However it is important that LODs are properly used.This would be suitable for LOD2:Quote:
However for LOD1 you want to go simpler. It is shown from far distance and it is also the collision mesh. Something like this (outlined):I don't think this kind of fine detailing is too much close up, however it is lost from a distance so this should probably be LOD4:
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Then you'll need some intermediate step for LOD3. If it feels like too much work to do four levels - then lose some of the fine detail and go with three.
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Now for the structure of a space ship model : would there be problem if a space ship model is made of several part that are saved as if it was a single model, of would it be necessary to have the whole model not made from any part but from 1 single hull
The meshes do not have to be watertight so feel free to intersect shapes.Also, we only support one texture per mesh so you will need to split a multi-textured model into separate meshes.
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While i think about it and having noticed pulsating lights working, i am wondering, would then this kind of texture (with the lights actually be in that free texture found on a website) a big no in Pioneer ?
You can give the model a glowmap like this. See data/models/buildings/vlastan/ for our so-far only glowmap-enabled models. Glowmaps are not animated in any way though. If you want blinking lights they are something defined in the model.lua - they will be billboards/sprites.
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Finally, what's certainly the biggest obstacle for me, i have read in this thread that you need coding.Is there any kind of documentation on how to bring a space ship into the game , and what is exactly needed in term of vertex groups , naming etc to get the required anumations (gear, station doors, etc... ) working ?
Each model is defined in a lua script. The scripts are then compiled into a runtime format. Actually you can create your model entirely in lua - there's a whole much of commands for creating primitives, shapes, individual triangles... loading an .obj file just happens to be one of the commands. There are no vertex groups, proxy models or model naming tricks - thrusters, lights, and landing gears are positioned and animated in the lua script.I would say: don't worry about it now if you just want to model some cool ships. We do not have a step-by-step guide for making a usable ship right now. As learning material, we have:- This documentation/collection of notes http://pioneerspacesim.net/wiki/index.php?title=3D_Modelling- lua modelling functions are documented in some detail here (temporary host)- you can learn everything necessary from the existing models. Many of the scripts can be hard to understand though...We should come up with an example best-practices ship from the existing models or make a new one...
Ok, obviously I picked a ridiculous model as an example, but I think people underestimate how fast their gpu is. If it's about 5 years old then you can expect it to handle ship meshes at around 15,000 to 20,000 triangles, that's assuming that we're rendering about 20 of them without terrain and still holding at 60fps. Halve that number for with terrain.Unfortunately we support much older cards, so perhaps 2,500 to 7,500 triangles is a better target. Suck it and see I guess, then see if people complain 
further a couple of new and old 
ships, such as "dr. zarkovs" ship from flash gordon or the bubble gum flavoured "planet express".some new own creations, and the long awaited robot pilot (mainly i made for the train).a pimped up "big crappy",btw, is that timer problem solved, it's really sad and most time relevant animations didn't work after the first month if i use gametime (get_arg(1-4)).realy sad i can't upload the "bloodrunner" (dr. zarkovs ship), it's somekind of a "time machine", containing clocks showing the different times (actually your local time and game time).there is a BIG second counter which shows exactly the manner of this bug or failure.to explain,in january seconds counts proper divisions of seconds (1000st part i guess).in february seconds count only quarter seconds (0.25, you smell allready something?)in march seconds count only half seconds,from on april you will have only full seconds get counted and no divisions, it's due to the nature of things not possible to divide that back. so many animations (like the beacon lights on the groundbase) won't work from february on. since they need at least the 10th part of a second to work.as another example , i made a sine based running light this won't also work if you have no proper divisions of seconds.actually most of my animations are due to that based on os.clock because it's the ONLY reliable counter i have.of course it's no problem if you count only whole seconds, but that will work only for some flashing lights in 2 seconds rythm (math.fmod(arg,2)i'm not shure but i feel it has something to do with the adding of 0.25 seconds.further i guess it's a older bug, it reaches back at least to alpha6 i experienced.oh, i made some radars, a bigger and a smaller one as starport buildings, they are still driven by gametime, it looks really stupid to see the small (faster one) ticking in seconds rhythm, that didn't means only the time it means also that you won't have any position between 60 integer steps on 360 degrees.
As for that pimped out big_crappy, I have a couple of vague ideas for it. The first is an iris door on each end of the entrance tunnel, and the second is to change the final docking position to correspond with the coriolis effect. The number of docking bays would be increased to six, and you would enter the bay, stop rotation until you lined up with your allotted bay, then settle down into it, seeing the other bays at sixty degree angles around you.I also wanted to mention that I made spacestations.lua self referencing. I put all the textures I lifted from you into a new folder, data\models\stations\textures. This is just in my version, it's not in the game, but may be in the future. I'm getting the two mushroom stations into shape for alpha 15. I'm thinking of trying to improve the hoop and other ground stations after that. I want to integrate whatever I do with your big_crappy!