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So I got down to some serious work on the pulse cannon muzzle flash effect, and the resulting fireworks are stunning. The firing frame itself is only three frames so it saves processor time in Nova, and with the use of the "fade shots" effect being instructed to burn it out in the three frames it has, you get this amazing persistence of vision effect each time the flash goes off, and it actually makes your eyes instinctually adjust as if they were looking at a real flash. It's sort of like when they show you a photo of the sun and your pupils constrict even though it's only as bright as a full-white screen would be. You truly get the feeling a real weapon has discharged a serious amount of energy.
I'm just wondering though, wasn't there a "shots appear above ship" flag for fixed guns before? If so, I can't find it, and I need it.
There is a flag in the ship resource that makes turreted shots appear above the ship, as opposed to the toggle for beams appearing above/below the ship, which is found in each individual beam's file. This may affect dummy fire shots too, but I don't recall.
Will all those who would argue that Bryce 5.5 is no longer a feasible professional-level 3D production tool please stand up, that they may be dismissed from the room?
I present you with the Cephecon, the choice vessel of the NDC during scouting missions that require more than a simple scientific vessel, and for the oft-needed officer transport through semi-hostile territory. This file spent the longest time on my hard drive simply named "Sleek Ship?" because I couldn't quite determine a direction I wanted to go with it. However, I've decided that I'm going to christen this vessel in such a gratuitous manner because it was the completion of the engines on this one, and using the top-down view in SketchUp, that I finally realized I could texture multiple surfaces of an object in Bryce by simply taking a screenshot of the upper surface of a craft and then painting it up in photoshop. I posted a few of the preliminary shots in which I had used a simple fill for the hull plating, but now I am immensely proud to present to you a textured, lit model, in high definition and everything, for your drooling leisure. It's okay to want it; I know that I do.
I would dare say that my 3D design level jumped at least 4 times higher with the discovery of this texturing method. However, amidst all this excitement, I will state openly that I'm still not 100% happy with the plating on this beauty, and I'll probably be manufacturing my own texture mesh in the near future that better fits to the contiguous lines of the ship, as well as adding fine details such as external ports, small practical windows, wiring, etc. The circuitry texture I used in the sunken portions of the ship's upper hull look good, but I'll be tweaking even those so I can make them really stand out when the model goes in-game. I'll also admit that I sort of jumped the gun on that one as well; I was so eager to get the new texturing method into Nova that I created a pre-render of the spin and made the entire ship. Now all I have to do is go back and put the final version in, once it's done, of course. I also developed a bunch of really neat filter combinations in photoshop that I can apply to a regular spin sprite sheet that makes for very cool shield effects when viewed in the game.
I am also very happy to tell you that as soon as I complete the Cephecon and make it ready for plug-production, I'm going to be releasing it as a separate add-on to Nova, and unlike my alien ship from before, this one will work properly with the base game, without writing over any other ships, and it'll be flyable instead of just being a call-in combat target.
This is the military version of the ship. In-game there will also be a scientific variant, with weaker weapons but better shields and some very advanced defensive devices. Oh, and the paint job is green instead of blue. I'm hoping that this beautiful cruiser can be your "Starbridge" for the Delphi universe; a multipurpose ship with lots of upgradeability that everybody loves to fly.
I'm extremely enthusiastic for the future of this TC, and I can promise you nothing but quality from here-out. It can only get better.
Aw hell, invite the cynics back into the room. They deserve to enjoy this one, too.
PS - I'd love to hear from any of the EV developers on this one; Pipeline, especially, considering his many hours spent making Nova as beautiful as it is. I won't bother anybody with a PM, but if any of them should happen to drop by this thread, feel free to leave feedback!
PPS - Almost forgot to tell all of you: I applied to college and was accepted into a university instead! As of September 3rd, Mount Royal College (Calgary AB) received university status, and I am enrolled. Just had my first few classes across the last couple of days. And to think, with all this art, I'm in Broadcasting of all things.
This post has been edited by Delphi : 12 September 2009 - 04:31 AM
Wow... I can't wait to see where you take this, especially with a LASIK spriting method. Will this plug-in for EVN have those weapon flashes you were talking about?
Oh wow, OH WOW! Delphi! These ships are just beautiful! They really are! I had kinda stopped checking for awhile cause nothing new appeared but these are awesome! And now you say you are going to be able to make the ships even better and more beautiful? That might bring a tear to the eye! Thank you for the PM, glad to see you are back! And congratulations on making it into University! It's cool to see you making progress! Ah!! I can't wait!
First of all I'd like to say GREAT job with the texturing enhancements. Your modeling style made me envious from the get-go, and it's great to see that you can put some real finishing touches to your work.
I'd be so happy to see your TC in on the downloads page when it's done. I've wanted to play a really polished one for quite some time. You are starting to inspire me.
Not a knock against Bryce 5.5 at all, but as a shameless plug for Blender (also free,) in Blender, it is possible to assign up to ten materials to any object and assign them by face, not just by object. I believe that as of Blender 2.50, which will come out in about a month or so, even that limit will be expanded. I've also recently discovered that it is possible to texture objects in Blender like a decal, instead of as a repeating material. I've been playing with this method, and the results so far have been amazing.
But, to comment on the ship, I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a moment when I saw that. Amazing work, Delphi. Absolutely astounding.
iDrool.
I'm expecting great things from your TC, Delph. Don't let me down.
Just a quick little poll and a question: how many of you are still in possession of machines capable of running Mac OS 9, and who would be willing to help me convert my sound effects to the proper format when the time comes? I'll take any help I can get, because although I DO have an old desktop G3, it is unreliable at best and tends to crash during the most important of processes, like - oh, I don't know - reading/writing to the HD...
Anybody willing to jump back in time and convert some .aiff to .sfil?
I don't have a full library put together yet for the sound effects, but I'd just like to know if there's somebody out there who can help me when the time comes.
I do have a G3 tower that runs fine, but it's at home, not in my university dorm. If you've got stuff that needs converting over the Thanksgiving long weekend when i'll be home, though, I'm game.
I've got OS 9 on this machine, but I don't know how to convert files from .aiff to .sfil.
I've still got my G5 iMac around for the express purpose of running ResEdit with Nova Tools so I can use its shan editor. I know I have an app that can do .sfil (that's system 7 sound, right?), but I don't recall every having opened .aiff with it. Still, I can give it a shot.
QUOTE (JacaByte @ Sep 19 2009, 02:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Same boat. I have a computer in storage with x and 9 (g4 imac), but I would need to learn what to do.
I take it MC doesn't like formats like .aiff or .wav? I don't know if it would work, but I think I can convert .aiff to something that EVNEW can handle and send you a .rez. So far, that's been a bit buggy on the EV Firefly project, but I could give it a shot.
Unfortunately, it's not that MC doesn't take other sound formats; it's that the resource fork framework that Nova is build on doesn't. So a workaround is pretty unlikely.
Sound work is going well, though I must admit I'm using a few royalty-free sound effects to create some of the weapon sounds, mostly because I just can't seem to get that percussive quality in my guns that I want. Fortunately, I'm only using them as "flavor" material; most of the actual sound is truly my own, thanks to some creative mixing and only just a little help from the downloaded effects.
Once I get a sound library out that I'd like to try in the plug, I'll post a compressed file or something and whoever wants to try encoding it into a plug as .sfil resources is welcome to. If not, I can always see about getting my old G3 back up and running. It's only a file transfer, when it comes down to it, so it shouldn't be that hard to get done and out of the way.
Either way, in the way of ships, I've thrown a diced-up version of the Cephecon into the game as a lighter variant of such, called the "Envoy", and designed for diplomatic missions and transportation of executives. It mostly just looks like the forward segment of the Cephecon, but with a set of undercarriage-mounted engines propelling it. Also, all of its stats will be expectedly weaker, but it makes for a nice bit of variety when it is obvious that it shares part of its hull with another ship. I'll also make sure to include lots of ship-specific generic missions in the game, such as executive transport missions for ships of such a type, or heavy freight missions for freighter captains. There'll even be variants of these ships available only once you've proven yourself a capable captain of such. For instance, fly an Envoy for enough diplomatic missions and perhaps one big job will come up, after which you're allowed to purchase a heavier, more able version of the Envoy.
Likewise, I'm also including a mission string by which you gain the rights to pilot one of these giant "flying-wing" megafreighter/colony-movers that I'm still trying to properly design. They are gigantic and carry several thousand tons of cargo, while also having a serious upgrade capacity in terms of weapons, making them surprisingly one of the strongest ships in the game, although they are dreadfully slow. Think of them sort of like a Cylon base-star. The catch? The mission to unlock the ship is only available to people who have flown a freighter for a LOT of missions. I always felt that the cargo-shipment/trading element of EV is downplayed in favor of the story, so I want to reward players who go nuts on the "galactic sandbox" element, flying around and just having fun in the universe.
I'm intrigued; how are you getting Nova to register "lots of missions" in a freighter? Counter cröns?
STOP TEASING ME!!!!!!!!!!! YOU JERK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha, joking! Please do keep making more! I can't wait to see!
Oh wait no, scratch the counter cröns. I know how you did it, you tricky little devil you…