NX-2000 25th Anniversary Edition

[WileyCoyote]

Are there any specular maps?

[furswift]

Are there any specular maps?

Not yet. I'm at a bit of an impasse with those. In the movies, the Excelsior's hull looks pretty flat. I think you got yours to look good, however. I am a total noob when it comes to specular maps. Do you have any pointers?

[WileyCoyote]

Grayscaling the textures might help most people. But to get good specular highlighting, the background color is a dark gray, and hull plating is lighter to show up in-game. You can look at DJ's textures to see what I mean.

Textures usually have a yourtexturename_glow suffix for main textures and specular highlights have a yourspeculartexturename_specular suffix. All textures must be .tga. If you are using Photoshop, targa images have an alpha channel which tells the game to light up objects.

Specular textures can be made after the ship has been ported, but it might be tricky to get them ingame.

[furswift]

Will changing the texture names remove them from the model? Do I need to map the speculars to the model or will they automatically line up with the textures?

[WileyCoyote]

Will changing the texture names remove them from the model?

Yes, but since you already mapped them on the model, renaming the textures should re-align themselves. Just make sure when you are searching for the "new" textures, select the ones that you have re-named.

Do I need to map the speculars to the model or will they automatically line up with the textures?

They will automatically line up with your textures. Just experiment. That's what I did.

[Adonis]

Will changing the texture names remove them from the model?

Yes, but since you already mapped them on the model, renaming the textures should re-align themselves. Just make sure when you are searching for the "new" textures, select the ones that you have re-named.

Do I need to map the speculars to the model or will they automatically line up with the textures?

They will automatically line up with your textures. Just experiment. That's what I did.

No need to apply the specs when porting, BC's scripting does that for you. However, the diffuse (_glow suffix) textures need to be.

Make the teal parts on the specs shades of dark grayish-green color, if you look at Wiley's sig, you'll see that the teal under environment lightning has a hue of that color. But, I must stress that you first get the texture number down to at least 4 before attempting a release. I can help with that.

[King Class Scout]

*grins* leave the stock colour scheme you have on it, and badge it as the  USS Pittsburgh!

I also have tried a recolour of an excel as the USS Sulu.

[furswift]

*grins* leave the stock colour scheme you have on it, and badge it as the  USS Pittsburgh!

I also have tried a recolour of an excel as the USS Sulu.

heh heh 

OK I think it's time I explained about the color. Most CG models of the Excelsior you see have a rather bright blue for the hull paneling. While it's true that the studio model did indeed use this color for its paneling, on screen it appears as more of a Payne's Grey. The modelers knew the studio lighting would make the blue appear more greyish and give it a more metallic appearance. Since I wanted to build something that resembles what's seen in the movie as closely as possible I chose the color from the screencap with the most neutral lighting I could find. Unfortunately, there are no perfectly neutral shots at all; they all, to some degree, have colored lighting. Since an object's color is determined as much by the light shining on it as its paint, it's impossible to get the movie color just right. I feel I got reasonably close, however.

[King Class Scout]

I notied that even with BC models, that they'll appear excessivly bright and garish in a model previewer or while editing, but either soft or dim in game.  since I only have the various trek movies on videotape, rather than DVD, I've never been able to look myself.  what I saw, personally, is a color I call "Ink Blue", the color of standard ball point pen inks, here (a blue-black).  it's kinda like trying to determine the exact colour of ambassador ships and X wing graphics in the star wars universe.

I'd try altering the color-temperature of the image till it looks right again.  when scanning in graphics and images, people complain constantly that their colors get burnt out, or bleached, etc.  I always adjust the color temperature to get a more realistic color.  nobody seems to know how to adjust settings

there's an extensive discussion on here, somewhere, involving the true color of the original enterprise.  it mentions the "color Bias" of the particular film that was used needs to be compensated for.

[vgdude999]

Looks good.

[086gf]

Thats just beautilful man.

[Adonis]

I notied that even with BC models, that they'll appear excessivly bright and garish in a model previewer or while editing, but either soft or dim in game.  since I only have the various trek movies on videotape, rather than DVD, I've never been able to look myself.  what I saw, personally, is a color I call "Ink Blue", the color of standard ball point pen inks, here (a blue-black).  it's kinda like trying to determine the exact colour of ambassador ships and X wing graphics in the star wars universe.

I'd try altering the color-temperature of the image till it looks right again.  when scanning in graphics and images, people complain constantly that their colors get burnt out, or bleached, etc.  I always adjust the color temperature to get a more realistic color.  nobody seems to know how to adjust settings

there's an extensive discussion on here, somewhere, involving the true color of the original enterprise.  it mentions the "color Bias" of the particular film that was used needs to be compensated for.

Age, scene lightning used during filming, photocopying, etc. all distort the colors. Most people don't take these things into account, so that's one reason why we have some really crazy paintjobs that are considered accurate (for example, the pale green panelling on the TMP Connie's deflector housing, that is infact teal color like the rest on the ship, other would be the lack of the teal panels too like on Wiley's one).

[FekLeyr Targ]

Very cool so far. I look forward to the final version. You're a good model maker and I'd like to encourage you to keep making models.

[furswift]

OK I got some bad news.

Adonis was kind enough to have a look at my Excelsior model last night. He pointed out some issues that will make this model difficult if not impossible to port into BC.

The actual polycount on this model is ~32K as opposed to 13K. I thought is was 13K because that's what is displayed on the top left corner of the screen. But this number displays the amount of editable polys, not triangles, making it completely useless.

The other, and I think bigger problem is the fact that the mesh is not seamless. It is in fact made up of many separate objects. I didn't know this would be an issue and just jumped right in without considering that possibility. Again my extreme n00bness shows.

Adonis told me it's still possible to port this model, but the mesh will require major surgery. I'm going to try, but I can't make any promises. The fact that you guys build these models seamlessly has raised my respect for you manifold. Again I apologize for my n00bness and hope at some point to see this model in game.

[Dalek]

Don't worry about it. We all have to learn our lessons somewhere. ;)

[Nebula]

not all bc models are seamless... some older models are cut up but still function, thy just may not damage as well.

like some of my models... heh

[bankruptstudios]

To expand on what Neb said, take a look at one of the most popular models here, The CG sovy. Off hand if memory serves well it has like almost 20 or so diffrent objects. I would sujest trying to colaps vertixies where you can with out ultering your over all design. Like if you lets say have a 90 corner that you wanted rounded to you have 6 vertx to form the curve. In bc you can get away with using 4 or even 3 well placed ones and if your model is 50% round curved corners, you will loose up to 50 % of your extra vertx buy condencing them. You have lots of detail and it would be a shame to loos it, so i sujest cutting down the vertex where you can, and them if that does not bring her down to 15k, then you might have to chop down the detail.

[Adonis]

To expand on what Neb said, take a look at one of the most popular models here, The CG sovy. Off hand if memory serves well it has like almost 20 or so diffrent objects. I would sujest trying to colaps vertixies where you can with out ultering your over all design. Like if you lets say have a 90 corner that you wanted rounded to you have 6 vertx to form the curve. In bc you can get away with using 4 or even 3 well placed ones and if your model is 50% round curved corners, you will loose up to 50 % of your extra vertx buy condencing them. You have lots of detail and it would be a shame to loos it, so i sujest cutting down the vertex where you can, and them if that does not bring her down to 15k, then you might have to chop down the detail.

The problem isn't that the model is a load of separate objects, but that it's seamed. The GC Sov doesn't damage properly (ok, minus the buzzards because they have animated textures on them and that's an engine limitation). Damage in BC should "fill" the holes in the ship. That happens with few models properly.

[Nebula]

CG sov damages quite well for me O.o

[Adonis]

CG sov damages quite well for me O.o

That's funny, cuz on my old GF4MX440 it didn't, on my moms rig which has an FX8600GT it does, and with my FX6800 it also does. So it has to be related even with teh GPU and CPU of the rig in question. But with seamless meshes that isn't a problem, it seems that the calculations for the damage are easier that way.