What he said and



In game we will go with names like scout and cruiser that most everyone can understand. We then put canon ship in each of those slots. The shiplist is derived from an effort to have fleets with different abilities but that are balanced against one another. If things seam odd it is for a good reason. Once we have a combat engine and play test there may be changes but not until then.

Fair enough. I'm sure there's plenty of time to get into this kind of detail later on. I'm a world war 2 buff too, so I'm relatively ok with ship classes and what they do. The reason I picked out the Miranda class as that seemed to be a destroyer class based on it's role in DS9 (small lightly armed and armored, but fast).

Interesting stuff Tons of work has been done so far too. Quite impressive.

I'm here and ready to help. I have a versatile background in IT, but none of it is graphics related. I'm decent at SQL and consider myself to have a decent grasp of spelling and grammar, so writing is right up my alley as well.

Let me know where I can be of service.

Thanks praguepride. I think Matress may be able to suggest something. I seam to do only graphics at this point. My gramner un sprellding never ant no good but den whit der hay.

I've sent Malvoisin a few PMs about tidying up some of the English translations as well as translating some of the German parts of the game that have yet to be translated. He's sent me some of the files needing to be looked at. I guess I'm just writing here to make what I'm doing a little more public as I've already been given my tasks.

Thanks, we need to keep up no who is doing what.

Kenneth, is there a chance you could post an example of the kind of work that you want done?
I'm a little confused as to how to identify a ship that is 'finished' or not, and specifically what kind of work actually needs to be done.

Good question. Here is an example of a Klingon ship model image that needs to be fixed.

You can see how the torpedoes reach the frame along with glow. We have to compromise the nice look of the fire going out of frame. Here is an example of one model image that I did fix.

The torpedoes use to extend up to the edge of the image.

Start by looking here to find an image where the glow, weapon fire or ships reach the edge of the image.

Look here to download the model

When you have created the new image load it up by attaching it to this thread and I can put it online at SharePoint. Once you are making content I will then ask Mike to give you a login at SharePoint. You can load your own work and post the image here to keep us up to date.

Again, the Federation and Borg are already fixed. The other races need to be checked for stinkers. Thanks for taking on this work. I am tied up doing backgrounds for new game features like intel and diplomacy.

We can replace them easily with models of higher quality, there are loads of great UFP and Klingon ships all over the internet, maybe our new memeber can do some models that we can't find or new tex for botf models. Something like this one, it's nice design but poly count is low and it needs new texture which is correspondent with early ufp style:

Kenneth. I'll go through those images and let you know of any alterations that I've made. It should be relatively easy to accomplish.

Zeleni, I'll happily give that ship a go. It's the troop transport from botf isn't it? I'll need as many guidelines and rules as you can possibly throw at me (it actually makes it easier to create if I have certain parameters to work within, for example, do we know the size of the London class?). Are there any plans for the ship? (I'm unsure if it's canon - EDIT: Just found out that it's not canon)
What currently do the 3D models need?

• 3D geometry (obviously)
• Certain 3D format? I use Lightwave, so that's easiest for me, but it can convert to obj and fbx.
• Specular maps.
• Normal maps.
• Other maps.
• Anything else I can't think of.

If some of these maps are needed for the 3D engine, which I know to be incomplete, are they not needed right now, but may be in the future? i.e. should they be created now, or only when they can actually be used?

I've looked through and altered all the Cardassian ship images that looked like they needed some tweaking.
They're all of variable quality (and many have quite a bit of compression artifacting in them) and obviously from lots of different sources. Is there a plan to redo these images from 3D models when they're all available?
The only one I really had any issues with was the orbital weapons platform - I had to add a new lens flare, so I hope it's ok. Sometimes it was difficult to get the flares away from the edge without it looking weird.

Nice, I will give you all guidelines needed later tonight cause I'm very busy at moment. Your help is appreciated, thank u !

Hahah, well you are new to the forums so i will explain you what is going on here... those cardassian images that you tweaked are testing models for our game... most of them will be replaced and all of them will get new 2d renders. I'm personally doing remastering of cardassian fleet and aim is to have different texture style for each era of the game. Kenneth is in middle of process of creating missing Ufp canon models like Conestoga. At the and I plan to take final renders in 3d studio max if there is need to hide bad sides of models and textures. How final work looks like here it is preview though this can change too: Right Click Open Image for Full View

Thanks for the reply Zeleni
So at the moment it looks like we're just using just colour maps for the 3D models. Other maps can be created later anyway, so that's cool.

I was trying to find a source of various Cardassian ship classes and came across this website: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org
It looks like a very useful source.

If you wish to start there are few standards that you should know:

- export your models in .3ds format
- 3 maps per model: diffuse, self-ilumination and bump map, others optional
- before you start with work post in 3D models thread and let us now which project are you doing
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1836&start=1080

About other guidelines we will discuss it 3d model thread cause this thread has another purpose.

Not having the 3D combat engine we can not say what maps will
be needed. I do not know if there will be any limits imposed by the
game as we have seen with the 270 x 225 .png images. It seams it is
easy to make the maps now and hope they will be used.


The models are to be in .3ds. Here is a link to model requirements.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1760

We do need now workable .png images to load in the game for our demo in Vegas.
To that end I have already made a workable set of the Borg and Fedeartion
png images. The other Major races would be nice to have ready to go by Vegas
in August. Thanks for the Cardassian images. I will look at that in a bit. We
can load that into the game for Vegas. We will still be replacing models
after that as better ones become available. For now though we need to
get workable .png images ready.



In years past I rushed through the shiplist filling it up with models so
we could play test the 3D combat engine in game. Well that did not
work out but the new rush issue is for .png images for Vegas.


After the set of png and backdrop images are ready for use in Vegas I can go back to replacing
Models.

Ship size:


I have made a model to help scale your work.
It is located with the other .3ds models. Load the
scaling model along with your new model and then
resize your work to fit that of the scaling model.
We are not using the cannon
sizes as that would not be workable in the .3d
combat engine. We likely will have to play with
the scale I have ready set up once we start
playtesting.
The issue is -
can you see the little ship and orbital batteries
next to the big things like StarBases. To
make the combat work visually we will need to
see most of the models even when we have
a StarBase in frame.

@Anti-Distinctlyminty

The Cardassian images look nice but they need to be on a
transparent background.

The .jpg images in the image library are just for reference so we
can see what model is where and how the .png will look on a
dark background.

The images that will be used in the game are the same but with
transparency where the black is seen in the image library .jpg images.
The images that will be used in game are located in a different directory.
It is
here.
Take these images and clean them up or go back to the models and
make a new render. Work on a transparent layer and then clear out the
space around the model. It should look like the .png images
in the In Game PNG images folder. Once you have that save it.
Then you can add a dark background to make the .jpg image for the
image library so we see the work.

Redone Cardiassian images with transparency.

Very nice and thanks for all that work. You can see the Image Library
copies here

I put the originals into the In Game PNG image folder on SharePoint.
I will ask Mike to set you up with a SharePoint login. He is
busy so it may take time for him to set you up. In the mean
time I can upload for you.

Zeleni is working on a redo of at lease some of the Card ships but
I do not know what he will have done by August. So thanks for
getting the Card ready for Vegas.

That leaves the Romulans, Klingon and Dominion.
I would not bother with the Minor races for now.
That is like counting heads in China.

Yeah, from what I've seen the amount of minor race ships seems to be a touch excessive.

Which set of images do you want me to work from -
Image Library > Fleets Ships Stations
or
Shared Documents > In Game PNG images?

Above is where you will find the ships and stations on a transparent background.
Work with them or go back to the model and make a new render and put it onto
a transparent layer.

It would be harder to work form the jpg in the Image Library with all that back around
the ship or station. When you have the new .png with the transparent background save it. Now
add in a dark layer under the ship or station and save it in a different folder with that "sp" added into the
name. Now upload the transparent
.png to the above folder and the dark background "sp" image to the Image
Library. If you use the same name the new file will replace the old. If you
change the name you will need to delete the old one and fix the name on
the new one.
Thanks,

I think I'll get all models ready for Vegas Ken, you can count on it.

Do you have a master list of ships and their status? (needs to be redone/complete/etc.)

Only on looking at the png images can I tell if they need edge work.
I have not made a list.




You will do all new models or work on .png?

New models and new reneders.

Great news, you are the man.

Dude, you rock.

In which case, is there any point in me redoing pictures for ships that will be replaced? I can just do the new 3D models if you like?