Adonis 31.05.2009 - TMP Connie

[Jules]

Here are 3DSMax renders of the Connie that I did when I sent the model to Zach for the update. I did the render in my signature then too.

The model is put together by a combination of 3DSMax versions 7 and 9 and Photoshop (for the textures, naturally ).

I have started the first version of this model a long time ago, but lost it in a HDD crash that claimed about 95% of my work done up until that point. This was somewhere around early 2005. I have started this particular mesh around a year and a half ago, and slowly worked on her, up until the time Mark approached me that we need the Miranda and the Constitution for Excal. At that time, only the nacelles out of the main superstructure where missing.

Unlike what most people think of this ship, she's far from a smooth surface all over. There is a lot of small extrusion and intrusions all over the ship's hull that no one ever seemed to bother to texture in. The detail that previous incarnations in either SFC or BC lacked doesn't stop there by far. The most accurate TMP Constitution model so far that I've ever seen was WickedZombie45's one (yes, forget about Khaliban's one). I used reference pictures of both the Enterprise and Enterprise-A studio models in making this ship.

Unlike popular belief, the impulse deflection crystal of the ship isn't blue, but pale yellow (the Mirandas one is blue). One other error others do on a regular basis is that they do not include scene lightning and specularity - or age for that matter - into their assessment of colors from screencaps and pictures of the studio models (the outermost teal ring on the secondary hull is a nice example, most always paint it in shades of pale green). Also, most screw up the dorsal of the secondary hull (where the neck aft flows with the secondary hull top) texture-wise. They forget the lines that go there and even the small extrusions of each side of the dorsal's structure).

The hardest part of this ship to model (and I think anyone who ever did a model of this ship will know it by heart) are the nacelles. They are a confusingly complex shape, on basic terms a fusion of a modified chamferbox and capsule.

Things to be redone for the final port on this thing is first of all, redoing the aztec on the entire ship minus the saucer (basically the only part of the ship I call finished). The entire ship has 2 shades of basic color (you'll see it best on the sides of the secondary hull), and around 5 or 6 (I'm too lazy to count them) shades of teal all over the hull. The aztecs take up 3 shades (one is missing on the model). So, bottom line, in the final game, you can expect the best, the most accurate and the prettiest Constitution class model made to date.

One other thing I must point out is the modeled-in Officers lounge on the back of Deck 2 done on Marks request. Originally, in ST:TMP Andy Probert came up with a nice, roomy lounge, but that was scrapped because the movie didn't have the budget to build that set, so they did the simpler one that we all saw in the film. I'm including Probert's original concept drawing at the end of this post too, to set the record straight .

The model uses 4 2048x2048 textures, and two 512x64 ones for the plasmas (both inner and outer have their own, so the outer grids can be lighted if we want to). First of the 2048's is the IDMap which all who have my released ships for BC know about (includes all the registry areas, impulse engines, deflector, and the impulse crystal - so all of you who are up for tradition instead of accuracy can still have it blue ). The second is the saucer, 3rd is the secondary hull and the 4th are the nacelles and their struts. I used Max9 to render illumination cast by the impulse engines, deflector and impulse crystal in VRay. Also, rendered the illumination cast by the spotlights all over the ship and made a composite out of those to make the lightmaps of the ship. The modeling, mapping, porting, etc. was done in Max7.

The ship registry you see on some of the viewer screencaps and on these renders is the U.S.S. Agincourt NCC-1813 (she's named after the Battle of Agincourt from the British-French Hundred Years War). All who back in the days played Star Trek: Starfleet Academy know this ship. She was one of Starfleets simulator ships which the player commanded in the game. She has one difference compared to the two big E's we know and love. I have intentionally made a starboard gangway hatch, which doesn't exist on either of the big E's studio models.

And without further ado, the renders:

[szekeres2008]

 It was a very pleasant reading, I've never realised how much small detail is on the ship, non the less your model is far the most precise version ever made for a game. You are truly an expert in TMP designs.

[BaldlyGo]

So does this mean there will be classic elements or like a classic mode to the game?

[Mark]

There will still be a rare few Constitution classes in service in places, mainly within the core federation systems. The vessels will also be hidden in scrap yards around the galaxy.

In terms of a "classic story mode", I'm not sure entirely how you mean but we aren't willing to discuss further game modes at the moment anyway.. some things are worth waiting for

[Kaempfer]

That is one breathtakingly beautiful render. I hope to get to fly her!

[Cyllus]

That is one breathtakingly beautiful render. I hope to get to fly her!

I'm with you captain. shes a fine ship, but only fit for those who can command her.

[MajorD]

This is pretty old, but it demands I post in it.

For command of excruciating detail and discretion in following canon, I present to you extremely high quality D7 studio model shots.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yzygnemqm4h

You're continued Star Trek related OCD is thanks enough.

[Jules]

Here are more up to date renders of the model, lots of fixes since the renders upstairs.

[zzz]

any way you could port the mesh into the latest version of nanofx and give some screens? I hope all the models have this much detail. 

I was kinda worried when reading the old news updates about how certain models are 12000 or 8000 polys. I always assumed you were showing off how low you managed to get the poly count but still maintain the detail, then I saw some "almosts" and "overs".

Current generation games uses 30,000 polys just for the player character model, and they've got the rest of the environment to render after that. You should push the graphics as far as it can go. the game will be around indefinitely after it's been released. and no studio makes games where the current generation of hardware is intended as the upper-most limits of the graphics.

anyway, great model.

[furswift]

Holy crap! 

She looks damned impressive! Especially the light reflecting off the hull paneling. Can't wait to fly her.

[Simon]

Current generation games uses 30,000 polys just for the player character model, and they've got the rest of the environment to render after that.

From http://www.unrealtechnology.com/technology.php :
Characters

For every major character and static mesh asset, we build two versions of the geometry: a renderable mesh with unique UV coordinates, and a detail mesh containing only geometry. We run the two meshes through the Unreal Engine 3 preprocessing tool and generate a high-res normal map for the renderable mesh, based on analyzing all of the geometry in the detail mesh.

Renderable Mesh: We build renderable meshes with 3,000-12,000 triangles, based on the expectation of 5-20 visible characters in a game scene.
Detail Mesh: We build 1-8 million triangle detail meshes for typical characters. This is quite sufficient for generating 1-2 normal maps of resolution 2048x2048 per character.
Bones: The highest LOD version of our characters typically have 100-200 bones, and include articulated faces, hands, and fingers.

and no studio makes games where the current generation of hardware is intended as the upper-most limits of the graphics.

www.worldofwarcraft.com

[Jon]

Current generation games uses 30,000 polys just for the player character model, and they've got the rest of the environment to render after that. You should push the graphics as far as it can go. the game will be around indefinitely after it's been released. and no studio makes games where the current generation of hardware is intended as the upper-most limits of the graphics.

Umm, I'm no modeller, but I have to disagree, why waste resources having extra poly's if you can model it just as well  with less?
Just seems like wasting resource to me and limiting our gaming base to people with higher spec hardware.

[zzz]

http://www.comicspot.com/news/6239328.html

"The game will have nearly 1,000 cars sporting 400,000 polygons each--100 times more polygons than Gran Turismo 4's vehicles had."

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-396871.aspx

"Uncharted 2 characters have 30,000 polygons each"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/first-god-of-war-iii-details-emerge

"Kratos on PS2 was probably about 5,000 polygons, and now he's 20,000,"

RE4 on the last-gen Gamecube had the main protagonist at 10,000 polys. Nexus from 2005 had ships at around 15,000. Lost Planet's main character was 17,000 polys. PGR3 had cars at 80,000 polys.

www.worldofwarcraft.com

...

That's an MMO.

Umm, I'm no modeller, but I have to disagree, why waste resources having extra poly's if you can model it just as well  with less?

Because I can already see straight edges forming up what are meant to be curves on the Galaxy, Vor'cha and D'deridex.

Just seems like wasting resource to me and limiting our gaming base to people with higher spec hardware.

You can't cover every possible rig. The game will be around for years once released. It won't vanish. People will upgrade eventually. You should "future-proof" it. Like STALKER or Crysis.

[Jon]

Must need my eyes testing then, they look fine to me...

Anyway, we've taken this too far offtopic, so lets drift back shall we?

[begolf00]

Very stunning, Has left me speechless. This model is a work of art, just spent the last day going over your guys site. I am very impressed, keep up the good work and look forward to playing this when its done.

[Bones]

Very stunning, Has left me speechless. This model is a work of art, just spent the last day going over your guys site. I am very impressed, keep up the good work and look forward to playing this when its done.

I second that, also I'm glad you choose to change color or the bussards to canon I couldn't fit that bright red anywhere 

[Jules]

I second that, also I'm glad you choose to change color or the bussards to canon I couldn't fit that bright red anywhere 

It was an oversight on my side that I fixed. 

[Brendan Caulfield]

I'm struggling to convey what an improvement the updated renders are. The subtlety of the speculars and normal mapping is superb. She looks screen-worthy now. I might be wrong, but the only thing that stands out to me now is the size of the arboretum windows, they look a little small there.