Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

MAX itself.
It´s no problem to convert Models from MAX into .3DS and load it then with LW. But before converting the Mesh you have to kill mirrored MAX-objects and mirror that objects later in LW again, because they won´t be converted correctly. :) (Complex .OBJ Files makes problems sometimes.)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Ah, I see. I've used a program called AccuTrans to convert a few of my TrueSpace meshes. They look decent, but it always triangulates my ngons. It does it when I'm importing and I don't think I have an option to not do that. I'd like to have a conversion program that doesn't do that.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Me too... ;)

MAX to 3DS triangulates all Polygons of a mesh.
MAX to OBJ generate Quads and N-Gons but sometimes also Mesh-Errors. So I´ve converted some Parts of the DAEDALUS into .3DS, some others into .OBJ, before I´ve loaded the different parts of the Ship into the LW-Editor.
A little more work on the Materials and Textures, and the LW-DAEDALUS is ready.


By converting my MARYLAND-CLASS into .OBJ I´ve had no problems... :) :)
Here´s the result:

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

nice work.. the DAEDALUS looks great .. I have a fondness for this design

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Many thanx.
I didn´t liked the Original-Design as I saw it the first time. But than I used this Ship-Class for my FF BREAKABLE and found - thank God - the great Design made by M. Christopher Freeman.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

The conversions look great. :)

I tried the Reduce Polys tool to remove the triangles. It worked great on one part, but it got rid of too much on a part with windows. I guess we just have to live with the triangles on imported meshes. ;)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Unfortunately... ;)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

I´ve continued the work on the rear-part of the narcelles - doing that, what I´ve learned by building the ISS DEFIANT. :) :)


And: I´ve rounded the front-part of the secondary-hull.


The next to do is rounding some edges and adding the Hangarpartition.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Today I´ve found some minor Polygon-Errors (mostly at the carved Parts) and fixed it. I´ve also rounded the edges at the curved lower part of the secondary-hull. (And welded a few points here, and merged a few polygons there, and deleted a few points no needed anymore, and... ;))


Okay - the mesh is clean now and I can begin now to continue the work on it.
Here a few pics from some different angles as usual:


This is a test for the blue glow from the narcelles:

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

I always spend far much time cleaning up errors regardless of the time and care I make to not too :)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Whenever you cut into a mesh, whether you use Solid Drill or Booleans, there are always going to be errors. (though, less so with Solid Drill) I think that's universal to any 3D software. Cutting into a mesh, no matter the provided tools, causes issues. But they're easy enough to clean up with some time and patience.

As I said on SFM, it's looking great. :D

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Yes.. one of the first learning curves.. in my top list of headaches.. cleaning

if your using the Rounder Tool in Lightwave and you have errors "Rounder will soon let you know" I touch on it in my Enterprise tutorial..

Rounder took me the longest to really learn to use right..

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

If I have problems with the rounder, it's because I forgot to do something. I have a duplicate vert somewhere or a face "inside the mesh" (when using extrude) or I forgot to have a polygon at the end point that I'm trying to round. I especially do that last one a lot because I tend to round edges before mirroring. Otherwise, I have no issues at all with it. I've always wanted a rounder tool, but TrueSpace either didn't have one or didn't have one that worked right, depending on the version of the software you were using. The one in TS7 couldn't round curves, which made it useless.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

Once you get use to it.. its great.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

It didn't take me very long to figure out the quirks. Like I said, if it gives me an error message these days, it's my fault. ;)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

I´ve added a few details and three of the smaller windows at both sides of the secondary-hull. The value for the spec-maps I´ve reduced from 70% down to 40% - I think that´s enough for it.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

I use 30% for spec, which seems OK to me. ;)

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

I´ll render a few test-pics when the mesh is ready and decide than with which value for the spec the mesh looks optimal in the end.

It seems to me too, that 30%-40% is an optimal range of values for spec.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

A little update:
A look at one of the airlocks.

Re: ulimann644´s Fleetyard
 

The docking port looks great. :)

Yeah, 30-40 sounds about right to me. If it's supposed to be really shiny metal, I'll go higher, but usually not. For things like grills and deflector dishes, I think I go around 60. But, of course, it's all personal preference.