X-Beyond the Frontier ... A2 Meshes Available Soon!

[EAS_Intrepid]

Hi!

I always liked that game. Way better than its precedessors.

Quite some time ago I did a few ships from the old XBTF (year: 1999!!), but they were lost...
and here they are again!

This here is an early Earth cruiser/destroyer. It has not been in-game as unit, but could be seen in the intro and several cut-scenes.
Since I like big blocky and bulky starship designs, this was a must-do!

Spoiler: Cruiser

This is a comparison between the original mesh and my one:

Second is an Earth design which was only in thge tutorial mission.
It is a larger command vessel, using a rotating section to provide simulated gravity.

In the front, you see my interpretation of the ship and in the back there is the original game model.
I buildt the ship before I had access to the original files, so it does differ - Plus: I did some modifications to the design myself.

Spoiler:

If anyone wants to have a true depiction of the ship from the game, I think I can convert it for you.

I will release the two ships as a package as soon as possible. Until the I have to figure out where to place the weapon hardpoints.... unlike other scifi warships, these do not have any obvious gun ports nor have they been seen firing any weapons in the game...

Coming up: a few alien ships.

(C) Designs and original meshes are from EGOSOFT, X-Beyond the Frontier, 1999.

 

[thunderfoot]

Me likey lots n lots! Nice to see some stuff from other games. These are well done.

 

[Dan1025]

While I'm not familiar with the game, the meshes are excellent, well done

 

[Majestic]

As always nicely done Intrepid.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thank you very very much!

Here's a variant of the Earth cruiser: a carrier design from the same era.

Spoiler:

 

[thunderfoot]

I am liking these more and more. The carrier is a logical extension of the cruiser. They both make sense and they actually look like something someone could build now, if we Humans had a working FTL drive. I have become something of a fan of late of form following function. One of the few things I know about Babylon 5 is the ships all looked like something the races which built them would build. I still think the Shadow ships and the Minbrian(?) ships matched up very well with the little bit I know about each of them. I remember a while back when all the custom built Starfleet ships for A2 were droop-snooted, dagger-nosed hotrods with waay too many weapons and nacelles. They were pretty. They were fast. They were well done and showed the talents of their designers clearly. But they did not look like they belonged to the Federation, if this makes any sense.

Some fine work here, EAS_Intrepid. Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[Majestic]

Very nice Intrepid, the textures look awesome did you do those yourself?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

I am liking these more and more. The carrier is a logical extension of the cruiser. They both make sense and they actually look like something someone could build now, if we Humans had a working FTL drive. I have become something of a fan of late of form following function. One of the few things I know about Babylon 5 is the ships all looked like something the races which built them would build. I still think the Shadow ships and the Minbrian(?) ships matched up very well with the little bit I know about each of them.

Then you should definatley watch more Babylon 5
I am a huge fan of the "form follows function" approach myself.

I remember a while back when all the custom built Starfleet ships for A2 were droop-snooted, dagger-nosed hotrods with waay too many weapons and nacelles. They were pretty. They were fast. They were well done and showed the talents of their designers clearly. But they did not look like they belonged to the Federation, if this makes any sense.

Some fine work here, EAS_Intrepid. Looking forward to the rest of it.

Thank you!
Myself I never really liked all the Federation -X classes. From Galaxy-G to Sovereign-X... some mighty ugly designs, if you ask me.

Very nice Intrepid, the textures look awesome did you do those yourself?

Thanks again. No, the textures are from the game itself, I just modified them a little (resizing, sharpening, playing a bit around with the Contrast-settings).

 

[Majestic]

Then you should definatley watch more Babylon 5
I am a huge fan of the "form follows function" approach myself.

Indeed, awesome Babylon 5 was/is. I agree with Intrepid, Thunderfoot you certainly need to give B5 a go, you won't be disappointed especially with seasons 3 and 4.

Thanks again. No, the textures are from the game itself, I just modified them a little (resizing, sharpening, playing a bit around with the Contrast-settings).

Well still awesome work. I am liking the more military feel these models are giving over the Star Trek models.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Well still awesome work. I am liking the more military feel these models are giving over the Star Trek models.

I totally agree


As of now I am hardpointing the models. I was trying to do textures with lightmaps but I haven't had any succes yet.

 

[Majestic]

I totally agree


As of now I am hardpointing the models. I was trying to do textures with lightmaps but I haven't had any succes yet.

Light maps are not as hard as one would think. I found them hard to start with.

I use photoshop CS3 Extended or v10.0, whichever you prefer.

All you need to do is make sure you have the channel "alpha" have the white bits as the glows (such as lights engines etc) and dark (black) bits as the hull that doesn't glow.

Save as uncompressed 32bit targa.

For your material name you need to add _!default at the end of it.

Also something I just discovered, the material settings need to be as follows:

Ambient: Hue: 160 Lum: 0
Diffuse: Hue: 160 Lum: 240
Specular: Hue: 160 Lum: 0
Emissive: Hue: 160 Lum: 240

Then you are set.

I am sure someone like Jetfreak can explain it better than me.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

All right. I'll give that a try. Thanks alot!

I post what I've come up with, once I got it right and exported it.

 

[Majestic]

My suggestion... see if Jetfreak is willing to test it for you. It seemed to work fine for him (my Galactica) but didn't for me. I couldn't figure out how to make a map completely dark. I did delete the directional light, well all that I could find.

Also if you run into issues with the lightmaps, you know they just aren't working for you, I am willing to do them for you to get you on the road. That includes having a look at the model to see if all the settings are correct and what not.

I learnt a lot with the Galactica, it and Jetfreak taught/helped me a lot.