[1.9 - 1.12+] TrekDrive - A Star Trek-like Warp Drive by ShadowWorks v1.0.3b The Galileo Seven (Hotfix) [27-03-2022]

[bjornadri]

On 4/1/2022 at 12:23 PM, Zarbon44 said:

I have some weird temporal anomalies going on in my KSP! 

I gathered other star trek vessels I found around the web, but yours are the ones with most thought and care put into, keep up the great work,and I can't wait for that Miranda class! Gotta have that wrath of khan showdown. 

I will share more pictures here, I'm planning exploring different planet packs on a NX Refit ship. 

where'd you get the other ships from or are they just edited in?

[bjornadri]

@TheShadow1138 hey man! first of all how are you doing? i was simply wondering how the work on the mod is coming along! keep doing what you do 'cause it's awesome!

[TheShadow1138]

On 4/17/2022 at 5:51 PM, bjornadri said:

@TheShadow1138 hey man! first of all how are you doing? i was simply wondering how the work on the mod is coming along! keep doing what you do 'cause it's awesome!

I'm doing well.  I've got a class that I'm teaching now, and had a few other things going on that have been distracting me.  As a result I haven't really done any work on the mod.  I do plan to finish what I've already started, I just haven't felt like working on it lately.

[Xtra]

On 9/10/2021 at 3:03 AM, Puggonaut said:

Yay well done on the full release .

This is a amazing recreation of the NX Era StarShip .

Absolutely an awesome mod.   But as I recall the shuttles dropped from the bottom not the back.

I have flown this several times (great for Moho missions) and when I dock the shuttles (nx), I find they barely fit in the hanger doors.  wish either the door area was slightly taller or pods slightly smaller.

BUT... since I can't do this level of awesomeness... IT's GREAT!

[TheShadow1138]

5 hours ago, Xtra said:

Absolutely an awesome mod.   But as I recall the shuttles dropped from the bottom not the back.

I have flown this several times (great for Moho missions) and when I dock the shuttles (nx), I find they barely fit in the hanger doors.  wish either the door area was slightly taller or pods slightly smaller.

BUT... since I can't do this level of awesomeness... IT's GREAT!

They did drop from the bottom of the NX in the show, and I gave a lot of thought to how to do it for the mod.  I wanted to make the ship as few parts as possible to hopefully give it fewer failure points while maintaining ease of construction for players.  I also ran into what to do for the refit of the NX.  The information I could find on the NX-Refit indicated that the shuttlepods would have been launched from the aft bays, mostly because the neck of the refit engineering section would make maneuvering the shuttlepods to their original bay precarious.  Since the aft bays are relatively unobstructed I figured the simplest solution was to just use those and not worry so much about having a separate bay part with a part switch or two bay parts.  Anyway, that's why they launch from the aft bay, and not the show-accurate ventral bay.

They are a bit of a tight fit.  I was going for as accurate a model and scale with both, so that's why they're  that way.   Actually, now that I think about it, imagine having to dock them in the ventral bay.  The ventral bay doors are just big enough that a shuttlepod would fit, but only with retracted wings, so they'd probably be even more of a pain/hassle to dock if I had used those instead.  I have been able to guide the shuttlepod into the bay and translate downward so that it rests on the bay's floor collider and gently thrust forward sliding on the floor of the bay.  There isn't a collider on the ceiling, except for the docking collider, so there is tolerance there, it just doesn't look like it.

I'm glad you're enjoying the mod and as long as you're having fun with it, that's really all that matters.

[bjornadri]

hey @TheShadow1138 how are you doing man?

just checking in since it has been quite a long while since we've heard any news on this mods, is it still a-go?

kind regards,

 

Saint

[TheShadow1138]

4 hours ago, bjornadri said:

hey @TheShadow1138 how are you doing man?

just checking in since it has been quite a long while since we've heard any news on this mods, is it still a-go?

kind regards,

 

Saint

I'm doing well, just haven't had a lot of motivation to work on this.  It is still a go, I haven't forgotten about it, and fully intend to finish it.  I've just had some other projects that have consumed my attention and motivation.

[OrdinaryKerman]

Made an NX without the thick pylons of engineering stuff, went for a test flight around Minmus of all places for some reason. I used the NX-10 'Cochrane' registry so I call it the NX Cochrane-class Light Cruiser

lower one is a shuttlepod departing, I messed up exiting the shuttle/cargo bay 'properly' so I didn't screenshot that

[TheShadow1138]

2 hours ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

Made an NX without the thick pylons of engineering stuff, went for a test flight around Minmus of all places for some reason. I used the NX-10 'Cochrane' registry so I call it the NX Cochrane-class Light Cruiser

lower one is a shuttlepod departing, I messed up exiting the shuttle/cargo bay 'properly' so I didn't screenshot that

That's awesome!  I like it.

[Zarbon44]

  

I hope the mod is not dead, i will patiently wait for more! Perhaps even in KSP2.

 

[TheShadow1138]

2 hours ago, Zarbon44 said:

  

I hope the mod is not dead, i will patiently wait for more! Perhaps even in KSP2.

 

It's not dead, I just haven't had a great deal of motivation for the last year or so.  I am getting the feeling back and do intend to finish the Constitution-class Refit model, build a Miranda-class engineering section so that will be an option for people.  I do also plan on a possibly modular TMP/TNG era shuttlecraft, and hopefully adding a transporter to the plugin to allow kernels and cargo to be transported between ships and from ships-to-surface and back.

Awesome screenshots and video!

As for KSP2, a pretty major hurtle will have to be overcome, one that I have no control over:  they will need to make it available on Mac.  If they don't make a Mac version, I'm afraid TrekDrive will be a KSP1 only mod.  I might even need a newer computer, but it's not much good if they don't release a Mac version of KSP2.

Edited February 21, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[ProsecutorWalton]

How is the refit looking at the moment? Looking back at the in progress WIPs you posted before, it looks like you've got the model done and just need to do the textures?

[TheShadow1138]

4 hours ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

How is the refit looking at the moment? Looking back at the in progress WIPs you posted before, it looks like you've got the model done and just need to do the textures?

I've got the UV unwrapping left to do on the engineering section, neck, nacelles, and nacelle pylons, then texture the whole thing.  The saucer, bridge, and impulse engines have already been UV unwrapped.  Honestly, the texturing is part of what's gotten this stalled.  The refit Constitution-class is one of my favorite designs, and the model has turned out so well, I want it to look perfect so texturing it seems like a monumental task.  I'm starting, however, to get the motivation to finish it to finally see it in all its glory.  I did do a little bit of tweaking to the photon torpedo launcher at the base of the neck to round off the edges more like the filming model.  The schematic images I was using to build the model showed hard edges, but I like the slightly rounded edges better.

[Zarbon44]

On 2/21/2023 at 10:53 PM, TheShadow1138 said:

It's not dead, I just haven't had a great deal of motivation for the last year or so.  I am getting the feeling back and do intend to finish the Constitution-class Refit model, build a Miranda-class engineering section so that will be an option for people.  I do also plan on a possibly modular TMP/TNG era shuttlecraft, and hopefully adding a transporter to the plugin to allow kernels and cargo to be transported between ships and from ships-to-surface and back.

Awesome screenshots and video!

As for KSP2, a pretty major hurtle will have to be overcome, one that I have no control over:  they will need to make it available on Mac.  If they don't make a Mac version, I'm afraid TrekDrive will be a KSP1 only mod.  I might even need a newer computer, but it's not much good if they don't release a Mac version of KSP2.

Good to hear! Take your time, your mod is amazing and a blast to play with. Would've been awesome if more people knew about, it deserves the attention!

Edited February 23, 2023 by Zarbon44

[TheShadow1138]

38 minutes ago, Zarbon44 said:

Good to hear! Take your time, your mod is amazing and a blast to play with. Would've been awesome if more people knew about, it deserves the attention!

Thank you for those kind words.  I'm quite proud of it myself.  It could be that most players prefer a more realistic approach to FTL, or that a lot of people just don't know about it.  I'm not that great at promotion, but I have seen the Phoenix parts show up on the BDB thread, which was nice.

[TheShadow1138]

I know that it's been a geological age since I've posted anything here, but I do have a quick update on progress.

I have finished the UV unwrapping of the engineering section of the Constitution-Refit!  This means I only have the Nacelles and the Nacelle Pylons to unwrap before I begin texturing the model...finally.

I also had an idea about a tad more immersion while in IVA on the bridge.  I know that right now the NX-class is the only one with a bridge, but I thought about how cool it would be that if while you were in IVA mode on the bridge that there were bridge ambience sounds.  I found out how to determine if you were in IVA mode and tested it on the NX and...it works!  I haven't decided if I'll include that in the update that will include the Constitution-Refit release, or if I'll wait until I've released IVAs for the two Constitution variants to include that update to the plugin, but it does work!  All it requires is adding the module to the bridge part, defining the location of the ambient sound and switching to IVA.  On the switch to IVA the sound starts playing, and upon switching out of IVA it stops playing.  It may not be the greatest thing, but it's kinda cool in my opinion.

I'm kinda back in the groove so I feel comfortable saying that the Constitution-Refit will get released this summer, no timetables or anything though.

[TheShadow1138]

The Constitution-Refit UV unwrapping is complete!!!!  Texturing can now begin!

Edited July 9, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[TheShadow1138]

Quick texturing update:  I have completed the dorsal paneling/Aztecing color layer, no specular yet, but there's progress.

Progress Picture:

Edited July 12, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[ProsecutorWalton]

Cannot wait to fly around Kerbol and beyond in this. Best version of the connie. 

[TheShadow1138]

Another quick texturing update:  I have finished the dorsal and ventral Aztec pattern, as well as paneling on the bridge module.  I have begun to add the base color to the bridge module.

I've also done some slight tweaking to the geometry of the "base" of the bridge module (the part with the two red stripes) to help make it look a bit more like the studio model.  It's likely not a noticeable change for y'all, especially in these pics, but it looks better in my opinion.

Edited July 18, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[TheShadow1138]

Saucer/Bridge/Impulse Engines are Texture Complete!!!  Lots of pics:

Overview of the Saucer

Dorsal specular showing clear "Aztecing" pattern

Ventral specular

Saucer dorsal plan view showing the deflector grid

Saucer sensor bands, windows, and RCS thrusters

Forward plan view

Forward plan view lit from the side

Port plan view

Ventral plan view fully lit showing the deflector grid and other cut panel lines.

Ventral plan view backlit to show off the emissive texture with the faux spotlight lighting port and starboard

Aft plan view showing the aft window arrangement and impulse engine exhaust.

Close-up of the impulse engines showing the scribed panels, the faux glow inside the edges of the impulse engine exhaust ports, and from the impulse "jewel".  At the top of the image you can see the emissive "lighting" of the bridge aft docking port as well.

I think it's coming along nicely so far.  I will say I'm trying to get the colors as accurate as possible, which is proving a bit more of a challenge than I would have originally thought.  In the films it generally looks gray, or bluish-gray, in fly-by shots in space, while mostly white in the dry dock sequence in The Motion Picture.  The studio model is white with various shades of blue and greenish colors, which I've only been able to see in the films in like one shot in The Undiscovered Country.  I am using the instructions for one of the Polar Lights model kits of the refit Enterprise to color my model, more or less as they suggest you paint their model kit.  Once I've got the entire ship textured I can easily tweak the base color to hopefully achieve a bit more screen accuracy.  I can then provide the studio model color textures and screen accurate textures as texture switches so you can use whichever you prefer.   That is, of course, if there is a significant difference between the two when I test them.

For some eagle-eyed fans out there you may notice differences on the saucer dorsal and ventral faces from the studio model and widely available images.  Some areas of panels, or colors are not present, there are windows on the aft-facing side of the ventral "bulge" where there are none on the studio model, and perhaps most noticeably, no phasers.  A big part of why these things are absent, or present in the case of the windows, has to do with how I UV unwrapped the saucer.  To save time, and space on the texture sheet I "folded" the starboard UVs onto the port UVs for both the dorsal and ventral sections.  The consequence of this, however, is that placing something so that it shows up on the forward port-side of the saucer, also shows up on the aft starboard-side, and anything placed on the aft port-side also shows up on the forward starboard-side.  All-in-all I think it still looks pretty accurate and isn't too much of a loss.  I also chose not to depict the phasers because I haven't done so on either of the previous ships, as well as because of the aforementioned UV map issue I created.  Also, you can't use the phasers anyway.  If, however, people would prefer that they at least be there for the visual accuracy I can model them, and there's plenty of room on the texture for them as they'd be small.  Honestly, I may end up doing this anyway, but I haven't decided on it yet.  I also did not include the RCS thrusters on the emissive because it has never made sense to me for there to be lights coming from them at all times.  My guess is that when the studio model was wired for light that they just saw the holes and through there should be lights there.

[Zarbon44]

19 hours ago, TheShadow1138 said:

Saucer/Bridge/Impulse Engines are Texture Complete!!!  Lots of pics:

Overview of the Saucer

Dorsal specular showing clear "Aztecing" pattern

Ventral specular

Saucer dorsal plan view showing the deflector grid

Saucer sensor bands, windows, and RCS thrusters

Forward plan view

Forward plan view lit from the side

Port plan view

Ventral plan view fully lit showing the deflector grid and other cut panel lines.

Ventral plan view backlit to show off the emissive texture with the faux spotlight lighting port and starboard

Aft plan view showing the aft window arrangement and impulse engine exhaust.

Close-up of the impulse engines showing the scribed panels, the faux glow inside the edges of the impulse engine exhaust ports, and from the impulse "jewel".  At the top of the image you can see the emissive "lighting" of the bridge aft docking port as well.

I think it's coming along nicely so far.  I will say I'm trying to get the colors as accurate as possible, which is proving a bit more of a challenge than I would have originally thought.  In the films it generally looks gray, or bluish-gray, in fly-by shots in space, while mostly white in the dry dock sequence in The Motion Picture.  The studio model is white with various shades of blue and greenish colors, which I've only been able to see in the films in like one shot in The Undiscovered Country.  I am using the instructions for one of the Polar Lights model kits of the refit Enterprise to color my model, more or less as they suggest you paint their model kit.  Once I've got the entire ship textured I can easily tweak the base color to hopefully achieve a bit more screen accuracy.  I can then provide the studio model color textures and screen accurate textures as texture switches so you can use whichever you prefer.   That is, of course, if there is a significant difference between the two when I test them.

For some eagle-eyed fans out there you may notice differences on the saucer dorsal and ventral faces from the studio model and widely available images.  Some areas of panels, or colors are not present, there are windows on the aft-facing side of the ventral "bulge" where there are none on the studio model, and perhaps most noticeably, no phasers.  A big part of why these things are absent, or present in the case of the windows, has to do with how I UV unwrapped the saucer.  To save time, and space on the texture sheet I "folded" the starboard UVs onto the port UVs for both the dorsal and ventral sections.  The consequence of this, however, is that placing something so that it shows up on the forward port-side of the saucer, also shows up on the aft starboard-side, and anything placed on the aft port-side also shows up on the forward starboard-side.  All-in-all I think it still looks pretty accurate and isn't too much of a loss.  I also chose not to depict the phasers because I haven't done so on either of the previous ships, as well as because of the aforementioned UV map issue I created.  Also, you can't use the phasers anyway.  If, however, people would prefer that they at least be there for the visual accuracy I can model them, and there's plenty of room on the texture for them as they'd be small.  Honestly, I may end up doing this anyway, but I haven't decided on it yet.  I also did not include the RCS thrusters on the emissive because it has never made sense to me for there to be lights coming from them at all times.  My guess is that when the studio model was wired for light that they just saw the holes and through there should be lights there.

This is looking amazing!

[TheShadow1138]

Another quick texturing update:  I have begun texturing the engineering section (neck and secondary hull).

Strongback and nav deflector areas have been paneled and given color to match the studio model as closely as possible.   You can see the panel outlines, which has been mostly completed across the secondary hull, still need to panel the neck, torpedo launcher, and fantail.  I might have gone a bit overboard, but the overall look in the end should be pretty good.  I chose not to exactly follow the paneling over the majority of the secondary hull because it is so spotty.  So, I decided to do paneling that interlocks instead of sporadically overlaps with lots of gaps.  Now, my variation choices may still create a similar effect because panels of the same brightness will likely end up next to one another, but it would be a bit more "realistic" in my opinion.

Once the panel outlines are completed, texturing the rest of the engineering section will likely go much quicker.  I'm looking forward to putting the red pinstripes and the Starfleet delta on it.  This might be a good time to share my plans for all of the text on the ship.  As those who have played with the mod know, each ship comes with various registry texture switches to change the name and registration number of the ships, and to change from Starfleet delta insignia to Kerbban Empire sword and globe.  This was really all of the text that was visible on the NX-class and TOS era Constitution-class ships, but the refit Constitution onward bears a lot more text across the ship.  That text consists of "Starship U.S.S. (Name)  * United Federation of Planets", just the name of the ship without the prefix, just the registry number, or just the text "United Federation of Planets".  I plan to do all text on the ship using small planes so that the text will be clear and readable.  The registry number and ship name will be done just as before, and will appear where they should all utilizing the same texture.  The other text:  "Starship" and "United Federation of Planets" will be on a separate texture to allow switching the nation of origin between "United Federation of Planets", "Kerbal Federation of Planets", or the "Kerbban Empire".  The "United Federation of Planets" and "Kerbal Federation of Planets" will be switchable separately so you can choose which you would prefer to use, while switching to the Kerbban Empire textures would change the test to "Kerbban Empire".  This might cause problems, so it might not work out the way I'm thinking, but leaving it switchable between all three would work too.

That's it for this update, but there will be more to come.

[Zarbon44]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:33 AM, TheShadow1138 said:

Another quick texturing update:  I have begun texturing the engineering section (neck and secondary hull).

Strongback and nav deflector areas have been paneled and given color to match the studio model as closely as possible.   You can see the panel outlines, which has been mostly completed across the secondary hull, still need to panel the neck, torpedo launcher, and fantail.  I might have gone a bit overboard, but the overall look in the end should be pretty good.  I chose not to exactly follow the paneling over the majority of the secondary hull because it is so spotty.  So, I decided to do paneling that interlocks instead of sporadically overlaps with lots of gaps.  Now, my variation choices may still create a similar effect because panels of the same brightness will likely end up next to one another, but it would be a bit more "realistic" in my opinion.

Once the panel outlines are completed, texturing the rest of the engineering section will likely go much quicker.  I'm looking forward to putting the red pinstripes and the Starfleet delta on it.  This might be a good time to share my plans for all of the text on the ship.  As those who have played with the mod know, each ship comes with various registry texture switches to change the name and registration number of the ships, and to change from Starfleet delta insignia to Kerbban Empire sword and globe.  This was really all of the text that was visible on the NX-class and TOS era Constitution-class ships, but the refit Constitution onward bears a lot more text across the ship.  That text consists of "Starship U.S.S. (Name)  * United Federation of Planets", just the name of the ship without the prefix, just the registry number, or just the text "United Federation of Planets".  I plan to do all text on the ship using small planes so that the text will be clear and readable.  The registry number and ship name will be done just as before, and will appear where they should all utilizing the same texture.  The other text:  "Starship" and "United Federation of Planets" will be on a separate texture to allow switching the nation of origin between "United Federation of Planets", "Kerbal Federation of Planets", or the "Kerbban Empire".  The "United Federation of Planets" and "Kerbal Federation of Planets" will be switchable separately so you can choose which you would prefer to use, while switching to the Kerbban Empire textures would change the test to "Kerbban Empire".  This might cause problems, so it might not work out the way I'm thinking, but leaving it switchable between all three would work too.

That's it for this update, but there will be more to come.

God i just cant wait to play around with this, keep up the amazing work

[ProsecutorWalton]

11 hours ago, Zarbon44 said:

God i just cant wait to play around with this, keep up the amazing work

You and me both. The Connie Refit has to be one of the best looking ships in the franchise.  The bright clean hull, the look of the nacelles, everything.  So good.