Pre-TOS Trek; The Starfleet Museum Mod

[Syf]

Sweet! The Trek version of a Puddle Jumper.

That don't look to complex to make... I wonder why none have been made.

 

[Starfox1701]

I guess because most people outside of Star Wars don't think starfighters are very sexy. Besides for this mod fighters are important to the Federation. They are a sign of technological advancement that neither the Klingons or Romulans can claim.

 

[StarBlade]

I've loved the Puffin design for years. This one looks really good.

Any chance of variant nose art etc?

 

[Starfox1701]

I have to get a model first before we decorate it but I'm open to segetions for the nose art.

 

[Majestic]

Well when I get back on my feet (a bombshell hit us yesterday) and if you haven't got a model by then I will see about attempting a model myself for you. However it's going to be a while if that's okay.

Same conditions as the Katala Freighter too naturally as we discussed sometime ago.

 

[Starfox1701]

Thanks that should work good.

 

[Starfox1701]

A little update. After several days fighting with fighting with physics to try and get a mor TOS feel and not intierly succeding I desided that part of the problem was gaging damage and weapons proformance. With that in mind I started working up a texture for damage meshes and fitting out a test ship in this case my chosen Constitution mesh. Its still a work in progress so heres the first test.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

That looks very good, Starforce. You should try adding burn marks around the damaged textures.

 

[Starfox1701]

Ah so the experimentation continues. I how ever am not entierly sure that I am getting the most efective results and need morre feed back.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Hm... the burn marks look really good. I dont know how it could be done better.

Why not try tinkering with the colours of the damage textures? No bright red or sth like that, lol, but maybe a darker tone.
You could take a look at modded damage textures from Bridge Commander and take some inspiration from there.

 

[Starfox1701]

Thanks intrepid. I was hoping for more imput guys. It doesn't look like my original idea will work so I will have to go with the more conventional aproach. I'll post more pics when I have something

 

[Majestic]

Sorry mate, but I have no experience with damage textures nor photoshop techniques to improve upon what you've already done, as you've done more than I could.

If I had any knowledge I would've certainly provided it to you here.

 

[Starfox1701]

Well see I was trying to get a genaric texture setup I could use on all the ships in the mod. However I'm having trouble with the lightmaps causing blending issues. My current photoshop knowledge leaves me unable to make this work so I think I'll have to fall back to ship specific damage textures. I was wondering weather anyone else saw the blending problems but didn't want to contaminate the answers by saying what exactly I was looking for. I guess the problem is that this has been done so rarely that no one has the experiance to gage this.

 

[Majestic]

If I understand you right, my recommendation would be to ask Aad Moerman as he has done a great deal of damage textures on his models with success.

Also what do you mean by blending issues? I didn't see any with perhaps the exception of the grey outline around the damage textures. Is that what you mean? I would like to help if I can, but like you I haven't done any damage textures before.

 

[Starfox1701]

I'v put a composite pointing out the best examples. Basicly what I was doing was using light maps to make the non damage part of the texture transparint. Trouble is that the outline was still standing out and much of the actual damage scar was still transparent enough to see the underlying hull through the damage which ruins the effect if the hull is any other color then one close to the gray of the exposed girders.

 

[Majestic]

I was wondering, since the lightmap effect isn't working (which I must say was a brilliant idea to start with I never thought of it myself that way) why not have the game model as a LOD, attached to the damage node. It might bring the poly count up a bit but having the entire side a LOD when it's damage could work.

My alternative idea is to talk to Fahres, as his STXI station has damage textures, and multiple layers of them.

 

[Starfox1701]

I did not know about the damage textures on that one I'll have a look.

 

[thunderfoot]

I haven't commented upon this before because I did not feel I had anything significant to contribute. I must say however, this looks to be a very interesting premise and so far a good looking mod.

 

[Muad'Dib]

This looks terrific Starfox, what an awesome project you are undertaking! I really like the old school Fed ships from the Romulan Wars timeline, can't wait to see more.

 

[Starfox1701]

Ok update time. I have continued working on damage textures and am in the process of creatng several templates for later aplication to the ship textures on a one by one basis. A side benefit of ths is that the templates will represent something that can be released as a stand alone developers tool. I figure I'll work up a simple tutorial and put it up on FF and MSFC maybe with one of my rarer meshes for instruction puposes. One question. What would be the best file format for the templates so that the most programes would be able to open and edit them?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

That is awesome. I have some ships, that I haven't presented yet, that would definately look good with some damage textures...

Best way to release them is in a .tga file format, I guess. Not everyone has Photoshop and .tga can be edited and converted quite easily.

 

[Majestic]

I say PSD is good, also if it's going to have a transparent background a PNG would be good. I say at least have PSD and another document for those non-PS users.

 

[Terra_Inc]

I say PSD is good, also if it's going to have a transparent background a PNG would be good. I say at least have PSD and another document for those non-PS users.

PSD is okay. GIMP can open and save to PSD, and I think that most people are using either Photoshop or GIMP.