Unofficial 3D ship plates! (with download)

Nolfinkol

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#1
Since Lauri linked the 3D models to Starbase's ship beams in the #game-faq channel on Discord, I've been eager to see what people's creations using those beams could look like with actual ship plating on them. Eventually, I noticed in one of their YouTube videos that there was a plate specifically the size of a smaller beam which made me realize there probably exists every plate necessary to fit each beam's length. Going off this information, I went ahead and made every possible size plate that could fit every combination of beam width and length in Blender!

Here's a screenshot of all of the parts I have plus the models linked by Lauri

View attachment 217

In the image there are basic square plates, right angle plates, and thin variants of both which I didn't think existed until I noticed them in the Boltcrackers episode where Bob gets put into a box dubbed "armor" made of plates of two different thicknesses.

I put a .zip containing the .fbx and .obj + .mtl files necessary to pop these bad boys into a 3D program and snap them together (includes the files posted by Lauri):


If you have any issues with the files or messing with the models, let me know and I'll see if I can fix and update the zip file. If you make something with these, I look forward to seeing it!

:coffee:

[Edit]: Forgot to mention if it wasn't obvious (since I've never exported files to be used by others until now) that when you load in the models, the materials might not show up as there is no lamp in the scene to cast light. Setting the two materials to Shadeless (in Blender or the equivalent setting in your 3D program) should fix it.

[Edit]: A tip for snapping parts together more easily if you're using Blender: I've found that setting the display grid to 0.6 scale fits most if not all of the parts perfectly. Then turn on snapping mode and set it to increment and absolute grid alignment.
View attachment 218 View attachment 219

Alternatively, you could simply turn on snapping and set it to vertex or edge and be able to easily snap parts together although having grid-scale set to 0.6 is still helpful for lining things up.
 
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Nolfinkol

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#3
Cool Stuff!
I will definitely check it out!
Thanks! If you have any feedback lemme know. I'll probably be slowly adding other parts since I just now realized glass is a material and have to figure out transparency in Blender which I haven't touched in a while but eventually glass panels should be added.

I might also add very basic looking versions of existing ship parts but we'll see. My goal was initially just to give a bit more than beam structures lol
 

Marki

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#4
Good work, are all those plates properly centered? (center of mass or mesh) might add them to my construction demo if that's the case.
 

CalenLoki

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#5
I think (hope) that we'll also get equilateral triangles. After all with 90 and 45 degree frames that's what is needed for corners and inverted corners.
 

Nolfinkol

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#6
I think (hope) that we'll also get equilateral triangles. After all with 90 and 45 degree frames that's what is needed for corners and inverted corners.
I've seen beveled edge square plates for 45 degree angles but so far the only triangles I've been able to spot in videos and screenshots appeared to be all right angles. I was tempted to add others but I wanted to keep it basic and strictly to what can be seen and confirmed with the photos to avoid having people make ship designs that might not be recreated in the game. I might add the beveled plates at some point though.

Here's a pic of what I assume are the beveled edge square plates:
Capture.png

The one circled on the left might just be right triangles but the one on the right has to be a 45 degree beveled square plate because you can see it from the sides
 

Nolfinkol

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#7
Good work, are all those plates properly centered? (center of mass or mesh) might add them to my construction demo if that's the case.
Currently, all of the origins on the parts except for a couple of the tiny square plates that connect beams together are located on the corners of all of the parts. This was originally so I could snap them the grid I had going in Blender to make sure each part fit the exact measurement they were supposed to be.

It's really easy to change the origins all to the center of the mass with a couple of hotkey presses though. If you know how to do Blender stuff I can let you do it or tell you how or I can just do it real quick and make a special zip just for you. I was actually hoping you'd be interested in adding them to your construction demo so I'd be willing to do whatever is needed to make your life easier for it. I even stuck to the same naming scheme that the official beam models had with underscores on the offchance it would come in handy for programming them into the demo since I know spaces in file names makes things tricky for programming lol.
 

Marki

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#8
Currently, all of the origins on the parts except for a couple of the tiny square plates that connect beams together are located on the corners of all of the parts. This was originally so I could snap them the grid I had going in Blender to make sure each part fit the exact measurement they were supposed to be.

It's really easy to change the origins all to the center of the mass with a couple of hotkey presses though. If you know how to do Blender stuff I can let you do it or tell you how or I can just do it real quick and make a special zip just for you. I was actually hoping you'd be interested in adding them to your construction demo so I'd be willing to do whatever is needed to make your life easier for it. I even stuck to the same naming scheme that the official beam models had with underscores on the offchance it would come in handy for programming them into the demo since I know spaces in file names makes things tricky for programming lol.
I don't mind adjusting a couple of them my self, tho i'm not really that great with blender so, if you could do it faster, your help would be really appreciated!
 

Nolfinkol

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#9
I don't mind adjusting a couple of them my self, tho i'm not really that great with blender so, if you could do it faster, your help would be really appreciated!
Sure thing! Here's the link to the version of the zip with all of the origins at the center of mass: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6Cdn33PfdZ_viEmYCNwyCqHCUEu9P30/view?usp=sharing

I hope it works since I just quickly threw it together. If not I'll fix it and send it again later as I have to sleep. I included the same file types as the original above since I always see 3D things shared in both .fbx and .obj and have yet to learn the reasons why someone would use one over the other lol
 

Marki

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#10
Sure thing! Here's the link to the version of the zip with all of the origins at the center of mass: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6Cdn33PfdZ_viEmYCNwyCqHCUEu9P30/view?usp=sharing

I hope it works since I just quickly threw it together. If not I'll fix it and send it again later as I have to sleep. I included the same file types as the original above since I always see 3D things shared in both .fbx and .obj and have yet to learn the reasons why someone would use one over the other lol
I always use .fbx files even tho unity works with both i think, ill try the plates when i get home, thanks for the help!
 

Nolfinkol

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#11
I'm realizing now that the thin variants of ship plating are most likely for interior plating since it doesn't make sense to have such thick plating for the floor and inner walls to give more space while the exterior plating be thicker to provide more protection. That's my theory anyway :unsure:
 

Marki

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#12
I was thinking of making the plates dynamic, adjusting to whatever it is placed on, but that would only have worked with rectangular plates and i would still have to make custom plate meshes, so i guess using premade models would still be better, more work on the scripting side but still better.
 
Joined
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#14
Attempt #1 just rendered in sketchup cause it was fastest, looking forward to more parts! i wasnt really trying to make any particular type of ship, just playing with the pieces and seeing what happens.

:)
 

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Nolfinkol

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#15
just playing with the pieces and seeing what happens.
I plan on doing this for various things like aesthetic designs as I see the devs have experimented with various patterns and designs with even their most basic plate types. I can already see people messing with thin plates to make furniture such as tables to make their ship feel more lived-in if they have the extra space after all the vital parts are added
 

Marki

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#18
This is looking great so far and i am looking forward to see how this develops. engines and some seats :)
I won't be adding engines or seats the point is to only use official models for the demo, with the exeption of armor plates.
 
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