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FS2H Weekly Update #Quatro
Posted By: Devrous <rindmere@yahoo.com>Date: 4/11/07 2:10 a.m.


1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Three “Laws” of Prediction

----------------------END OF RAMPANCY----------------------------------

0310 hours, April 11, 2007 (Military Calendar) \
Sol System, Planet Earth \ FS2H Main Office

Guess who?

If you guessed Devrous, you get a cookie. If you guessed Halo 3 Beta, I’m sad to disappoint. If you guessed otherwise, well...just read on, man.

Another week has gone by, and I’ve been churning away at several elements of FS2H. I’ve put in new weapon effects, new explosions, and all the trimmings thanks to FS2Open. I’d say the game looks at least 117% better than before! And thanks to the new polygon limits, I’ll be able to put in even more detailed ships in the future. But for now, I’m working on getting some action shots so people can get a real idea of what it is they will be playing. Also, I’ve compiled a few pictures of the most asked about topic: the Covenant. I made all the Covenant ships from scratch; no model porting, no downloading someone else’s models. And finally, before I show the goods, I have found someone to host my larger files, so expect a FS2H Trailer soon.

Sit back, grab your favorite snack and a soda…this one will be long...and I mean loooooooooong, filled with much eye candy.

TECH ROOM
Subject: Covenant Ships

Unlike the nice, blocky UNSC ships, which are pretty easy to model as basic shapes, the Covenant ships are, well, A ROYAL PAIN IN THE @#$. They have a lot of curves, and since they are supposed to look sleek, organic, and deadly, it was hard to turn my ideas of what other ship classes may look like into models. Needless to say, I used a lot more polys on these puppies, and I used a cool auto-faceting so the game rendered it as sleek and smooth. Before I found this trick the Covenant ships looked horrible and blocky; I was afraid I’d have to either scratch the Covies or just live with butt-ugly model renders. I’ve made a corvette, frigate, and destroyer based off of the descriptions in the books, as well as taking the basic shapes from the existing capital ships from the Halo games. The battle cruiser and assault carrier were even harder to make. If I deviated too much from the ones shown in the game cutscenes I’d disappoint Halo fans. The Seraph was fun to make, and the U-shaped dropship was actually harder than the dang capital ships. No Phantom as of yet…have you looked at all the curved surfaces on that thing?!?

So, without further adieu, I present to you the Covenant Basic Model Tour. Due to the size of these pictures, I’ve posted only one or two of each as in-page viewable, and the others as links. Enjoy!

Covenant Dropship


Solid
Top
Textured

Covenant Seraph


Solid
Top
Face
Textured

Covenant Corvette


Solid
Front

Covenant Frigate


Solid
Front
Top
Bottom

Covenant Destroyer


Solid
Front
Top
Bottom

Covenant Cruiser


Solid
Front
Top
Bottom

Covenant Assault Carrier


Top
Bottom

The Assault Carrier was not only a monster model; it is the definition of a flying fortress. It’s over 5km long and packs quite a punch. Here is a screenshot of me flying towards one after narrowly escaping a pack of Seraphs.

To get a true appreciation of its size: see that grayish ship near the tail of the Assault Carrier? That is a Marathon-class cruiser blowing up after sustaining a barrage of plasma and energy projector hits. The energy projector is, at this captured moment, firing at a civilian space station a few miles away. It was subsequently destroyed right after I took this picture.

Lights, Camera, Action

Now that you’ve seen the Covenant ships up close and personal, feast your eyes on a few in-game screenshots. This mission is a single Covenant Corvette and four Seraphs taking on two UNSC frigates, a scout ship, a corvette, and two Longswords while blasting away at a human space dock. NOTE: The images were converted to JPEG format to save space, so a lot of the high-res quality was lost.

Guns blazing at a Seraph

Missile away

Poof…he’s dead

Now for the Corvette

OUCH!

Viewing from the Corvette’s perspective

Archer missiles hit shields


Firing at the frigate

My futile attempt to hurt it

Covenant shields hard at work…


Corvette blasting a frigate

Pelican!

As the Corvette succumbs (finally) to the firepower



A previous Corvette death

And my own death at the Corvette’s hands

Victorious, the Orion Frigate takes a rest

Hope you like what you see. As always, feel free to post replies and email me. All criticism, good and bad, is welcomed.

See you next time!

----------------------END OF RAMPANCY----------------------------------

Devrous
rindmere@yahoo.com


Message Index




Replies:

FS2H Weekly Update #QuatroDevrous 4/11/07 2:10 a.m.
     Re: FS2H Weekly Update #QuatroBry 4/11/07 11:21 a.m.
     Re: FS2H Weekly Update #QuatroMcKeeganWRX 4/11/07 1:13 p.m.
           Re: FS2H Weekly Update #QuatroDevrous 4/11/07 2:16 p.m.
     Really good stuff, can't wait to see it finished! *NM*GFC Danny 4/11/07 2:51 p.m.



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