Kerbin Mini Shuttle

[Fonso]

Or even enneagonal... don't take it bad, just had to do it loving your work and ideas mate!

[irishmanerrant]

What Lyze of J meant in his comment about the doors, is that the Space Shuttle had banks of radiators on the doors of the cargo bay, and he was wondering if a similar system of either Radiators or Solar Panels would be in place on the KSO?

Personally, I don't think it's necessary, since heat isn't a concern at the moment, and when it eventually be comes one, it's almost certain to be a .cfg fix

[Zeblote]

Your textures look awesome, may you share what tools you used for creating them?

[helldiver]

What Lyze of J meant in his comment about the doors, is that the Space Shuttle had banks of radiators on the doors of the cargo bay, and he was wondering if a similar system of either Radiators or Solar Panels would be in place on the KSO?

Personally, I don't think it's necessary, since heat isn't a concern at the moment, and when it eventually be comes one, it's almost certain to be a .cfg fix

Oh! yeah yeah, radiators on the cargo bay.

Way back when, the KSO had them, I removed them because they just weren't aesthetically pleasing no mater what shade I made them. So I stayed with the stringer detail keeping with the pseudo industrial KSP look.

Your textures look awesome, may you share what tools you used for creating them?

I'm not sure what you mean by tools?

I use 3D Studio Max, Mudbox and Photoshop.

In max:

-Render to texture to bake high resolution geometry into the low resolution UV. There are a myriad tools to do this with including some like xnormal where it can take your high res and low res and generate a normal for you without having to deal with a projection cage. I prefer the old fashion way using a projection cage.

UVW Unwrap and relax tools (either by Edge or Face depending).

-Texporter to know where my islands are.

In Mudbox:

-A good Wacom tablet.

Photoshop

-I then use my ambient occlusion bakes, normal map trickery (such as edge projection), the grey channel on my normal map, to do all sorts of tricks.

-My trusty Wacom tablet.

[irishmanerrant]

I'm utterly jealous of everyone around here that's talented in the art department; I've never been able to draw anything better than a shell in art class in high school.

Helldiver, you mentioned you wanted to design a lander module to fit in the cargo bay, yeah? I was wondering what kind of form factor that might be; would it be based around the LEM, or something a bit more scifi, able to reenter an atmosphere? If I can offer a suggestion, I'd love something open to the air, like a gig, that has tanks, engine, legs, and cage, but no external shielding. I've always been a fan of that kind of, for lack of a better word, space convertible, and it would make for a sick little transfer system for whenever I take this baby to the Mun.

[Lyze Of J]

Helldiver, if you wish, I could help test some of the things you are working on, I'm no good at coding or blender, to impatient, but I can put the craft through its paces for you, and provide gameplay input before you full release the mod, so far it looks beutiful and fun to use. I can give you my email if you want.

[ZRM]

Helldiver, if you wish, I could help test some of the things you are working on, I'm no good at coding or blender, to impatient, but I can put the craft through its paces for you, and provide gameplay input before you full release the mod, so far it looks beutiful and fun to use. I can give you my email if you want.

I'm currently in the process of setting everything up correctly. Once the possibility of playtesting arises it will probably be made known here. No need to give out email addresses - PMs should work fine.

[irishmanerrant]

The development is currently out of his hands IIRC, ZRM is working on taking the models and colliders into Unity, so it'll be a while. I'd love to be a tester too, and we aren't the only ones. Gonna just have to be patient.

[Lyze Of J]

Alright then, at any rate, the shuttle looks amazing, and I can't wait to see it all fleshed out and released. Finally, what about the launch vehicle, like boosters and ET.

[ZRM]

Alright then, at any rate, the shuttle looks amazing, and I can't wait to see it all fleshed out and released. Finally, what about the launch vehicle, like boosters and ET.

For the time being suitable parts from another mod like KW Rocketry will be used, but a launch vehicle is on helldiver's list.

[helldiver]

Your textures look awesome, may you share what tools you used for creating them?

Going to clarify it up a bit more since the other day I got PMed again and I didn't explain thoroughly.

Honestly, I don't use any "tools" perse. Aside from the standard editing tools you find in photoshop, Google (to search for textures) and generous as well as proper use of high resolution texture generation. There just isn't a magic tool or set of tools that can do it all for you, it really is a process or workflow you'd have to learn. There are some awesome tutorials out there by Ben Mathis, as well as the Polycount forums which I've been a member for years. Lots of industry professionals there give many tips and you'll find all sorts of tutorials covering map generation, workflow, understanding topologies (to make subdivision easier) and so on. It would be impossible for me to give folks a straight answer without an hour long tutorial.

I usually start with a master model. The master model rarely gets into the game. This model is sub divided in a way that has as few poles as possible. This makes it easier to sub divide the model upwards (for high res version) and downward for the low polygon game asset. Mudbox and other sculpting tools (such as Zbrush) hate models with too many poles, so understanding edge loops and topology is kind of important. The reason I say that is because it's all linked. As a very skilled artist once said; the days of making a 3D model and then slapping a texture on to it later on is pretty much over. The 3D model -and- the texture is kind of done together in a way.

It's not uncommon for me to make two separate models completely. For the KSO, I believe I made a total of about two copies of it from scratch... I know for sure I made like three different wings and two cargo bays. This was because the low res wouldn't subdivide properly into the high res, requiring that I construct essentially a new model from scratch. Unfortunately the second model wouldn't cast properly without a lot of projection errors so I had to rebuild them again. This normally doesn't happen on characters since they are usually a single piece. But for the KSO since it was a bunch of parts, you have to do so much more work. Although had I known what I know now about attachment nodes, the KSO would have been done in about half the time.

-All of the high resolution components of the KSO. Every screenshot I've shown you guys, those objects have a high resolution component. Even the flat windows have a high resolution counterpart.

-From 1 million polygons, down to just 12,000

-The high resolution mesh of the cockpit.

Once you have your high res and low res UVed, you then use one of several tools (it depends on your 3D modeling program) to spit out a texture island map. This helps you in photoshop to figure out where everything is and where the edges of everything is at. When UVing you want to relax all surfaces and islands as well as kill as many seams as possible. You then want to get all islands in proper locations to save and use as much of the UV space as possible the most efficient. Understanding how UVs work is very important and it can take some practice. I sometimes will make certain islands larger than others if I want more detail in those areas.

In the image above you'll notice that the Ambient Occlusion map was used as the primary shadower throughout the diffuse. I play around with the brightness and contrast values as well as hues until I'm happy with it. I typically set it to a greyish brown hue since video cards do not like true 0,0,0 black. Once that is set I start texturing. Either painting them by hand or using textures from my library or online. I bake more textures such as the normal map so that I can use them to push light values, get detail, or blend an area in with its geometry (such as folds on clothes). A normal map can also be used to generate your edges, although do to how complicated the KSO was, I had to do most of that by hand. Since the outside of the orbiter was going to be kept plain and not too weathered, I did most of the edge work in the interior.

-The cockpit interior with its edge map turned to 100%

-Edge maps are screened into your diffuse -and- your specular to push edge highlights out. Edge maps along with Ambien Occlusion are crucially important.

Because the KSO wasn't going for a realistic look I didn't do a color map. However a color map, or a color diffuser layer on your diffuse is really important in breaking up your colors (in real life light scatters and nothing is perfectly white, or grey, or any one color). However a color diffuser (or scatterer) typically goes better with a dirt and grit layer. Again, the clean look of KSP just wouldn't work well with such layers.

In conclusion there is no simple step or tool that I use. Instead I use a process that I've been trying my best to perfect over the years.

-Master model with proper edge loops and topology

-High Resolution model with as many details as you want.

-Low Resolution model

-Unwrapping UVW and relaxing your islands along Face or Edges.

-Moving mirrored UVs off by a tile offset

-Generating a UVW Island map to be used in photoshop

-Generating a Normal Map, Ambient Occlusion, and any other map necessary.

Using the maps you generated to help you put together your diffuse map and specular.

[Lyze Of J]

Oh my, what beautiful internals, it looks very similar to some of B9's stuff, and could you release an image with a single rudder design, I read that you can use a v tail or a center tail.

[mushroomman]

As much as this looks amazing and I'll use it when it comes out, I've never been fond mods that can only be used to build one specific thing. Have you considered making an assorted parts pack after this?

[Synthesis]

As already mentioned, this has got a sort of B9-thing going on (which is great), as well as being super cute. I would definitely jump at the chance to try this out whenever you release.

[SkyHook]

I have to say that I dislike the edges of the IVA. They cause a look of extreme wear on the cockpit , and distract me from the other features of the IVA. That's just me, though. Can't wait for release, either way!

[Lyze Of J]

Have you ever thought of a shuttle with just oms engines on the rear, and the main engines on the launcher, like Buran? Just a suggestion though, I've always preferred the space shuttle style SSME's. Also, that little avionics compartment in the nose could have an avionics package, ASAS, or even Mechjeb Functionality, just change the configs.

[THX-1138]

Great workmanship and dedication to detail. Keep up the superb work. Looking forward to the release of this beauty.

[Climberfx]

This is an example of how good the moders are getting. All this project are Amazing!

Plus 1. Waiting to put my hands on the final working model.

[Hellbrand]

All I can say is, My word you have Created an Absoloute Work of Art, Much along the Same quality of Bac9's Work,This is one of the peices of Art I am looking foreward to, So You have done a WONDERFUL job so far. Keep it up I expect nothing but the best from you.

[CaptRobau]

Is the shuttle built so that you could have two cargo bay pieces in a row, at least aesthetically?

Edited August 21, 2013 by CaptRobau

[SargeRho]

Doesn't look like it, considering that the cargo bay also holds the wings.

[dizzysaurus]

Do we know what the delta-V for just the shuttle will be? i.e. will it be able to fuel up in orbit, move shuttles around etc and act as a lifeboat/lander for Kerbals?

[ZRM]

Doesn't look like it, considering that the cargo bay also holds the wings.

Not only that, but the cross section does not quite match between the two ends.

Do we know what the delta-V for just the shuttle will be? i.e. will it be able to fuel up in orbit, move shuttles around etc and act as a lifeboat/lander for Kerbals?

All stats are up in the air until we get to the proper playtesting stage. Delta-V is one of the things that can be changed easily.

[Lyze Of J]

My guess is the OMS engines will have a low thrust-to-weight ratio but have high ISP, and may also work off of monopropellant.

[DisarmingBaton5]

Helldiver, are the engines going to be compatible with stock? They look like they would be good LV-T30 replacements.

On a related note, what is the diameter of the engines? It looks a bit smaller than standard 1.25m. (I am talking about the SSMEs, not the OMS)