S.S. Valiant Appearance

[Warped9]

Some small progress. I wasn't happy with the shape of the outer surface of the ring so I played with it and made it simpler to keep it more in keeping with my overall idea. You can also see some detail I've added to the inside surface of the ring on both the port and starboard sides. My thinking behind the form of that particular detail was vague but I wanted some visual connection with the similar detail on the main hull. Whereas the part on the main hull is generally convex I made the corresponding detail on the inside of the ring concave. It vaguely looks like they could actually fit together (which they can't physically) but perhaps there is some form of energy transfer between them---somewhat analogous to the idea GR had that he considered trying to show some manner of energy activity between the nacelles. The other detail I've added so far is a small component on the upper side of the bow. I thought of this as the navigational laser emitters. Whatever the navigational deflector can't sweep aside the lasers automatically fire to destroy it or if the object is too big then the ship will veer away while alerting the crew.

Other details I'm planning to add are a deep space telescope housing and a long range communications antenna as well as some bits and pieces to give the hull a bit more visual texture.

 

[Sarvek]

She is really looking good. Are you also planning on adding a hangar bay? Your details really make a great deal of sense and the one that you will be adding also work well. Keep up the great work and I am looking foreward to more.

 

[Nightowl1701]

At this early point - first generation warp drive and all - I don't know if the Valiant should even have a hangar bay. An airlock for EVA repair work and a docking port for when its' home, yeah, but I figure it would probably would be more like the Alexei Leonov from 2010 and have remote-controlled automated probes. This was a ship intended for survey and system fly-by work, staying in the general neighborhood around the solar system (at least until that magnetic space storm), and its crew was likely intended to spend all their time on the ship scanning and mapping rather than risk getting anyone stranded on an alien world. Time enough for planetside exploration once you've got the basics of interstellar travel down.

 

[Warped9]

At this early point - first generation warp drive and all - I don't know if the Valiant should even have a hangar bay. An airlock for EVA repair work and a docking port for when its' home, yeah, but I figure it would probably would be more like the Alexei Leonov from 2010 and have remote-controlled automated probes. This was a ship intended for survey and system fly-by work, staying in the general neighborhood around the solar system (at least until that magnetic space storm), and its crew was likely intended to spend all their time on the ship scanning and mapping rather than risk getting anyone stranded on an alien world. Time enough for planetside exploration once you've got the basics of interstellar travel down.

I've been having second thoughts about the idea myself. Part of my doubt is based on a hangar bay resulting in needing a larger ship than I initially planned for. The ideas you're suggesting have merit.

 

[Gepard]

This reminds me a bit of an old piece of Niven fanart I stumbled across years ago, for the Angel's Pencil from his Known Space series of novels.

Seems to be aiming for the same kind of idea you've got here, but with a few interesting twists like the lifting-body craft docked to the front.

 

[Warped9]

This reminds me a bit of an old piece of Niven fanart I stumbled across years ago, for the Angel's Pencil from his Known Space series of novels.

Seems to be aiming for the same kind of idea you've got here, but with a few interesting twists like the lifting-body craft docked to the front.

Yep, I remember seeing this many years ago. I quite like it. And the ring idea is really nothing new. It's an interesting concept that the landing craft is also a main part of the overall ship. In its own way it's something like the Vulcan shuttlecraft from TMP with a warp section that is detachable from the main part of the craft.

 

[Warped9]

Making some gradual progress in terms of surface detailing.

 

[Warped9]

Not finished, but just getting a feel for it.

 

[publiusr]

Lovely and simple

 

[Warped9]

The Valiant on patrol. I want to add one or two airlocks and a few other small details and then I am going to try to light the windows, running lights and impulse engine. I also have to add the registry and livery. I'll also try injecting some colours here and there.

 

[B.J.]

Looks great! Are you going to try and smooth the surfaces any more? They look segmented right now.

 

[Warped9]

Looks great! Are you going to try and smooth the surfaces any more? They look segmented right now.

Yeah, I'm working on that. It has something to do with the rendering I think.

 

[Warped9]

Looks great! Are you going to try and smooth the surfaces any more? They look segmented right now.

Yeah, I'm working on that. It has something to do with the rendering I think.

Okay, looking into it further it seems it's only partially the fault of the rendering engine. In Maxwell it is rendering with a good degree of precision and hence we're seeing the facets of the circles (which are what circles in 3D modelling really are). To get around that it means in the future I will have to make my curved surfaces with a greater number of facets. The downside of that means a model with greater complexity, but it will give me nicer models.

Unfortunately I can't change the current model without completely remaking those curved parts from scratch which would be time consuming. However, I could try using a different rendering engine to see if it renders the curved surfaces differently.

 

[blssdwlf]

In many programs you can set in the material/shader/texture the "smoothing angle" to tell the renderer when to smooth an edge. You might not need to add additional geometry.

 

[Warped9]

In many programs you can set in the material/shader/texture the "smoothing angle" to tell the renderer when to smooth an edge. You might not need to add additional geometry.

Yep, I'm going to try that first.

Overall I rather like how this is coming together. I think it has an overall look that could fit into Jefferies' general approach. I'm trying to add a decent measure of detail without going overboard on it so the end result looks like it could be convincingly pre TOS just as the Botany Bay was. Mind you the BB wasn't all that detailed, but then it didn't have to be since its appearances onscreen were rather brief and its weathering could hide a lack of overall detail. With the Valiant I'm treating it almost as if it were to be a "hero" ship with a fair amount if screen time. In actuality, though, if it were to have made an appearance in WNMHGB it likely would have been brief and unclear such as appearing on one of Spock's overhead screens.

Candidly I've never really cared for the Star Trek Chronology's version of the Valiant. It just doesn't work for me and doesn't look like something that we might have seen in TOS. He'll, I don't think it looks as good as the Botany Bay.

 

[Warped9]

I might have addressed the problem of the curve facets being so apparent. Somehow I didn't notice it before but the smoothing angle had been set low at only thirty degrees. It's possible that when I last upgraded the SketchUp program the smoothing angle had been reset lower and I didn't notice. I've now reset it to at least ninety degrees and I'll see what difference that makes. If it's not enough of a difference then I'll set the smoothing angle higher again.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Warped9 - I love this design! Though I've yet to actually put pen to paper (or mouse to pixels) this is generally along the lines that I've been thinking for some time. Something that is a halfway point between DY-100 and the Ringship XCV-330.

For those interested, some years ago I came up with a design for the Valient based on an unused Jefferies sketch that I had run acrross. At this time I was thinking that all warp drives had nacelles involved and that the ringsjip design used a different technology. Since then I have been convinced by Aridas Sofia that the warp rings "evolved" into nacelles over time. I still like the below design, but I think I would move it into the early 22nd Century and make the Valient and her sister ships more like what Warped9 has done here, though perhaps closer in style to the DY-100.

Again, Great work Warped9!

 

[Warped9]

I might have addressed the problem of the curve facets being so apparent. Somehow I didn't notice it before but the smoothing angle had been set low at only thirty degrees. It's possible that when I last upgraded the SketchUp program the smoothing angle had been reset lower and I didn't notice. I've now reset it to at least ninety degrees and I'll see what difference that makes. If it's not enough of a difference then I'll set the smoothing angle higher again.

This evening I tried recreating the basic shape of the ship (the main section and the ring) with more facets to the curves (180) and a higher degree of smoothing (90). The facets almost completely disappeared when rendered. I'm going to play with it a bit more to try for a more seamless result when rendered and so far it looks promising.

That said I'm not inclined to rebuild the model from scratch. It would take too much time and I'm also anxious to get back to my previous project. I can always come back to this later and I'd also like to make schematics of this deign for the Valiant.

 

[blssdwlf]

I think 90 maybe too much as it could cause unusual shading. I recommend experimenting between 30 and 89 until you see the facet edges disappear from the render. Of course it won't change the visibility of the polygons when viewed up close from the front or back, but I don't think that was the problem, correct?

 

[Warped9]

I think 90 maybe too much as it could cause unusual shading. I recommend experimenting between 30 and 89 until you see the facet edges disappear from the render. Of course it won't change the visibility of the polygons when viewed up close from the front or back, but I don't think that was the problem, correct?

It was at 30 and you can see the result.