• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Released Frigate "Rossiya", 1728

Time for another update, methinks.

I've been away from this ship for a while now, because of pushing to finish the much-awaited Trinity conversion.
Still, last time I worked on her, I managed to achieve quite a bit. So I've quickly filled in any remaining gaps to give you two more progress screenies:

Frigate1_new5.jpg Frigate1_new6.jpg

The first major difference you may notice is the new main gundeck; yes, there's now a proper one! No more fake gunports (squares with the centre pulled back into the hull)!
The front and rear gunports have also been finalised, and with that comes a confession. I'm sorry, but I've downgraded her from four stern chasers to just two. :urgh
This was mainly due to two reasons; first, it doesn't seem possible to fit four proper cannon models side-by-side in that small space,
and second, the number of guns now very neatly totals up to 36. I know, it's not the 42 it used to be, but it's still realistic and faithful to the real ship.

So, no prizes for guessing what I'm up to next: adding the cannons. I'll also be finishing a few small details on the hull, before opening up the weather deck to allow access to the lower deck.
And, for those interested, the running total triangle count is only about 6,500. Just 780 (12%) of those are the remains of the original stock ship (and they've been heavily modified)! :shock
 
Nice work mate! :onya Seriously a huge improvement from the stock frigate :doff glad it will be accurate now too. I know you said you were still adding details, but i think it would be good to include at least some of these:
-Catheads & anchors
-Gunport lids
-Steps up the side of the hull
-Chainplate for the rigging to attach to on the side of the hull.

Those are just details though, overall it looks great! :dance
 
Cheers mate! I certainly plan to include all of those details and more, eventually. I think it was an understatement when I said a few "small" details... xD:
The chainplates aren't present because I removed the ones on the stock ship, but haven't added new ones yet.
Still, nice to have someone with an eagle eye to point these things out. :cheers
 
I think this is awesome that you have taken the time to create better models for these old ships mate! Nice job so far.
keith.gif
 
Well I only started the project because SeaNorris found the ship that the stock frigate was based on (by Akella's standards), so there's actually some plans to work from. :cheeky
Originally, I wasn't going to touch the frigate, because Jack Harrison began an upgrade for it a while back, so I was hoping he'd return to release it.

For most of the other stock ships, we're not so fortunate to have a real ship to refer to, so this kind of complete overhaul can't be done for many others.
In most cases, I'd have to upgrade models in the same way as the stock Corvette, by improving the existing details based on how I think they should look.
(Which reminds me; do you guys on the GOF team have my upgraded Corvette, yet? If not, I'll upload her for you if you're interested. Some existing textures need modifying slightly, though.)
 
Did you ever do the texture modifications for the Corvettes? I remember there was some weird effects on some of their bows that I mentioned before.
 
Armada said:
Well I only started the project because SeaNorris found the ship that the stock frigate was based on (by Akella's standards), so there's actually some plans to work from. :cheeky
Originally, I wasn't going to touch the frigate, because Jack Harrison began an upgrade for it a while back, so I was hoping he'd return to release it.

For most of the other stock ships, we're not so fortunate to have a real ship to refer to, so this kind of complete overhaul can't be done for many others.
In most cases, I'd have to upgrade models in the same way as the stock Corvette, by improving the existing details based on how I think they should look.
(Which reminds me; do you guys on the GOF team have my upgraded Corvette, yet? If not, I'll upload her for you if you're interested. Some existing textures need modifying slightly, though.)
Click to expand...


No we dont have your upgraded corvette yet. Yes we would love for you to upload her and you know textures are my thing mate.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Did you ever do the texture modifications for the Corvettes? I remember there was some weird effects on some of their bows that I mentioned before.
Click to expand...
Err, no, I haven't, but thanks for reminding me! It's not a lot of work, but I just keep forgetting to do it. :facepalm

Craiggo said:
No we dont have your upgraded corvette yet. Yes we would love for you to upload her and you know textures are my thing mate.
Click to expand...
OK then, here are the model files (to replace all your existing ones; I think all the relevant locators for CoAS are still present).
Also available is an example texture and a UV overlay guideline here, to help you with making the textures accurate.
Don't forget you'll need to HEX edit the model to work with the CoAS textures (i.e. deck.tga -> desk.tga, woodGrainU3 -> woodGrainU2).
You can also replace Corvette1_deck.gm with a different figurehead model if you wish.
No code updates should be necessary, I think. Any questions, just ask. Enjoy! :doff
 
OK, major update time! I started adding more details a couple of days ago, and things sort of snowballed from there. :cheeky
So, see if you can spot all the changes:

Frigate1_new7.jpg Frigate1_new8.jpg Frigate1_new9.jpg

Answers:
  • Anchors (and anchor ropes)
  • Catheads
  • Cannons
  • Gunport hatches
  • Chainplates
  • Steps on the hull
  • Slightly modified bow
  • Modified rudder
  • Wales (thick stripes along hull)

I should probably mention the cannons in particular. I've used two different 'calibres', the larger of which can be seen in the third screenshot.
They're modified versions of Pgargon's modified version of the gun that uses 'Inzanegun1.tga'.
Changes include reducing the number of textures from four down to two (Inzanegun1 and Fightdeck2); one for the cannon and one for the rope tethers.
I also modified the gun barrels, wheels, and various UVs for the best results.
Those results came at the price of about 39,000 triangles, and the whole ship combined is now around 50,000. :shock
So now, the remainder of the original stock hull is worth less than 2% of the new ship. Show's how much effort Akella's modellers made...
 
Wow, thats some great work there Armada! while I can see the resembelance to the stock frigate is still there, it looks like a brand new ship :onya I like the cannons too, definately a good new standard model. :doff
 
Captain Armstrong said:
while I can see the resembelance to the stock frigate is still there, it looks like a brand new ship :onya
Click to expand...
Good; that's my intention. The resemblance will be more obvious once the hull is textured, but I'm glad it's already making the right impression. :doff

I designed the cannons to be a new high-detail model which doesn't compromise polygons, so they're not really suitable for larger high-detail ships, but they'd be great for future stock ship upgrades! However, I did make a version which uses fewer polygons, which I gave to Iron Roger to use with the HMS Prince conversion.
If you want a copy of the file, it's available here: http://www.pyratesah.../Cannon1_low.mb
Eventually I'll upload the other cannon models for public use as well. ;)
 
Splendid work Armada, :dance

I really like how you have done the stern galleries and head rails very well done, there are a few small things in your render I don't see such as the roof/deck over the stern gallery (this appears to be marked on the plan luckily) and the trim that runs above the channels the length of the ship (on the plan the trim intersects two aft gun ports before disappearing into the quarter gallery). This trim wouldn't extrude very far but could be textured to stand out (in 3ds max I would imprint the lines into a copy of the hull and after checking its clean would either extrude the faces or alternatively move the faces the required distance, bridge the gaps and remove unneeded faces to finish).

Others things to consider are some rudder irons (hinges), a lower finishing that blends into the quarter gallery (this will blend the overhang back into the hull), a set of hawse holes on the bow (two on each side for the anchor cables to run in). And maybe some deck gratings/hatches to detail the deck the only problem here is that the plan seems to show the locations of these quite crudely and does not show any bulkheads either.

If you like you can use my brother Phil's detailed but low poly Admiralty Pattern Anchor to stow on the channels. It is already textured using AOP wood and AOP metal both found in my folder on the FTP but you can obviously change this if you like. The anchor would need scaling to match your ship as its in a real scale in 3ds max with a stock length of 161inches (over 13ft) I have scaled it to the game world and uploaded a few copies to my folder on the FTP.

Regards, :doff
 
Thanks for your comments, SeaNorris. :cheers

I should say that I am planning to include all of the details you mentioned, but I realise I didn't make that very clear in my updates.
Perhaps I seem to be adding details in a funny order, but this is the first time I've made a completely new ship (well, almost) from scratch, so I'm still learning on the job.
Still, I'm glad to see there is a collective interest to make sure this ship is as accurate as possible. :dance

I will certainly take a look at your brother's anchor model. I was going to improve the current one on this ship, anyway, so a brand new version would be even better.
 
Time for another quick update! :dance

Frigate1_new10.jpg Frigate1_new11.jpg Frigate1_new12.jpg

I've now added the masts to the ship in preparation for the rigging and deck details.
These were actually 'borrowed' from the HMS Greyhound model and then modified as needed (though they were a remarkably good fit to start with!)

Also new to the model are the admiralty anchors offered by SeaNorris, which look great (many thanks to his brother for the models :bow ).
Another trim has been added to the hull sides, and the stern has also been improved with more details, but is still not finished.

Total poly count is now just over 60,000, considering some still need to be triangulated, so it's looking good for keeping well below 100,000.
 
Excellent work there Armada! Very impressive :onya It is such an improvement over the stock frigate, especially with the new rig. you might want to put some gratings over the headrails though( a boring process, I know, but i think it does make a ship seem more realistic) Kriswood wrote a wonderful tutorial on making the whole head arrangement on the POTBS forums, and I always check it to make sure I have all the pieces in place on a ship (a least that I plan to put in considering poly count etc) http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68881
 
Thank you as always, mates. :cheers

Another quick update: I've added the cabin entrance.
Frigate1_new13.jpg

As with a few details still to go, I've had to use some creative license to add the doors in places which made the most sense.
The plans give no detail whatsoever on this, so I had to use the photos for reference.

@Captain Armstrong: Thanks for pointing out that tutorial! I was getting to those details, but this will at least ensure I do them correctly (again, the plans don't help). :doff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top