Refit/1701-A - 3D Model, Full Interior

[DanGovier]

After a long delay, redundancy and a house move, I've picked up this project again! This time however I'm taking it up a notch and building the Refit Enterprise as a VR sightseeing experience using Unreal Engine 4. I've already had a bit of a walk around, and even in its unfinished state it is breathtaking. I'm planning on releasing a video this week to demonstrate what it's like, but in the meantime here's some girders :P

 

[137th Gebirg]

Welcome back! I missed this thread.

 

[ashleytinger]

Glad to see you back working on this!

 

[DanGovier]

I've been working on the shield grid around the perimeter of the saucer, and I've had to redo it a few times because the poly count was getting ridiculous :P
The blue and yellow cables are for power (EPS Conduit) and data respectively. The grey boxes are EPS Taps.

I also made a gif to show where this sits within the saucer:

I'm making progress with Unreal Engine, in that I can import the model from Sketchup and poke around in VR. However, Sketchup doesn't do UV unwrapping as far as I'm aware and Unreal Engine can't generate the lighting properly without them. I'm having some limited success with using Blender as an intermediary, but it's still sucking. Any advice greatly received! My workaround for the VR right now is to set all the models to dynamic, with fully dynamic shadows. Doesn't look as good, but it works. I'm hoping to post a video tomorrow.

 

[DanGovier]

Some stats from Sketchup for the saucer so far:

 

[Atolm]

Damn! just ...damn.

 

[DanGovier]

Today I learned that making YouTube videos is hard work :P

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[DanGovier]

I've mostly just been making things smoother and more optimised, but I've got enough now for a reasonable cutaway shot. My plan moving forward is to have the various detail layers toggleable from within VR, so you could for example stand up on the bridge dome and hide the hull layer to see all the internals inside. I'm also planning on having some basic interactive controls on the bridge, for firing torpedos or going to warp etc.

Out of interest, who here has a VR setup? I'd be happy to make the VR executable available.

 

[DanGovier]

I've been working on the Rec Deck as a bit of an experiment in scale. It certainly won't fit at the scale we see on screen, but I'm hoping I can reproduce it in such a way that it maintains the 'spirit' of its on screen equivalent. I'm quite enjoying the fudgery of squeezing these huge sets into such a tiny ship :P

 

[137th Gebirg]

Curious how you're going to TARDIS the rec deck and reconcile it with the PH undercut.

 

[DanGovier]

Curious how you're going to TARDIS the rec deck and reconcile it with the PH undercut.

I think the only solution that's going to work is some kind of stepped affair, because the slope is fairly severe;

 

[Firebird]

I think the only solution that's going to work is some kind of stepped affair, because the slope is fairly severe;

I've always been a fan of Andrew Probert's concept of the Rec-Deck, which takes the sloping of the hull into account:

 

[Sibyl]

I've always been a fan of Andrew Probert's concept of the Rec-Deck, which takes the sloping of the hull into account:

Agreed.

 

[DanGovier]

I've always been a fan of Andrew Probert's concept of the Rec-Deck, which takes the sloping of the hull into account:

Ooh, I've not actually seen this before. My rough sketch looks similar with the curved steps up the slope, but with the general design and colouration that we see on screen. My biggest headache is actually the side walls, because they simply don't fit on a curve, even with steps.
As an aside, I love that this is dated 1978. That's the year I was born

 

[DanGovier]

The Rec Deck is definitely coming together now. I'm also quite pleased with my girder covering solution

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yes! That works!

 

[DanGovier]

I've been working on the gallery and briefing screen this evening. It's all a very tight squeeze, but it juuuust about fits. Here's what I expect to be the final measurements for the Rec Deck:
Ceiling height is 3.54m at the top of the slope, increasing to 5.24m down by the windows.
Usable floor width is 9.27m up by the gallery, increasing to 12.76m in front of the balcony.
I'm going to make the turbolift shafts into lighting columns, because it's the only plausible thing they could be. There's nothing but the ship's outer hull immediately above and below them, so under no circumstances could they ever be turbolifts in that location.

 

[137th Gebirg]

That never occurred to me but you're right, there's no way those could be lifts, even though the design motif is nearly identical to how the lift appears down in the secondary hull when Kirk first arrived.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Wicked great work there

 

[mattpiper]

For the turbolifts in the rec dec, I always imagined they came in horizontally at second level and lowered themselves down to the first level for folks to get in and out... There's clearly no way in can just be a vertical pass through, but I think they have to be turbolifts given the design of the tube there.