Project SSU HI RES Textures

[Wolf]

Great work on the textures! One thing though: you should remove the dots from the center of the tiles on the OMS pods. On the regular fuselage tiles these are the locations where the tile waterproofing agent would be injected, but the OMS pod tiles never had them.

I have attached a photo of Challenger's OMS pods, taken during STS-41B, showing the lack of waterproofing injection sites.

I guess this was not always the case. There are several pictures showing the dots on both the OMS PODS LRSI and HRSI tiles.
These are just two examples taken from STS-117 and STS-127




So what shall we do with SSU textures?
1) keep them
2) erase them
3) make them less visible (some fading effect)

 

[Wolf]

Talking about symmetry, while I was analyzing the PB DOORS seams I noticed the line where the 2 doors merge when closed is slightly offset the orbiter X Axis. The following pics show that; I initially thought the camera itself was offset but it does indeed seem it is right on top of the orbiter centerline.
Were the 2 doors slightly different in size?

 

[Marg]

Maybe there was a slight "overlap"? Part of the left door goes under the right?

 

[DaveS]

I´d go with a version of 3 where the tiles look severely used, with lots of cracks and dirt on them. The OMS pods were not pretty after a while. They started to get the familiar beat-up look by the mid 90´s.

 

[DaveS]

Maybe there was a slight "overlap"? Part of the left door goes under the right?

This is correct. The right door is slightly wider than the left door thanks to the C/L latches. I've attached a schematic that shows the "over-center" alignment of the C/L latches.

 

[Wolf]

I´d go with a version of 3 where the tiles look severely used, with lots of cracks and dirt on them. The OMS pods were not pretty after a while. They started to get the familiar beat-up look by the mid 90´s.

This is something I have been thinking since I started working on SSU textures and I haven’t figured out yet: When you look at them you will see no or very little scorchings and wear signs. I did that on purpose in order to show the orbiters as they were when initially released to service (first missions).
On top of that I was thinking about the possibility to add a second texture set which would “pop up” during re entry showing the scorching caused by heat (I think this is doable, maybe using Vessel Builder?)
On the other hand maybe it would be better to have textures that show wear and tear on the TPS.
I really can’t decide..

 

[GLS]

On the "wear and tear", I think the "<orbiter>_Original" texture should be the only "clear one", as that's when they were new/clean. Afterwards a +/- "linear progression" of "wear and tear" could be added.


+/- off-topic to this thread, but somewhat related to this, is the entry glow of the tiles. Ideally we would have an "entry glow texture" and it would fade into the main texture, but I'm pretty sure we can't do that.
However, the fade thing works with meshes (which is what we currently have), but that means editing/scaling the new mesh so it hovers above the main one (to avoid z-fighting) and also the aerosurfaces have to be animated.
In lack of a better option, I vote for keeping the mesh solution, which currently needs some work and animations.

 

[DaveS]

Speaking of improved textures, do you think you could make one for the X_O576 bulkhead? It's old and blurry and just looks bad compared to everything else. You would would just need to do the texture and leave all the hardware off it (no handrails, no PFR etc, just the blankets).

It would be great if you could look over some of the other textures and see what you could do to improve them.

 

[Wolf]

I already had in mind to make new areas (new OMS PODS AFRSI, ODS, Landing gear system, some HRSI areas). It all depends on hi-res pictures and time available. I could add the bulkhead to the list.
About the OMS PODS I remember you referring to an AFRSI layout you made which I could use for the new textures...

 

[DaveS]

I already had in mind to make new areas (new OMS PODS AFRSI, ODS, Landing gear system, some HRSI areas). It all depends on hi-res pictures and time available. I could add the bulkhead to the list.
About the OMS PODS I remember you referring to an AFRSI layout you made which I could use for the new textures...

Yes, that would be the texture(s) that come default with SSU. I spent a lot of time making sure that each blanket terminated where it was supposed to by using OMS pod TPS schematics imported into AC3D and lots of saving and loading of the textures to ensure everything matched.

 

[Wolf]

Ok, I spent most of the day yesterday working on the OMS POD blankets (AFRSI) and now the texture matches your pattern with the only difference I am working on some blankets on the inner side of the pod in the area where they merge with the LRSI tiles. They have a slightly different orientation compared to the rest of the AFRSI and I am trying to reproduce them ad accurately as I can. Also the access door need some refining. Finally will add some details that I could spot thanks to some very nice close up pictures found on the web.
Once done the OMS PODS should be pretty much the exact replica of the real ones making this area, as well as the vertical stabilizer and most of the HRSI a photoreal textures of the orbiter.
As far as the look of the TPS I think I will release 2 different versions: one for the “early” orbiters where the TPS will appear almost brand new and with limited scorching and wear and a second one for the latest fleet versions showing the aging of the system after several re entries.
One note about the FWD bulkhead: I could not find any usable image to make a hi res texture of it (the view is always obstructed by other structers such as the ODS) so I am afraid I won’t be able to make a new one.

 

[DaveS]

One note about the FWD bulkhead: I could not find any usable image to make a hi res texture of it (the view is always obstructed by other structers such as the ODS) so I am afraid I won’t be able to make a new one.

Could you just do the actual blankets? They follow a pattern so coming up with something believable shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Wolf]

Could you just do the actual blankets? They follow a pattern so coming up with something believable shouldn't be too hard.

I'll have a look at it


In the meantime here is some pre-views of the new OMS pod. No normal map added yet and some little tweaking required (one of the lower doors need to be moved as it is partially out of the pod perimeter). The Pods are now a bit brighter and I have added some scorching to the HRSI tiles. The AFRSI here is the "early" orbiters' version (new delivered shuttles). The latest versions will have some scorches and wear showing on the blankets

 

[Wolf]

Could you just do the actual blankets? They follow a pattern so coming up with something believable shouldn't be too hard.

I can’t think of a way to make a decent bulkhead without a hi res photo as a source. The only doable thing would be to increase the texture resolution but I doubt the outcome would be much different than the original one... :shrug:

 

[DaveS]

I can’t think of a way to make a decent bulkhead without a hi res photo as a source. The only doable thing would be to increase the texture resolution but I doubt the outcome would be much different than the original one... :shrug:

I'm not so sure about that. Take a look at the texture for the X_O1307 bulkhead, it looks good at the current resolution. You could steal some blankets of it to create the texture for the X_O576 bulkhead.

---------- Post added at 01:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:50 AM ----------

Maybe these could be of some use:

http://nasatech.net/TRAtlantis/TRAtlantisPortBay2_120612/
http://nasatech.net/TRAtlantis/TRAtlantisCargo-CL-Bay9_120612/
http://nasatech.net/TRAtlantis/TRAtlantisCargo-Bay2_120612/

 

[Wolf]

So here is the OMS pods for the late Orbiters variants. The LRSI tiles and the AFRSI blankets show the damage and the scorchings accumulated with time and the small insulation rings are all faded and on some tiles missing. Normal maps have been added.

It's been quite an effort but I am pretty happy with the results.