Ship making

So I've rendered cubes, spheres, etc. in Blender. Now I need to figure out how to make ships and such (I can do that on my own), and then how to make shans, etc. out of them.

So yeah. What's an rleD, rle8, and a spin resource, and how do I input whatever graphics data I need for each one? I don't have a copy of the bible handy, so if it has any answers I'll just look there.

This post has been edited by Yellow : 16 March 2006 - 10:11 PM

It involves 36 rotation frames (10 degrees of rotation each) compiled into a single grid image. Then also you need to have the white sillouhuettes rendered and compiled in the same way. With them all as PICT format, you use special rleD and rle8 compiling programs, and then one that makes a spďn resource, then get all the resource ID's right, as well as align the gun points up, configuring everything else about the ship and all that good stuff. In short, it's difficult, VERY difficult. Start exploring with resedit or whatever Nova resource editing tool you use, and find out how IDs and configurations all work, and then look into image-editing programs (like Graphic Converter), and then do a little more research. Just to let you know at this point, it's pretty hard.

Fnoigy, on Mar 17 2006, 04:31 PM, said:

It involves 36 rotation frames (10 degrees of rotation each) compiled into a single grid image. Then also you need to have the white sillouhuettes rendered and compiled in the same way. With them all as PICT format, you use special rleD and rle8 compiling programs, and then one that makes a spďn resource, then get all the resource ID's right, as well as align the gun points up, configuring everything else about the ship and all that good stuff. In short, it's difficult, VERY difficult. Start exploring with resedit or whatever Nova resource editing tool you use, and find out how IDs and configurations all work, and then look into image-editing programs (like Graphic Converter), and then do a little more research. Just to let you know at this point, it's pretty hard.
View Post

Actually you can have a lot more or less rotation frames. For example, the Leviathan has a LOT of rotational frames.. not only for its rotating cargo pods, but also because it rotates so slow that you need more frames of animation to make it not choppy. Fighters on the other hand tend to get away with 36.

If you have a huge ship, give it 72 rotation frames, and it will look SO MUCH SMOOTHER. You only need the basic rotation frames to make your ship work, but you can also include sets of the following type of frames:

Let's assume you made a 36 frame ship.

Banking frames (left, right) (72 frames total) See: 'Vectored Thrust' effect on Starbridge

Lights (36 frames) See: Polaris glowy marks, lights on corners of Shuttle

Unfolding weapon (36 x number of frames it takes for weapon to unfold) See: Asteroid Miner

Ship animation (36 x number of frames it takes for animation to loop) See: Rotating segments on Leviathan

Muzzle flash (36 frames) See: Abomination

And probably some others that I can't remember off the top of my head.

EDIT: If you're making 2D ships, using Macromedia Flash is laughably simple.

This post has been edited by Hamster : 21 March 2006 - 03:58 PM

Thanks, guys. Sounds like an obnoxiously hard process.

I'll probably do it when I have lots of time on my hands.