Request James Bond: "You Only Live Twice"

[dougkeenan]

Launch U.S./Soviet missions to establish orbit. Then launch from Blofeld's volcano base, capture them (complete with clipped-off space-walker) and return. Could include Little Nell as an option!

 

[Saturn V]

Little Nell was a bad-ass piece of hardware!

Spinning chopper blades have never looked great in Orbiter though...

 

[Graham2001]

I'd love to see this one too. We'd need to update Gemini 4.5 though. Anyone know what happened to the 5.0 update for that one?

 

[Ghostrider]

Can we have Ninjas and Gyrojet guns too?

 

[Hielor]

Little Nell was a bad-ass piece of hardware!

Spinning chopper blades have never looked great in Orbiter though...

If you had a way to have an animation "stretch" the blades around and make them partially transparent, it could look good.

I did something similar for the bullets for my chaingun, but I have no idea how it would work for a rotation--that was just linear.

 

[tblaxland]

If you had a way to have an animation "stretch" the blades around and make them partially transparent, it could look good.

I did something similar for the bullets for my chaingun, but I have no idea how it would work for a rotation--that was just linear.

Orbiter won't support a scaling and rotation mesh transformation unless the scaling maintains the aspect ratio, ie, the blades will grow in radius too if you try and scale them in the other direction.

I see two options:

1. Have separate spinning and stationary blade meshes and swap them as appropriate. Of course this won't look real good if the blades are only spinning slowly.

2. Manipulate the mesh vertexes and materials manually. This would scale better with rotor speed but would be tedious to code unless your blades were quite simple. I was working on some code like this for a circular frustum shaped thermal blanket on the Tortoise lander but I haven't got real far on that.

 

[Graham2001]

Can we have Ninjas and Gyrojet guns too?

More to the point, do we use an actual Vostok/Voskhod for the Soviet spacecraft or do we use the dinky little nose cone thingy the film makers had to use because the Russians hadn't released pictures of their spacecraft at that time.

 

[Hielor]

1. Have separate spinning and stationary blade meshes and swap them as appropriate. Of course this won't look real good if the blades are only spinning slowly.

This is what Kev does for props on his planes. It's not particularly realistic, but looks pretty good.

2. Manipulate the mesh vertexes and materials manually. This would scale better with rotor speed but would be tedious to code unless your blades were quite simple.

Wouldn't be too difficult to code I think, just have it in a loop--for each blade, and then for each "outside" point.

You could also combine the two strategies--have a good high quality blade model for stationary and slow rotations, and then once the rotational speed passes a threshold (say, such that the blade is sweeping out an area twice its stationary area in a given frame) you switch to a low-poly mesh which is easy to stretch as needed.

 

[dougkeenan]

More to the point, do we use an actual Vostok/Voskhod for the Soviet spacecraft or do we use the dinky little nose cone thingy the film makers had to use because the Russians hadn't released pictures of their spacecraft at that time.

Is the dinky little nose cone thingy that four-part "clipping" mechanism featured in the film?

 

[T.Neo]

Is the dinky little nose cone thingy that four-part "clipping" mechanism featured in the film?

No. It is the Soviet spacecraft seen in the film.

 

[dougkeenan]

That other must be a Spectre craft then. Is it based on anything from the time or just another Ken Adam design?

 

[T.Neo]

That other must be a Spectre craft then. Is it based on anything from the time or just another Ken Adam design?

Which craft? The Spectre craft or the Russian craft?

The russian craft looked like a ripoff Gemini capsule to me.

I like the space scenes in You Only Live Twice. I found them more realistic then the ones in Moonraker.

 

[dougkeenan]

Which craft? The Spectre craft or the Russian craft?

The Spectre craft, sorry. Was that a KA creation or does it resemble some other "real world" design he adapted? That's the interesting ship in the scenario, capable of take-off (SSTO?) and powered landing, even while internally carrying the captured mass of an entirely different ship! If I remember the movie right.

The russian craft looked like a ripoff Gemini capsule to me.

I like the space scenes in You Only Live Twice. I found them more realistic then the ones in Moonraker.

:::shudders::: Someone else can have that add-on.

 

[T.Neo]

The Spectre craft, sorry. Was that a KA creation or does it resemble some other "real world" design he adapted? That's the interesting ship in the scenario, capable of take-off (SSTO?) and powered landing, even while internally carrying the captured mass of an entirely different ship! If I remember the movie right.

The ship was not SSTO. I think it dropped a stage on ascent, but still landed on it's tail. I don't think it was based on any real world spacecraft.

 

[Deke]

"Do you really expect me to find a proper launch azimuth from your hidden volcano base and thus propel myself into orbital flight where I'd then link with other spacecraft to save the day again?"

"Nooooo Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

 

[dougkeenan]

Thanks Deke. Kinda like the second Derek Flint film also.

The ship was not SSTO. I think it dropped a stage on ascent, but still landed on it's tail. I don't think it was based on any real world spacecraft.

You're right, the staging was shown in a scene towards the end of the film I didn't remember. Another good excuse to watch it again!

 

[Andy44]

Thanks Deke. Kinda like the second Derek Flint film also.


You're right, the staging was shown in a scene towards the end of the film I didn't remember. Another good excuse to watch it again!

That photo is an Atlas rocket, and the "staging" is where they cut the Atlas in half! Also, the nosecone on the front of that "Atlas" looks like an actual Atlas nosecone that was used as a blunt heatshield for the nuclear warhead. It looks so funny with CCCP painted on the side. Almost looks like they built it from a model kit and just modified it so it "stages" and has little windows in the front.

 

[Graham2001]

Thought I'd weigh in again with some pertinent screen-shots.

1. Jupiter 16/17

2. Voskhod? (You Only Live Twice, 1967)

3. Bird 1

4. Voskhod? (Marooned, 1969)

The difference between the two Voskhod's is due to the fact that the Soviets concealed details about the Vostok/Voskhod until around the time Soyuz went into operation. (See: Soviet Space Deceptions - not so many after all!, Sven Grahn. Information traveled a lot slower in those days.

To make this bird fly we need to:

a. Ensure Gemini 4.5 is compatible with Orbiter 2006 (may need to get permission to create Gemini 4.6)

b. 'Hot-up' an Atlas (have these LVs even been done for Orbiter?)

c. As mentioned earlier decide if we want to use a proper Voskhod or the one shown in the film (we don't have to use a Titan for the LV though.)

 

[T.Neo]

That photo is an Atlas rocket, and the "staging" is where they cut the Atlas in half! Also, the nosecone on the front of that "Atlas" looks like an actual Atlas nosecone that was used as a blunt heatshield for the nuclear warhead. It looks so funny with CCCP painted on the side. Almost looks like they built it from a model kit and just modified it so it "stages" and has little windows in the front.

Good grief, I didn't notice that. Cutting the atlas in half :lol:!

Special effects artists often kitbash scale models for use in films.