U.S.S. Enterprise as seen in "Star Trek: TMP"

Well, the light on my model is placed just forward of the bridge, beyond the edge of deck two where it has a clear view of the hull.

I very much doubt that there was a practical way to install lighting in a six-foot model that was at the same time small enough to integrate into the model, sophisticated enough to be properly focused and diffused, and bright enough to cast enough light without causing unwanted lens flares and other artifacts as the camera moved.

Since that wasn't possible, external lights had to be used.

True I guess.

But there's no reason you couldn't make the cg model with the lights in the proper places.

Pah, I don't care, it looks good, that's all that matters. I really do love the model, just curious as to why the lights werent' where they appear to actually be.

Originally posted by Kakaze
True I guess.

But there's no reason you couldn't make the cg model with the lights in the proper places.

As I said, if you put the lights in the "proper places", they don't cast light at angles that make the model look like the one in the movies. My interest was in recreating the ship from the first film as closely as I could.

Originally posted by BonzaiGopher
Hiya Vertigo1,

I've been playing around with 3D Exploration on this one too - have you had problems with textures not being found? I've mucked around the directories and everything, but no real success loading this model with textures intact.

Cheers,

Bonzai Gopher

You've got to go into 3D Exploration's settings and set a maps directory. (Tools Menu, select Options and click on the Textures tab)

Originally posted by Dennis


My interest was in recreating the ship from the first film as closely as I could.

Speaking of which...what ARE the differences between the first movie Enterprise and the second other than the registry?

Anything major?

[Commodore-SirJohn]

Oh, good! I finally got it to load properly!

Now if I can just get a new set of registry decals... (See above...)

Hiya Cap,

What did you get it loaded into and in what format? (if you don't mind)

I've been trying to look at the model in 3D Explorer that's supposed to handle LW, but it's dropping maps and just acting goofy in general.

Any tips? Anybody? I understand I need to do some work, but if I could at least look at it in it's native format, it would make life easier..

Thanks for any help!

Bonzai Gopher

[Commodore-SirJohn]

I'm using Lightwave 6.5 for most stuff (though I got this particular model to load only in a... nonstandard copy of Lightwave 7.0, since one of the dll files in my 6.5 layout is crashing as it loads...).

My problem before was probably memory-based. IIRC, it's a Lightwave 5.6 file, so it should work in anything from that version onward.

Hiya Vertigo1,

Thanks for the response - that fixed most of the errors (there seems to be a blank texture that's still complaining), but I'm still getting really wonky results... it seems to have mapped the registry numbers all over the saucer... I'm using ver 1.5.30 of 3D Explorer; is there a later version?

Thanks!

Bonzai Gopher

Thanks Cap! Unfortunately, that don't help.. I'll be porting it to Carrara Studio. (yeah, I know - "he's using what?!" see www.eovia.com if you're curious)

Cheers,

Bonzai Gopher

[Commodore-SirJohn]

3d exploration is on version 6 (or is it 7?)...

Hiya,

The website advertises version 1.8, but unless you wanna buy it, they've really crippled it in terms of exporting different formats. I only use it once in a blue moon, so can't justify the expense right now.

Anyone know of another program for viewing/converting objects?

Thanks,

Bonzai Gopher

Originally posted by Kakaze



Speaking of which...what ARE the differences between the first movie Enterprise and the second other than the registry?

Anything major?

Mainly in the paint job -- in TMP, the dark areas of the hull are greenish; they were later repainted a slate-blue. Most of the hull plating was darkened and the reflectivity of the surface reduced. Some markings were added to the bottom of the engineering hull that mimic the markings found there on the original model from the series -- these may have been added as late as ST 6.

Originally posted by BonzaiGopher
Hiya Vertigo1,

Thanks for the response - that fixed most of the errors (there seems to be a blank texture that's still complaining), but I'm still getting really wonky results... it seems to have mapped the registry numbers all over the saucer... I'm using ver 1.5.30 of 3D Explorer; is there a later version?

Thanks!

Bonzai Gopher

I use v1.2.54. I don't see a reason for getting a later version.

[Voyager1]

First of all, Dennis, thank you so very much for creating and releasing this incredible model. Secondly, Dan, thank you for the MAX conversion. Thirdly, HELP!

No matter what I try I cannot apply the decals to the secondary hull or the nacelles. I am using MAX 3.1. Can anyone give me some pointers as to how to apply the decals over the top of the existing textures so they will line up correctly.

Thanks in advance,
Voyager1

[Dan]

You'll have to integrate the decals into the texture maps for those specific areas. As far as I know, Max doesn't have LW's decal function. They won't be as high a resolution as the ones Dennis made, but at least they'll be on there.

You'll need to use Photoshop or some other editing program, and you'll need to get the decals from Den's original model for LW and convert them; they're much higher rez than the other maps, hence the reason for them in the first place: You can put lower rez surfacing on and have very clear text and graphics on the hull. I can't fathom why Max doesn't have a similar tool. Even old Ray Dream Studio had a tool like that...

Dan

[Voyager1]

Dan,

Thanks for the suggestions. However, that is so far above my abilities I can't fathom it. I have self taught myself how to use 3D Studio MAX over the last 3 years, but am still a novice. All I can hope for is that one of you other extremely tallented individuals will have time to complete the model with all of the decals intact. Until then, I will attempt to wait patiently.

Thanks again,
Voyager1

I haven't been able to get anywhere with re-aplying the textures

So I'll zip it, and the TGA textures up, and place em for d/l .. maybe another tS user who's better at applying textures will be able to do something...


Ryoken

[seanr]

Damn. Thanks anyway.

[Voyager1]

Has anyone had any luck with retexturing in a MAX format complete with all decals?

I'm sure there'd be a way of doing it using Alpha channels, although I'm not entirely certain of how to do that yet. It could be done though.

Unbelievable, Dennis! You are an exceptionally gifted individual.

You may have spurred me to switch back from 3D Studio Max to Lightwave again, too.

Michael
:colwar: BattlestarGalactica.com * BattlestarPegasus.com * Space1999.org * GreatWarofMagellan.com

[Starship]

Originally posted by Proximo
I'm sure there'd be a way of doing it using Alpha channels, although I'm not entirely certain of how to do that yet. It could be done though.

I think that it can be done using blend material.
Select some polys and apply this material, keeping the old hull textures in the first slot. Put a color decal in the second slot and a decal in b/w in the third slot. In some place, you must set the alpha channel to show the decals... This little tut will give an idea about how to do this: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/tutorial...ddfeatures.htm
Hope that helps.

If somebody have success to convert the Enterprise to Max, please, let me know.

Regards,

Look what I did?



No combined textures or anything. I got my tips from that tut, but then I worked it to be alittle better and voila...

Now, I'm not so hot on the mesh error stuff, but if someone has a copy with all the errors removed... of course, someone else could have figured this out already, but what the hey, it's worth it anyway for otehr projects.

could someone here give me a link where i can download the semi-finished or finished max conversion of this beauty?

thank you dennis for releasing it!

Hey Proximo,

Nice work on the conversion.... (to what?)
I'm assuming Max Version....?

I noticed those mesh glitches during my conversion efforts too, but the file size after conversion was ridiculous so I put it aside for now (I use Carrara Studio www.eovia.com) I think it's more of a product of conversion since I didn't see them in Dennis' version.

Cheers,

Bonzai Gopher

I used 3d exploration, I think. I can't remember cos I converted the actual mesh a while ago, and I've only jsut figured out how to do the textures now. If I have time I'll finish it off.

Hiya,

Yeah, that's what I used too (from LW to OBJ, then import to Carrara).
Like I said, CS doesn't compress its files so the bloat was enormous...
I also have to remap all the textures by hand since CS doesn't do the mirror imaging or whatever it is that's happening in LW.

Thanks,

Bonzai Gopher

Originally posted by Dauntless
If you'll allow me to butt in briefly here, here is a another link for the ent max conversion. Just so we don't kill Hito's server.

www.uscgermanclub.com/denentmax.zip

Argghhh........I missed it didnt' I????
Unable to get it on any of the links...

Ahhh...Did this make it any better???
The top picture is RHINO3d..No textures.
The middle is Max..With just the saucer tex...
AND..The bottom is fixed I think!!!!!That's done in Max also..