Nassau 1715

[Delta Hawk 1829]

I've been working on some metal parts of the Persephone.  Later I'll have to tweak the color a little to make the metal look tarred.  What do you all think?

 

[HitmanTwoActual 188]

That looks amazing Delta! I appreciate your attention to detail.

[Bitesrad 481]

On 6-2-2017 at 7:03 AM, Delta Hawk said:

I've been working on some metal parts of the Persephone.  Later I'll have to tweak the color a little to make the metal look tarred.  What do you all think?

 

Looks great, but the metal should be a bit glossy (even though it's rusted to shit)

[Delta Hawk 1829]

Work continues on the Persephone.  I added some character to her courtesy of the Götheborg.  Now she has a nice, salty look to her ;)  I've also added most of the lines and blocks.  I'm experimenting with the sails and materials that allow light to pass through them with positive results so far.  The sails will be one of the most difficult things to texture though.  If you're wondering I already have most of the ship modeled from a year ago but I'm now going back and redoing the textures and model to make it look much better.  Hopefully next time I post some pics you'll get to see inside an 18th century galley frigate :D

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by Delta Hawk
spelling and dropbox issues

[six_ten 208]

She's really looking good.  Does she sail  yet?

[fwedman 94]

Beautiful

 

[cyclone83 6]

Wow, feels like Assassin's Creed Black Flag  Very nice details mate!

[nodunit 397]

Impressive indeed! I've always had a soft spot for tall ships and yours is quite a beaut. The rigging detail really makes things stand out.

For curiosity sake are you using smdi or dtsmdi's?

[Delta Hawk 1829]

On 3/6/2017 at 8:01 PM, six_ten said:

She's really looking good.  Does she sail  yet?

 

Yes, she moves, at a neck breaking speed of 16 kph.  I still have to tweet the speed a little bit.  Unfortunately, she doesn't sail, but at some point I want to experiment with movement.

 

19 hours ago, nodunit said:

Impressive indeed! I've always had a soft spot for tall ships and yours is quite a beaut. The rigging detail really makes things stand out.

For curiosity sake are you using smdi or dtsmdi's?

 

I'm using smdi.  I'm not too sure how to use dtsmdi or what it's even used for.

[nodunit 397]

dtsmdi are multi material exclusive in which you can add a greyscale image to the red channel and it will be used as a detail map, always visible.
At the moment its a nice workaround if you are reliant on normal maps which tend to go poof in the shadows when it comes to multi material.

[Delta Hawk 1829]

I've added a dtsmdi but I can't really spot a difference.  Do you know of an object in game I can view a dtsmdi so I can see how it should look?

 

Anybody know how I can force shadows to show on my ship from a far distance, like in the pictures I just posted?  No shadows in the cabin on the stern and the forecastle looks horrible.

[warden_1 1070]

This is simply amazing.

[nodunit 397]

On 3/8/2017 at 10:59 AM, Delta Hawk said:

 

Yes, she moves, at a neck breaking speed of 16 kph.  I still have to tweet the speed a little bit.  Unfortunately, she doesn't sail, but at some point I want to experiment with movement.

 

 

I'm using smdi.  I'm not too sure how to use dtsmdi or what it's even used for.

Did you include a texture of some sort in the red channel?  That's more or less the big plus of dtsmdi vs smdi. 

Of course it depends on the strength of the normal map and how much of a difference there would be, you might not see it but should you run into a case where you're smashing your head into the desk because something you have, the normal maps vanish in shadow, thats the solution.

Also how far is the camera there?   Did you set your shadow distance to the peak?

[Delta Hawk 1829]

Yes the normals disappear in the shadows.  It's very noticeable on the inside.  It doesn't look ugly but it's not...well it's hard to explain.  It feels like it's holding back both the beauty and claustrophobic feeling of the inside.  I have included a texture in the red channel but I haven't noticed anything different.  I'll do a little more experimenting to see if I can produce what you're talking about.  Do you have any examples I can look at to get an idea of what to expect?

 

The camera is pretty far away and I believe I had my shadows turned up pretty high.  Do I have to use a special shadow LOD?

[Delta Hawk 1829]

I'm gonna ask this question...we'll see how it goes.  Would anybody be interested in making a map...of the Caribbean?  Specifically this area scaled down https://www.google.com/maps/@24.6089478,-76.557803,9z  It literally doesn't have to be complex since 98% of the Caribbean is water.  No buildings are needed.  It would be nice if there was some trees, bushes and grass.

[lumnuon 295]

23 hours ago, Delta Hawk said:

I'm gonna ask this question...we'll see how it goes.  Would anybody be interested in making a map...of the Caribbean?  Specifically this area scaled down https://www.google.com/maps/@24.6089478,-76.557803,9z  It literally doesn't have to be complex since 98% of the Caribbean is water.  No buildings are needed.  It would be nice if there was some trees, bushes and grass.

 

I will take a look after I finish my final exam on Wednesday  Is Apex usage an issue for you? The Apex trees and some of the buildings (especially the fort) would fit in nicely.

[nodunit 397]

On 4/19/2017 at 5:36 PM, Delta Hawk said:

Yes the normals disappear in the shadows.  It's very noticeable on the inside.  It doesn't look ugly but it's not...well it's hard to explain.  It feels like it's holding back both the beauty and claustrophobic feeling of the inside.  I have included a texture in the red channel but I haven't noticed anything different.  I'll do a little more experimenting to see if I can produce what you're talking about.  Do you have any examples I can look at to get an idea of what to expect?

 

The camera is pretty far away and I believe I had my shadows turned up pretty high.  Do I have to use a special shadow LOD?

Ah it sounds as though the ADS is the problem.  It behaves the same as an _AS map except the blue channel channel uses said baked shadow for at distance.
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Texture_Map_Types 


I recommend using ADSHQ so you get less gradient in your shadow.  http://tom4897.info/blog/2016/10/arma-3-ads-hq/

[Delta Hawk 1829]

16 hours ago, lumnuon said:

 

I will take a look after I finish my final exam on Wednesday  Is Apex usage an issue for you? The Apex trees and some of the buildings (especially the fort) would fit in nicely.

 

That's great news!  Thanks.  Yes, I prefer Apex and there was in fact a fort on Nassau around this time frame.  I'll send you a PM.

 

11 hours ago, nodunit said:

Ah it sounds as though the ADS is the problem.  It behaves the same as an _AS map except the blue channel channel uses said baked shadow for at distance.
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Texture_Map_Types 


I recommend using ADSHQ so you get less gradient in your shadow.  http://tom4897.info/blog/2016/10/arma-3-ads-hq/

 

Thanks for the info.  I'll work that into my pipeline.  Just curious how did you all texture the Freedom?  Did you guys use a 1:1 texture or was it tiled?

[Delta Hawk 1829]

My pipeline has change quite a bit, and for the better.  I have been focusing my efforts on animating the rigging of the Persephone so someone can possibly make her sail ;)  From the pictures below, which shows the Persephone with a larboard tack (the wind is coming over the left side "rail"), you can see the amount of work I've put into making the rigging of my ship.  What you might not see is the hours of studying square rigged galley frigates from this era and how to rig all of the sheets, tacks, clews, lifts, halliards .etc.  I guess you could say I had to "learn the ropes" :D  Even with all this effort though, I'm still not done with the rigging.

 

But learning about these ships truly gave me the appreciation of the technology in our world, both modern and past.  Just last year the replicate of the French frigate Le Hermione of 32 guns finally set sail after 15 years of construction!  The original Le Hermione had her keel laid down on March 1778 and she was launched in April 1779 as the most advance fighting frigate of her time.  Later she would become one of the most important ships in American history.  Even with power tools and machines the replica took 15 years to create.  The original Le Hermione took less than one year!  Incredible.

 

 

 

 

(Ignore the floating stern lanterns.  I'm currently redoing the metal pieces)

 

 

 

 

 

[markocro 66]

epic work, keep up

[Delta Hawk 1829]

Hey guys, I need your input on a situation when it comes to sailing my ship.  So originally I had no plans on getting it to sail but I've contacted someone who's willing to try to make the ship sail.  Now, if pigs could fly and player could walk on moving decks in ArmA I would make it to where multiple players could walk up to individual ropes and "pull" on them to set the sails and goof around when they weren't doing anything, but unfortunately that's not possible in ArmA.

 

So there's a couple options.  First option is make the ship a one man ship with the driver steering the ship and setting the sails either through action menus, which will be very cluttered with different sail actions or through some sort of visual dialog box where the player can set the sails.  This is good because it keeps the single player engaged in constant gameplay with the ship, but if they're passenger positions they won't be able to do anything but sit there.

 

A second option would be to have multiple players or AI control the ship.  For example one person can set the sails while the other, possibly an AI, steers the ship.  This is good because it shares the burden of controlling the ship over multiple people but may create periods of inactive gameplay for some.

 

Or three have multiple players or AI scattered throughout the ship controlling different aspects of the ship following the commands of a captain, such as the rudder, masts, sails, yards .etc.

 

Also an issue is being able to man cannons, chain pumps .etc.

 

Unfortunately with no way to walk on the decks while the ship is moving there will be no way of manning different crew stations if a player or AI dies.

 

Also something else to think about is do you want one player being able to leave the ship when it's stopped or multiple players?

 

Let me know what you guys think.  We're all open for suggestions, comments or ideas.

[ppitm 43]

This is amazing! I can't believe you've managed to animate all the yards and even the spritsail!

 

Regarding controls, why not just go all in? Make each pinrail a crew location, like Gunner/Commander/Driver on a vehicle. Change locations through radio menu. Then you can manipulate each line with the action menu. The captain can be a group leader who gives commands to AI crewmen via the 6 menu.

[Yano 18]

7 hours ago, Delta Hawk said:

pigs could fly

https://forums.bistudio.com/forums/topic/204602-wmo-walkable-moving-objects/

 

 

[lumnuon 295]

I think I would go for 1, max. 2 player(s) to "drive" the ship, X number of players man the cannons, one player can man the lookout.

Keeping it decently simple for the masses 

 

On the other hand, an elaborate sailing "simulator" would have it´s merits for sure.

[Alex150201 894]

Well my friend delta hawk pigs can fly :)

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/forums/topic/204602-wmo-walkable-moving-objects/

 

Also I am not sure about the moving the ship part, it would get tricky. My initial thoughts were something like Assasin's Creed is you've played it where the ship captain kinda gives commands. In the game he goes "Half Sail", "Full Sail" etc.