure looks like it is going the right path, I look forward to see your progress. Keep it up!

 

[Starfox1701]

Going to be out of state for a funeral till late sunday any updates will have to wait till then.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I'm sorry to hear that, I hope things will improve for you soon and make your pain to go away as soon as time will tell.

 

[Starfox1701]

This is not dead. I caught a repitory bug while out of state and have had to stay in bed most of the time. I'll post picks when I get a chance to work on her; Sorry

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Well, real life always comes first, so take your time so you can make a quick full recovery, then you can restart modding again .

 

[Starfox1701]

Thanks, I finally got some time to work on her today. Heres the resaults. I wound up rebulding grebals again and added som things I couldn't get right on the texture. Count is 9591 and I don't think that will change again.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
The ship is looking very nice, I like the details you have added to the texture for the ship.

Maybe 9591 polies is still very high for Armada games, but maybe it can be awesome if you can take eye-candy pics on it or in games like Bridge Commander... if you are interested of course.

 

[Starfox1701]

I plan on putting LODs on the Armada version. It should run fine on the average PC. I'll be releasing the model for Bridge Commander, SFC and maybe Legacy too but someone else will have too finish the riging for those games.