Well, today was Tuesday so I had to install something. Got the port and starboard console banks fleshed out, short of creating the graphics (which will be quite a chore)
Looks fantastic, I prefer the first contact version but ideally with the insurrection viewscreen. But your work is amazing. Well done
You mentioned the old Captain's Chair CD-ROM VR tour. Do the console graphics from that give you a leg-up, or are they low-res or inaccurate or incomplete? It certainly felt like I got something with every console I clicked, but that was a long time ago.
I think if I was a crew member on the bridge I would like a view-screen. The FC bridge would feel very claustrophobic to me when the hologram switched off and just a wall there. Excellent work as usual Donny
I can't run the program directly, but I can view any of the Quicktime movies on the disc. There are .DXR files on the disc that I can't open, as they are protected Macromedia files that seem to be no longer supported by any software out there. But as far as what I can open, everything is super accurate (as the files were provided by Okuda himself, I believe). However, everything is super low-res so I don't want to use the files directly, but they still serve as excellent reference for building my own LCARS static panels and animated displays. It's not that I don't have reference, it's just going to be a time-sink. I suspect I'll spend much of March creating LCARS displays.
I happened to stumble upon this in a google image search. I doubt you need it, but it's worth putting up here just for the nostalgia. Most of Tobias's bridge layouts have been preserved over at @Jag2112's website, but somehow the layouts he did for the three versions of the Enterprise-E bridge seemed to have vanished into the ether. I was inordinately happy when I found this.
And with the installation of the rear console bank, that does it for the broad strokes. WIP Red Alert Lighting: Now, to focus on the free-standing consoles, chairs, LCARS, and some other details like the replicators. It's gonna be a long month of detailing!
I may have missed this info, but I am curious as to what the endgame is for these projects. It seems like a ton of work to just be a personal project but then again I have sunk hours into work that was done simply for my personal enjoyment so I know it's not an impossibility.
I'm still hoping that one day Donny will compile all these things into downloadable executables. TOS/TMP/TWOK/TNG+ maps, etc. I want to EXPLORE! I just hope that, if that glorious day ever happens, my poor old PC will be able to handle it!
Same, and something even close to the Stage 9 project would be amazing. I would just fear the same reaction from CBS wouldn't be far behind.
Time will be of the essence - our reflexes will need to be quick and without hesitation. I still cherish my copy of Stage 9 in my BRD archive. It's so much better and all-encompassing than anything ever officially produced.
Just personal projects, I get a lot of enjoyment out of this work. And while I'd love to one day release some of this work, until TPTB make clear what's allowed and what's not in regards to 3D releases such as these, I'm afraid I'd prefer not to speculate on an eventual release. For now, doing this just for fun and for your screenshot/video viewing pleasure has to be enough. And also, let's please keep public discussion about such things to a minimum. Thank you!
I figured as much and understand, and will be content with images and video. Was just doing some wishful thinking. Roger that.
Indeed - I don't think I've ever appreciated the E-E bridge's aesthetics until I've seen it like this. We never got the kind of sweeping camera work in the TNG movies that these sets deserved. The cinematography - even in FC - was really quite restrained, when we see something like this and wonder what could have been.
Yeah, sadly the E-E neither got the big, slow, dramatic, SOAK IT ALL IN introduction the refitted Enterprise got in TMP, nor did it have the familiarity of the E-D (inside and out) after seven seasons. They just don't make movies like that anymore. And that introductory shot of the E-E in the nebula now seems leisurely compared to the breakneck pace of the first time we see the completed Enterprise in ST09.
I was never attached to the idea of the holographic screen, but to me the viewer design for INS and NEM seemed both overwrought and a step down from the expansive screen in TNG. I much prefer the more minimalist way it was presented in FC — just make it a regular viewer in the wall: A floor to ceiling screen bordered by segmented orange leds. Somewhat reminiscent of the old TOS screen with its blue border. It was streamlined and efficient. I love that the chasing lights under the screen are now wider like in TFF-GEN (ent B). The one thing that bugged me about the TNG design is that the chasing lights were so short and such a small part of the under screen area. Made them seem a lot cheaper - especially since the extra room was used for a couple Lcars panels that we never see used. On top of that, the lights changed to the “wrong” direction after season 1. (I recognize at the time the set was created, the only other example of those lights was TOS as the TMP-TVH bridge lacked them (save for a few short in-screen depictions and sound effects). But I digress. The Ins viewscreen was just too fat - too much plastic and too small of a viewing area. I never cared for how it tapered in at the top in a trapezoid shape. It really is at odds with the rest of the set.