JR Trek

[JR TREK]

UV looks good!

If you're running Windows 10 or 11 you could run System Information to get the motherboard info.

I'm currently running OpenSUSE Linux but I found a command to display the motherboard type. It's a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3. I don't know what revision it is.

View attachment 36187
if it was good enough for the F-111 it’s good enough for your bonny starship!

Exactly what I'm thinking, although I imagine the cockpit is significantly more likely to be targeted in Trek than in real life air combat. Actually, aren't all Federation bridges also escape pods? Since they're modular, it seems like they might as well be escape pods too. But IIRC, when the first Defiant was lost, the bridge crew had to run for the escape pods. So maybe Federation bridges aren't all escape pods.

Incredible that someone made a kit of the F-111 escape module. I bet that didn't sell in large numbers. I did build the plane though.

 

[blssdwlf]

I'm currently running OpenSUSE Linux but I found a command to display the motherboard type. It's a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3. I don't know what revision it is.



Exactly what I'm thinking, although I imagine the cockpit is significantly more likely to be targeted in Trek than in real life air combat. Actually, aren't all Federation bridges also escape pods? Since they're modular, it seems like they might as well be escape pods too. But IIRC, when the first Defiant was lost, the bridge crew had to run for the escape pods. So maybe Federation bridges aren't all escape pods.

Incredible that someone made a kit of the F-111 escape module. I bet that didn't sell in large numbers. I did build the plane though.

Hmm - that AM3+ PCIe 2 motherboard limits your video card options. Even though video cards are backwards compatible to PCIe 2 i wonder if it'll have the bandwidth to help with GPU rendering. You certainly would get a boost in UI though.

Regarding bridges - I do not recall Trek bridges used as ejectable escape pods. They seem to lack independent life support and as you've noticed, when a ship is abandoned they leave the bridge.

 

[JR TREK]

That's probably a case of the story writers not doing enough world building. It's understandable, given production limitations, and it doesn't effect the enjoyment of most viewers. I don't know if swappable bridge modules are even canon - I doubt it's been addressed onscreen. But if you have a detachable bridge module, it makes sense to me for it to double as an escape pod.

The bridge really should have its own independent life support system, but, now that you mention it, I don't think it does either.

About the video card, that's what I expected to hear. I'll manage with what I've got until things get better. I think we've got hard, hard times ahead of us.

 

[JR TREK]

Bridge is done -

It's not the fanciest design or model, and doesn't need to be for what I have in mind, but don't you want to know about the adventures of this ship?

I've seen versions of the MACO service badge where they have different "mascots" for different ships. That must be a fan thing. It makes no sense to me - if the "mascot" changes with the ship, than the shark is NX-01's mascot. I'm pretty sure the mako shark is actually the "mascot" of the MACO's, not the Enterprise. So I will leave it, although replacing it with a dragon would be good - if it made sense.

The glass shader i'm using causes a lot of distortion -

Not sure it should be like that but it does help hide the lo-resolution of my bridge model.

It would be cool to shoot it this close -

But then the crew would have to be animated.

Have to settle for this distance -

I'd really like to have those tight shots where you can see the actors through the window, but it is what it is.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

I also always saw the shark logo as that of the MACOs overall, since there’s a ‘Mako’ shark species.

But, YMMV and IDIC. *shrug*

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[JR TREK]

Working out the panels. I started out going back and forth between GIMP and Blender, which is slow, so now I'm trying to do it with Blender's Texture Paint mode. It's not quite as slow but it's only good for roughing out an idea.

 

[publiusr]

That’s wonderful!

 

[JR TREK]

Making progress. I'm not going to do too much with the saucer yet. I've got an idea that's going to require more modelling. Instead of "spore drive," how about we spin a bunch of warp drives around and use the interaction of their warp fields to temporarily open a wormhole? I read somewhere that there are microscopic, shortlived wormholes forming and dissipating around us all the time. The spinning warp drives could be used to enlarge an existing wormhole and make it big enough for the ship to go through. Maybe the new drive doesn't have to spin either.

 

[JR TREK]

 

[JR TREK]

The bottom zebra stripes are roughed in. It's easier to do using my Cintiq than the mouse, but my computer is slow to work with. I should be glad it's still working at all.

I believe the center/bottom of the saucer is going to spin slowly all the time. It's like the AWACS radar dish or the Nebula sensor pod. It's part of the wormhole drive but it can also use microscopic wormholes for long range sensing. I picked that up from a sci-fi book, but I can't recall what the name was.

 

[publiusr]

Superstructure as cranked nacelle mounts--nice!

 

[JR TREK]

Shader development -

Thinking along the lines of the chrome F-22 test aircraft instead of the familiar matte stealth finish, so it doesn't invoke the B-2 as much.

I wanted to bump it slightly, but now Blender only has normal maps. GIMP 2.10.14 can convert greyscale textures to normal maps, but I have 2.10.12. I might just have an OS upgrade in my future. Hopefully OpenSuse leap 15.5 will have GIMP 2.10.14.

 

[Razorwind]

Wow, this project has been all kinds of rad.

I always did think the Crossfield class looked a bit like a Warp Delta mated to an NX so this design checks out in my head. And those moveable nacelle mounts are insane.

How much of an independant entity is the saucer on this? Is it just a module or does it have functionality while seperated?

 

[JR TREK]

I was thinking Merlin would only deliver and retrieve Arthur, but with the wormhole sensor dish on the bottom it could fly off to a safe distance and relay sensor data while Arthur is flying silent. I need to come up with a reason why Merlin can't spam torpedos through wormholes, or there will be no need for Arthur. It could be even worse than that though - what if Merlin could sit in another galaxy, in the future or the past, or in another timeline, spamming torpedos from there? It's like the problem of being able to transport torpedos into the enemy's warp core, but a billion times worse.

It could explain why there had to be a temporal police force. I've had the idea that JR Trek follows the story of JR Kirk and his Enterprise, after they discover that the temporal agents have only barely been able to preserve the Prime timeline. The other timelines have been abandoned, and in every one someone develops technology that can destroy spacetime. The technology is inevitable, and someone always uses it. That solves the multiverse problem for Trek. All non-Prime timeiines fragment into Moebius loops and eventually dissipate. Unfortunately for JR Kirk he is in one of them.

There's a scene where Spock talks about Moebius Loops - is anyone familiar with that? I only know it from a sample in a piece of music.

 

[JR TREK]

Not sure why there's so much noise in the bussard collectors, but everything else is shaping up.

 

[JR TREK]

Working on the bussards.

For a long time I've felt like this design didn't quite work and I was just polishing a turd, but it seems like it's come together after all. I'm glad i didn't abandon it. I've felt like dropping it many times.

 

[JR TREK]

This one may have to hold up to the close up shots.

Here's the detail for the Bussard ramscoops -

Any Blender gurus know if it's still possible to edit texture animation in the graph editor? I remember there used to be a drop down to get into texture animation, but I don't see it in 3.6.2.

Need to get a little more light in there so the fan blades are visible.

I wonder if it is possible to do a volumetric effect to make it look like there's gas being sucked in there? I watched a tutorial on volumetric fire earlier, I think that would do it.

 

[JR TREK]

Thought I'd give Blender's volumetric shader a try for the bussard ram scoops. I don't think I can make it "follow" the shape of the containing mesh - the "gases" only flow in a straight line -

But this might be o.k. -

I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out, and temporal denoising. It sure doesn't feel very productive.

 

[JR TREK]

Impulse drives -

Wanted to get this effect -

But with real geometry, not just a texture -

The warp chiller grils are still a work in progress.

 

[JR TREK]

Here's a parody song I made about female Trek fans shipping Kirk and Spock -

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I'm finding YouTube to be the most abysmal place to post anything yet, despite the supposedly large audience size. I'd appreciate it if anyone who listens to the song would leave a comment. In the past, songs I've accidentally posted in the comedy category got ten times as many views as those posted in the music category, but earlier today I posted a comedy song that hasn't gotten any views yet. That's odd. Not sure I can troubleshoot this, but every little bit of data helps.

Well anyway, I made the thumbnail girl extra sexy because Udio gave her the voice of a child. I tried to pitch it down, but it dipped into the harmonic range of the music and sounded crap. Unfortunately the music and the vocals tend to be nigh unto inseparable in Udio, and I want to keep the music. It's not too far off from what she should sound like anyway. Maybe future tech will make this easier to fix.