Project XR2 Ravenstar - Mk II
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astrosammy
Dash!
And a belly landing isn't very nice when you are in a stall and get down with 200 m/s.
TSPenguin
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No we don't. At least I don'T.
If I want to make my crew jump I use something different. This craft is either too fast, too hot or too important to just jump out.
If the above is not the case you can always try to land the baby. Makes much more sense than to terrorize the groundcrew with unmanned Ravenstars comming their way.
This is my opinion, and it is shared by many...
Oh, and I will never abandon my ship! I might however shove some passengers out the airlock before the next burn, so you better not dare to ask for peanuts!
-----Posted Added-----
When you are high enough to bail out when stalling, then you are high enough to dive and catch it before you catch...
If I want to make my crew jump I use something different. This craft is either too fast, too hot or too important to just jump out.
If the above is not the case you can always try to land the baby. Makes much more sense than to terrorize the groundcrew with unmanned Ravenstars comming their way.
This is my opinion, and it is shared by many...
Oh, and I will never abandon my ship! I might however shove some passengers out the airlock before the next burn, so you better not dare to ask for peanuts!
-----Posted Added-----
When you are high enough to bail out when stalling, then you are high enough to dive and catch it before you catch...
EliNaut
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Out of curiosity, what program did you use to model the XR2?
I've just started getting into basic stuff with Anim8tor.
I've just started getting into basic stuff with Anim8tor.
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
Since he's a professional, I wouldn't wonder if he used different programs for different tasks... But Max was most likely one of them.
ar81
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Anim8or is nice for modelling, but not for texturing.
dbeachy1
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Steve used 3DSMax 9 to model the XR2 (and yes, he is a professional artist). You can see more of his work at Coolhand Graphics. :speakcool:
Coolhand
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Yep, max for modelling & UV mapping.
Building something like the ravenstar shouldn't really be a challenge for any half decent modelling app, and some might even be better suited to it than Max - Maya is used more frequently in the games industry these days for example.
I've never used anim8or, but looking at its specs it seems like it has some fairly capable modelling features, a better app than i had previously assumed.
Importantly, it has subdivision surfaces which lets you smooth a faceted surface into smaller, finer facets - this was the main technique used to make the smooth organic surfaces of the ravenstar. basically if you took a box and applied subd's then you'd end up with a sphere. When applied to more complex shapes its a powerful, easy to use feature.
Then its a process of hand optimisation to make the mesh as light as possible and still look smooth - subd's will generally leave you with higher triangle counts than you really need to describe a low poly surface.
Does Anim8or have a UV unwrapper? i see no mention of it on the wiki. It's essential for low poly models (and pretty any other application) to be able to manipulate the uv coordinates for a given surface. Another tool that is handy which animator may not support is texture baking, so you can 'bake' for example, ambient occlusion or lighting into your texture maps - quickly adding accurate shading and illumination to your textures.
Otherwise if you're looking for freeware then you might want to try blender. It has more features than anim8or, a slightly less irritating name, uv unwrapping, sub'ds and some nice renderers. I don't know any professional artists or studios that use anim8or but I do know a couple who use blender. Though it does have a somewhat daunting interface it's very powerful and has some nice freeware renderers available.
Building something like the ravenstar shouldn't really be a challenge for any half decent modelling app, and some might even be better suited to it than Max - Maya is used more frequently in the games industry these days for example.
I've never used anim8or, but looking at its specs it seems like it has some fairly capable modelling features, a better app than i had previously assumed.
Importantly, it has subdivision surfaces which lets you smooth a faceted surface into smaller, finer facets - this was the main technique used to make the smooth organic surfaces of the ravenstar. basically if you took a box and applied subd's then you'd end up with a sphere. When applied to more complex shapes its a powerful, easy to use feature.
Then its a process of hand optimisation to make the mesh as light as possible and still look smooth - subd's will generally leave you with higher triangle counts than you really need to describe a low poly surface.
Does Anim8or have a UV unwrapper? i see no mention of it on the wiki. It's essential for low poly models (and pretty any other application) to be able to manipulate the uv coordinates for a given surface. Another tool that is handy which animator may not support is texture baking, so you can 'bake' for example, ambient occlusion or lighting into your texture maps - quickly adding accurate shading and illumination to your textures.
Otherwise if you're looking for freeware then you might want to try blender. It has more features than anim8or, a slightly less irritating name, uv unwrapping, sub'ds and some nice renderers. I don't know any professional artists or studios that use anim8or but I do know a couple who use blender. Though it does have a somewhat daunting interface it's very powerful and has some nice freeware renderers available.
Jarvitä
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Wait, why did this thread get renamed to Ravenstar Mk II? :hmm:
TSPenguin
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For the same reason it got renamed several times before. The topic always reflects the current working status.
Coolhand
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Admittedly TS, it is difficult to keep track of the progress in the middle of continuing :spam:requests for changes to the bailout system.
I think some of you guys would be more comfortable flying a DC-3...
I think some of you guys would be more comfortable flying a DC-3...
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
I think it does... sort of. but texturing is definitaly the weak spot of animator. The tools it provides don't get you anywhere.
Coolhand
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I don't fully understand what you've quoted but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the topic or anything thats been posted in here before.
For the most part - breaking 'texturing' into 2 parts, uv unwrapping/mapping and painting the texture... Unwrapping & mapping is the annoying part for me, max has some advanced features but i mostly just get stuck in and after using projection maps (i.e. planar) or flatten mapping (specify an angle and it'll break up a surface into chunks based on their relative angle to one another - very useful) to roughly sort out my projections i'll manually break up and arrange the UV layout into an efficient texture sheet. as long as animator has a UV editor then you should be able to do something similar, however iirc there are other specific UV unwrapping programs out there as freeware. Also, again blender, has some good UV tools from what i've seen so you could perhaps import your model into that for unwrapping.
ar81
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I have been using XR2.
I like it a lot.
I noticed that VC does not allow MFDs.
Also it seems to be able to carry passengers.
Are there plans to add them?
And on a side note, I have noticed that DG, XR2, DGIV have only seat compartment only. No rest room, no beds, no kitchen...
For long trips, crew activities might matter. I know it sounds like The Sims in space... but I had to mention this.
I like it a lot.
I noticed that VC does not allow MFDs.
Also it seems to be able to carry passengers.
Are there plans to add them?
And on a side note, I have noticed that DG, XR2, DGIV have only seat compartment only. No rest room, no beds, no kitchen...
For long trips, crew activities might matter. I know it sounds like The Sims in space... but I had to mention this.
agentgonzo
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I know that the passengers were removed from the mesh to reduce polys and increase the framerate, but would it be possible to add a line to the config file to draw the passengers if they are present for those with high-end systems?
Coolhand
Addon Developer
MFD's in the VC don't work yet, i'd have liked at least one or two to be operational in the mk1 release - so i could perhaps have had some more feedback from people flying via VC which could go into the mk2, but apparently there wasn't time.
Extra passenger/crew facilities are contained in the hab/utility module so be sure to pack that if you're going for a journey that will take more than a few hours.
I'll get around to making some passenger meshes eventually...
Extra passenger/crew facilities are contained in the hab/utility module so be sure to pack that if you're going for a journey that will take more than a few hours.
I'll get around to making some passenger meshes eventually...
ar81
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I bet you might need to make low poly crew members...
Having 5 people with 90k polys would make Orbiter to be a slide show...
Coolhand
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5 people with 90k polys?
the crew are 5,000 triangles apiece... not 90,000. where did you get that from?
though i am kinda amused that you thought the crew models were that detailed...
in any case passenger meshes will be less detailed than the crew, using smaller maps and less triangles... maybe 2-3000. given that the mk1 ravenstar supports 12 (not 5) passengers by default then 3,000*12= 36,000 extra triangles - which weighs less than an XR1... or just over half an XR5.
So you really wouldn't need a "high end" machine to run the passenger meshes.
the crew are 5,000 triangles apiece... not 90,000. where did you get that from?
though i am kinda amused that you thought the crew models were that detailed...
in any case passenger meshes will be less detailed than the crew, using smaller maps and less triangles... maybe 2-3000. given that the mk1 ravenstar supports 12 (not 5) passengers by default then 3,000*12= 36,000 extra triangles - which weighs less than an XR1... or just over half an XR5.
So you really wouldn't need a "high end" machine to run the passenger meshes.
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