SSU Development thread (4.0 to 5.0) [DEVELOPMENT HALTED DUE TIME REQUIREMENTS!]

[Donamy]

I don't think, that's what it is. It looks like distortion, where the RCC meets the black leading edge tiles.

 

[GLS]

Spent the last 2 weeks deleting thousands of hidden triangles from SLC-6 (most of the time deleting 2 triangles at a time) but the results are noticeable as I'm back up to a 2-digit FPS when looking at the pad!

There is still the Access Tower to do, but I'm now physically sick of this work, so I'll do some code.

 

[Wolf]

May I ask some good soul (maybe Donamy...) to fix the orbiter mesh issues once and for all? I ve just finished the new vertical stabilizer and rudder/speedbrake textures (it was a real PIA) and also worked on the nose (which has recently been remapped aswel). I am about to release the new hires textures which I d like to consider the final version (after 2 years of adjustments..)

 

[DaveS]

May I ask some good soul (maybe Donamy...) to fix the orbiter mesh issues once and for all? I ve just finished the new vertical stabilizer and rudder/speedbrake textures (it was a real PIA) and also worked on the nose (which has recently been remapped aswel). I am about to release the new hires textures which I d like to consider the final version (after 2 years of adjustments..)

Sorry for having been radio-silent for the last couple of days. I've been dealing with some stuff offline, including my keyboard dying and me having to get a new one.


I've dealt with most of the issues with the orbiter except for these ones:
[FONT=&quot]- PLB_MLI_TCS bottom aft end doesn't meet last curved ring frame
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]- gap in bottom outboard seam of LOB and ROB elevons[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]- OMS pods surface doesn't connect to base (inboard aft, and near PLB sill), and base to aft compartment (fwd ends and next to vertical tail)[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]- aft bulkhead doesn't connect to top end of aft compartment (just fwd of tail)[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]- some PLB pushrods wrong position
- PLB slidewire link collides with handrail (PLBD, and related, animation axis don't match data from diagram 14.1-2 of JSC-11174)
- center SSME looks to be out of position (eyelid seems sunk in)[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[/FONT]

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 PM ----------

GLS could you explain this one: - PLBD interiors colide in the hooks region?
Is there anything wrong with the c/l latch hardware that makes them collide? It can't be the the interiors themselves, they're located exactly at their intersection points.

 

[DaveS]

Wolf: I've addressed the issues you have pointed out, but the wings will require you to slightly modify the texture as the shape has changed.

It is the only way to fix the distortion of the upper wing surface textures. The distortion is caused by trying to map the new wing shape to the old texture. As the shape isn't quite right, the result is a slightly distorted texture where the mapping has been altered. I have attached a screenshot from the AC3D Texture Coordinate Editor that shows the the new mapping of the upper wing surfaces.

 

[GLS]

GLS could you explain this one: - PLBD interiors colide in the hooks region?
Is there anything wrong with the c/l latch hardware that makes them collide? It can't be the the interiors themselves, they're located exactly at their intersection points.

Inside view, looking up. The RH PLBD is in orange, and the LH in gray.
As it is visible, they collide.... maybe it isn't super visible and it might not be much, but IMO if we have the detail it should be correct. :shrug:

 

[Wolf]

Wolf: I've addressed the issues you have pointed out, but the wings will require you to slightly modify the texture as the shape has changed.

It is the only way to fix the distortion of the upper wing surface textures. The distortion is caused by trying to map the new wing shape to the old texture. As the shape isn't quite right, the result is a slightly distorted texture where the mapping has been altered. I have attached a screenshot from the AC3D Texture Coordinate Editor that shows the the new mapping of the upper wing surfaces.

I am afraid I am not able to fix this as I do not know how to interpret the lines and dots in your screenshot and how the texture is supposed to be adjusted accordingly.
I didn’t even know that the wing’s shape was changed (same for the nose section) :shrug:

Also, could you explain what change has been done to the wing? My textures seem to fit well in the new wing and it looks identical to the old one, it is just that the area inside the RCC generates distortions. Whatever change I may apply to the textures the distortion will still be there... or maybe I am missing something.
Finally what about the other issues? the side hatch is back to where it was before the fix, there are some strange distortions of the star trackers "bay" and RCS nozzles, the upper wing in picture 2 has something popping up and one of the PB door hinges appears to be cut in two and displaced





The black tiles "ring" in the nose section now also looks like this

 

[DaveS]

I am afraid I am not able to fix this as I do not know how to interpret the lines and dots in your screenshot and how the texture is supposed to be adjusted accordingly.
I didn’t even know that the wing’s shape was changed (same for the nose section)

Here's one that is without the RCC panel mesh selected. Just focus on the main outline of the wings which I have colored in green.



The changes are that the second angle change AKA "delta", is located farther aft and that third and final delta is located farther forward.

 

[Donamy]

Those leading edges, look way too compressed. They should be stretched out to take away the sharp angles.

 

[DaveS]

Those leading edges, look way too compressed. They should be stretched out to take away the sharp angles.

Are you talking about my outlines or Wolf's textures? Mine are completely based on the OV-103 Recordation Package drawings.

 

[Donamy]

I talking about the mesh, not the textures.

 

[DaveS]

I talking about the mesh, not the textures.

In that case I can assure you that everything is as it should. I have attached a screenshot showing this. It shows the upper wing surface meshes in their locked state against the top drawing from the OV-103 Recordation Package.

 

[Donamy]

Then make the new texture to that !

 

[DaveS]

Then make the new texture to that !

That is what I am asking for. That the textures is updated. Another texture issue that has crept up as I was fixing the FRCS issue noted by Wolf earlier is the locations of the forward and upward firing jets. As I was correcting the texture mapping I decided to re-assure myself that everything else was OK with the FRCS and noted that the six jets on the +Z side were off. So I fixed that and ended up with the result in the attached screenshot. The green dots show where the actual jet meshes are.

 

[Donamy]

It looks like you are mapping to the drawing.

 

[DaveS]

It looks like you are mapping to the drawing.

That's not what I'm doing. The jets are only partially mapped correctly. I have attached a screenshot that shows the issue more clearly with no texture applied to the jets themselves. As you can see, the texture doesn't line up with the jets.

 

[Donamy]

Better to fit the texture to the mesh, not the mesh to the texture.

 

[Wolf]

I am surely missing something (on top of my poor skills) but csn you explain me how a different texture can fix the distortion? I ve moved the HRSI black contours (the seams between the RCC and the white LRSI) to match with your green lines contour to test this: the HRSI now has the distortion showing as I expected (since it now lays exactly where the portion of effected LRSI was). I can change the geometry qnd layout of the different TPS types on the wings but that does not seem to cancel the distortion...

Also what about the other glitches? The Side hatch looked ok before, now w are back to the pre-fix stage. I don’t think that depends on the textures either.

 

[DaveS]

I am surely missing something (on top of my poor skills) but csn you explain me how a different texture can fix the distortion? I ve moved the HRSI black contours (the seams between the RCC and the white LRSI) to match with your green lines contour to test this: the HRSI now has the distortion showing as I expected (since it now lays exactly where the portion of effected LRSI was). I can change the geometry qnd layout of the different TPS types on the wings but that does not seem to cancel the distortion...

The distortion comes from fact that the mapping of the texture doesn't match the actual mesh. 3D meshes are made of two basic elements, triangles (these are what you see) and vertices which are intersection points for the edges of a triangle. One triangle is made up of three edges and three vertices.


Imagine if you drew something on a triangular sheet of sheet of paper. This sheet has a specific shape, let's say equilateral where the length of each side is exactly the same. Now you pull one of corners where one of these vertices are located. Now the sheet has different shape. What happened to your drawing? It got distorted because you changed the geometry. How much depends on how far away from the center the drawing was. This is what is happening here. I distorted the drawing by pulling the vertices out of shape so they no longer matched the actual mesh.


Does this all make sense? It's the best I can do to explain things to someone who is unfamiliar with texturing a 3D model.

Also what about the other glitches? The Side hatch looked ok before, now w are back to the pre-fix stage. I don’t think that depends on the textures either.

Everything has been fixed on my end which is local to me (I've not checked in anything yet), that includes the texture mapping issues you have brought up so far. The wing screenshot is the fixed version, not the current checked in version which has these issues.

 

[Wolf]

The distortion comes from fact that the mapping of the texture doesn't match the actual mesh. 3D meshes are made of two basic elements, triangles (these are what you see) and vertices which are intersection points for the edges of a triangle. One triangle is made up of three edges and three vertices.


Imagine if you drew something on a triangular sheet of sheet of paper. This sheet has a specific shape, let's say equilateral where the length of each side is exactly the same. Now you pull one of corners where one of these vertices are located. Now the sheet has different shape. What happened to your drawing? It got distorted because you changed the geometry. How much depends on how far away from the center the drawing was. This is what is happening here. I distorted the drawing by pulling the vertices out of shape so they no longer matched the actual mesh.


Does this all make sense? It's the best I can do to explain things to someone who is unfamiliar with texturing a 3D model.




Everything has been fixed on my end which is local to me (I've not checked in anything yet), that includes the texture mapping issues you have brought up so far. The wing screenshot is the fixed version, not the current checked in version which has these issues.

So how would you practically fix the wing textures?