This be beautiful.

Vasudan Admiral wrote:Oooh now that is a nicely made fighter.

There are a few things that I'd have done differently, but I really like how this one just seems to fit together beautifully. It does indeed look built and not modelled, which one of the most important goals of ship building.

Well done peterv.

1. To ghhyrd: Thank you very much ghhyrd.

2. To VA: Thank you very much VA. I really would like to know what you'd have done defferently.

3. To ED team: Please let me know when VA posts such comments for a model of mine. When hes comments are not like this, don't let me know, i don't want to know.

The Shax is everything I've ever done in a Shivan ship, but done right.

This has a whole lot of potential.

We love Vasudan cruisers:

peterv wrote:2. To VA: Thank you very much VA. I really would like to know what you'd have done defferently.

Oh sorry - totally missed your post there!

For the model you've made excellent use of surfaces to build the ship rather than polys. My golden rule there is that polygons make up surfaces (be they curved or flat) and surfaces build the ship. So looking back at it, I really only have two suggestions, and then only for the texture.

First, a gorgeous technique I pinched from DaBrain is to embed a layer of hull plating into your basecolour metal sections. Nothing very strong, but enough to be visible. In the shinemap you then raise the contrast of that plating to give a very nice impression of metal.

Second; strategic grime.
As silly as it may seem to put dirt/grime/scratches/even rust on spaceships, it's the sort of thing our eye picks up on when getting an impression of how real an object is. It's why original star wars ships tend to feel a lot more real than most star trek ones,.... and why most of the new star wars ships look so fake and CGI. (Queenship blargh!)

Basically think about where that sort of thing may happen, like the leading edges of stuff, behind vents/exhaust ports, around exposed mechanical sections, around the edges of hull plats - that kind of thing.

3. To ED team: Please let me know when VA posts such comments for a model of mine. When hes comments are not like this, don't let me know, i don't want to know.

lol, don't worry - the worst I think I'd ever do is offer a lot of suggestions - because I know how much work goes into building ships like this and how frustrating bad or dismissive comments can be.

Vasudan Admiral wrote:

peterv wrote:2. To VA: Thank you very much VA. I really would like to know what you'd have done defferently.

Oh sorry - totally missed your post there!

For the model you've made excellent use of surfaces to build the ship rather than polys. My golden rule there is that polygons make up surfaces (be they curved or flat) and surfaces build the ship. So looking back at it, I really only have two suggestions, and then only for the texture.

First, a gorgeous technique I pinched from DaBrain is to embed a layer of hull plating into your basecolour metal sections. Nothing very strong, but enough to be visible. In the shinemap you then raise the contrast of that plating to give a very nice impression of metal.

Second; strategic grime.
As silly as it may seem to put dirt/grime/scratches/even rust on spaceships, it's the sort of thing our eye picks up on when getting an impression of how real an object is. It's why original star wars ships tend to feel a lot more real than most star trek ones,.... and why most of the new star wars ships look so fake and CGI. (Queenship blargh!)

Basically think about where that sort of thing may happen, like the leading edges of stuff, behind vents/exhaust ports, around exposed mechanical sections, around the edges of hull plats - that kind of thing.

Thank you very much VA.
Perhaps you and the others master modelels of FS should create a tutorial. It would speed up thinks for us the newbies.

Awesome screens there - that's a beautiful planet in the backgorund too. And the poor cain!

And yeah I'd love to write a tutorial and have started one, but I just don't have the time to spare.

If you still haven't noticed our website recently got updated with new media and screenshots. Check it!

Hey! There was lots of updates recently!
We've started making updates on our Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/earthdefense
Be sure to check it out every day!

In addition FreeSpaceKing made awesome GTB Hera maps proving that he's worth his nickname
To see more images of Hera, check this thread!

And there's plenty new screenshots from gameplay:
Want to see more???

And you can always star discussion on our board and IRC Channel: irc.esper.net #earth-defense