[1.9 - 1.12+] TrekDrive - A Star Trek-like Warp Drive by ShadowWorks v1.0.4 The Refit Cometh [26/12/2024]

[Voculus]

On 7/26/2023 at 2:02 PM, 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.

Be still, my beating heart...

[TheShadow1138]

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.

[ProsecutorWalton]

Question: Since the original design for the refit was made with Saucer separation in mind (the two triangles falling away as part of it) are there any plans to implement that here? 

[TheShadow1138]

3 hours ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

Question: Since the original design for the refit was made with Saucer separation in mind (the two triangles falling away as part of it) are there any plans to implement that here? 

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.

[TheShadow1138]

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.

Edited August 12, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[Puggonaut]

Well hello  Constitution-class , boy am I gonna have some fun with you .  Great to see you working on this again , if ya need a tester just let me know .

[Shantaboy]

Think it would be possible to ship the torpedo launchers as separate parts? It would help with making BDArmory configs for the old Sci-Fi photon torpedo and the old phasers.

[TheShadow1138]

On 8/21/2023 at 7:07 AM, Puggonaut said:

Well hello  Constitution-class , boy am I gonna have some fun with you .  Great to see you working on this again , if ya need a tester just let me know .

When she's ready for testing, I'll let you know.

11 hours ago, Shantaboy said:

Think it would be possible to ship the torpedo launchers as separate parts? It would help with making BDArmory configs for the old Sci-Fi photon torpedo and the old phasers.

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.

[Zarbon44]

Excuse me, can you tell us where the nuclear wessels are?

[TheShadow1138]

Constitution-class Refit Texture Complete!

Port Elevation

Forward Elevation

Aft Elevation

Dorsal Plan-view

Ventral Plan-view

Aft Three-Quarters view

Engineering Hull Port-side text/registry information (alignment is not perfect because I have to allow for different length ship names), and yes, those are the registry and ship name on either side of the docking ports (they will change with a change in registry).

Same text on the saucer edge.

Registry outside the officer's lounge (Azteced specular visible)

Bridge aft docking port with registry information

Main registry

There's a bit of tweaking I want to do on the inboard nacelle glow texture.  I want to also do an overall gray/blue gray texture variant to kind of match a lot of the scenes in the films, as well as the imperial texture variant.  There are a couple of things I want to put to y'all:

1.)  Do you want/prefer that the phaser emitters be present on the ship, they'd be non-functional obviously, but I'm not opposed to the visual accuracy they would provide.

2.)  Registries:  I plan on including most of the registries I provided for the original Constitution-class with at least a couple of exceptions, USS Defiant (NCC-1764), as it was displaced to the Mirror Universe, and USS Constellation (NCC-1017), as it was destroyed by Commodore Decker.  I could include these with different registry numbers if wanted.  But mainly, I wanted to let y'all have some input on what registries are included with the refit.  So, post with any registry suggestions you have (canon/non-canon/fanon/etc) and I'll put together the full list of registry switches for the refit.

In the meantime, still a bit of texture work for the variants to complete and some other odds and ends before testing can begin.

[ProsecutorWalton]

We need the Enterprise-A in there. Also I vote yes for phaser banks being added, at the very least put the yellow mount areas on, since there's a BDArmoury addon that adds the ball turrets.

Also can I recommend maybe making the warp grills more of a purpleish blue?  That or a more cyan colour. I don't think the current blue really works that well in comparison. 

[TheShadow1138]

7 hours ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

We need the Enterprise-A in there. Also I vote yes for phaser banks being added, at the very least put the yellow mount areas on, since there's a BDArmoury addon that adds the ball turrets.

Also can I recommend maybe making the warp grills more of a purpleish blue?  That or a more cyan colour. I don't think the current blue really works that well in comparison. 

The Enterprise-A is definitely one of the registries.

Yeah, I wasn't sold on the current color.  I had a tried a more purplish blue, but I think I just went too purple.  I'll work it out and post updated pics before I settle 100%.

[ProsecutorWalton]

This Maranda from STO has the Beta variant nacelles, maybe this would be something to aim towards?

[TheShadow1138]

30 minutes ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

This Maranda from STO has the Beta variant nacelles, maybe this would be something to aim towards?

Possibly, but only on the inboard part of the nacelles.  The non-uniformity is one of the things I want to add to the glow since right now it is just one solid color.

[ProsecutorWalton]

Hey, just wanted to check in and ask how porting the Connie Refit into the game is going, can't wait to get a hold of it for myself!

[TheShadow1138]

12 hours ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

Hey, just wanted to check in and ask how porting the Connie Refit into the game is going, can't wait to get a hold of it for myself!

There's a couple of things I want to work on on the ship, and work has taken some of my attention away from working on it, but it will be coming, I promise.

[TheShadow1138]

Okay, it's been a little while since I've posted an update.  The semester started and my class took some of my attention and motivation, but I've between terms right now and have finally made some updates.

As I was doing the textures I realized that the area around the shuttlebay was off.  I realized first that the overhang wasn't correct, and as I went to correct that I realized that I had not profiled the cutout correctly.  This has now been corrected to make it look much closer to the studio model that thankfully didn't require any retexturing.  Here is the new geometry of the shuttlebay exterior:

Now, I've made a couple of tweaks to the emissive texture for the warp nacelles and would like some opinions on which is preferred, the more purplish one, or the more cyan one.

[TheShadow1138]

Whipped up a couple of texture variants for this beautiful ship.

The Gray Lady:

 

Long Live the Empire!

I used gold instead of red for the main registry text outline.  I saw one image using this instead of the red and I think it works pretty well.

I guess the biggest things left are to make all the registries (prime and mirror), then actually get the parts into the game.

Edited October 17, 2023 by TheShadow1138

[Puggonaut]

Coming along nicely .

[ProsecutorWalton]

Just poking my head in here to see how progress is going. Are either initial game implementation or the registries complete yet? 

[TheShadow1138]

11 hours ago, ProsecutorWalton said:

Just poking my head in here to see how progress is going. Are either initial game implementation or the registries complete yet? 

No on both.  Life got a bit busier the last few months.  I hope to have it in-game in testing in January, if all goes to plan.

[TheShadow1138]

Update:  I've got the registries done for both Prime and Mirror Universes.  The registries I've done are:  (Unless otherwise stated all registries have a Mirror Universe equivalent with the same registry number and ISS prefix.)

USS Ahwahnee  (NCC-2048)
USS Bonhomme Richard  (NCC-1731)
USS Cassie  (NCC-1711)
USS Cayuga  (NCC-1721)  -  commissioned to replace USS Cayuga  (NCC-1557) after its loss in combat with the Gorn
        ISS Cayuga  (NCC-1557)
USS Constellation  (NCC-1789)  -  commissioned to replace USS Constellation  (NCC-1017) after its loss against the Doomsday Machine
         ISS Constellation  (NCC-1017)
USS Constitution  (NCC-1021)
USS Defiant  (NCC-1804)  -  commissioned to replace USS Defiant  (NCC-1764) that was lost to the Mirror Universe
         ISS Defiant  (NCC-1764-A)  -  commissioned by the Empire to honor USS (later ISS) Defiant  (NCC-1764), the flagship of Terran Emperor Hoshi Sato
USS Eagle  (NCC-956)
USS Emden  (NCC-1856)
USS Endeavour  (NCC-1895)
USS Enterprise  (NCC-1701)
USS Enterprise  (NCC-1701-A)
USS Essex  (NCC-1697)
USS Excalibur  (NCC-1664)
USS Exeter  (NCC-1672)
USS Hood  (NCC-1703)
USS Hornet  (NCC-1708)
USS Intrepid  (NCC-1631)
USS Kearsarge  (NCC-1733)
USS Kongo  (NCC-1710)
USS Korolev  (NCC-2014)
USS Lexington  (NCC-1709)
USS Merrimac  (NCC-1715)
USS Olympia  (NCC-1771)
USS Porthos  (NCC-1712)
USS Potemkin  (NCC-1657)
USS Ticonderoga  (NCC-1714)
USS Yamato  (NCC-1716)
USS Yorktown  (NCC-1717)

If there are any others y'all like included (I know this is already a lot), just let me know.  I am preparing the model for export so that I can get it in the game.

[TheShadow1138]

Update:  Constitution-class Refit is now in the game!!!

We are currently in testing, so it hasn't been released yet, but we're getting a lot closer.  Once testing is complete and everything checks out, you will get to fly this beautiful ship.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and I hope you all enjoy it once it's released.  In the meantime, here's some screenshots of the ship in KSP:

[Tecorian]

Hi TheShadow1138

First of all, thanks a lot for this great mod!

The Ships are incredible, looking great in any situation.

MyFavorite: NX-05 Atlantis

To be honest, i use the your impuls-engines for the shuttles as main-engines for ship-constructions with OPT or MK4 and others.

Makes the Kerbal-World much easier with these VTOL capabilities...

But these special for StarTrek Vesels designed engines are looking sometimes a little bit strange.

So, therefore my question or suggestion, if you maybe can develop a small impulse-engine mod maybe with formfactor MK2 for general use.

For myself i have no clue how to do something like this, i´m only user of mods...

THX a lot for reading this.

 

 

Edited February 12 by Tecorian

[TheShadow1138]

14 hours ago, Tecorian said:

Hi TheShadow1138

First of all, thanks a lot for this great mod!

The Ships are incredible, looking great in any situation.

MyFavorite: NX-05 Atlantis

To be honest, i use the your impuls-engines for the shuttles as main-engines for ship-constructions with OPT or MK4 and others.

Makes the Kerbal-World much easier with these VTOL capabilities...

But these special for StarTrek Vesels designed engines are looking sometimes a little bit strange.

So, therefore my question or suggestion, if you maybe can develop a small impulse-engine mod maybe with formfactor MK2 for general use.

For myself i have no clue how to do something like this, i´m only user of mods...

THX a lot for reading this.

 

 

Hi @Tecorian.  I'm so glad you enjoy the mod, and are having fun with it.  I can see how using my impulse engines to build other craft would create odd/strange/ugly looking craft.  I hadn't considered making parts to go with stock parts, as I had been focused on the Star Trek-specific ships/craft.  Once the Constitution-Refit class ship gets released I'm going to be making a shuttlecraft to go with that ship, and an engineering section for the Miranda-class.  I could make a fairly simple impulse engine part that can be used with the Mk2 spaceplane parts.  I can't give any timelines on that, but I will try to keep it in mind.