More progress on the Reliant model, the dorsal section texture and lighting is nearly finished:
8/3/23
Getting back into dedicating some time each day to the [EL] project, working on changing thruster flares that match Federation ships from the old movies here's a screenshot of some of my testing:
**Just updated shipspecs105.txt (Reliant's thruster placement) to make adjustments for the lighting and flare changes, if you are already experimenting with this ship you might want to redownload this file, I'll post the flare images once I'm happy with how they turn out**
7/29/23
Further updated the emissive map for the Reliant model, my apologies for the slow updates - been facing some challenges taking care of my fathers health however I'm still able to sneak in some work from time to time.
6/7/23
More work done on Reliant emissive map, download link updated.
5/20/23
Updated the Reliant emissive map further, almost finished.
5/15/23
Still alive over here folks, sorry I haven't had a lot of EvoLegacy time lately but I've updated the Reliant's emissive texture map so the link below is updated with the new map update. I'm looking after my father who's dementia has become markedly worse in recent years and some days or weeks can be .... challenging. At any rate I will still grind away at the project whenever I can squeeze in the time between the craziness :-)
4/28/23
Reliant emissive map nearly completed I've uploaded my progress which you can download below to check out. I'll update periodically as it and other project near completion.
4/7/23
Borg Cube Finished! I've updated the download link below with a .zip that contains all the necessary files to go in your game's media/ships folder. The textures are all 1k in size, once I catch up on the other ships/mods I may try to add 2k and 4k textures later on. This will turn all Vonari capital ships into massive Borg Cubes ready to assimilate you, resistance is futile.
Reworked the model for the Cruiser class / Enterprise A to cull as many poly faces and vertices as possible without compromising detail to improve frame rate and load times. Output format was changed from .x to .obj to help accommodate the changes, was able to reduce the file size of the model about 80%. In game testing has confirmed significant load time and frame rate improvements. Also added a fully modeled shuttle bay large enough for smaller ships to fly / dock inside (I thought it would be cool). Upload link has been updated below so if you have already downloaded it you may want to download again, you can also delete the old model that was made in .x format to avoid conflicts. I haven't added textures yet but I have completely reworked and improved the UV map a download link to the template will also be available to download.
Reworked the Command Class / Enterprise D model to cull poly faces and vertices similar to the work on the Enterprise A. Reduced model file size by about 90% with significantly improved load times and frame rates. UV map also overhauled and a template will be available for download below as well. If you've already downloaded the previous model you may want to download the new one and replace the old one which is also now in a .obj format instead of .x
3/29/23
Added a Borg Cube to replace Vonari capital ships for early testing. Please let me know if there are any collision issues with the model in game, thanks! Download link is below
3/19/23
Updated the Reliant UV map download link below with more refinement and completed sections
3/14/23
Added shipspects105.txt for the USS Reliant model this will position the gun and thruster flares to their canonical positions in game.
3/13/23
Updated the Reliant model for reduced poly count, improved loading and UV map. If you've already downloaded it you may want to download again. Also uploaded a mostly complete UV texture map below, I will update once its finished assuming nobody beats me to it.
2/10/23
Spring weather seems nearly upon us, in between cleaning and catching up on storm repairs I've been dedicating more time to my capital ship project and the Reliant is nearing completion just working on smaller details now:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D2kZRR ... sp=sharing
1/24/23
Still alive and well after weathering the recent storms, while progress has slowed while repairing damage here at home (I still have a trampoline impaled into our laundry room) I'm still working on this project in whatever spare time I can muster and nearing completion on the USS Reliant texture pack and should be releasing a completed version of this ship soon.
1/1/23
USS Reliant Miranda class model nearly completed
Screenshot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Kpy9y ... sp=sharing
With just a few college AutoCAD classes under my belt I figured texturing would be the easiest part, little did I know the art of UV unwrapping would present quite a steep learning experience. The good news is I think I've got a handle on the process. An important step was culling some of the polys in the model so that my weak GPU wouldn't die trying to unwrap the model with the added benefit of making it load in game faster with less / no lag (all while trying not to sacrifice on the visuals). The texture map for the Reliant is nearly completed then I will need to create a normal and emissive map and finally thruster flares and gun placements. I'll post a download for the pack once it's ready to go and passes inspection.
For future reference I recommend the following tools / programs for anyone wanting to add their own ships so as to save the headache I went through during the process:
*Blender 3.4 for creating the model
*HIGHLY recommend getting the addons for blender 3.4: Zen UV and Packmaster 3 - it will speed up the process immensely
*Export from Blender 3.4 as a .obj (legacy) file once the model, orientation and UV maps are completed(I believe Evochron uses a left-handed coordinates system) AND export your UV map as a .png
*Get the thruster and turret positioning tool for Evochron that Vice created, it allows you to view the progress on your model in a tiny viewport you can scale and rotate so you don't have to load the game over and over again.
*Using the .png UV map, create a texture map, I've used both plain old fashion paint that comes with windows in combination with Allegorithmic Substance Painter (optional)
*Shader Map 4 for creating normal and emissive maps from your finished texture map (I tried other programs as well as cloud based tools, but I was unhappy with the results I was getting.
*Get a separate download of Blender 2.49b (it is the last version with full direct x support) and import the .obj you created with 3.4 then use the program to export it as a .x direct x file which is supported by Evochron / Dark Basic engine
12/24/22
Tis the season to 'make it so!'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xteKObnaA2c
Download link below, feel free to try it out and I'll have textures added as soon as they are working, for now it will load default textures which still look cool.
********MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY PILOTING!**********
12-7-22
Ok I think I've just about got the hang of adding models to Evochron Legacy, I'll be putting more together to go along with this one once I get them working.
*IMPORTANT* Make sure you are using the latest version of Evochron Legacy for these to work!*
The ship3.x file from the download goes in Evochron install folder (where your .exe for the game resides) /media/ships
*Added USS Excelsior model as ship.4 which will also replace the Battleship human class ships, the download link is at the bottom of this post, place it in the same folder as the enterprise model as well.
If you don't have a 'ships' folder in the media directory already you can create one, this should change every cruiser capital ship model to the constitution class Enterprise from the Wrath of Khan movie.
(I haven't worked on the texture or cannon placement etc, that comes next since i'm still learning - and if any modding veterans want to take on the task you have my blessing :-)
Here's some screenshots of my current testing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqurf- ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/156j-8k ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PT2HGu ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13WEplG ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EuxRn- ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19VcJDB ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vWQbGQ ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M2RycD ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_9g33P ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UE454z ... CEtPk/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gAaVtR ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eyHV5q ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sE_LOm ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jklNc_ ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CaIflj ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-bJHVH ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yQ8JFm ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1imNFKY ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18BH0eE ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BMfQU3 ... sp=sharing
**These models are BIG so they will eat up a lot more ram than usual but most modern base model computer should still be able to handle them, in my testing my in game graphics settings are set to medium at 1920x1080 resolution using a cheap 10 year old Walmart laptop with a stripped down windows 10 and only 4gb of shared ram/vram with intel 4000 integrated graphics and I get around 15-30 fps, but there is some extended load times on occasion and most of the frame drops occur when one or more of these ships is in view when close to a planet surface.**
-New ship models go in the same folder as mentioned above, current ships available:
Download Link for ship1.x Oberth Class Transport:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DU3oV4 ... sp=sharing
Download Link for ship2.x Miranda Class USS Reliant:
(Updated 3/13/23)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1laN-H8 ... sp=sharing
Mostly completed UV texture map:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yaouk7 ... sp=sharing
Mostly completed emissive map:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WmhHvK ... sp=sharing
Gun and Thruster Placement (shipspecs105.txt)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UtOJUx ... sp=sharing
Download Link for ship3.x USS Enterprise Refit FINAL (Model updated 4-7-23):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Chgyj ... sp=sharing
UV Map Template:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14oYSlp ... sp=sharing
Download Link for ship4.x USS Excelsior:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k-c2cB ... sp=sharing
Download Link for ship5.x USS Enterprise-D Galaxy Class
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FqG132 ... sp=sharing
UV Map Template:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mqRCcG ... sp=sharing
Download Link for ship2_v.obj Borg Cube (Completed 4/7/23):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QifyQs ... sp=sharing
