A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[Premier Valle]

Spoiler :

Xeno: Narn
Class: Assault Cruiser
Codename: T'Loth

Though apparently the T'Loth is no more than two bridge-connected Th'Nors, its combat capabilites are expected to be higher, as system integration should be better in this ship.

Reportedly capable of firing energy mines this hasn't been confirmed by Earth Fleet, other than that, weapons are expected to be the same of the Th'Nor, however, the yield is expected to be higher, higher fire rate is confirmed.

Spoiler :

Poly Count: 1056
Animation: Custom Invasion Ship

 

[The_J]

OMFG. The first one looks a bit like lego, but the second one is really impressive .

 

[PsiCorps]

I'm impressed Premier, you certainly have got the skills for building ship models. Can't wait to see a few more.

 

[Premier Valle]

The present battle report regards the latest battle between Narn and Centauri forces.

It is not a secret that the Narn are loosing its war against the Centauri (however at a faster speed that was possibly tought of), the present report might bring some light to Centauri tactics.

The following images were taken by an Earth Fleet Observer. The first picture show a Centauri battle group just seconds after they emerged from hyperspace.

Spoiler :

After quickly surraunding the Narn Vessels the battle begun.

Spoiler :

===

The Centauri jump engines are known to be better that the Narn ones (and are expected to be slightly better than ours), this allowed them to take the Narns by surprise, even further, the impressive maneouverability of the Vorchan Class makes a close battle against them almost suicidal, however in long distances these vessels are not as efective.

The last image show the Three Centauri Vessels getting ready to exit the system after destroying the Narn Combat group.

Spoiler :

[... end of excerpt]

Hello all!, what do you think about the Vorchan?!, I really like it, it has 472 polys (far lower than I expected ), and uses the standard FF Destroyer animations.

Oh!, and they blow up quite nicely :

Spoiler :

Next in line, the Olympus.

 

[The_Coyote]

you are quiete fast Premier Valle,

as an idea, perhaps you can improve the texture of the nova using a noise filter in your paint program. Also with gimp you can actual "bump a texture in you main texture" (means you can use a greyish texture to bump (try to give them high or deep compared to the rest of the texture) certain parts in your main texture without the need to paint this by hand).

perhaps it´s time for you to learn how to add a shader to your models (or make a non rigged model using a gloss map)

Spoiler :

1. You must rig the model in Blender, to do this:

• a) after you finished your model in Blender import the nif of the unit which animation you want to use in the same Blender instance
• b) adjust the size of your model, so that it fits the vanilla model
• c) delete the vanilla model (but only the model, not the armature!)
• d) parent your model to the armature, to do this: select first you model and afterwards add the armature to your selection
• e) make a full rig of all vertices of your model to the dummy node

[more or less the rigging steps are explained here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=296286, page 4 -5]
2. export your model (like before, but select armature and model)
3. nifswap your model to the vanilla nif (like now, but make your model now also child of the node where the vanilla model is - more or less exchange both)
4. change the name of your NiTriShape to the one used by the vanilla model
5. add the shader information:

• a) go to the block details of your model to the point shader, set the falg to yes, add the shader name (it will be in most of your cases: "TCiv4MechShaderGloss") and set the unknown intege below to "-1"
• b) create a "Skin Partition", for this RMB on the NiTriShape -> Mesh -> Make Skin Partition (4, 18 are important, i normaly unckeck the two option below)
• c) change the texture set up to fit the shader (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=245363 - you can also do this steps in nifskope) - for the beginning i wouldn´t try to use the damage texture

means you have with the above mentioned shader to use the following texture slots:

• detail: unit main texture (atm you have this texture in the base texture slot)
• gloss: gloss texture (greyish version of the base texture, bright means glossy, dark means less gloss, full black means no gloss)
• glow: i would use "Environment_FX_GreyMetal.dds" for space units (it´s in the shared folder of the game, if you want to see the unit in nifviewer you have to copy the texture in the unit folder, for the game itself it´s not necessary)
• decal0: here would be the damage texture, i would recommend to add the base texture here again - usinf the same settings like for the detail slot
• the settings i use are: Wrap S Wrap T, FILTER_TRILERP, UV Set 0, Has Texture Transform: No [the last is important if you want to have a damage texture, together with the TransformControllers])

Some steps should also be described in the nifskope tutorial

1-4 is necessary to have a rigged model, 5 is needed to add the shader

Adding gloss map support to a non rigged model:
It´s done with a "NiTextureEffect" called "Environment Light" (you will see this effect in some non fx middle age units) added to the scene root as child. You will see that the glow texture is a chlid of this effect node.

To add gloss support to your unit you must also add this node (the same, not a copy) as effect (not child) to the mother node of your model. Now you can add the gloss texture slot to your model (main texture slot is in this case still the base texture slot)

 

[PsiCorps]

you are quiete fast Premier Valle

I'll second that, awesome work Premier Valle, can't wait for the first ship download pack.

 

[The_J]

 

[Premier Valle]

Finally - after a few days of delay - allow me to show the Olympus, I found in several sites that there is a Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 version, this is -for what I can tell - a mixture of all of those.

I thought that since this is a small ship I could do it a little more detailed,... I over detailed it, and as a result it has 1280 polys , but it is within acceptable ranges, it uses modified FF Carrier animations.

Spoiler :

As shown in the next picture, it has two weapon types, the - err - lets call them railguns, and a small pulse gun. Tho in the pic the pulse is shown first, it is actually the last fired (being first the railguns). Perhaps it should also be able to carry missiles.

Spoiler :

I'm not 100% happy with the Olympus, because at some angles the engine glow of the upper engines doesn't show apropiately, I believe this is the ... vector thrust's fault. But it is good enough.

I took The_Coyote's suggestion and used some noise for the textures, I liked it, so, I'm going to add noise to the Nova's texture.

After that, I'll make the jump point, and then the first ship pack will be released.

you are quiete fast Premier Valle

Thanks, but I'm afraid it is because I have chosen easy ships for the first pack.

@The_Coyote
I'm not interested in shaders yet, first of all things we need the core of the mod, so I'm going to focus on ship building, then we can detail it with shaders, and tho I'm interested in damage textures I believe this can be also done later. However your rigging instructions will certainly be usefull (I already downloaded your tutorial on animation ) since the Omega, the Cortez, and Babylon 5 itself require rotating sections.

Once again I thank you for your guidance

 

[PsiCorps]

You may well be picking the easy ones but you are still bringing in to play some much needed ship models.
One thing i would like to do is be able to send you an internal message instead of posting here to let you know what's happening. Also i've been thinking about re-starting the Mod thread in the Civ 4 Project and Mod Developement section, what do you think?

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello all!,

I believe that after this, we have finally acquired jump technology for the mod, originally I made a Jump Point, but after testing it in-game,... I didn't liked it, but I had an idea, to duplicate and modify the FF black hole, and then, the jump point was created:

Spoiler :

You can also see in the pic the latest work on the Nova's texture, after adding it some noise (thanks even once more again The_Coyote), now it reflects better the roughness of the ship.

The jump point is fully animated, just like the black hole, but yellow and smaller.

I'll release it along with the first ship pack, and unless something happens, such release will take place in a few hours.

[...] Also i've been thinking about re-starting the Mod thread in the Civ 4 Project and Mod Developement section, what do you think?

Yes it would be more adequate to have the mod development thread there, but perhaps it would be better to ask a moderator to move the current thread (this one) to such section. Either way, I agree. I also sent you a PM.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hi Premier, that's fantastic, can't wait to dl the new ships.

 

[Agent327]

Nice work, guys! Those new ships look amazing and personally I'd welcome another FF mod in the Project & Development forum.

 

[AncientSion]

Really great !
Needs Warlock. And Sharlin. AND MORE

I love b5.

 

[Ajidica]

Nice ships, but on the latest version of the Nova, it looks like it might be too dark. That problem is compounded because the ship doesnt have a gloss shader or spec map like (IIRC) the FF ships do.

 

[Premier Valle]

Just to announce that the first ship pack has been released, along with a small surprise that I didn't posted here! Thread.

Hi Premier, that's fantastic, can't wait to dl the new ships.

Then,... don't wait.

Really great !
Needs Warlock. And Sharlin. AND MORE

I love b5.

By all means, the Warlock is my favourite ship, so it will have to wait for a little bit more experience on my part, I expect it on the 3rd pack. But the Sharlin could come in the next!

[...] it looks like it might be too dark. That problem is compounded because the ship doesnt have a gloss shader or spec map like (IIRC) the FF ships do.

Good call!, I have lightened it a little bit (sorry, no screenshot), but the shaders will come later.

 

[Agent327]

Neat-o! DLed.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi all!,

Just passing by to report that I have (finally ) migrated the Jump Capability to the newest version (3.19), it works without problem.

Al also to show the latest ship: The Minbari Nial Fighter, it has 369 polys and uses the FF Fighter animation, it doesn't feature engine glow/engine thrust, because, after all, Minbari ships use gravimetric drives instead of reaction drives.

Civilopedia:

Spoiler :

Minbari Fighters surround an EA Cruiser!:

Spoiler :

Please, let me know what you think, since this is my first Minbari ship (and I'm planning to include in the second pack the Sharlin Cruiser). Is it detailed enough?, for a fighter I think it is detailed enough, but perhaps the Sharlin should have more detail in comparison.

Other ships I plan for the 2nd pack:
- Narn G'Quon Class Cruiser
- Narn Bin'Tak Class Dreadnought
- EA Avenger Class Carrier (early EA Carrier) (thoughts on this one please!)
- Centauri Balvarian Carrier

 

[The_J]

Please, let me know what you think, since this is my first Minbari ship (and I'm planning to include in the second pack the Sharlin Cruiser). Is it detailed enough?, for a fighter I think it is detailed enough, but perhaps the Sharlin should have more detail in comparison.

I don't know anything about babylon 5, but the model looks good . Especially for the low number of polys.

 

[Ajidica]

It does look good. It seems to be channeling some Covenant influence from Halo. (For all I know halo ripped off their ship design. I haven't watched B5.)

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello all!,

This time is the turn for the Centauri Balvarian Carrier, my first non-B5 B5 ship (meaning that this ship isn't seen in the series, but JMS approved it - I think... ).

Spoiler :

It has a poly count of 964 and uses the FF Destroyer animation, as with the Vorchan there is no engine thrust, only glow.

Thanks for the feedback on the Nial, coming up next, the G'Quon Class Cruiser.

@Ajidica
I haven't noticed the covenant style, but now that you mention it..