Think of this thread as something similar to conceptships.blogspot.com for the Sins community. Basically, a way for the community to share what they have created whether it makes it into a mod or not.
At a minimum post a screen shot of your model in blender, xsi, 3d object converter, etc or in game. If you have a name for your ship or story behind it, even better.
We are looking forward to seeing what you have created!
Interested in importing your models into Sins?
Visit http://soase.weebly.com/modeling.html (thanks myfist0)The soase.weebly is a compilation of many of the hard to find topics created by many experienced soase modders and extensively added to by myfist0. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.
From the beginning of this thread IskatuMesk has wow'd us with his models and ultimately released a video of his creations in Sins of a Solar Empire. This particular model was my favorite in the beginning and still stands out.
SivCorp looking to stretch new ideas from existing models managed to create several menancing models including the fantastic Vasari version seen here: (Vasari Flagship Sonar Kal'd used in the Distant Stars Mod)
It's my thread so a few of my stuff...
They aren't bad, I simply like those three a good deal. The Griffin needs to have the microdart launchers seem more visible, i.e. have some partially, fully, or covered, exit points for the microdarts. Besides that, the ship is fairly well done. The Voyager is quite solid, forgot to mention that before. The Hydra's hanger, imo, should be more "ingrained" into the hull of the ship, atm it reminds be a bit of of a vacuum cleaner or the bottom of one of those water shafts to get rid of excess water atop a house's roof. The cap ship factory doesn't seem to have much clearance, or space of sorts, for capital ships, unless that's simply due to the pic appearing smaller than it really is.
Also NomeMD, to add on to my previous post, if you're looking for a mod to do work for/join, I'd love to have you aboard the SoGE staff.
The Capital Node is large enough to build mini-titan class capital ships, so yes, it's huge.
The updated Griffin. The microdart missile launchers are now visible.
The updated Capital node's construction bay.
The back of the Capital Node.
The Extranet Broadcast Resonator, the Culture generator for the HDN.
The updated Frigate Node, now made to look slightly less like a microwave oven.
A lower view of the HDN's Commercial Hub. (Trade Port)
A top view of the Commercial Hub.
A front view of the redone Hydra Colony Frigate.
A side view of the redone Hydra Colony Frigate.
What do you think?
Critique is certainly welcome. Don't worry about making me feel bad, as I would rather that people tell me that my models look bad than just saying that they look okay...
I like your stations, but I think to improve the ships you should work towards making the bodies appear less like they are a single block. Don't be afraid to add polies/detail.
Thanks.
I shall attempt to make my frigates look less blocky.
I have to agree, I really like your stations. I actually like the ships though. It's a little retro, but I like blocky too.
Thanks, everyone.
A top view of the freshly redone Griffin AA frigate.
A side view of the freshly redone Griffin
A front view of the redone Griffin.
And a rear view.
A front view of the HDN's Tactical Defensive Structure, the Railgun Array.
A side view of the Railgun Array.
A top view of the railgun Array.
A rear view of the mostly redone Hydra Colony Frigate.
A bottom view of the Hydra.
A front view of the Hydra.
A top view of the Hydra.
A rear view of the redone Goblin Battle Frigate.
An underside view of the Goblin Battle Frigate.
A frontal view of the Goblin.
A side view of the Goblin.
A top view of the Goblin.
Man, I love Google Sketchup.
It's really easy to use, and can make ships like these in 10 minutes.
Critique?
Should I move on to Cruisers? Or should I play around with these frigates some more in order to get a better result?
Just real quick comments here...
I like the way the ships are shaping up. Playing with the multi poly bodies and creative front ends are really paying off. I think they're starting to really flow into something I would expect out of a ship design. Good job. I like the railgun array and I think stations is where you naturally shine.
The only thing I would push on at all is 1) you should think about the function of ship factories. Although they have to sort materials and allow space for construction, they usually have a fairly thin build in order to save material, seeing that they are merely a staging point for assembly. Other than that, if they amply fit the vessels inside, all is well. 2) When I said to add panels to the satellite, I was thinking that they would sink inward and be broken up. For example...
Ignore the smaller detail of the panel, but look at how there are a series of squares that fall inward, like a window frame. If you make it concave and break it into 2-3 rows of equal squares, I think it'll go a long way.
btw, you really are taking the advice and making the full use of it. I'm a fan of the Goblin. I imagine that if it used hte Dynamic Movement mod, it would be a formidable bugger.
Thanks,
I still need to make 3 more race's worth of structures, ships and other stuff...
I thought that starting with the easiest race would be, well, um, easiest.
I found that modeling is hard, especially when I am just making these ships up as I go...
Maybe I should've made some kind of plan set.
The HDN's Frigate and Capital Ship factories create materials from bits of quantum data sent through the extranet. They need all sorts of equipment in order to convert all of the power into matter.
The HDN REALLY depend on their Extranet, as their resources and information all flow through it. That's why culture is T1.
Trade is T5, and Refineries are T4.
I have decided that the Griffin looks too nice, and I have changed it up quite a lot and renamed it the Sphinx Heavy Assault Carrier.
The Sphinx Heavy Assault Carrier, I probably need to add quite a few more weapons...
The engines of the Sphinx.
A front underside view of the Sphinx, note the hangar.
The Goblin Battle Frigate, I changed the engines in order to match the rest of the HDN's ships.
A rear view of the completely redone Scarab Light Assault Carrier.
A lower frontal view of the Scarab.
A rear view, note the depth of the hangar.
A frontal view of the Scarab.
Anyways, what do you guys think?
Are all of these ships consistent with the rest of the HDN's theme?
Critique.
So far I think you're doing a pretty good job. I like how you're moving them toward a heavy use of nacelles, each one having some modification to suit it's design. The structures are also nice in their use of radial symmetry and jutting platforms, a common but still nice setup when done right.
I liked the almost evil, inward spikes on the rear hangar platform of the original Scarab, but this change is in line with the overall style.
Ok, my goal is to eventually add a fourth race mod--after I get planets and other things done. My own fourth race will have only a single ship (besides the constructor). It will function by capturing other player's ships and the entire strategy will revolve around raiding enemy worlds and battle fleets for resources. It's a "living ship" but has a symbiotic crew living aboard. Think, "Crawfish in spa-aaa-aaa-aace!". The empire will be the "Hivers". In theory, it will have four secondary beam weapons that fire only forward and one primary beam that focus fires forward. Other defenses will be by abilities.
Here's the render with one of the few working textures I've managed to jury rig (why do I hate texturing so much?).
Nice ships up there KrdaxDrkrun
Nice. Function-wise, it makes me think of the Beast from Homeworld: Cataclysm. Look-wise, it makes me think of lunch. Of course, I am a cajun.
Stick it in da pot.
Lol...I moved to Michigan from New Orleans. Boiled alive!
My idea was to make the four tentacle pads the secondary beams and the eye stalk the primary.
I have a junior version, the "Hiver Wog", that is an immature specimen and serves as the constructor.
My goal was to try to not make it look like a machine-animal mix--though the tentacles have collars at their bases. It will look almost entirely organic organic.
The coil on the bottom actually has a drill bit tip and it anchors into asteroids with the coil allowing for a quick departure simply by springing off. The tentacles allow for manipulation, gripping and balance of ships and rocks and the drill bit (which is similar to those on a newly documented weevil foot) allows large excavations for feeding on minerals and organic matter possible in them.
I really didn't want it to be a Vorlon knock-off or a ship with tentacles tacked on. I think it came out pretty nicely.
Particle effects (which I got no skills at) that would be awesome for this would be:
A man can dream...of course, then his wife will wake him up.
After a break I am back, this time with the beginnings of the Battlecruiser variant of the Warlord's destroyer.
Yey, we get a new model!
Bring on the feast!
Coolness.
The HDN's bomber. I tried to keep the polys down as much as possible.
The HDN's fighter, it also has less polys, but far more than the bomber.
My pride and joy, the Rukh Heavy Cruiser. Note the huge canister rocket launchers.
The back of the Rukh.
A top-down view of the Rukh.
A bottom-up view of the Salamander Dampener Support Cruiser.
A top-down view of the Salamander.
An updated Sphinx Heavy Carrier. Note the enormous dual Canister Rocket launchers.
Salamander and Rukh make me very happy.
On the front end of the Rukh and Sphinx, I wouldn't mind seeing more done. Maybe cockpit work, some type of forward equipment. Not sure, it just looks very plain compared to the rest. If you have a plan for something with textures, then I guess I'll wait for that.
Normally I would say something more can be done with the fighter, but then I think about how big they are in this game. No point in doing more.
Might at least catch the bomber up to the fighter. Add a more definitive engine system or even merge in some nacelles to match the overall style of the HDN. Like the focus on bulk though.
I am planning on adding a heck of a lot of detail to the front ends, to make up for the large polys.
Thanks for the critique.
Sometime, dream become true...
1 The main drill rotating constantly
Not a problem... just need to be sure at the model level that you can save the drill only and use the method from the B5 omega ship ( rotating section )
2 The lower coil spring expanding and contracting slightly in a steady rhythm
More difficult... maybe a mix of rotating and translating ( moving up and down for around 1/3 of the lenght ) will give a good illusion of it... the 1/3 is a limit else the lower spring can poke out at the upper side of the ship
3 The tentacles waving slightly
Don't think that it is possible with directx9 shader code unless the game engine use skeleton ( who is not the case for sins )... with newer version of directx ( or opengl ), you can make shader code who modify the mesh ( by example wings who move like these of a bird )...
4 The tail gently flapping up and down
Maybe possible but not sure... it is nothing more that a rotating function... but with limit on the rotating angle ( by example -+ 45 degrees )...
5 An engine glow coming from the inner faces of the segment joints of the tail
Not sure what you mean... the usual way is using texture with light and bloom but it is not very realistic... a other way is possible via particle... look at http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EpX6GUNLABE/S8WhwPvHX0I/AAAAAAAABJo/kqWsTyZZYA8/s1600/screenshot14c.png ... the blueish poly is created via particle effect using the sun shader code and a single texture ( not light map, no bloom map )... light created is realistic one... in these case, light from the "petal" are projected on the body and partially on the foward nose tentacle... if light emitting object is oriented outside, it can work like a real projector and illuminate nearby ship...
For all case, you need a specific mesh for each particule effect... by example, for the "petal", i have select the inner poly, extrude them a little along the "normal"... loop cut the new piece and save it as a individual object...
By the way, i have no skill for particle effect too... i simply edit/modify particle file with the notepad...
Other effect possible that i have test is moving texture ( for living organic skin by example ) or make some section of the ship partially transparent ( windows, canopy, dome ) but it mean that you need to model something at the back from these partially transparent section...
For example, the rotating effect and half transparency show at http://www.love-from-russia.be/Untitled.avi is possible with sins...
I have a huge amount of experience with Particle Forge, and I can help you if you need it.
What happens if you stick weapon hardpoints on a particle attached to a ship? Nothing?
Weapons hardpoints, like any other type of hardpoints need to be attached to the primary mesh...
By example, if you wish to make a ship who is half transparent like these in the "earth final conflict" series...
You create first the "shape of the ship"... in XSI, you add all the weapons/abilities/flare/exhaut/etc... now, you shave only the "shape of the ship", without the hardpoints... in XSI, you delete "the shape of the ship" and keep only the hardpoints... you create a new mesh model, by example a cubus... make it so small that you cannot see it ingame... add a new particle hardpoint at 0,0,0 that we will use for call the "shape" of the ship via particule effect...
In game, the ship mesh with hardpoints will be the cube so small that we don't see it... these cube will have a special hardpoint who call a particule effect who generate the real ship ( "shape of the ship" mesh ) with half transparency... for more realism, the cube can have a second special hardpoint for a third mesh ( internnal ) using a light emitting particle effect... for the moving light inside the ship, usual particule effect can be used with hardpoint located inside the "shape of the ship" but attach on the non visible small cube...
Point is that the primary mesh can be a dummy mesh, something so small with only a few poly ( triangular pyramid use only 4 triangle ) that you don't see it onscreen... particle hardpoint will attach to these dummy mesh... by attach, i mean being part of the mesh, there is no need to particle point to be in contact with the dummy mesh...
Method have a few minor problems... first, in shipyard, you will not see the ship being build since particle effect is only activated after the launch of the ship... when other ship fire at it, the target is the no visible very small cube, so weapons effect and explosion will appear to happen inside the ship when shield is down or when they go trough the shield...
You need to manually edit the .mesh from the small cube and modify the data related to "Bounding" for past with the "shape of the ship" ( else other ship will be able to fly trough your model since the bounding will be related to the very small cube )... for shield mesh, you need to use something like the a simplified "shape of the ship" a little scaled up...
This game is maybe 3 year old but the engine is very good... there is plenty of thing possible visually, some of them already implemented in some mod, some not yet used elsewhere, some not yet discover...
Below, some sample how some special effect can look ingame :
Original Omega from B5 mod... the center part is rotating
The texture on the central part is moving following a wave effect who move from the front to the back... only the texture move, not the mesh...
Transparency effect apply to the central section... for the light emitting effect ( with moving texture ), i have already show the Vorlon ship... pretty sure that some other effect are possible but i have no time so seek and test them... not sure that it is possible to make them via the particle forge since i have only use the notepad for edit/modify existing particle effect from the B5 mod, mainly the rotating effect... never tested it but if the game allow us to create our own fx code ( shader code ), there is plenty of other effect possible...
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