SpaceSimCentral

in the model viewer? in game i havn't tested it yet.but might as wellbetter change the lod_pixels value instead of the if request, mainly because below 2 isn't much (nothing to see), since lod1 is reserved for the collision mesh.i know i set the lod rather high with "lod_pixels = { .1, 100 ,500, 0 },"try maybe "lod_pixels = { .1, 50 ,200, 0 }," (do that on both models the sub and mainpart) this will set lod 3 down to 200 pixels and lod 2 to 50 so the ugly low poly mesh and small texture isn't so good to see while the full sized texture should stay longer.i know modelviewer and game act a bit different on lod, usually the game is more sensible (lower lod appears earlier), maybe because of the different resolution.yes, fit different skins to check that or add a line like thistext(lod,v(50,0,0),v(0,1,0),v(0,0,1),20) (will be shown right from top of model, i guess)then you can see the lod shown as a number while zooming in and out

Yeah I have changed lod3 to 200, and it works in game now.I also played around with 2 different resolutions in the game to see if there was any difference in the Lod, using 2560x1600 and 1280x800 but didn't see any difference in the way the game handled the Lod between those 2 res.Btw, I just retested the stardust and the thrusters dont seem to fire for me, well actually they fire green for a fraction of a second sometimes then the graphic stops. But they seem to work on your copy ..

looks like i have to assign a material to them.i really tested that out with my other models and it has seemed to be useless to assign a material to the thrusters(see original script for the cobra_mk3).but here it is different and for about the half field of view they are invisible, especially facing direction to sun.the material has to have a specularity to, to make it work, very strange.in the attached file is the new script using material for thrusters, which should work now.i can't say why this problem (i know it) appears sometimes and sometimes not.i will have to check the other ships to (even if i had 3 times), but they should be ok without material for the thrusters.when i started i checked this very well and on the original cobra and interdictor they blanked sometimes each other out.so i experimented a little with the material and came to the conclusion that no material works best to evade that.further the position lights period interferes somehow with the thrusters and they cut off when the last light in row is on (doesn't matter red, green, white, flashing or not).but when the thrusters set dynamic this won't appear and the blanking when facing to the sun was also gone.but for this model that didn't works (maybe when poslight is called by the model, it seems they set a material that will be used by the thrusters)the color you set for the thruster material didn't matters, they appear allways transparent blue.wait to make that shure i test light emitting to...no, it has no influence, i wonder how they appeared "green" in your game.conclusion,it doesn't matter what material you use for the thrusters as long as the specularity level is setso a set_material('thrusters', 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1)will work the same asset_material('thrusters', .3,.3,.3,1,.3,.3,.3,20)like it is for the original cobra3.i guess you can assign any used material to them as long as some specularity is set.and that was the reason why they don't work after the call for the "sd_wing" model, simply because last used material is a glowing using no specularity. i assume if they would be loaded after any other part that uses a material with specularity set, they will work without a thruster material.i did that and guess what happens...[attachment=231:stardust_issue2.jpg]the thruster material changed to a less intense transparent blue, funny, i havn't expected thattexture has no influence i checked that to using texture(nil) in front of thrusters.this is confusing... everything seems to have a influence on themif i load the glowing wing part in first place the thrusters get "dark" like in the pic above,if i load the glowing wing part at last the thrusters come brightboth no matter what material i assign later to the thrusters...how can i find a rule behind that?because if there is a rule, i can make a advantage from a issue.i hope tomm's got a explanation to that, i really would like to have some control over that, no matter how they appear.also i would like to know why the thrusters get blanked in counterlight without specularity and why the position lights flashing period influences that to.somethings for shure, the glowing material influences the thrusters, there is the same issue to a loadet glowing material in front of thrusters and to the position lights, because the material changes there at flashing period to a glowing one.but why they come out once dark and why once bright is a riddle to me.in the attached file are 4 different settings to test that out

How very odd eh?The dark thrusters that you have there in that pic I have seen before on the boa. It was acting up like that for a while and I didn't know why. Then after I had rebuilt the model into seperate parts it stopped misbehaving. So it must have been moved below a call for a material with some specularity..... Yes green thruster with the stardust, I have seen it twice now. But... its only for a fraction of a second, so fast I wasnt able to take a screenshot. The whole thruster is one solid green colour with no colour gradient, so its definately a weird bug going on. IE no light in the middle and dark outside, all one dark colour.Woot, 100th post

This is interesting. The thruster exhaust does need some working on and modifying, it just doesn't look quite right yet in the game, too false looking, perhaps you guys have discovered something here? If the intensity of colour could be changed or even the colour itself, I think it would look a lot better. Well done guys!

would anyone mind if i created a heavy cruiser for your use i realy wanna be usefull

I think I can speak for everyone here in this instance. Nobody will mind one bit! This whole thing depends on community participation. You're certainly welcome to contribute! I've been trying to do something here myself for the same reason. I've gotten the Ladybird Starfighter partially textured. Well, one does what one can. I'm using it for my avatar to show my progress. It's hard but it's fun!

well it looks kewl mate keep it upim off to draw up some blueprins for a dreadnaught class heavy cruiser/blockade runner be back in a bit with what i got

That Ladybird is looking very flyable now Marcel
spike1984 wrote:
im off to draw up some blueprints for a dreadnaught class heavy cruiser/blockade runner be back in a bit with what i got
Cool, I look forward to seeing it.Heres a few things I've been working on lately. The textures are temporary and the Wyvern is untextured:[attachment=237:compilation.png]

Oooh Yeah! A real wheel! The game really needs that!
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That Ladybird is looking very flyable now Marcel
Flyable? Nah, she's really just a pretty face! I still have to cover her rear-end and uh, bottom before she's presentable. Thanks for the kind words.

Does anyone know if/how I can can give a ship a built in fuel-collector?

Introducing the Talon Interceptor, a small one-man craft capable of extreme acceleration:[attachment=238:pioneer-msvc-9 2010-09-30 03-40-44-97.jpg][attachment=239:pioneer-msvc-9 2010-09-30 03-40-24-81.jpg][attachment=240:pioneer-msvc-9 2010-09-30 03-41-44-60.jpg]

Nice like the camouflage look

Well done to S20dan and Marcel, your models are coming along nicely This is what being part of a community is all about, people working together to create something special. And good luck with your dreadnaught Spike 1984, but one question, if your going to make it flyable, how will it fit into a docking port? Look at this, although I can't take any credit for this image as Potsmoke originally posted it on the Frontier Forum

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if your going to make it flyable, how will it fit into a docking port?
Lol, yeah. Maybe we need a very big spaceport for the bigger ship types . Nice models guys! Looking forward to piloting them.

Thanks guys (and gals ) .
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if your going to make it flyable, how will it fit into a docking port?
It should be just a matter of increasing the scale on the space-station dock area as a quick fix. But the best way is as KingHaggis suggested, having different larger stations for the larger ships.Thats something I like about X3.We could also try like Freelancer did and have the massive ships as dockable, like a station.Has anyone tried making new objects for the generic docking sequence for stations?We could possibly change it so that when you dock, you actually see the inside of a station with machinery and other ships instead of a flat wall.

I've been testing out the idea of having massive ships that are dockable, as well as areas that you can access/fly-through inside the ship. Heres a small clip using a quick large ship i threw together, its only half a ship which is why one side is missing. Also a shameless plug for the talon : Do you guys think its worth pursuing this?

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I've been testing out the idea of having massive ships that are dockable, as well as areas that you can access/fly-through inside the ship. Heres a small clip using a quick large ship i threw together, its only half a ship which is why one side is missing. Also a shameless plug for the talon :Do you guys think its worth pursuing this?
YES!

Excellent idea and already a well executed alpha of the concept - impressive! This has a massive potential for mission creation and is a great leap in the direction of immersion within the game. Good work s20dan ... much appreciated. Can't wait to see this fleshed out to it's full potential. I am seeing the big open flight decks in the Star Wars movies running before my inner eyes.Hmmmm ... more and better asteroids (from that other thread) could also be used as hidden big vessels or hidden space stations using this method that you outline ... again huge potential for mission creation and cool plots/stories.Thank you to everyone contributing to this here mother beautiful space simulation project.All the bestFrans

Thanks, glad I'm not the only one who likes the idea :)There are a few problems, like when you undock the ship is propelled forward too fast often crashing. But we can work around this, perhaps by having an Exit-only tube that comes out from the dock through the ship in a straight line.
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Hmmmm ... more and better asteroids (from that other thread) could also be used as hidden big vessels or hidden space stations using this method that you outline ... again huge potential for mission creation and cool plots/stories.
I agree, we must have asteroid bases. But I like your idea of actually hiding a base inside the asteroid, maybe we could have it so that the bases name doesnt show up under 'names' so then it really is hidden, and the only way to find these hidden bases is through misions or lucky random posts on the bulletin board...This game will be cool