[ALFA REL] Cobra Mk III - Elite untextured test 4 Vanilla X3TC

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dertien
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[ALFA REL] Cobra Mk III - Elite untextured test 4 Vanilla X3TC

Post by dertien » Mon, 20. Aug 12, 03:34

Hello all,

ALPHA TEST

This ship is not finished. I put this up as a test for people to "play" with, and see how it looks ingame.

Well, it took a while and I am still learning, but managed to get the 3d mesh I made from scratch with Wings3d ingame. This ship was the workhorse of the early Elite games, The mighty Cobra Mk3
(Elite is a game that dates back to the very first personal computers I played it on the Commodore 64 back in its time.)


This will install as a fake patch (higest cat/dat number) with a Vanilla X3tc installation, or you can copy it to your mods folder and activate it via the interface.

- Start a new game as an Argon Patriot, and you will be in your Cobra Mk III.


Software used

- Wings3D (3d model)
- Gmax DBOX2 (export to bob/bod)

Reference used: Apollo's tutorial

Issues:

- untextured
- engine trail size/engine glow


screenshots:

Reference Images:
----------------------

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs21/f/2007/ ... estone.png
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/ ... 4bdkvy.jpg

Cobra MK III ingame
------------------------

http://i49.tinypic.com/24vjuvl.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/2akbgg7.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/nnsmc1.jpg

Old shots.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/82 ... 00014.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22 ... 00015.jpg/

Todo
-----

- texture
- Solve a couple of smoothing issues
- Balancing
- Add beam weapon.


Texturing is not my forte, so it might take a while.

Hope you all like it.


Dertien


Download :

https://www.box.com/s/17efe6e715a370375c56
Last edited by dertien on Sun, 26. Aug 12, 20:41, edited 2 times in total.

kurush
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Post by kurush » Mon, 20. Aug 12, 07:30

Nice, thanks for sharing! I just have to try it. I was hoping somebody would do it eventually :)

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Matt Armada
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Post by Matt Armada » Mon, 20. Aug 12, 13:38

Looks boxy as hell, but given it's pedigree I expect nothing less.

Looks fantastic thus far...can't wait till you're finished.

dertien
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Post by dertien » Tue, 21. Aug 12, 07:05

New WIP shots from Wings,



Started with the detail with as much care as Han Solo would work on the Falcon. It looks good in Wings and rendered too, hopefully the detail will come out well ingame.

Top View:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/topdq.jpg/

Landing gear and access hatch

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/7/landinggear.jpg/

Jumprive and shield gen

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/89 ... ldgen.jpg/

Cockpit and gun

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23 ... itgun.jpg/

More coming soon.

Dertien

n00biwan
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Post by n00biwan » Tue, 21. Aug 12, 22:32

Does it come with military lasers? :D

I played so much Elite.... a bit on the BBC and most of my teenage years on my Atari ST. I even called my Eve character Cmdr Jameson... (I signed up on day one so all the good names weren't gone yet lol).

What's it going to be, how does it scale against other X ships? etc... ;)

Anyway, I like it, so much better than shades of blue.
"Stop exploding you cowards" - Zap Brannigan

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Sorkvild
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Post by Sorkvild » Tue, 21. Aug 12, 23:16

Brilliant idea, but compared to X3 ships the Cobra looks pretty dated. Maybe some some smooth edges here and there?
Elite Dangerous| I survived the Dragon Incident ... then I took an arrow to the knee
We want the Boron back!

kurush
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Post by kurush » Wed, 22. Aug 12, 00:04

Sorkvild wrote:Brilliant idea, but compared to X3 ships the Cobra looks pretty dated. Maybe some some smooth edges here and there?
Are you kiddin' ? :) This ship has to have rough edges, otherwise it will lose all its nostalgic value. I'm eagerly waiting until I can put something in my game to test.

Sheathanaich
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Post by Sheathanaich » Wed, 22. Aug 12, 00:28

kurush wrote:
Sorkvild wrote:Brilliant idea, but compared to X3 ships the Cobra looks pretty dated. Maybe some some smooth edges here and there?
Are you kiddin' ? :) This ship has to have rough edges, otherwise it will lose all its nostalgic value. I'm eagerly waiting until I can put something in my game to test.
If you really need to get nostalgic then maybe it should be wired framed as in the very first Elite (Remember that?)..... Omg I'm showing my age now......LOL :D Damn I can still remember where and when I bought my first Sinclair ZX spectrum and then in 1985 Elite was all I played, hours and hours just exploring and making money by taking on missions.
Clan Shaw - "Sons of the Thane"
Mic an Toiseach

dertien
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Post by dertien » Wed, 22. Aug 12, 01:13

@ Noobiwan, yes it does, a 4mw beam one :)

Well, I still have to look into the matter, but it should be possible to change a kyon emitter and have it colored orange (that's the frontier Elite 2 version). I havent looked up into adding wares and weapons yet. It doesnt even have turrets neither.

Comparative wise, it's quite bigger than a Nova. I scaled it using the Nova cockpit as a reference, since I couldn't find any dimensions of X3 ships online, just comparisons.

Screenshots:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2n82800.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/6j1vh1.jpg

@ Sorkvild,

yes that is possible, but not with THIS cobra. I made one from scratch for Oolite, but that is very low poly. That one was really smooth and looked like the one that was featured on the Elite Retail box.

Pictures below, but I am not planning on bringing that ship into X3 (yet)

http://i53.tinypic.com/2qmolu9.png
http://i55.tinypic.com/15f23jt.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/15noz0p.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/2nk2ucj.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/24limts.jpg

@Kurush

Now as for this Cobra here, I am working on the paneling at the moment and adding more details to the model as I go on. I will release an untextured test version for everyone to try out when I am finished with the model itself. I intend not to rely on bumpmapping and textures here to give a "feel of 3d" but instead doing it the "real" way of adding details. This includes beveled panels, panels that are gone where you see the innards, like on Han Solo's piece of junk, the Millenium Falcon. The only reason I would use textures is for the metallic surface and also for visible damage.

I think all ships in the X-universe look too clean, like they just came out of the whalewash or were built by the same shipyard that built the Naboo Royal Starship. This cobra will not be "clean".

I cannot guarantee it will look as good ingame as it does in my 3D program, but it will certainly not look worse.

new screenshots of paneling and floodlights.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2emk8w5.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/6jlo2t.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/2ly1r3r.jpg

Enjoy.

dertien
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Post by dertien » Wed, 22. Aug 12, 22:51

New update: Ingame screenshots. Untextured Test Release almost there, the tease is almost over. :D

http://i50.tinypic.com/29w7a05.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/2gwdgn9.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/2j2tjf5.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/sq6tck.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/10cmctg.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/2ed9guw.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2n73986.jpg


A new approach on length estimations

F-111 Aardvark: 22.4 meters Real
Pirate Blastclaw: 3.8 meters Ingame

Lets assume that the Blastclaw and the Aardvark (heavy fighters/bombers) are about the same in lenghts, since 3.8 meters real length for a craft like that is a bit small. I know this is probably not right, and pure speculation, but its still better than wild guessing.

We know that the length of a cobra is 65 meters:

The cobra must then be scaled (with the tape measure object in Gmax) to a size of 11.02 meters.

Just add a little more detail, but we are almost there now.

Till Soon.

Dertien

n00biwan
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Post by n00biwan » Thu, 23. Aug 12, 00:15

Looking tidy.. and huge lol... didn't think it would be that big compared to X ships.

In my memory (of Elite Plus) my military laser fired little grey spheres in a line.
"Stop exploding you cowards" - Zap Brannigan

dertien
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Post by dertien » Sun, 26. Aug 12, 21:07

Alfa test ready for dl. :)

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cobra mk2
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Post by cobra mk2 » Thu, 13. Sep 12, 01:14

I've been thinking about modelling ships from Elite for a long time if only for my own amusement. After seeing how great your ship is turning out, i've become even more determined to stop messing about and get on with it but unfortunately i don't have a lot of spare time at the moment (or ever!).

I was surprised at how big the Cobra mk3 turned out (65 meters?) compared to the X3 ships and agree that it should be scaled down in size.

I think you've done a really good job and i agree the textures should look dirty or worn.

Will you be doing any other ships from Elite? I always really loved the police viper and the python and fer-de lance. I bet you the python would be even bigger than the cobra!
"Out of the dirt, into the sky"

ctcc41
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Post by ctcc41 » Thu, 13. Sep 12, 04:17

Sheathanaich wrote:
kurush wrote:
Sorkvild wrote:Brilliant idea, but compared to X3 ships the Cobra looks pretty dated. Maybe some some smooth edges here and there?
Are you kiddin' ? :) This ship has to have rough edges, otherwise it will lose all its nostalgic value. I'm eagerly waiting until I can put something in my game to test.
If you really need to get nostalgic then maybe it should be wired framed as in the very first Elite (Remember that?)..... Omg I'm showing my age now......LOL :D Damn I can still remember where and when I bought my first Sinclair ZX spectrum and then in 1985 Elite was all I played, hours and hours just exploring and making money by taking on missions.
Have you considered that this may be a homage to the Cobra Mk III from the 1993 game frontier elite II and not the Cobra Mk III from the 1984 game Elite?

Wait maybe its not from either, could it be from the game Frontier: First encounters?
To error is human, to totaly screw things up takes a computer.

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