Wings3d

I finally got round to having a proper go at wings3d, and this is what I came up with after 10 mins or so:



But I have a few questions about how it works, there doesn't seem to be a way to draw lines and faces, and there is no symmetry mode D: Anyone know and good tutorials/tips for how to use this thing

I'm pretty sure if I tried to use it, in 10 minutes I would have a semi-perfect box.
So I'd say you're doing pretty well already.

second attempt at a spaceship, still looks a bit weird though.

I can't see those images, but I'm fairly certain there is a way to add what you've been unable to find. Will have to wait until I get home to remember exactly how. (you could probably google it)

Well this one failed...

MrTargareyan wrote:

Well this one failed...
-snippy snip snip-

Looks pretty cool, actually.

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

MrTargareyan wrote:

Well this one failed...
-snippy snip snip-

Looks pretty cool, actually.

Thanks, turns out it looks better upside down though, heres another lil fighter thing:



I probably should stop making them 4000 polys each for lil fighters :3

They look oddly organic. dat zerg

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

They look oddly organic. dat zerg

Yeah, they do actually :/ I should probably stop doing that, this better?

at least it has a lower poly count I guess

Why does it have wings? Is it an SSTO?

NeueSlowenischeKunst wrote:

Why does it have wings? Is it an SSTO?

Its a space fighter; and it has wings because otherwise it would be a plain tube None of my ships have anything to do with reality or logic

MrTargareyan wrote:

NeueSlowenischeKunst wrote:

Why does it have wings? Is it an SSTO?

Its a space fighter; and it has wings because otherwise it would be a plain tube :DNone of my ships have anything to do with reality or logic

Ah, ok then, carry on.

logically, wings on space fighters have the advantage of being able to put hardpoints on them.

Which actually makes it harder to hit close targets and lowesr accuracy.In this case the cannons do not shoot at the target reticule but rather to the sides of it. If you make the cannons follow the target AKA 6 deg dogfighting you will still notice it is hard to lead the target as if you try to lead a target you basically target empty space which means the cannons cannot know the enemy is just a few dozen meters away. In both cases your accuracy is lowered.

The wings are mostly useful for putting rockets and engines as engines put away from each other give you a better rotation arc, though to be honest we put wings for aesthetic purposes, to make things look more familiar to us, similar to planes.

Iv121 wrote:

Which actually makes it harder to hit close targets and lower accuracy, the cannons do not shoot at the target reticule but rather to the sides of it. If you make the cannons follow the target AKA 6 deg dog fighting you will still notice it is hard to lead the target as if you try to lead a target you basically target empty space which means the cannons cannot know the enemy is just a few dozen meters away. In both cases your accuracy is lowered.

The wings are mostly useful for putting rockets and engines as engines put away from each other give you a better rotation arc, though to be honest we put wings for aesthetic purposes, to make things look more familiar to us, similar to planes.

An idea space fighter is a sphere with weapons on pivot mounts and thrusters on all 6 axes.

not much to look at.

Not rly, you have a really large frontal profile which makes you an easy target, fighters should be as flat as possible so that it will be hard to hit them for engagers and chasers, harder to shoot your tail and front. Basically the direction you are expecting an engagement from should have a small profile in order to improve the survivability of your ship.

Iv121 wrote:

Not rly, you have a really large frontal profile which makes you an easy target, fighters should be as flat as possible so that it will be hard to hit them for engagers and chasers, harder to shoot your tail and front. Basically the direction you are expecting an engagement from should have a small profile in order to improve the survivability of your ship.

Target profile is actually pretty irrelevant when you're a sphere. Just fire a random thruster and their aim is suddenly off.

The absolute ideal fighter is pretty tiny anyhow.

RCS does the same thing and doesn't affect the target profile nearly as much.

It is always relevant, especially against flak and beam based AA, flak is just AoE, a simple thrust won't save you while a beam will hit you before you even have a chance to throlette, means in these cases low profile matters, also in close dogfights (and most of them will be close) a mere thrust won't throw off their aim, you will need to outmanoeuvre them and stay out of line of fire. Finally most of these blasters are rapid fire which again lowers your chance for evasion, that is why the profile is highly important for your survivability.

I also browsed the old trusty FS wiki for in game and use made fighters that have unique profiles that you might take inspiration from and possibly prolong your life in them. First on the list would be the Vasudan fighters, their are pain in the butt to chase because they are perfectly flat:

Spoiler:

They are annoying to hit really, I tried it myself -.- .

Now that is an interesting model:

Spoiler:

Just like the prev examples it has a really low front profile, it is actually even flatter making it extremely hard to chase. What’s more interesting is the positioning of the guns that are built into the wings on the back with gaps in the wing-like structure of the ship, I assume it was made for stealth purposes because it is a stealth fighter. Anyway these cannons were shooting quite accurately for me being close to the center and further back from the ship's nose.

Now that bird was designed for assault:

Spoiler:

It is not as flat as the other ships making it easier to hit however it utilises another design that allows it to keep low profile on all possible sides. See the downside of the previous fighters was that their top and bottom had large profiles making them an easy target but here the top and bottom profiles were reduced, at the expense of the frontal and side profiles. This design is good for assault ships like this Erinyes that expect heavy AA fire from all directions during an assault of a fortified location.

Spoiler:

Now this Shivan fighter was much more pain in the butt to hit because it is the much more manoeuvrable and faster than any fighter in the terran arsenal, Id show it less because of its unique profile (even though it is kept low too, here everything is just condensed as much as possible, similar to the tube design of the prev fighter). What’s interesting though is the positioning of the weapons and engines. That fighter has two powerful cannons right below the cockpit as you can see in the picture which allows it to shoot very accurately and it has an engine located on the side on one of these fake "wings" we talked about, possibly making it more manoeuvrable.

Now here is another possible design with "wing" like structure:

Spoiler:

It takes what I said about the prev fighter further. The cannons are again located close to the center on the back of the fighter, near the wing like structures while the wings carry the engines. That allows for both high accuracy, good manoeuvrability and in addition a nice profile. The front profile is more or less flat here which makes it hard to chase the fighter but also the fact the engines are located on the sides means there is a gap between the main fuselage and the engines, increasing your chance to miss from the side. If the wings were removed on that design the front profile of the target will be bigger as more of the ship is now at the middle and you get less manoeuvrability. As for top profile it no depends on luck I think, it can help you or it can harm you. In any way that fighter is an interceptor so it is not supposed to take too many hits from these sides.

Also this Shivan bomber:

Spoiler:

It actually creates a powerful ship cutting beam instead of shooting bombs and therefore it has 4 big arms instead of big missile bays, it utilizes the same principiles as a bove using the gap to its advantage and making it harder to hit.

What would the X-wing be without wings?


Pretty rubbish that's what.


AF-15 had wings (small ones)
The A-144 had fins (which were wings in the first gen)
The Scimitar had those thingies which I count as wings.
The AR-12 had wings, but it was ugly, so it doesn't count.

I quite like wings on spacecraft

MrTargareyan wrote:

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

They look oddly organic. dat zerg

Yeah, they do actually :/ I should probably stop doing that, this better?

at least it has a lower poly count I guess

o-O

Just what are you doing on these, anyway?

Prototype wrote:

What would the X-wing be without wings?


Pretty rubbish that's what.


AF-15 had wings (small ones)
The A-144 had fins (which were wings in the first gen)
The Scimitar had those thingies which I count as wings.
The AR-12 had wings, but it was ugly, so it doesn't count.

I quite like wings on spacecraft

That is natural because they remind us of jets that we are used to, though from realistic perspective I'd switch the engines and the lasers places because that cannon pos is perfect example of how hard it is to hit a close target with separate cannons .

Tiel+ wrote:

MrTargareyan wrote:

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

They look oddly organic. dat zerg

Yeah, they do actually :/ I should probably stop doing that, this better?

at least it has a lower poly count I guess

o-O

Just what are you doing on these, anyway?

Idk, that's basically a very stretched geo-dome with wings stuck on Im not actually making these for a purpose, im just trying to learn the software are you still working on the RtS project thing?

Haha sorry, I was sorta getting a headache trying to figure out how you got that result. It looks pretty good.

As for the RTS...I think so, just have had my hands busy with schoolwork.

Tiel+ wrote:

Haha sorry, I was sorta getting a headache trying to figure out how you got that result. It looks pretty good.

As for the RTS...I think so, just have had my hands busy with schoolwork.

Thanks If you want I could model some stuff for your rts once I get to know my way around wings; though I would need to know the poly limit