The Morpheus

Okay Pal…

I just want you to know that 3DC hasn’t crashed on me since last month.. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>:P:)

The Orion Odyssey game/demo is making progress.
The latest addition is the Morpheus..a large carrier vessel that deploys fighters when required. It’s taken just over two months to build, texture and lightmap.
A lot of the time has been spent writing the code for the animations, menus, teleporter and fighter launch/recovery routines.
The interior of the Morpheus has just one deck at the moment, comprising of the bridge, ops room and transporter room. Other decks will be added as required, a hanger/repair deck is probably next.

All the models including the figure were built with 3DC, textures with PSP, Lightmaps with Gile and the figure was animated using FragMotion.
Everthing is loaded into Blitz3D, the animations for the doors, transporter room, ops room and tractor beam are done from within Blitz…much easier. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Bazza

The Bridge..not a lot to do in here yet other than have a look around. I need to create some more figures to bring it to life. The two consoles were built and textured by ‘…that other Richard’ and he also supplied the textures for the large weapons and engine system screens you can see on the far wall.

Bazza

My only crew member at the moment, he spends his time for now just walking up and down the corridor section next to the bridge..I’ll find him something to do later.
I’m not a very good figure animator, so there is still a bit of work to do with the walking motion…the leg movements seem ok, but he still seems a bit ‘stiff’ and I can’t work out what it is I need to do to correct it.
Anyway he was built with 3DC and unwrapped in Ultimate Unrwap3D. I used a newish program called Fragmotion to attach the skeleton and assign the verts to each bone. It’s quite easy to use once you get the hang of things.
The skin was painted in PSP.

Bazza

The transporter room (1)..thank god for Star Trek…this room is great. It allows the user to select a destination from one of the consoles. A player model then appears in the teleporter (2) which closes. He then turns green, accompanied by a humming noise and fades away (3).
Wouldn’t you turn green if you knew I’d written the code to teleport you somewhere. <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>
ATM there is only one test destination but it works pefectly so I really pleased..You can transport the player to anywhere that is in range, another ship maybe, a planet to do some trading, or maybe just some RandR. It allows me to build anything I wish and be transported there, so plenty of scope for modelling new scenes.

Bazza

The Ops room and one of the menu screens. Looks a bit empty so again need to get on with the figures to get some life into it. From the ops console you can select either, a combat mission to fly, a ground combat mission, a trade mission or an intelligence (spying mission)
This menu is for selecting the fighter you wish to fly…works quite well.
Only one mission is available at the moment…a flight combat mission that is very much WIP.

Bazza

After selecting the mission you want to fly and the fighter you wish to use your taken to one of the launch bays beneath the Morpheus. The launch is fully automated animation so you don’t have to do anything just watch.

1) The launch bay doors about to open
2) The doors fully open and the ignition sequence begins
3) Weapons and shield sytems activated
4) The launch

You then take control…fly through a portal which takes you to the combat area. Hopefully you see off the enemy…fly back through the portal to the Morpheus scene.

Each bay will take 3 fighters and I still need to do some work on the textures here.
The fighter is by Les Patterson..one of his Mustang models. He also supplied his Raptor and ‘…that other Richard’ supplied an Interceptor model…all I did was built an enemy fighter for everyone to shoot at. I must get round to building a USSF fighter soon.

Bazza

The fighter recovery is one of my favorite bits. It looks good and ‘ feels right ‘
Again it’s a fully automated animation so you just sit back and watch after you enter the tractor beam. It took ages to write the code for it, trying different ideas..most of which were scrubbed but I got there in the end. From entering the beam to the air-lock door closing behind you takes about 30 secs of animation. I must have flown through the beam over 100 times getting it to work correctly.
1) The Mustang about to enter the beam
2) Inside the beam which rotates while your inside it.
3) Arriving at the air-lock door
4) The door opens and you are pulled inside. The beam fades and the outer door closes.

Thats it…this scene then fades and your back on the bridge where you started. When I get the hanger built I’ll be able to open the inner door and recover the fighter into the hanger/workshop area.
Don’t ask me how, I haven’t worked it out yet.

Bazza

Awesome !!!!

Great work on the modeling and textures. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Thanks V_F…it’s nice to be able to bring all these models together at last and get things working..it’s been a long flog. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Bazza

That’s just great work guys, looks very interesting <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

The modeling is well done, ideal for a game.

If there is anything I could do to help just say the word and I’ll see what I can do. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

It seems your doing most of the coding Bazza,
keep at it, it sound very interesting.

James

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]If there is anything I could do to help just say the word and I’ll see what I can do. [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]
Hi James,
You don’t know what your letting yourself in for. <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>
Many thanks for the offer..I’ve sent you a mail with all the files…I think. Had a bit of a glitch as I sent it. Let me know if you don’t receive it.

Bazza

Very nice (again).

Thanks Alan (again). <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

I’ll see if I can put two hours to one side for your new competition.

I can’t think why ‘…that other Richard’ is interested in the competition, it takes him two hours to get 3DC up and running. <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>

Bazza