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@darthkev Now THAT would be epic... a Delphi stand-alone TC for Nova.
Of course, if that was what you're getting at. But I think Delphi has so much stuff he's implemented that technically, this total conversion could actually stand alone.
This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 28 April 2010 - 06:23 PM
Your ambition and determination are admirable. I'm looking forwards to the finished product :).
QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Apr 28 2010, 04:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
It's not hard to do on a Mac. As Delphi said, make a copy of EVN. Then, open the 'package contents'. Once inside, get rid of the files in the Nova Files folder and replace them with the files of your TC, just as long as it works as a TC. Viola, your own stand-alone TC application.
This post has been edited by darthkev : 28 April 2010 - 08:58 PM
That would be unnecessary. With Guy's EV Launcher Template, I can easily make an App that launches whatever TC or expansion plugin set I want any time I use EV Nova. With a sweet icon to go with it, it looks all the better. For my own personal example, I have organized all my TCs and plugin sets into separate folders (complete with their own pilot/plugin/nova files as needed), with a Launcher for each. I then dropped aliases for all those launchers into a single folder for a Stack on my Dock. Works like a charm.
I would of course be very happy to make such an app for EV Delphi. I would just like to have a icon worthy of Delphi to use for the App. Don't worry about formats, I can turn almost anything into an Apple ICNS
EDIT: If anyone notices that screenshot changing, it's because I'm getting bored with my plainer homemade icons, and redoing a few. I update the screenshot just because I can. Finished so far are PlugPack and (for now) HoD, and next is RoP... If someone could pass me a copy of TC Polycon under the table, I'll make an icon for it as well...
This post has been edited by Geek : 30 April 2010 - 07:01 AM
I saw an amazing areal panorama of San Fransisco taken after the catastrophic 1906 fire. It was quite inspiring, so I thought I would link it here just in case anyone else was inspired.
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/a...-in-ruins-1906/
Well goodness, Geek, I'm going to have to make an icon, aren't I? That's an awesome offer, and I would love to take you up on it. Of course, it'll still be a LONG time until Delphi is done, but I've got myself out my rut, so I'm making daily progress even if it's small. Right now: spob-spawning.
@Geek Now that is epic.
@n64mon It looks like it'd make an excellent landing picture. If Delphi bore homage to such a photography style, I'm sure the result would be quite amazing.
QUOTE (Geek @ Apr 28 2010, 09:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
(image)
I did something similar with the EVN folder on my Start menu. Now I can open whichever Nova I want at any time. EVN_Start_Menu.JPG (72.25K) Number of downloads: 25
This post has been edited by StarSword : 29 April 2010 - 06:19 PM
That's an amazing find, 64. Very cool.
Also, manticore, if Delphi wanted to use it, I'm sure he'd have no problem coloring it. Black and white is a little bland, but it shouldn't be a problem to add color to sections to make a nice landing image of a ruined colony on an Earth-like world. After all, he's going for the "ruined universe" look, a planet like that should fit in quite nicely.
@darthkev Exactly, though it's technically not a ruined colony, as the fire didn't take place yet. But it would serve as an excellent reference picture. I'm sure Delphi wouldn't mind starting from scratch to give the picture a unique Delphi universe feel.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Apr 12 2010, 09:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Required for this tutorial: • Photoshop • Flaming Pear's Lunarcell Plug-in • Flaming Pear's Glitterato Plug-in
One thing you should do if you want accurate rings is to use the radial blur (or something similar) to make the ring uniform as they are in nature. Might also require you to increase the contrast.
You also can set the blending options so that the planet is still visible through any black areas of the ring
Make sure that you mask the ring in the areas that would be the planet shadow. I usually do this part when it is still 2D
Here's a good example of a ring
and another
This post has been edited by Insomniac : 30 April 2010 - 12:22 AM
Wow. Those are awesome planets, Insomniac. <insert 'thumbs-up' emoticon>
Those are indeed formidable, Insomniac. I'll admit, I feel somewhat out of my league. I absolutely love the ringed gas giant; I never realized that when it comes down to it, a gas giant doesn't necessarily have to look all mottled and banded on its cloud surface to look correct. I get the feeling that the rings you have there use the "Twirl" filter, one that somebody else recommended to me in a photoshop forum. I tried it a few times, but a lot of the rings it made looked too crisp and artificial. I'm sure that crossing Glitterato and the Twirl feature together though could make some very good-looking ringed planets.
I honestly just sort of stumbled upon a method that created decent rings, and thought I'd share it with the world. Yours are far better, though.
In other news, I experimented with something VERY bizarre today: I created a couple of test model ships and put them into Nova... but rendered from the opposite angle they'd normally be. Instead of being shot from above, I shot them from below, with backlighting. Suffice it to say although they played properly, it felt extremely unnatural, and I wouldn't recommend it to any aspiring plug-in developers.
And yes, the sprites had to be in an offset order. To see the ship from underneath facing toward you, it would have to travel upward, even though the 180° angle normally points it down. Like I said, it was extremely unintuitive and uncomfortable for the brain.
Still though, it was a fun experiment.
Wow... that gives me ideas... like a "Behind-the-Scenes" plugin where we see what EV "really" looks like from the underside... The ships are props on sticks, and the planets/stations are cardboard cutouts hung by black thread. The star field would be replaced by a blurry image of a warehouse ceiling, as if this is being done on a set. Just to "ruin the magic" in a similar manner as the dull discovery of what really makes an Etch-and-Sketch work.
This post has been edited by Geek : 01 May 2010 - 05:37 AM
Sorry I haven't updated in a while here, guys. I've been extremely ill, to the point that even looking at a computer screen is rather painful. I came out of it a bit today though, and thought I'd at least let you know what's going on.
I did manage to drag a pencil and paper into bed with me, and wrote some planet descriptions. There will be a lot of planets in the Delphi universe that could be called "generic", and among them will be hidden the worlds that are truly worth discovering, populated or not. While I've done a fairly good job of providing a bunch of filler thus far, I spent some of my downtime writing up descriptions for the more important planets in the Delphi universe, such as the capital of the Enclave Colonies, or the home-world of the NDC. No, not Earth, I'm talking about a secretive little globe on the very fringe of explored space to which the corporation fled during the opening years of the Orion War, not to be heard from until decades after the conflict had ended. As should be obvious from just this elaboration, it's a planet with some serious history, and deserves a planetary description to match.
Also, I'm going to be putting my Sketchup model pieces online soon; the bits from discarded starships that I sometimes use to create entire new ones, such as the Harbinger. Most of the extremely-high-detail models I've been doing lately have been nothing more than creative kitbashing, with a bit of inspired skeletal structure underneath. If I get some time, I'll even write up a little tutorial/readme to put in with the file.
Once I do put the files up, anybody who wants to use them to craft some starships is more than welcome to forward their results to me, and I'll see if I can use them in the game, or if I can even use them as components to make even bigger starships!
I'll keep you posted.
That's awesome, Delphi! While I can't model a ship myself, I do have some experience with Sketchup so I should be able to do the relatively simple task of moving pre-constructed parts around to make new stuff. Plus, Sketchup is free (last I knew) so there's no problem there!
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 5 2010, 08:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
That's the general idea! I made the parts easy to work with, and the extremely useful "handles" that SketchUp lets you use on any model make them incredibly easy to move into proper position.
If possible, track down a version of SketchUp 5, because that's the one I've got a lifetime license for. I've tried a bit of version 6 and later, but 5 was the most solid, IMHO. If you can, it would also mean that I won't have to retrofit the newer files to work under version 5.
This post has been edited by Delphi : 05 May 2010 - 11:18 PM
So Delphi began from an assignment you did in freshman year?
That's epic. Seriously. I can't imagine how you started on a sheet of paper to develop a universe with so much care taken even to the littlest details.
I can. HOTS started in a similar way. It started as a concept for an Ares TC around 6 years ago and later (4 years ago) became a TC for EVN.