Avindair

Quick update: Turns out the problem was as simple as my missing the "create from grayscale" checkbox in Unity. Unchecked, re-wrote, normals are no longer bad 3D print quality. Thanks, folks! Now to figure out how to do the damned airlocks...(the tutorials I'm reading are...um...not clear.) http://imgur.com/gallery/IXPuK/new

Thanks for the tips! Fortunately, the file is 2048, so no problem there. Will dump MDM, go to PNG, and use the KSP-DDS converters. Here goes nothing! Thanks again!

Hey, everyone -- I'm having an issue with normal maps in KSP. When I create my normals and apply them to the mesh in Unity, everything looks fine. Unfortunately, when I write out the file as an MDM file, the bumped object in KSP looks like a small dog had been chewing on it after a particularly frustrating day. I've tweaked what I can in Unity, but at this point I'm just plain frustrated. Attached is a shot of the object in the Unity editor, in game, and the normal map. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Avindair http://imgur.com/gallery/WwyZk/new

Well, I ran into a new issue. Got it running with my TrackIR5, but it unfortunately overrides my Saitek X52 setup when I try to fly. Worse, it appears to be a bit random. Sometimes I lose throttle control, other times roll is mapped to my head without asking me a thing. Forced to uninstall at this time, which is a bit of a bummer, as I was hoping to TwitchCast with it today.

Still working on nodes and surfacing. In the meantime, my son has been knocking out more SLS mesh pieces. Lots more images to come, but here is a quick LW render of the partially-surfaced stack. Good News: He's flown it in game. Bad News: We're getting smoothing errors from the OBJs generated by LightWave. Bugger. More to come.

Some incredible meshes there, with outstanding UV unwrapping. Hate to see this die on the vine.

Wow, your capsule looks sooo much better than my stab at the Orion as to be a full-on win. Just...wow!

Beautiful work! Max has amazing lighting, even though I've never been a fan of it as a modeling too. (Personal preference; not a slam against the software AT ALL! ) Is that your mesh?

Read have Read: I'm going to see what I can do about toning down the spec map on the heat shield. Right now I'm using my normal as a Bump/Spec combo, and it's a little too strong for my liking. As for the grunge, that was actually deliberate. The Orion was originally intended to be largely re-usable, and I wanted to mimic the thermal blanket wear-and-tear seen on the shuttles after several flights. (I've even considered using my thermal blanket bump method to create a custom bump map for Helldiver's amazing KSO, but I'll get to that when I have time.) DasBananenbrot: Honestly, that's been a big question. Right now the capsule is just a pod. The truth of the matter is that the forward RCS hatch should split off and the chutes should extend from the top of the capsule after re-entry. As this is my first mod, however, I'm still struggling with putting a bloody hatch on the capsule. In short, no specific plans yet. Crawling before I can walk, etc..

That is an awesome image.

Hey guys -- Thanks for the kind words. I'm hoping to get the textures as clean and as tight as the FASA products, but I we'll see what my work schedule will allow. As it is, I have to make a .cfg fix: Discovered on my second flight (I couldn't resist. ) that I forgot to setup a hatch for an EVA. D'oh!

Not much done in the way of modeling or surfacing yesterday or today. Just did another couple of runs importing the capsule into KSP for flight testing. Good news: It looks better in-game than I feared. Bad news: It doesn't look good enough. Images of her latest test flight added per NoMrBond's instruction:

Hmmm...I thought I was doing that with the imgur tags. Must be screwing something up. Sorry about that!

An animated hatch WOULD be sweet...but at this point I'm focused on basic stuff like "making it work in the game." As soon as I get a little more comfortable with the LW-to-Unity interchange, I plan on adding a few more fiddlies. Oh, and for the record? I can't see how this crew capsule would work without the RPM MFDs. That's how the real bird works, after all. My son, seeing that I was about to bite into my hard drive out of pure frustration, knocked together the SLS for the vehicle in all of 45 minutes. I used it to test some texturing techniques, just to remind myself that, no, I'm not a dolt. For the record, the SLS is game-level when it comes to poly count, but honestly I think I could get away with using it for medium shots in animations. Back to working with Unity!

NoMrBond: It's always been a PITA, but the real challenge here is trying to get as close to a 1:1 transfer of high poly and resolution images to the low poly object. I'm getting so many distortion issues as to drive me utterly batty. I just rebooted into my Windows install (I run OS X) and ran my 32 bit install of LW 10.1 just so I could try my Decimate plugin. That was...not successful. At this point I'm thinking the best way to make this work is to just find the best projection combination to get me the cleanest wrapping to the low-poly object. For the record? Yes. this part of the process is aging me.