"Superior" AI Core - Battleship

[frozen]

firstly, congratulations on the rapid progression you've made with the model, it is by far much faster than most new comers to the 3d modelling area for disco (or freelancer on the whole, if you will). the model's design fits into the design jinx used for the VHF and cruiser rather well, what with all the tentacles and general flow of the model. furthermore, for someone learning how to model and texture all by himself, your attempt is still miles better than many others, as stated before.

However, now i must come to the criticisms.

1. instead of using custom textures for the model, have you thought about using the vanilla textures/textures already being used by AI ships? in its current shape, the model's texture job lacks detail, is rather transparent in many places, and hard to distinguish details.

2. when people meant asymmetrical design for the tentacles, they meant having randomly flowing tentacles everywhere, not a mirror left/right of the tentacles. symmetrical would be this: "d || b", while asymmetrical could be defined as "d || ghtudh", if you get what i mean (crude example, but im pressed for time and its the best i can come up with)

3. this is probably nitpicking, but try making the antennae swept back instead of going straight up/down out of the model, it might fit in to give the model is slightly further streamlined look.

4. in its current shape, it gives me the impression of a shark for some reasons, maybe due to the shape, maybe due to the "fins" on the back area and the way the engines are modelled. from what i see with jinx' ships, they have a more cylindrical feel to them instead of boxy.

5.look at the AI cruiser model in shagohad's signature. as you can see, there is a distinct level of details that can be achieved with trimmings and such. if you like (and if you dont already have it), once i get home i can send you the .rar file with freelancer ship textures already extracted and ready to use (kudos to treewyrm for actually doing 99% of the work, i just had to do a few minor extractions for textures i needed that werent present)

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and now, i gotta run, probably will provide more feedback later if i get access to a pc soon.

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[Jinx]

the ship looks good. - it looks less sleek than the cruiser ( less flowing lines - rougher and sharper ) - but it fits in.

what is lacks is a certain elegance - a general smoothness. ( thats not necessarily a bad thing ) - its a bit like how an old battleship looks compared with a modern cruiser. - just cause the battleship looks somewhat rough and archaic doesn t make it less intimidating or less dangerous.

critizism:

the skin of the ship is lacking. - it shows little detail, when it "could" probably add some more. - especially ships of capital warship size benefit greatly from a detailed skin, cause the skin can add something like a fake bump map to large and plain surfaces.

the colour of the ship is a bit too much. - there is a difference in dyeing a skin. - up to a certain level and with a certain colour ( usually pale, dusty colours ) - the dye looks like its the material itself that has a different colour. - when you use bright colour like a light green, it doesn t look like the material itself anymore, but like the material was painted on.
this one looks painted on.
freelancer offers a very strong "ambient light" ( thats the suncolour and strength ) - so a grey ship shines in all hues of the rainbow depending on the system it passes through. - a coloured ship however shows false colours sometimes then. ( for example: a shining light blue becomes a greyish white in purple light )

i suggest sticking to a more conservative palette of colours. pale dyes that don t change the appearence of the original material too much. ( adding black to darken it works every time though, cause black does not mix with the ambient light to produce false colours )

general feeling about the ship:

at first it looks ugly - but not ugly in terms of a bad model, but ugly in terms of strange ( in a neutral way ). it is one of the ships that are quite interesting as a matter of fact. - you discover nice twists of the mesh as you look closer, details etc.

when i compare it to the AI cruiser - the cruiser looks like a cybernid or half oraganic ship. - this one looks like the core is somewhat cybernic but the hull is solid armour. - while i d expect the cruiser to "float" easily through an asteroid field, i d expect this ship to simply smash through in a straight line.

on a more practical note:

i am not so sure if adding an AI ship of battleship size is possible.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Luis]

firstly, congratulations on the rapid progression you've made with the model, it is by far much faster than most new comers to the 3d modelling area for disco (or freelancer on the whole, if you will). the model's design fits into the design jinx used for the VHF and cruiser rather well, what with all the tentacles and general flow of the model. furthermore, for someone learning how to model and texture all by himself, your attempt is still miles better than many others, as stated before.

However, now i must come to the criticisms.

1. instead of using custom textures for the model, have you thought about using the vanilla textures/textures already being used by AI ships? in its current shape, the model's texture job lacks detail, is rather transparent in many places, and hard to distinguish details.

2. when people meant asymmetrical design for the tentacles, they meant having randomly flowing tentacles everywhere, not a mirror left/right of the tentacles. symmetrical would be this: "d || b", while asymmetrical could be defined as "d || ghtudh", if you get what i mean (crude example, but im pressed for time and its the best i can come up with)

3. this is probably nitpicking, but try making the antennae swept back instead of going straight up/down out of the model, it might fit in to give the model is slightly further streamlined look.

4. in its current shape, it gives me the impression of a shark for some reasons, maybe due to the shape, maybe due to the "fins" on the back area and the way the engines are modelled. from what i see with jinx' ships, they have a more cylindrical feel to them instead of boxy.

5.look at the AI cruiser model in shagohad's signature. as you can see, there is a distinct level of details that can be achieved with trimmings and such. if you like (and if you dont already have it), once i get home i can send you the .rar file with freelancer ship textures already extracted and ready to use (kudos to treewyrm for actually doing 99% of the work, i just had to do a few minor extractions for textures i needed that werent present)

--------------

and now, i gotta run, probably will provide more feedback later if i get access to a pc soon.

Thats a better clarification i need:)

Uhmm, about the textures - i basically use plain textures and few textures of google - (since i could not find any FL texture files).

"Shark" - yes, i was thinking of a shark or a fish skeleton - but i like it like that.

"Tentacles" - I see i have to do a beeter job then - well.....not better - just make each one look slightly diffrent?

Engines need major work now to come think of it :/ - So cylindrical look then?

Thanks for the tips - Frozen!:D

[Luis]

the ship looks good. - it looks less sleek than the cruiser ( less flowing lines - rougher and sharper ) - but it fits in.

what is lacks is a certain elegance - a general smoothness. ( thats not necessarily a bad thing ) - its a bit like how an old battleship looks compared with a modern cruiser. - just cause the battleship looks somewhat rough and archaic doesn t make it less intimidating or less dangerous.

critizism:

the skin of the ship is lacking. - it shows little detail, when it "could" probably add some more. - especially ships of capital warship size benefit greatly from a detailed skin, cause the skin can add something like a fake bump map to large and plain surfaces.

the colour of the ship is a bit too much. - there is a difference in dyeing a skin. - up to a certain level and with a certain colour ( usually pale, dusty colours ) - the dye looks like its the material itself that has a different colour. - when you use bright colour like a light green, it doesn t look like the material itself anymore, but like the material was painted on.
this one looks painted on.
freelancer offers a very strong "ambient light" ( thats the suncolour and strength ) - so a grey ship shines in all hues of the rainbow depending on the system it passes through. - a coloured ship however shows false colours sometimes then. ( for example: a shining light blue becomes a greyish white in purple light )

i suggest sticking to a more conservative palette of colours. pale dyes that don t change the appearence of the original material too much. ( adding black to darken it works every time though, cause black does not mix with the ambient light to produce false colours )

general feeling about the ship:

at first it looks ugly - but not ugly in terms of a bad model, but ugly in terms of strange ( in a neutral way ). it is one of the ships that are quite interesting as a matter of fact. - you discover nice twists of the mesh as you look closer, details etc.

when i compare it to the AI cruiser - the cruiser looks like a cybernid or half oraganic ship. - this one looks like the core is somewhat cybernic but the hull is solid armour. - while i d expect the cruiser to "float" easily through an asteroid field, i d expect this ship to simply smash through in a straight line.

on a more practical note:

i am not so sure if adding an AI ship of battleship size is possible.

Uhmmm - I cannot texture, Jinx:(

Yes, i just placed plain colors on the model - for a first timer it looks good

I like your critism and it shows that I still need to work on the model. However - my problem is not the model - is creating a "hitbox" and "texturizing":(

Jinx - don't ruing my dreams and Shagohad dreams on getting this ship ingame - please:(

What I can do is update the model as much as possible without texturizing. Is it possible to create a hitbox on Meta ? (If yes, please tell me how for I to learn). Once these things are setup - I will like someone to participate on doing it's textures - please?

[frozen]

there are different levels of hitboxing. the method i employed to make hitbox was rather effective, since there were over 70 hitboxes (counting the hitboxes made by others as well) that needed to be redone for 4.85's final release.

I wrote a tutorial explaining how hitboxing the fast way works: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...=30770&st=1

check this thread for more stuffs which may be of use to you: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30770

and yes, you can make the hitbox model in meta, but you will need to export it to milkshape to do the necessary steps to make it work in the end.

on a side note, jinx is actually being practical, the chances of an AI battleship getting in would be rather slim, I'd think you'd need some seriously good reasons to back it as to why it should be put into the mod.

i dont really know how to texture on meta, i use primarily 3dsmax to model, texture and hitbox, really, using milkshape only for the importing/exporting stuff.

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[Linkus]

I would suggest including it in the mod but not having it publicly on sale.
Special RP given only. For those AI chars that have developed themselves and their stories enough to be granted one.

I mean, considering these ships are meant to be constructed by the AI, it makes sense that a developed AI (Both inRP and from an OORP perspective) would end up like this.

Of course, bigger is not always better. A cruiser size might fit an AI better than battleship size.


Very good work all the same, much the same criticisms as Jinx and Frozen, texture work and some minor changes really.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Agmen of Eladesor]

Well, I'll throw my two cents in to this as well.

The Harvesters would DEFINITELY like to have an AI battleship available for us. (Hell, we'd LIKE our own gunboat, too, but we'll make do with Corsair and Junker ships.) Yes, we're still out there, and we're in negotiations right now with the Zoners to effectively assume control of Gammu, just as certain un-named parties are in negotiations to assume control of Primus.

This being a light battleship, similar to the Mako, would be appropriate as well. Or maybe consider it a heavy battlecruiser and put a thruster on it. The Harvester Cruiser is a light cruiser - a match for the BHG Dessie, but certainly not big enough to get into it with any kind of other cruiser.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Luis]

Hmmm, I ordered my registration code for Milkshape. Just got to wait few hours....

[Linkus]

You paid for milkshape? O.o

I don't think many ever do pay for it.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Dragonego]

All the links/images are dead to me. :(