egosoft.com

Hi all, I have been trying to get some .stl files so I can make some physical models, but are having difficulty - not sure if thats on purpose or not!
Have loaded the most excellent "X Models 3d Viewer" which nicely displays the ships, but I cant see any way to save them out.

Well, as the name suggests the X-Models Viewer is a program to view model files, not to extract them. Tools and Tutorials for extracting model files can be found in the Scripts and Modding Forums.

Just a note:

For its time and the number of ships that can be on-screen at any one moment, the ships are very well done, with more verts than many other games have had in their ships.

But, for 3D printing, one shouldn't expect too much, since they're still low poly "game" objects.

Using those objects as a base for one's own 3D printed model, though, might be something one could do.

Aaaaand... here it comes:

Every model is copyrighted by Egosoft and, perhaps, there are some trademarks running around, too. What that means is simple: If you want to 3D print these models, you need permission from Egosoft.

For a "personal use", one might find reasonable permission in statements that allow modders to change/manipulate the in-game models. HOWEVER, 3d printing is relatively new and most games, especially older ones, don't generally speak to that in their EULA/TOS. This leaves the subject a bit questionable, legally. I don't think the fine folks at Egosoft would mind at all if you printed out some ship models, especially if you posted pics of your work. Egosoft loves its fans. But, I'm not a spokesman for Egosoft.

In any event, just to be sure everything is covered, as it stands right now, IIRC from what I remember reading of the EULA/TOS, in no way could you distribute or sell your derivative 3D printed objects. That's a pretty cut-and-dried legal issue that doesn't need any specific extra copyright/trademark protection outside of the standard clauses.

Posting hoping to open this up again. Assuming it gets cleared by Egosoft, taking a model from wireframe to Stereolithography is more art than dropping a 3D object into .stl export. Which might work but costs up to five times the effort for whatever type of 3D printer your aiming to output the final project. It's a shame that plastic models are close to a thing of the past. That's what you need to emulate for a good output where starships and aircraft models are concerned. Make parts. Skin parts an outside, but inside too. Give the parts an armature you can snap the parts off of. This way many parts can be printed at once. Make nubs and sockets that mate for the parts to fit together.

In 3D DESIGN this is basic prototyping. I saw on the web someone created a .stl model of the battleship from the anime hit Battleship Yamato. It was utterly solid and I wondered at how much material it wasted. You could probably make 2 more just from the wastage.

Hank001 wrote:...In 3D DESIGN this is basic prototyping. I saw on the web someone created a .stl model of the battleship from the anime hit Battleship Yamato. It was utterly solid and I wondered at how much material it wasted. You could probably make 2 more just from the wastage.

They didn't use good software if it was "solid." (Or, didn't know how to use it.) Most 3D printing software will construct what end up being internal supports, but are also usually necessary for the printer during building. (Like drawing a portrait with one contiguous line.) I forget the technical name, but the honeycomb-like internal structure can usually be configured for density by the software being used. So, once can, somewhat, adjust the density of that supporting structure as well as the thickness of the object's "walls."

Agreed - A completely solid object is a waste of material and no 3D printer should be allowed to do that. (That's why they aren't supposed to be allowed to do that.)

On plastic models: Back in the day, there used to be bunches of parts in a good quality plastic model. These days, it seems that with, perhaps, molding tech being better, the little fiddly bits that used to be separate parts are now incorporated into many of the model's parts... The part count seems absurdly low, almost like one doesn't need to do much more than snap a few bits together. Where's the fun in that? It's like a kindergarten puzzle instead of a statistics quiz...

On licensing - I think Egosoft has already stated that they are fine with fans making 3D prints of the game models. Either someone once sent me a link to that statement or it was in another thread somewhere.

You people could look up the X3 reddit. There is already someone doing 3D prints of the X ships and they actually look awesome. X3 AP ships also were already converted more or less completely.


Greetings Flippi

Morkonan wrote:

That's why they aren't supposed to be allowed to do that.

In the US most certainly. Solidity and materials got some heavy regulation after people were printing up zip guns. Japan for instance doesn't. There they have people printing full sized thing like custom car bodies. Though the hottest thing is designing 3D printers themselves. Something I'd have liked to have done. Born too early.