the bloody naked terror

a recurrence

the most wanted space ship in the whole galaxy

sidenote

there was times when i wasn't certain about the scale of FE2's ships or models in general but i should have noticed this long ago because it's very obvious that the scale is inconsistent in FE2.

after this rework of honestly models i already once converted i noticed after the third model what's behind this. 0.064, 0.128, 0.256, 0.512 tells a lot at least what i always suspected that it's a scaling based upon a expression, the models itself have to be due to that it's in hexadecimal values a integer number mostly they are extremely large and get scaled down a lot for the game the reason is obvious if you can work only with integers. but of course one could nonetheless reach any size/scale but not if you use either a table with given scaleing multipliers (divisors) or even more byte saving based on a expression but this limits the possible scaleing much and i can only reach something "near to what i guess the size could be". i always thought it's inconsistent if i compared the sizes of some ships but this makes it very obvious it's simply mot possible to have a uniform unitsize in this manner only close to with sometimes very large gaps if you think of this potentation of the factor. thus for this i have to say i have to choose the values i use wisely. keeping in mind that the scaleing is limited and that i have to use integers is already a challange but not enough the numbers he used stand in a relation so they make the construction easier that the scale is finally a little inconsistent is neglectible.

on the other hand certain things are a complete riddle to me, i.e. why stand (centered as model) some buildings very comprehensible one unit below zero and others are miles under zero centered just be be placed finally lifted by this value (???), it seems to make no sense but i learned over the years that everything i thought of that it makes no sense has for sure a mathematical reason.

the above ships are,i don't know maybe i was just bored, are again very very close to FE2/FFE. again i simply copied the geometry but used i.e. consequently only the original scaleing inconsistent or not also a sort of reference i used to keep phoenix as uniform as possible in scale especially for the buildings (the floor height varies between 2.5m and 3m, sometimes they seem to look different but i really tried to keep this limitation) and they can be used for comparison. also i tried as far as possible or as far as iliked to keep the original textures. of course a bit reworked and fitted for the use in pioneer. for the cobby i used a different second skin asexample because the one which is also used i.e. for the ip shuttle doesn't looks smart if you can't relax the triangles on the texture like it was done oldschool. though the texturing are projtection and can't be like the original on the other hand the sliding of the texture along the edges would look very funny today and you know it from gl ffe it can even be disturbing in high-res what is neglectible in lo-res. the reason for this behave read on nvidias history page, i remember it's a very good explanation and besides in fact the problem would still exist this was one of the big steps forward to correct this behave of textured geometry it is of course a question of power. a reference also for further ffe models even if the recent 4 are re-works of a re-work of a-rework ('s re-work 😉 ) with exception of the lifter which gives at least a little more sense to the factory names which change as well as the cargo each lifter carries.

i guess the lifter captures well what i fascinates me about this simple models it's the varitions these simple looking ships come along, that even a not to use ship like the lifter which is to see as decoration (will it be exchanged with the parked shuttle in some ports?) but uses the whole palette of cargo models which are otherwise hard to notice in shape even when you do mining. his simple lines was always dynamic and no problem to exchange textures, i get to a limit whith such and for the cobby i did the exclusive thing to use 8 different (basically only two and somehow those two would be enough but it boosts the color variations if you use only the sixteen FE2 materials), that means 8 hull models and 2 times 2 times 8 models for the landing gear flaps which are textured "in position" and have to use the same texture and material as the main model (and vanish in a magical way). some consequences i took like to use no pilots or any other dynamic sub-model in the static part make them quite good in performance, thus it plays no big role if i use this simple hull dynamic it's just that it potentiates the amount of sub-models for a ship if i use so many texture variations. thus i guess the cobby will be the only ship which comes with so many different textures, perhaps i even restrict it to the two basically different ones even if especially the "rusted metal" looks very psychedlic in the way i used it in it's different colors. originally the textured parts have no material color and this results in the typical green or yellow black spotted cobby there are only 4 variations in color for each texture and very saturated, knowing that i will use and blend them with the sixteen quite decent materials i de-saturated them a lot so the keep only a touch of their original color this spreads the random material colors in a nice way. i sized them somewhat up from 64x64 to 128x128 pixels (not a lot in fact) and layed a noise over them as well as a slight gaussian filter. not that it's a big throw or anything but it works well with the basic models and a texuring of either each quad like i used for the shuttle (it's easy to quasi "relax" a quad with a projection) or if i split the geometry like i did for the cobby and use the texture mirrored.

this kind of satured it would be

knowing that i will use it blended i left or even intensyfied the orange sections while i de-saturated the green, red or blue base color. the orange sections make due to the streched use on the shuttle a good sort of "rusted steel" look while the same texture (with the difference for the "ghost paneling") looks close to a snakes skin with its pattern. it would be in fact like i said the same with the paneling for the cobby but it didn't looks well if you can't relax the quad on the texture fully which would otherwise look strange even without the sliding effect "relaxing" bends and stretches the texture at the triangles edges no matter what size or relation it has. the paneling will cross the edges of the geometry if i project it and that looks shitty.

how the cobby looks using a different color as exactly the most tinted one blood red which is hardly to find as hull color. i can only remember the eagle mk3 in bloodred else it's used as accent color. all the rest of the 16 "FE2 colors" are very decent, the dark blue is also quite dark but ok likewise the bloodred for a sort of "night hunter" even if that makes totally no sense at all for space ships but who cares nightblue and bloodred look cool. else the materials have more a scent of green, red or blue and leave usually a lot of the textures color.

some changes to the ffe textures
after the sidie gave me some troubles to texture equal like the original, i can't relax a triangle, i decided to mirror the textures and simply project them from top it turns out quite well but not exactly like the original the textures was made for the primitive use. since it turned out that there are many ships using multiple textures i decided to draw that in general quiet spartanic hull as dynamic geometry and randomly select a texture for it it has no big effect on the framerate some but it's neglectable as long as you don't draw hundreds of ships at once, however it allows me to use the texture variations without to create a zillion sub-models even if that can be automated. i noticed that FE2 and FFE don't use the same textures for all the ships (obviousely FFE has a somewhat larger texture set as DOS FE2), the sidewinder was the first i stumbled over not using the same textures thus i decided since i randomize them anyway to vary with the textures a little more.
the textures look sometimes quite interesting when they get mirrored.

the FFE sidewinder,

the spartanic lmr version,


the "fe2" skin (top, bottom and rear would use the same i used a varied rear texture from the "ffe" set, it's originally a qeird texture one asks himself what purpose it has when you look at it but it makes sense used in the way it's used on the sidie).

the rearview,

it seems i wasn't satisfied with the textures

That Eagle looks excellent, and Merry Christmas!

I am so glad Gernot is back making these wonderful ships! 🙂

thx and erm yes (awaits moderation)

the skins respectively the textures have grown a lot they are now more and more specialised skins for each model, intetionally it should be simple... intentionally.

the ships are still very simple models, triangle - triangle - quad but they have their special charm or maybe i'm just nostalgic. not exactly i won't forget the DLR study for a shutttle/glider which was very close to the simple shape of the simple cobra mk1 or the sidewinder, something in a wedge shape the aerodynamics aren't as worse as one will expect by the cornered shape and the heat shielding is much easier and cheaper to apply, i guess anyway the airplane like shape of the space shuttle was for a certain part a design question - it had to look like a bird, they designed it from the very beginning as one and i guess there was no getting around that even when it complicated many things. it should beat all the other projects, for some part the space shuttle was PR.

yes ok the eagle and many other FE2 ships are airfighters which is out of the question i guess but well typical for sci-fi some small rat fighter. the eagle is rather a blade as a ship and to find enough space for the pilot he must be shrinked.

a bloody blade

😮
They look great Gernot!
And, if I may say, a Happy Christmas to you Gernot and everyone at the SSC!

happy new year
a lot of texturework and six triangles 🙂

or four

one of the most unique (or ugly?) looking ships of FFE (apart from the shit cruiser).

if you wonder how i manage to make a model per day - most i wrote already also the gyr and somewhere is still the turner class ("argent quest" with wiggling tail). thus "only" the texture is new the gyr had no good one and is apart from the pods untextured and only in green in FFE, the reason is FFE can only strech tris or quads on the texture if you have a flat which is most of this ship it's made from many tris and each would get the full texture it would look rather ugly. in my case i had to rewrite the flats to bezier patches because a flat has unified normals (the shading points towards the same direction, compare to the eagle here i used the flats and only tilted the normals the in fact "bumped" surface looks "flat", to apply the "thruster texture" on the eagles wing he applied a textured quad you can't see any difference for the quad or the flat beyond because they use the same normals and FE2 is quasi unshaded underlayed geometries appear as on top.)

for comparison the FFE version (GLFFE).

i resized the cockpit a lot if it would be as big as in FFE it would be about 6m high, the ship is about 50m to 60m in size it's a quite large fighter. it's an exclusion even in scaleing this model is "undersized" it seems it worked out well for the bezier stuff with numbers between 1 and 20 the model is scaled up 4.096 for use in the the game (keeping in mind that he could use only integer values the cockpit wasn't to size smaller as 1 unit to 1 unit and this would be 4.096 meters.

it leaks of a landing gear (in work) and the rest of tidbits (labels, guns, scanner, thrusters).

as one can see i needed a lot of imagination to make the hull, the original is made mostly from flats (which are flat as earth is flat, lol) only the "hood" is rounded but also a flat. the upper half has no distance to the lower half (upperside flat on underside flat), thus the curve on top for the bezier stuff and also those on bottom are quite imaginative. the original model is somehow loveless put together, the anyway far to large cockpit hangs somewhere above the hull and the bezier parts don't fit well (mine do neither some errors i copied or couldn't evade).

a lot of imagination!

for the rear engine you will have to pardon me, it's glowing blue in the original and there is no way to carve this bezier shape out so i tricked the engine glow on the shape. it's still better or closer to the original as to stick out some thruster nozzle.

strange, in the manual the gyr is described as single seater but it needs two crew members in the game.

The crew members have to be very close friends then! 😉

my fault, i shouldn't refere to an aniso mod where the ship specs are hacked, the gyr has definately only one crew member (while ok comparing to the scale there will be easy space enough for a footballteam in this oversized ship).

i'm very sorry for the loss of my screenshots, it happened now for the second time and i have no idea why thus i canceled my picload account and use what i should have used already - my google account.

no space for even only one member of a footballteam: