Icarus 2 Development

[xeoncat]

Ho hai!
you probably don't remember me, but I was interested in developing, some time ago, an Icarus 2 spaceship from the Sunshine movie. I put myselft to work yesterday and I got this:

oops! hehe... so... what's going on here? I then placed all the pivots at 0,0,0, but it didn't solve the problem. I had separate objects because I intend to animate the rotating towers, but then I connected all the objects into elements of the same edit mesh modifier (I'm using 3dstudio), and it didn't solve the problem either (the model has only one pivot now, but the bomb is still a separate mesh). why the objects don't fall into their places at least relatively?

work flow: modeling in 3dstudio > export to .3ds > export to .msh with 3ds2msh (used i=icarus o=Icarus2 a=-xyz f=v) > configured .cfg file to use with spacecraft3.dll > configured .scn to orbit near to the ISS

and btw, at how much poly count should I be aiming to? is currently 7800 faces, but I intend to simplify the main body of the ship.
I haven't started with the textures yet, but I intend to use a lot of alpha maps for the girder and what not.

(I will have a lot of questions in the future if you don't mind :lol

 

[Black dog]

Good on you for getting in and doing it:speakcool:

Try using Mesh Wizard to translate your bits;

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2740"]Mesh Wizard 1.9d[/ame]

Good luck with your project! I look forward to seeing the end result

 

[xeoncat]

Thanks Black dog.
I messed around a bit and a simple rotation of the model lead me to this, and it is completely different (before I had the model pointing to 3dstudio's Z axis (now is pointing to Y axis):

why the separation between the objects in MeshViewer? Is there something about how Orbiter handles the axis or vertexes that I should know?

another question. Both 3ds2msh and Meshviewer show mesh sizes around 3000. what unit is this? how can I compare to real world units?

UPDATE: I just found that reseting the pivots of objects solved the problem. I guess the initial pivot location when the objects are created have some effect on the mesh.

 

[Black dog]

Hey, you're welcome.

I am new to modelling myself, so I am not the one to be able to answer technical questions. I am using Anim8or, so I don't know jack about 3dStudio. With a bit of luck some of the knowledgeable guys will pick up on this thread soon. I will try to help with my limited knowledge.

I have a bad habit of writing "Meshviewer" sometimes, when I really mean "Mesh Wizard", so I'm guessing you did the same. Are the separated objects individual mesh groups? Because if they are, you should be able to pick them from the group list and use the edit function to translate them into place.

One thing I can say is that in my experience, where an object shows a position in MW, it is in the same place in Orbiter, so a successful translation in MW should be a successful one in Orbiter.

I wish I could help more, but I just don't have the answers. Again, best of luck

Also, you could try sending a PM to the guru, aka ar81. ar81 is the inventor of MW, among other things.

 

[xeoncat]

hi, that's right, it's mesh wizard :lol: I believe they are different groups, but I don't want to do that in mesh wizard.
I've been messing around with the model and it seems that if I move the individual vertexes while preserving the pivot in the same place will work for moving the objects in relation to its pivot. Orbiter .msh seems to only pay attention to vertex and pivot positions.
(what I call the pivot, in case you're wondering is the local 0,0,0 axis of any given object. it is important that these pivots are in place if I want to rotate any object).

anyway, it's getting better:

 

[Missioncmdr]

Looks pretty cool. Kind of looks like an FPS killer, though.

 

[xeoncat]

Looks pretty cool. Kind of looks like an FPS killer, though.

yeah, it's approaching 9500 faces, but it is almost finished. I believe it will be 10k faces in the end.

I've been trying to wrap some textures, but they look really dull, I don't know what to add to make them look more tasty. (note: those pink lines are for reference, but I will delete them later, or leave them black)

but this is a very ugly seam