Local Space Transportation System Redux

[GregBurch]

I've begun re-imagineering all of the elements of my Local Space Transportation System. The first part of this is getting close to its first Orbiter flight:

A standard station module will fit in the "cage", which opens to mate it.

I'm probably a month or so away from release. There will be at least three ships in this class, with varying polygon counts from absurdly high to just way too much.

GB, THHotA

 

[Coolhand]

Thats a very cool vehicle Greg, i like the open greeblyness of it, looks nice and original too.

with varying polygon counts from absurdly high to just way too much.

LOL! How many triangles are in this one it at the moment?

 

[GregBurch]

Thats a very cool vehicle Greg, i like the open greeblyness of it, looks nice and original too.

The idea behind the original LSTS series was to really convey modularity, which I think is one very important key to space infrastructure development. The approach works at every level in the addon process, too, since once basic modules are modeled and textured, churning out other elements becomes MUCH easier.

I'm taking this approach even farther now, being as careful as I can be to work out how everything fits together from the beginning, so that I end up with a set of spacecraft "Lego blocks" that will fit and work together from the "local space" level on out to ... the eventual re-imagineering of my DSVs. But that'll be months and months and months from now.

If I could get back by the end of this year to where I was before I started over with the right Orbiter scale, I'd be happy.

LOL! How many triangles are in this one it at the moment?

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I just this minute ran the conversion into .msh, and it came out at just over 57K, including one pretty high-poly human figure, and very high-poly tanks. The other two versions will be quite a bit less. I'm hoping the lowest-poly version will be c. 20k or so.

GB

 

[tl8]

I won't release the ummufa configs on LSTS until they are finished then.

Looking really good Greg, I assume this is a Earth-Lunar transport?

 

[James.Denholm]

I like that! That's going to be awesome for making stations and such.

Also, I should tell you, I'm going to be plunged into a school-free status in a week, so, I plan to figure out how to make dlls in that time, so, if you don't mind, will you give me permission to make dll versions of some of your spacecraft? Just to test the feasiblity of producing dll (hence better) versions of your allready awesome craft, you do understand.

 

[Arrowstar]

Looking good, Greg! I can't wait. These will also be compatible with the SSBB 4.1, yes? I may have to take up station construction again.

 

[GregBurch]

I won't release the ummufa configs on LSTS until they are finished then.

Looking really good Greg, I assume this is a Earth-Lunar transport?

The term "local space" is intended to convey the idea that vessels in this series can serve in any local space environment, not just cislunar space. So you might see them in Martian space, or working in the asteroid belt.

As for configs and .dlls and whatnot, I'm happy to have folks improve my work. The only thing I ask is that others respect the "future history" aspects of these addons. That's the only thing I really don't want others fiddling with. In other words, write code to your heart's content, but the politics and law and business is all mine. :dry:

 

[James.Denholm]

Greg, you old Nazi, that's exactly what we wanted to fidle with! We wanted to completley stuff up the documentation, removing one of the best parts of your addons, and replacing it all with "Press this lol!"

 

[Coolhand]

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I just this minute ran the conversion into .msh, and it came out at just over 57K, including one pretty high-poly human figure, and very high-poly tanks. The other two versions will be quite a bit less. I'm hoping the lowest-poly version will be c. 20k or so.

GB

Yeah i guess you'll reduce those tanks, If it were me i'd reduce those to the level of segmentation of the airlocks, the dish antenna and those little tanks on the frame could all be reduced. Also if you were really interested in optimising you could replace some of the modelled detail with texturing and maybe get even better results... even with just a diffuse map.

I think you would love it if you could use Normal mapping in orbiter though, you could go totally nuts with the modelled detail and then use the normal maps to fake a way higher poly model on a lower detail model.

If you're interested there are other optimisation techniques such as triangle stripping because strips are better optimised than fans for some reason... something to do with lots of triangles sharing a common vertex in a fan formation. or stepping the amount of triangles down - for example on the tanks as each circle of triangles becomes more closely packed as you get to the frontmost vertex you could actually reduce the number of segments that make up each circle, that can save you hundreds of polys when you've got lots of tanks or similar objects. Admitedly it's not such a big deal in orbiter in many ways, assuming you've got a nice rig but keeping everything optimised lets you have more addons running at one time which can be nice, esp as this model could easily be seen around a complex station or your other building blocks and spaceships.

 

[GregBurch]

Yeah i guess you'll reduce those tanks...

Actually, the lower-poly versions will have "covers" over the tanks, less interior detail, and some other things I have in mind.

The other items you mention are unknown to me at this point -- I'm completely self-taught, and I still have huge holes in my knowledge when it comes to "professional grade" 3d work.

 

[GregBurch]

... as usual, I'm having too much fun playing with the model .... here's a quick render showing the ship with a payload and its forward docking port extended:

 

[Coolhand]

Thats looking pretty ace.. but yeah, there's tons to learn, i'm mostly self taught too and still learning, you never stop. I've been doing this for more than 6 years pretty solidly, real time and high poly work. and started dabbling even before that way back when i was 13 with a 2mb amiga, not much you could do in those days with a basic computer though.

CG talk is a good place if you want to learn more about optimising, uv unwrapping etc, it's got a dedicated real time modelling section, and i'm an instructor over at Scifi-meshes.com, you can find a lot of information there too and there's a nice Q&A section where staff and members answer each others questions and give advice.

 

[James.Denholm]

Is Gligamesh a modification of gigamesh or somesuch, and hence a refrence to the high triangle count? Or have I been dipping into the rocket fuel to much recently?

 

[pattersoncr]

Is Gligamesh a modification of gigamesh or somesuch, and hence a refrence to the high triangle count? Or have I been dipping into the rocket fuel to much recently?

Gilgamesh was the portagonist in one of the oldest written stories known:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

 

[James.Denholm]

Oh. Right. Now I see... Actualy, I don't realy see how some old king can relate to a cargo hauler, but anyway.

 

[Andy44]

Gilgamesh, huh. If this was my addon it would have to be named "Megamesh" due to the huge poly count it would probably have...

You know, Greg, this is similar in concept to my lunar transfer vehicle, even has the "wet" payload bay. Yours lacks the aeroshield, of course, plus it's very reflective of your superior modeling skills, as mine is quite ugly by comparison. Thanks for making me waste some of the upcoming summer trying to update it.

 

[n0mad23]

Gilgamesh is righteous - both in concept and in name. Why not jack right into ancient history for inspiration? Isn't it what we've historically always done?

Are you considering using those beautiful trusses for attaching cargo pods as well? I would think with very little work, quite a lovely bundle of pods could snap right onto the sides. It'd be a nice multi-functional platform as well, adding to the overall usefulness.

Absolutely beautiful work again. As another self-taught modeler, you've set the bar high enough to inspire me into pushing my own limits again. Hopefully I'll be nearly as successful, too.

 

[GregBurch]

Oh. Right. Now I see... Actualy, I don't realy see how some old king can relate to a cargo hauler, but anyway.

The other ships in this class will be named Prometheus and Daedalus. Somehow that fits ... anyway, to me.

 

[GregBurch]

Gilgamesh, huh. If this was my addon it would have to be named "Megamesh" due to the huge poly count it would probably have...

You know, Greg, this is similar in concept to my lunar transfer vehicle, even has the "wet" payload bay. Yours lacks the aeroshield, of course, plus it's very reflective of your superior modeling skills, as mine is quite ugly by comparison. Thanks for making me waste some of the upcoming summer trying to update it.

It's the same thing that happened when people were scurilously suggesting that Coolhand had somehow "copied" my HyperWedge design with his beautiful new waverider model. There's only so many ways nature lets you do things.

 

[James.Denholm]

Oh, come on now, I later realises that they didn't look all that similar... I think I said that it reminded me, remember?