TheShadow1138
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Everything posted by TheShadow1138
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When she's ready for testing, I'll let you know. I suppose it'd be possible. Do you just need empty transforms for the launchers and phasers? If so, I could add the empty transforms. You would just need to tell me how they need to be oriented, if that is the case. -
Thank you very kindly, and I'm very glad you're enjoying the mod. I hadn't thought about setting up a donation page before, at least not seriously. Your comment got me to look into it and it wasn't that difficult to set up. If you really would like to donate you can use this link: TrekDrive Donation Page (PayPal)
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Progress Report: The Engineering Section of the Constitution-Refit is now texture complete!!! Now I can begin work on the nacelles and nacelle pylons. Enjoy the pics! Port-side plan-view Port looking Aft. Port looking Aft showing the varied panel specular highlights. Specular highlight variation on the neck and top of the engineering hull. Starboard-side showing off the emissive with it's "faux" lighting of the windows, spotlights (neck and delta insignia), docking port illumination, and backlight of the area where the text will be. Also visible is the fantail deflector grid grooves. Aft of the engineering section showing the shuttle bay exterior detail, and backlight for the name of the vessel. Shuttlebay interior. Three quarters overview of the ship so far. Ignore the color on the nacelle, that's the original Constitution-class nacelle texture used to help me get the UVs sorted. It is turning out even better than I expected, and just like y'all I can't wait to see this fully textured and in the game. Edit: Quick Update I realized I forgot the ring of lights near the deflector (backup deflector emitters?). I also got same base colors down for the nacelles and needed to add geometry for the ridges on the bussards on the outboard and inboard of the nacelles. The grills/field emitters and forward (bussards?) can be done with normal maps, unless they look bad, then I may add more geometry there, but I don't think it'll be necessary. Now for the tedious part...paneling.
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No plans for saucer separation. I didn't model it with that in mind so it wouldn't look right and would probably be a bit more difficult to re-dock the two parts. I didn't plan for it initially because I wasn't sure that the normal connection nodes would be rigid enough to keep the ships from being all kinds of wobbly. I was pleasantly surprised when the ships came out rock solid. So, the thing becomes docking nodes and their rigidity. Docked shuttlecraft/pods were a gamble. I fully expected to drop out of warp and have the shuttlecraft/pods fly out of, or destroy the ships. That thankfully didn't happen, but they have a much smaller mass compared to the ships. I might, and I stress might, give it a go on a future ship, but not this one, sorry.
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Texturing Update: I finally finished the panel lines and coloring in the panels for the entire engineering section. Once that was done progress became a lot more swift. I now have mostly finished the base color texture for the engineering section. All that's left color-wise is the formation lights, and finalizing the markings for the shuttlebay interior. I'm less concerned about the shuttle bay interior looking accurate since you will see the outside of the ship far more often, so don't expect a great deal of accuracy in the bay. Here are some pics of the progress. It is coming out just as beautiful as I would have wanted it to.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Quick texturing update: I have completed the dorsal paneling/Aztecing color layer, no specular yet, but there's progress. Progress Picture:
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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.
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I'm so happy that you have found this and that your inner nerdy child has been brought forth! I hope you find many many hours of fun, and continue to boldly go where no Kerbal has gone before. I am very grateful for your compliment, thank you very much.
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Check your settings to see what "Reflection Refresh Mode" is set to, it needs to be at least set to "Low". I had this same issue (reflective in the VAB, black in flight), and this is what fixed it for me.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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There are plans for the Constitution-class Refit. There are some WIP images of the model in the release thread here:
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That's awesome! I like it.
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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.
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Awesome mission and screenshots! Never really thought I'd see my TrekDrive parts in the BDB thread.
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From this image from 1963, Launch Complex 39 was proposed to have five pads LC39A - 39E. In the image the built 39A was 39C in this image:
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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.
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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.
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i'm glad you were able to figure out what was causing the NRE spamming. Awesome screenshots, very cinematic! I currently have the Constitution-class Refit from the films in production. It's fully modeled and I have the saucer section (bridge, saucer, impulse engines) UV unwrapped. I've kinda stalled out with other obligations and slight waning of motivation. I keep reminding myself that it's there. It will get done...eventually. Part of it is, admittedly, self-induced anxiety because I want the textures to do the model justice, and right now the model looks absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. But, like I said, it will get done. As for other ships, I do plan on the Miranda-class, but haven't made any commitments beyond that. I have this "lofty" idea of making some generic components (saucers, bridges, engineering hulls, pylons, nacelles) that would go together and could be mixed and matched to create multiple unique ships. I would base these parts on existing designs, not necessarily recreate existing designs. I haven't settled on anything yet, but that's something I'm thinking of.
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Firstly, thank you. I'm not sure why you're getting NRE spamming. There were some issues with some earlier versions of the TrekDrive plugin that would cause NRE spamming, either all the time, or just in the editor, or just in flight. I doubled checked the current version of the plugin and don't see any NREs being thrown. You seem to be using the TUFX configs, which I don't personally use, so I'm wondering if that might be the source of the NREs. I say this because if you're getting them with the Constitution-class bridge, my plugin doesn't add any special modules to that part, so those definitely aren't TrekDrive related. I did test a full ship, both NX-class and Constitution-class and didn't get any NREs under impulse power, or warp power. I did find, however, that the plugin was spamming to the log about how many nacelles are charged while traveling at warp speed, so I have posted a small update that removes that log spam. Have you removed any part of the mod, or any of the dependencies? Did you install via CKAN? I assume that installation through CKAN would not cause issues, but it might be possible that it didn't pick up the correct version of the plugin. If you did install from CKAN, you might want to download the mod from Spacedock and copy over the plugin from the Spacedock download. That's the only case I can think of, if the NREs are actually being thrown by the TrekDrive plugin. My guess is that it's not coming from the TrekDrive plugin, but maybe the TUFX or some other plugin that is being added to the parts through a ModuleManager patch, but it's not finding the necessary module or plugin. If none of these suggestions helps, could you post your Log so that maybe I can figure out what's going on. Hotfix Update: TrekDrive v1.0.3b Hotfix Update v1.0.3b - Log Spam Hotfix * Updated TrekDrive.dll to remove spamming the debug log with the number of warp coils that are charged.
