Modeling Challenge Thread

[boberth2o]

SIX GIGS?!?!!? WTF?! You must be running 64bit versions of softwares.. I've been wondering how inefficient Max is using my 4gigs of memory.. And 64bit version was nowhere to be... "found"

No I only run 32 Bit, but I've had a computer design in my head for a year or so that I want to build.

Bo would you be able to texture leviathon in Lightwave? Would be really useful.

Sure, I just got a new book on Lightwave so I've been messing around with things lately.

I am interested in joining this challenge, however I'm stuck on something.

What 3D modeling software would you recommend for a novice 3D modeler like me?
Would Google SketchUp be the best option?

Probably for you yes, Google Sketchup is the way to go. But If you want to do this challenge you have five days left to complete it. Model Fast!

[Dr Lee]

<-- me atm. Blasted computer here is restarting itself, done it four times since midnight last night... once right in the middle of EATG

As it only cr*ps on me when i do stuff in Max then i'm gonna have to submit my bomber using old images

Righty... presenting the B-340:

Pictures





Stats

Spoiler:

Length: 153 feet long Minus hyperspace spire on nose
Width: 56 feet wide
Height: 22 feet tall

Hull: quad-layer Trinium plating.

Crew:7, 1 Commander plus 2 shifts of 1 pilot, 1 comms officer and 1 bomb technician

Ship defense Weapons:
Five MK III rail guns
128 short range Naquadah enhanced ship-ship missiles

Ship offensive weapons:
Two tri-barrel plasma cannons capable of firing up to 2500 shots each, at their lowest charge level.
Rear bomb bay modular in design. Is equipped to carry either the Horizon module or a conventional bomb bay module.

Horizon Module:
Single Horizon missile consisting of 9 individual Naquadah enhanced Nuclear Missiles/modified conventional load missiles.

Conventional Bomb Bay module:
Consists of 18 smart bombs, either enhanced with Naquadah or not enhanced.
Each bomb is capable of locking onto its target and home into it, no matter if it's in space or Atmosphere.

Hyper Drive:
Lee-Miller designed Hyper drive duo-generator. Two hyper drive generators working in tandem, one generator in each drive pod

Sub-light engines:
Tau'ri-designed Asgard core-enhanced Ion propulsion generator. One located in each drive pod

History

Spoiler:

After the battle for Earth at the start of 2009 the IOA decided that a fleet of just DSC-304s and F-302s was not a sensible tactic and a number of different ship classes were designed and put into production.

One of the smaller designs was the B-340. Designed to rival the Alkesh in terms of firepower the B-340 was Earths primary heavy bomber, with the FB-305 classed as a light bomber. Designed primarily by Dr Bill Lee the B-304's maiden flight was undertaken on morning of the January 23rd 2010 and piloted by Colonel Caldwell. The flight went off without a hitch.

May 10th 2010: the same B-340 undertook a simulated bombing run with two prototype plasma tri-cannons. Halfway through the run the rear cannon exploded, obliterating both the ship and the testing crew of four. With the B-340s planned offensive capability centering around the plasma tri-cannon the incident pushed the ships projected entry into service back by around 4 months.

May 19th 2010: the first hyperspace jump by the Lee-Miller hyper drive was a rousing success. Up until this successful jump the Tau'ri were unable to perfect a hyper drive system that was small enough to fit any ship smaller than the original Prometheus class. the Hyper drive system was made up of two separate generators running in tandem.

Due to the size of the generators and the B-340, the class was the first to receive the Lee-Miller hyper drive generator.

December 14th 2010: saw the first hyperspace jump by a B-340 from Earth to pluto. the jump was successful and the next four months saw testing extend out of the Sol System without any major hitches.

November 30th 2010: on a remote planet the plasma tri-cannon was successful in firing without overloading the plasma core and work began on fitting the completed B-304 shells with a pair of tri-cannons.

January -June 2011: testing continued on the b-340 and it's numerous systems while military chiefs debated on adding a bomb bay onto the rear of the two cannon bays. After lengthy debating, it was decided to add the bomb bay onto the rear and extend the length of the B-340.

March 2011: Work on the MKIII rail gun was completed and military chiefs included five into the design of the ship.

July 17th 2011: to strengthen the B-340s defenses 128 Naquadah enhanced space missiles were included in the design by ways of sixteen pods of eight missiles. The 'space missiles' differed from conventional ordinance with the inclusion of four small thrusters in the rear of the missile. The thrusters enabled the missile to change course even in zero gravity.

October 1st 2011: the first test flight of the first 'production' B-340 happened between Earth and Pluto with General O'Neill at the controls.

December 15th 2011: saw the first B-340s enter service in two squadrons. The first heavy bomb wing was to operate out of McMurdo while the second Heavy Bomber wing was station on Atlantis.

December 21st 2011: the first mission by a B-340 was undertaken to hit a Lucian Alliance compound. the mission by two B-340s, Ironically named 'Peacekeeper' and 'Peace bringer', was a complete success. Both bombers returned with little or no damage and reporting complete destruction of the target buildings.

[Finger13]

<-- me atm. Blasted computer here is restarting itself, done it four times since midnight last night... once right in the middle of EATG

As it only cr*ps on me when i do stuff in Max then i'm gonna have to submit my bomber using old images

Righty... presenting the B-340:

Pictures





Stats

Spoiler:

Length: 153 feet long Minus hyperspace spire on nose
Width: 56 feet wide
Height: 22 feet tall

Hull: quad-layer Trinium plating.

Crew:7, 1 Commander plus 2 shifts of 1 pilot, 1 comms officer and 1 bomb technician

Ship defense Weapons:
Five MK III rail guns
128 short range Naquadah enhanced ship-ship missiles

Ship offensive weapons:
Two tri-barrel plasma cannons capable of firing up to 2500 shots each, at their lowest charge level.
Rear bomb bay modular in design. Is equipped to carry either the Horizon module or a conventional bomb bay module.

Horizon Module:
Single Horizon missile consisting of 9 individual Naquadah enhanced Nuclear Missiles/modified conventional load missiles.

Conventional Bomb Bay module:
Consists of 18 smart bombs, either enhanced with Naquadah or not enhanced.
Each bomb is capable of locking onto its target and home into it, no matter if it's in space or Atmosphere.

Hyper Drive:
Lee-Miller designed Hyper drive duo-generator. Two hyper drive generators working in tandem, one generator in each drive pod

Sub-light engines:
Tau'ri-designed Asgard core-enhanced Ion propulsion generator. One located in each drive pod

History

Spoiler:

After the battle for Earth at the start of 2009 the IOA decided that a fleet of just DSC-304s and F-302s was not a sensible tactic and a number of different ship classes were designed and put into production.

One of the smaller designs was the B-340. Designed to rival the Alkesh in terms of firepower the B-340 was Earths primary heavy bomber, with the FB-305 classed as a light bomber. Designed primarily by Dr Bill Lee the B-304's maiden flight was undertaken on morning of the January 23rd 2010 and piloted by Colonel Caldwell. The flight went off without a hitch.

May 10th 2010: the same B-340 undertook a simulated bombing run with two prototype plasma tri-cannons. Halfway through the run the rear cannon exploded, obliterating both the ship and the testing crew of four. With the B-340s planned offensive capability centering around the plasma tri-cannon the incident pushed the ships projected entry into service back by around 4 months.

May 19th 2010: the first hyperspace jump by the Lee-Miller hyper drive was a rousing success. Up until this successful jump the Tau'ri were unable to perfect a hyper drive system that was small enough to fit any ship smaller than the original Prometheus class. the Hyper drive system was made up of two separate generators running in tandem.

Due to the size of the generators and the B-340, the class was the first to receive the Lee-Miller hyper drive generator.

December 14th 2010: saw the first hyperspace jump by a B-340 from Earth to pluto. the jump was successful and the next four months saw testing extend out of the Sol System without any major hitches.

November 30th 2010: on a remote planet the plasma tri-cannon was successful in firing without overloading the plasma core and work began on fitting the completed B-304 shells with a pair of tri-cannons.

January -June 2011: testing continued on the b-340 and it's numerous systems while military chiefs debated on adding a bomb bay onto the rear of the two cannon bays. After lengthy debating, it was decided to add the bomb bay onto the rear and extend the length of the B-340.

March 2011: Work on the MKIII rail gun was completed and military chiefs included five into the design of the ship.

July 17th 2011: to strengthen the B-340s defenses 128 Naquadah enhanced space missiles were included in the design by ways of sixteen pods of eight missiles. The 'space missiles' differed from conventional ordinance with the inclusion of four small thrusters in the rear of the missile. The thrusters enabled the missile to change course even in zero gravity.

October 1st 2011: the first test flight of the first 'production' B-340 happened between Earth and Pluto with General O'Neill at the controls.

December 15th 2011: saw the first B-340s enter service in two squadrons. The first heavy bomb wing was to operate out of McMurdo while the second Heavy Bomber wing was station on Atlantis.

December 21st 2011: the first mission by a B-340 was undertaken to hit a Lucian Alliance compound. the mission by two B-340s, Ironically named 'Peacekeeper' and 'Peace bringer', was a complete success. Both bombers returned with little or no damage and reporting complete destruction of the target buildings.

Nice backstory.

Have you tried scanning for Spyware? My old computer used to get the same spyware over and over again, and would constantly reboot. After running Spybot S&D with the latest updates and the problem would go away.

Other things to watch for are temperatures. Downloading something like Speedfan or PCWizard2008 to see what the temperature of your CPU, motherboard, and video card are at is important. If your CPU is running too hot, which can happen over time thanks to gunk building up in the heatsink, and the thermal paste drying up, then your CPU will overheat and reboot. It would be worth it to take the side panel off of your computer and blow everything out, make sure your CPU fan and graphics card fan are working alright, and then try the spyware stuff. Also get that software, Speedfan is a tiny download, like 1mb if I recall correctly.

I built my computer and I'm in college for Computer Systems Technology, so trust me .

Oh, and if none of this works and it turns out that you do have a virus, you should really just back up your important files and reformat. That's the only sure way to get rid of nasties that might be on your PC.

Your CPU and graphics card temperatures should never exceed 70C. They can go higher, but it's best for their performance and lifespan to keep them below that. If you find that your temperatures are high and blow all of the dust out and load it back up to find the same problems, then you might have to take your CPU heatsink off and apply new thermal paste, then put it back on. And as for the graphics card, you can just manually raise the fan speed using a program like Rivatuner or something.

Keep your computers cool! I'm freaking out because my Q8200 CPU is idling at 40C lol. I bought this huge ass heatsink for it that takes up the width of my case, so it should be lower.

Oh, and 6GB of RAM isn't that much people. For less than a $100 Canadian these days you can pick up 8GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM (or even 1066MHz RAM if your motherboard supports it). 64-bit Vista Home Premium, which is what I'm running and is completely stable, was only $130 Canadian.

They're actually selling 4GB sticks now, meaning that if your motherboard supports it, you can be running 16GB in a normal computer. Crazy haha.

[Ed]

I potentually could have quite the problem here... my computer has performed 3 self shutdowns since midnight... two within 3 minutes of each other.

I'm running all the virus scans i have after leaving it for about half an hour.... but if it goes belly up i might not get to submit my bomber to the challange.....

The chalenge is cursed whos computer will break next

any way ive ordered a new laptop the one i was using was pretty crap and old and probly wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway so i might be able to subit a half decent entry but may i request mine to be judged lst as ive basicly lost 5 days near the end robly six in effect as i will have to instal stuff on the new laptop.

[Buba uognarf]

Great going guys! The models on here are amazing! This is going to be so close there are so many contenders IMO.

Bob, I hope you don't mind but I'd like to make a request of my own. I need someone to do some modeling for the fleet, namely Reaper ships. For those that don't know the Reapers are basically a Wraith super soldier experiment gone wrong. I need someone who can confidently model convince organic ships to make a couple of ships. Is anyone up for the challenge?

[Ed]

Nice backstory.

Have you tried scanning for Spyware? My old computer used to get the same spyware over and over again, and would constantly reboot. After running Spybot S&D with the latest updates and the problem would go away.

Other things to watch for are temperatures. Downloading something like Speedfan or PCWizard2008 to see what the temperature of your CPU, motherboard, and video card are at is important. If your CPU is running too hot, which can happen over time thanks to gunk building up in the heatsink, and the thermal paste drying up, then your CPU will overheat and reboot. It would be worth it to take the side panel off of your computer and blow everything out, make sure your CPU fan and graphics card fan are working alright, and then try the spyware stuff. Also get that software, Speedfan is a tiny download, like 1mb if I recall correctly.

I built my computer and I'm in college for Computer Systems Technology, so trust me .

Oh, and if none of this works and it turns out that you do have a virus, you should really just back up your important files and reformat. That's the only sure way to get rid of nasties that might be on your PC.

Your CPU and graphics card temperatures should never exceed 70C. They can go higher, but it's best for their performance and lifespan to keep them below that. If you find that your temperatures are high and blow all of the dust out and load it back up to find the same problems, then you might have to take your CPU heatsink off and apply new thermal paste, then put it back on. And as for the graphics card, you can just manually raise the fan speed using a program like Rivatuner or something.

Keep your computers cool! I'm freaking out because my Q8200 CPU is idling at 40C lol. I bought this huge ass heatsink for it that takes up the width of my case, so it should be lower.

Oh, and 6GB of RAM isn't that much people. For less than a $100 Canadian these days you can pick up 8GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM (or even 1066MHz RAM if your motherboard supports it). 64-bit Vista Home Premium, which is what I'm running and is completely stable, was only $130 Canadian.

They're actually selling 4GB sticks now, meaning that if your motherboard supports it, you can be running 16GB in a normal computer. Crazy haha.

Sadly i dont have enugh money i just blew £400 replacing my ruined laptop.

[boberth2o]

Okay so that Computer I was tell you I was going to build well it's going to be a vacuum flask with a computer inside it.

Quick Sketchup

Spoiler:

I'm going to use 1/8" stainless steel which is commercial culinary grade. This is going to be divided into three walls; The first being the one separating the outside atmosphere from the evacuated 'vacuum' space, The second being the one separating the vacuum from the liquid nitrogen, The third being the one separating liquid nitrogen from the open air inside the case.
From my knowledge I believe that liquid nitrogen it liquid at 77 degrees Kelvin, -196 Celsius. And at temperatures like that electronics like my computer will become superconductive.
So besides protecting the outside environment from the conduction or convection of the Liquid Nitrogen I also want to have the liquid nitrogen stay liquid nitrogen in the case. So It's going to be not only be in a vacuum flask but a pressurized vacuum flask.
I think I'm going to do this sometime in February but I'm not sure.

[Finger13]

Okay so that Computer I was tell you I was going to build well it's going to be a vacuum flask with a computer inside it.

Quick Sketchup

Spoiler:

I'm going to use 1/8" stainless steel which is commercial culinary grade. This is going to be divided into three walls; The first being the one separating the outside atmosphere from the evacuated 'vacuum' space, The second being the one separating the vacuum from the liquid nitrogen, The third being the one separating liquid nitrogen from the open air inside the case.
From my knowledge I believe that liquid nitrogen it liquid at 77 degrees Kelvin, -196 Celsius. And at temperatures like that electronics like my computer will become superconductive.
So besides protecting the outside environment from the conduction or convection of the Liquid Nitrogen I also want to have the liquid nitrogen stay liquid nitrogen in the case. So It's going to be not only be in a vacuum flask but a pressurized vacuum flask.
I think I'm going to do this sometime in February but I'm not sure.

You're certainly not going to have liquid nitrogen touching the electronics right? I didn't quite understand the different layering, but basically you have to be very careful of condensation. There's such a thing as too cold .

People who use liquid nitrogen usually put a funnel over top of their CPU and then pour in liquid nitrogen as necessary. This isn't a very practical way to run a computer, it's meant for people who are trying to break records for overclocking.

Not to rain on your day, but I don't think it'd be smart to try to build a computer that you would be using for several hours a day and for everyday tasks running off of liquid nitrogen.

Peltiers are the smarter way to go for everyday use IMO. It's way more practical to use a peltier in conjunction with something like liquid cooling. That way the case you've designed would still be fine, and you wouldn't need any fans, but it would be far more reliable and practical.

[Finger13]

One last update for the day. I really want to finish this today, but I'm going to London I guess. Stupid social lives.

Spoiler:

The textures still need tweaking, my two different layers are reacting differently to the same settings, so I still need to tamper with them. I think that the ones that look really rough and scratched are like that because I didn't scale them down enough, I'll try playing with them after and making them larger, and also reducing the bump a bit more.

I know that I won't get the texturing perfect though, because I still have a lot of learning to do for them. For this challenge, the imperfections in direction and such will have to do.

But alas, I should be done tomorrow. If I have time I will try to figure out some engine thrust effects, but I don't know if I'll have time. Right now they're just the inner polygons of the thrusters with luminosity and glow enabled.

Any last minute tips/suggestions, aside from the textures?

[boberth2o]

You're certainly not going to have liquid nitrogen touching the electronics right? I didn't quite understand the different layering, but basically you have to be very careful of condensation. There's such a thing as too cold .

People who use liquid nitrogen usually put a funnel over top of their CPU and then pour in liquid nitrogen as necessary. This isn't a very practical way to run a computer, it's meant for people who are trying to break records for overclocking.

Not to rain on your day, but I don't think it'd be smart to try to build a computer that you would be using for several hours a day and for everyday tasks running off of liquid nitrogen.

Peltiers are the smarter way to go for everyday use IMO. It's way more practical to use a peltier in conjunction with something like liquid cooling. That way the case you've designed would still be fine, and you wouldn't need any fans, but it would be far more reliable and practical.

Essentially this is a vacuum flask with a an added twist.
Okey here is cross section description of the case. The first and most outer wall is going to be one sealing the outside atmosphere from the inside vacuum. This is going to be one sealed vessel with nothing inside it. The second wall it going to a divider between the vacuum space and the sealed case that has the liquid nitrogen. Both are going to be sealed environments only sharing one wall separating the vacuum from the LN. There will be no LN touching any electronics. The purpose of the LN case is to cool the computer w/o having any fans, water, Heat Sinks, electricity to run a compressor or anything of the sort. The actual temperature of the motherboard will probably be around 150 Kelvin.
With the LN being under pressure and the vacuum of the insulating case there should be no problem with the environments.

My Computer in on 24 hours a do and I run a VNC off of it. I vary form using it to host a website page to rendering objects in Lightwave to typing text to Games, etc. . . . I use it from my laptop on many occasions to do miscellaneous things for engineering.

[Semmer]

One last update for the day. I really want to finish this today, but I'm going to London I guess. Stupid social lives.

Spoiler:

The textures still need tweaking, my two different layers are reacting differently to the same settings, so I still need to tamper with them. I think that the ones that look really rough and scratched are like that because I didn't scale them down enough, I'll try playing with them after and making them larger, and also reducing the bump a bit more.

I know that I won't get the texturing perfect though, because I still have a lot of learning to do for them. For this challenge, the imperfections in direction and such will have to do.

But alas, I should be done tomorrow. If I have time I will try to figure out some engine thrust effects, but I don't know if I'll have time. Right now they're just the inner polygons of the thrusters with luminosity and glow enabled.

Any last minute tips/suggestions, aside from the textures?

It just keeps looking better and better.. Btw, where's the bridge?

I did my engine thrust effects with a separate, nearly transparent, geometric object, which then had a glow added to it. Experimenting with different settings gives best results.

[ManiacMike]

One last update for the day. I really want to finish this today, but I'm going to London I guess. Stupid social lives.

The textures still need tweaking, my two different layers are reacting differently to the same settings, so I still need to tamper with them. I think that the ones that look really rough and scratched are like that because I didn't scale them down enough, I'll try playing with them after and making them larger, and also reducing the bump a bit more.

I know that I won't get the texturing perfect though, because I still have a lot of learning to do for them. For this challenge, the imperfections in direction and such will have to do.

But alas, I should be done tomorrow. If I have time I will try to figure out some engine thrust effects, but I don't know if I'll have time. Right now they're just the inner polygons of the thrusters with luminosity and glow enabled.

Any last minute tips/suggestions, aside from the textures?

There is a few spots that the textures are stretching.

I don't know which program your using, but if there is an option to change the texture to planar mapping, and set it to the axis its on (X-Y-Z).

Also you need a specular map so the light will reflect less off the hull.

Its looking real good so far.

[boberth2o]

I was thinking about a winter environment for the Fourth Challenge. I'm not sure about the look but we'll see.

[RJB]

Since I'm running low on time I'm just going to give her a basic texture job and maybe do more after the contest.

I should have everything ready sometime tomorrow or the next day.

Enjoy.

[s09119]

So who is allowed to submit ideas for new modeling challenges? I need a ship and was wondering if I could ask if you guys could try and design a few ideas.