Project XR5 Repaint - Modern NASA livery

[Scav]

Hi all,

Just wanted to bring to light a minor monster in my computer. This is really a manifestation of a spat of geekery, but I think it has potential, and I'd be happy to upload it once it's completed if it turns enough cranks:

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2726&ppuser=4365

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2727&ppuser=4365

Current wish list:

Topside hull needs some serious work. I've borrowed stock Atlantis textures for some component work (example: I envisioned a sort of fueling port on either side of the hull abaft of the wing segments for fuel and LOX; you will see a MSDS warning placard for monomethyl hydrazine located immediately underneath the starboard-side port) but I'm not happy with how 'smooth' the textures are.

I'd like to incorporate some sort of texture likening to the topside skin the Space Shuttle uses, as I see the Vanguard as sort of a 'big brother' to the Space Shuttle that's not entirely outside of current technological means. Sure, it'd be expensive as hell to develop and create, but a fellow can dream, right? I monkeyed around with cutting and pasting Atlantis textures onto the hull, but I realized that that process was getting a bit long in the tooth and wasn't giving me the results I wanted.

I'd also like to figure out how to make this texture a higher resolution. Considering the outright size of the vehicle, a lot of my human-sized decals are getting fragged completely in the scaling process (see the Constitution nameplates near the cockpit AND the rescue arrows on the topside hull at the same location).

Rescue arrow and stock MSDS triangle graphic were pulled from a Google Images search. Other miscellaneous warning emblems were created in Gimp by hand, but the style is reminiscent of Spike Spiegel's DGIV's repaint kit.

Constitution was created using PennyBlack's repaint kit. :thankyou:

 

[PennyBlack]

I like the "NO STEP" on the wing. The arrow pointing to the vent/stabiliser. It's detail like that, which often escapes me.

Forget about changing the skin resulution, I tried and you have to go with what you've got with the XR5 although you've got off the ground already.
She's a great lady to work on and I'd like to see a "top down" pic to better see that Nasa logo and how it sits. There are parts of the wing that are a nightmare to edit so I'd really like how you handle that. Have a look at the ESA skins I released and see how eliptical the stars are.

As you've used stock textures, you should look also look into searching the net for free textures and pictures that you can edit... cut, colour, shade ect, to add to another layer for effect. If you can get original layers going, your on a winner. But you can get loads of free texs and pics to store for future use. I have mgs of the stuff, all edittable, randoms, so start building your collection.

Also, people love what they see, but they also like traditional, especially with Space Agency skins so you may want to look at your logo sizes and placements to keep with others expectations. But that being said, it's your vision. The ESA set has one traditional, but the other two liveries where envisioned, so it can work out. Just one more thing, It takes ages, long in the tooth is something your going to have to get used to I'm afraid. I've scrapped work that I've sat there all night at. You'll get used to it and keep back ups. Belive me, I'm an idiot when it comes to file storage on skins so now keep a 256k encrypted usb for my work and storage now.

I may use "NO STEP" and arrows in the future... Nice touch and I hope I haven't been over critical.

Good liftoff and I cannot wait to see the landing m8.

 

[Scav]

I'd like to see a "top down" pic to better see that Nasa logo and how it sits. There are parts of the wing that are a nightmare to edit so I'd really like how you handle that. Have a look at the ESA skins I released and see how eliptical the stars are.

Ahh, yup! I see exactly what you're saying. It seems that there's a considerable chord in the wing mesh. As you'll see here, the meatball logo appears considerably 'squished' from the top-looking-down perspective:

...so you may want to look at your logo sizes and placements to keep with others expectations.

Tried that . . . and look at the debacle that happened!



I think moving the logos back out from the wingroot will help. I'm going to try to adjust the translation on the meatball logo to see if that helps.

In the process, I added a series of cargo bay door latches. It was an afterthought that was itching at my brain since last night.

After moving the logos back (approximately) to where they were:



...and then some final tweaking:



Here's a closeup, port-side aft showing the monkey-work. The convex wing structure is really throwing me for a loop tonight, but I know I'll get it. I just need more time.

I may use "NO STEP" and arrows in the future... Nice touch and I hope I haven't been over critical.

Feel free to do that. I actually borrowed that idea from Spike Spiegel's repaint kit for the DGIV. As far as criticality goes, as I said to you before, I'm married. I'm used to it.

 

[Scav]

Got into it some more tonight. Did some work around the front of the craft.



Rationale for the hatch at the side . . . I got to thinking:

#1. The crew elevator would probably have the cajones to lift people in Earth gravity to and from the ship, but it might be a tedious process to crew a ship that way. On the moon? No problem. But the last thing an astronaut would probably want is to have to wait to leave the vessel after all procedures had been completed.

#2. The hatches in the mesh (two at the cockpit, two at the passenger area) seem to be emergency only . . . and frankly they appear a bit small when compared to the pilot/commander meshes actually sitting in the forward cockpit seats. That is why I sized the port-side hatch accordingly.

Added TPS tiling to the nose (obviously) on both sides, as well as the vertical stabilizers at the wingtips. As well as another small decal. I might go nuts with the safety/procedural decals if I really get a wild hair. *shrug*

Is this too much? Or coming along alright? I'm just geeking out over here, so I've not much of an idea who would find this useful (or gratifying) to have.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Looks good!

 

[Scav]

Thank you!

I'm also working on a website for one of my college classes, that features this spacecraft on a departure from KSC, rendezvous with the ISS, and deorbit and landing at KSC. The site is sort of pictorial in nature, and I'm sure it will go over stuff that many other tutorials have gone over . . . but I'm a visual thinker and #1: I'm going for class points here, and #2: I'm wanting to create a visual aid that details the flight processes used to get where I need to go. If it helps people understand just what the heck 'plane alignment burns' and 'windows in space' means, then that's just another proverbial feather in the cap.

(Duh. Make mention of a website and don't even bother to point anyone to it. shootmeintospace.weebly.com. It's a work in progress, but hey.)

 

[PennyBlack]

In the last illistrations, you have sat the meatball logo quite well Scav and the size looks right too. I like it It just requires a little edging out on the outer side to make it a almost perfect circle. It still looks a little oval on that side, but it took days to sit the stars right on the ESA skins so I understand the difficulties involved.

And I enjoyed your site, nice combination with the skin. :thumbup:

 

[Scav]

Working on final update of the skin here. Here are the changes, and I'll present them first as a picture:



First on the list is near the bow of the ship. The proof of idea is that during the departure phase of the mission (where the ship's energy state is the highest and there's the most fuel aboard and the most opportunity for something serious to go wrong), during a catastrophic LOC/V type scenario, an option would exist for an emergency punchout.

The idea is that the entire roof of the vehicle within the crosshatched lines would be designed to explosively separate from the vehicle in time for the crew's ejection seats to fire.

Given the size of the crew compartment, it's conceivable that whatever explosive charges in charge of beheading the vehicle could be buffered by some armor in order to minimize physical harm to the crew inside.

Obviously this is a texture feature, not a modelling feature. That's for another thread.

Second feature: The solar panels mounted to the inside of the cargo bay doors, which I debuted some months back in the screenshot thread. This is strictly for a power backup option in case whatever powers the XR5 happens to take a nap in a spectacular fashion mid-flight.

Third feature is actually harder to see, but it's a bit of an 'aha' moment for me: A series of slot antennas mounted flush with the surface skin of the ship.

The theory is that inter-space communications between ground, satellite, and orbiter are generally handled by kU-band radio. Slot antennas are primarily used for microwave applications (radar, cellular comms, etc), and kU falls into this range, so why not use one for this ship?

I've tentatively placed two near the wingroots (for redundancy during departure/re-entry) and one near the starboard wingtip for regular space comms (since the cargo bay doors do a nice job of covering up the wingroot antennas and I'm not sure if kU/microwave band radio emissions can penetrate something like that without damaging the solar panels, etc). The idea is to have a communications array unreliant upon mechanical devices that can be active at all times during the flight.

Thoughts?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

:thumbup:X2 from me. Looks nice!

 

[Scav]

Another update working towards final.

Tried (and failed) to re-work the layer order to keep the rear cockpit vertical windows clear of texture; didn't work. Might just abandon that and edit out the highlight lines demarking said windows entirely.

Major addition is the PIVRO and SIVRO protective cover slots at the rudder tips:



That's all I've got for right now.

 

[Scav]

I DID IT! :woohoo:

I RTFMed and figured out the transparency issue. VERY close to a final release here; currently polling brain if there's anything else that hits the 'cool' button. If there's anything else that stands out right away, it's working with the alpha channels to get some dynamic shine going in the right places.

Here's a screenshot:



Thanks everyone for the good vibes.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Better and better!

I'd failed to mention ealier regarding the flush antennas that you'd mentioned. The S-3 Viking's HF radio system has the same type antenna. The coupler is at the root of the vertical stabilizer, access to it is by removing the antenna that appears to be just another panel on the aircraft.

Safety note... Never key the HF radio inside the hangar, it makes the lights glow brighter and everyone knows what you just did... Still kind of cool though.

I didn't work on the Vikings too often for fear that the NEC would rub off on me and I would get stuck in an S-3 squadron.

 

[Napalm42]

Now I like this a lot!

Would you mind divulging your source for the shuttle-esque heat shield textures? I've been wanting to do a redesign of my Breto Aerospace XR5 for a long time, but can never find any good source of heat tiles.

 

[Scav]

Now I like this a lot!

Would you mind divulging your source for the shuttle-esque heat shield textures? I've been wanting to do a redesign of my Breto Aerospace XR5 for a long time, but can never find any good source of heat tiles.

Thanks!

Anything shuttle-related, I pulled from the mg_atlantis.dds file found in orbiter\textures\atlantis.

Here's another surge of activity of mine:



We had redundancy in the power grid thanks to the solar panels; I got to thinking about cooling redundancy after reading a post by Urwumpe earlier today regarding the same subject.

The black strip in-between the solar panel and the radiator panel is a thermal buffer secured to the cargo bay door. Its goal is to prevent the radiator from thermally compromising the solar panel media.