Rockwell Space Shuttle Orbiter with Boosters

I found a wonderful model of the Space Shuttle with working launch pad and surrounding area on Turbosquid. It's only just under the 4 million polygon mark and I don't know if that is actually counting triangles or not.

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-nasa-launch-complex-39b/598142

I'm just using this example in a plea to Knife Edge to increase the polygon limit and to no longer require collision meshes because creating one for something like this would really be difficult and time consuming. People don't need more than 1 frame per day for the average PC setup to fly in the sim right? Also starting the sim might take up to 16 hours, but people would think it's worth it right?

It's like, "Hey I got this awesome new setup for Realflight with cloud rendering and physics processing via a server farm. I'm getting 7 FPS--Beat that!"

Joking aside, that model is incredible.
 
phrank said:
Impressive, and just over $1K.
How many car payments is that? :D
Click to expand...

About 5 months. :( Guess I won't be getting an already made Shuttle with a chuck of Florida modeled in the mix.
 
Well, I found some really good reference photos of the cockpit windows and their physical construction is a lot more clear to me now. I also found a few higher quality 3-views and blueprint drawings, so since I've had time to thoroughly study these pictures and drawings, I've become very unhappy with my windows.

I know my windows don't look too bad, and they really are passable, but I just absolutely HATE inaccuracy and rather than continue on, I'm going to remodel this area of the Space Shuttle. Seeing just how flat-faced the window sections are now helps me plan out the steps in my head which I will take to remodel this section.

I will find time over the weekend or tonight after the family goes to bed so I can work for more than 5 minutes without being pulled away. All I need to do is detach-clone the polygons from the front section of the fuselage as a separate new object and work on that. I can re-attach the adjacent vertexes/polygons to the fuselage after deleting the necessary polygons.

*I also found out the Left SG gear door is larger than the right gear door, but these are easy to re-create.
 
Last edited:
Newly formed windows. And, yes, I have been awake since 2:00AM Friday morning. I'll have time to take a nap tonight before I begin my on-call Sunday. The next time I'll get to go to bed is Tuesday! Whoo freaking HOOO!
 

Attachments

  • NewlyFormedWindows.jpg
    NewlyFormedWindows.jpg
    363.7 KB · Views: 22
Yes the window panes are flat and it was time consuming figuring it out, but next time I have odd windows like this to do, I will breeze through it. I will eventually create a tutorial.

I also have a hands off physics AV now and it will travel as you would expect a scale model rocket shuttle to fly.

I know there are shading issues on the fuselage, but they will be cleaned up before the model is finished. I also corrected the steering gear doors this morning and made the left gear door larger than the right as it should be.
 

Attachments

  • ScreenShot1328993842.jpg
    ScreenShot1328993842.jpg
    119.1 KB · Views: 13
  • ScreenShot1328993847.jpg
    ScreenShot1328993847.jpg
    148.5 KB · Views: 11
  • ScreenShot1328993850.jpg
    ScreenShot1328993850.jpg
    90.7 KB · Views: 8
  • ScreenShot1328993880.jpg
    ScreenShot1328993880.jpg
    119.7 KB · Views: 10
  • ScreenShot1328993886.jpg
    ScreenShot1328993886.jpg
    113.9 KB · Views: 12
I love the smoke plumes. There's alot of shading issues though. You should watch that. Maybe flex can help you work them out!!
 
I'm also going to attempt a few techniques on created a simple shuttle gantry (launch pad). I don't know how well it will work and there will be very little room on the .tga for mapping after the shuttle, external tank and boosters are mapped. I would just use material color for the gantry, but I honestly don't want to max out the poly count creating all the scafolding, which there wouldn't be enough polys to do that anyhow. I will need to rely on the alpha channel and duplicating faces which share space on the .tga.

Also, I tested the shuttle in G5.5 and the 4096x4096 .tga caused RF to crash. I've not had a single problem in Realflight 6, so maybe there will be a special G5.5 version with a low resolution .tga. I know I will get nothing but 1 ratings because people won't be able to create the .dds files and they will say mean horrible things about how I don't know how to CS or model or ride a bike. They will also call me a pig-parker. That isn't nice at all.
 
No no no no no. The C.S. will be based on pre-last-flight status.
I don't ant to bring up what killed 7 astronauts.

I watched that shuttle burn that Saturday morning in 2003.

Mag., if you want to post your own Columbia CS, you do that.
 
Last edited:
brields said:
No no no no no. The C.S. will be based on pre-last-flight status.
I don't ant to bring up what killed 7 astronauts.

I watched that shuttle burn that Saturday morning in 2003.

Mag., if you want to post your own Columbia CS, you do that.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, I want the Atlantis scheme for numerous reasons. I am sad the shuttle program is no more. I have personally been down to The John F. Kennedy Space Center multiple times and I have seen both launch pads with shuttles Endeavor and Columbia attached. I almost got to see one of them launch but the lift-off was delayed. I don't remember which one it was.

Atlantis is good to commemorate due to it serving the very final shuttle flight ever. There would be too much to live up to in my own opinion to make the Columbia or the Challenger. I did watch the Challenger blow up on live TV when I was in 2nd grade. I was also actually down at the Space Center the first time in my life while the shuttle fleet was still grounded after the Challenger incident.

I had already asked maj if he would be interested, but I have also been considering doing this one 100%. I don't know for sure yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top