Speculative Traders

[Falkayn]

Mert,

Very cool. The jump bubble is a bit bigger than I thought it would be, but that allows you to EVA when in jumpspace and fix things I guess. There is one frame when the bubble seems to touch the nose, and has lots of room behind the ship, is that just an artifact of the angles we're looking at, or a problem with the bubble tracking the ship?

Anyway thanks for this, another neato Christmas present!

 

[Falkayn]

Andrew,

Sorry to take so long to review your movie, I've only just been able to get time on a PC with sound. I like it a lot - it's very haunting, but some music with it would be nice too. Especially to fill the quiet deadspace after the jump occurs.

For space music like this, I've always fancied pinching bits from The Corrs' "Erin Shore" (the long version, a traditional Irish piece). It's on their "Forgiven, Not Forgotten" album. My personal movie fantasy would be to have something like that playing as the main characters are introduced to their ship in spacedock (kinda like the beginning of Star Trek I).

In terms of 'realism', I figure that user interface designers have worked out that making the ship's computer add 'realistic' sounds to ships in the local area enhances the crew's reactions to those ships. Of course there are soem limits, we don;t want to get deafened because we went too close to an enemy fighter, but it does make some sense to have these sounds, right?

Thanks for all you've done, it's a great resource for all Traveller GMs!

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Nice, Mert. I agree with Kaladorn and Falkayn, though: I'm not sure about the end of the jump, and it does look like the ship is touching the front of the bubble.

"Still, I salute you both. You've both added to my impression of the universe. Pity we didn't have a greater collection of ship wireframes for some of the classic ships and accompanying textures."

Thanks! I've got a few other ships built.

"I figure that user interface designers have worked out that making the ship's computer add 'realistic' sounds to ships in the local area enhances the crew's reactions to those ships."

Yeah, I thought the same thing recently (while watching the SW DVDs!)

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi folks,

I fixed the bubble placement thing. New video is available here:
Jump Bubble video

I really hate animation choreographing

I also will have to fix the jump bubble mapping type. The spherical mapping I use now creates a visible seam, which I really dont like.
Additionally I will make the bubble geometry less static and add some noise here.

Andrew, what do You think about a misjump animation :=).
Lets be destructive.

Kaladorn, I will produce a jump bubble disappearing just as You suggested. Thats not complicate.
Could You explain the jump grid energizesation pattern thing a bit. Guess I did not get completely, whats on Your mind

.
What additional designs would You like to have as a CG ?

Regards,

Mert

 

[Scarecrow]

Mert,

WOW! Just WOW! That's brilliant.

A couple of minor suggestions. Can you animate the grid so it's seen to form under the jump bubble as the ship flies past the camera?

Also, are you going to drop in a starfield - maybe with some B5 style nebulas.

If you can make the flash at the end and intense glow then that would finish it off perfectly.

Nice one!

Crow

All this talk of 3D is getting my creative juices flowing. I have in my head an image of a Princess Marava lifting off amidst a thunderous roar of engines and clouds of dust and hot-air distortion. I'd love to realise it. Maybe I will... hmmm...

 

[kaladorn]

What are the best CGs I've seen for Traveller?

1. Your two guys Jump animations!
2. Scarecrow's starport scene with the vargr and human loading the merchant ship as other ships fly by in the background!

For renders, Scarecrow's ship interiors have (sorry but I can't help but say it) no equal I've yet seen. He is a true five-star professional... it shows up in little touches....

What would I like to see in CG?
1. Misjump animation would be neat.
2. Further jump image options (based on current work)
3. An Astrin or a Trepida flying over a landscape (and maybe taking some fire)
4. A starship crashing
5. Starships landing at a port pad with people and other starport activities going on in the background
6. Two starships docking
7. A starship and an orbital station docking
8. A starship flying across the bright face of a planet or against the bright face of a sun
9. A starship flying from light side of a planet to night side (perhaps orbiting) and having its lights/markers go on as it went dark (B5 did this with the station!)

There are some ideas.

Variable Jump Grid Energization:
Hypoethcate that different hull energization patterns result in different entry vectors into the J-space. Argue that different energy levels in varying parts of the hull grid suggest differing degrees (or colours) of flourescence or emission. Then conclude that one should either see a dim glos in some parts and a bright glow in others, or differing colours in different parts, or fanciest of all, a shifting pattern of intensities along the gridlines to reflect dynamic adjustments....

Not simple, but perhaps 'very, very cool' if one could make it work. Let me say one more 'very' just to overdo the hyperbole!

There's some ideas.

PS - saw the new clip. Nice.

 

[aramis]

1st: WOW!

2nd: nitpicks- I don't like the specific methods of disolve... on either. (not that I really matter.)

The Jump bubble one: I dislike the folding to a 2d, then rotating and shrinking. Really looks "Buck Rogers" TV show stargatish.

The Lananum grid: Before the flare, could you have the bubble grow in radiance, first, so the bubble becomes the venet horizon, then produces the flare?

 

[Badbru]

I've been lurking on this thread since it started and finally have to add a comment.

Those are fantastic!

Fascinating to see where both ships (Andrews and Merts) have come to from where they started.

Thanks guys, I'm really impressed.

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Suggestion and nitpicks (again a funny english word) are very welcome.
At least these are visualisations of thoughts.
Any we know how diverse thoughts are here

I will render the Kaladorn version next, which might reduce the rotating/shrinking effect anyway.
There also will be more dynamic illumination in the grid pattern and it will start formation at cameras closest approach as Crow suggested.
If anybody has a nice starfield picture or a link with a pretty resolution I would be quite thankful. The stuff I have is just to low-res for that.

Aramis, could You clarify the the second remark for me...

Regards,

Mert

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by TheEngineer:
Suggestion and nitpicks (again a funny english word)

Who you callin' funny lookin, Mr. Old Europe?

Seriously, as funny a word as it is, nitpicking is worrying about small details, but it is also removing vermin, delousing or.... in computer terms, debugging. So entirely appropriate for the iterative process we see here.

Any we know how diverse thoughts are here

You're feeling in the Xmas spirit. That's a very generous characterization...

I will render the Kaladorn version next, which might reduce the rotating/shrinking effect anyway.

I'm doing a virtual jig of anticipation.

Superlative work, for all. I'll show both off to my players next game! Perhaps some Wagner to accompany Mert's piece?

A Misjump Emergence would be interesting. I think we'd see the light, then the ship, but it would probably tumble out of jump (possibly moving in all three axes and possibly with all 3 axes rotations as well.. yikes...!), maybe with signs of intermittent power fluctuations. Now *that* would be arriving after a close call!

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"Andrew, what do You think about a misjump animation :=)."

I'm not convinced it would look significantly different to a normal jump.

"For renders, Scarecrow's ship interiors have (sorry but I can't help but say it) no equal I've yet seen. He is a true five-star professional..."

Definitely.

"Perhaps some Wagner to accompany Mert's piece?"

I suppose I'd better find some Elgar for mine.

I have an idea for a short film: an air/raft rushes back to the starport, the ship takes off and flies to the jump point pursued by other ships.

 

[aramis]

I'd never thought of Nitpicking as being an appropriate appelation for debugging, but it literally means "removal of unhatched bugs"....

And yeah, they are coming along quite nicely, and this thread is as much a how-to as a feedback loop... Bravo!

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

A new one, but just a draft.
Jump Bubble Version 7e

I changed the fading and the flare section and altered the grid illumination timing (as Crow suggested), too.
The dynamic in the hull grid is not very visible at this rendering quality and resolution, but I will try to intensify the effect and provide a better video on christmas

Regards,

Mert

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Oh, that's much better! I like that.

 

[Jame]

Well, whaddya know? I actually SAW that! Now my knowledge of youse guyse's skills is confirmed. Well done!

 

[kaladorn]

7e is very nice Mert! Bravo!

One curisiosity, why is the ship flying what appears to be a U shaped course? (Or is that just a trick of the camera?) - it appears to fly towards the camera and sort of bank away from it...?

Was having the ship approach and fly-by with just the camera angle changing too dull? (Might have been)

I do like the new disolve. You are right with the resolution of the current set that any dynamic effect in the hull grid is tough to see. (What did you do, just variable intensity vs. colour variance?)

Can you do a 'bigger' version with higher quality renders? (I'll willingly download a 10 Mb file if that's what it takes... I'm quite impressed by what I've seen so far and would like to also get your permission to snag some high-res screen caps for illustrative purposes in my games...)

You two guys and Crow would make excellent art-geeks for a revised Starship Operators Manual (or a Vol2 just featuring another ship like the Empress Marava or a new design!).

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!

Now, if only I have deep enough (argh!) pockets to win me a copy of Cats and Rats on eBay, then my Xmas will be complete!

 

[kaladorn]

Crow,

I'd love to see a Marava taking off and climbing to orbit.

A ship docking with a big station would be nice, since Trav should have lots of highports and seeing how you 3D geeks would realize a busy highport would be interesting.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"I'd love to see a Marava taking off and climbing to orbit."

You mean like the one on my website? (It's 2 years old, so not that great).

"A ship docking with a big station would be nice, since Trav should have lots of highports and seeing how you 3D geeks would realize a busy highport would be interesting."

There's a pic of that, too.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Here's a little starport scene:

http://www.cix.co.uk/~fubar/Traveller/scene2.avi

(Render time 4hrs 45min!!)

 

[mike wightman]

Now that is very good indeed