Odyssey: which ships exit wills be used to “fade to”
- Thread starter Boff'in
- Start date
On the flipside, for there is 38(?) ships, there are only two pilots seat designs that I'm aware of, and the most widely adopted one of them's already been animated:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idrnfZ-q4X8&ab_channel=PCGamesN
And looking at the screenshot of the imperial / gutamaya seat:
IRL I'm an engineer, I've been doing a lot of CAD work lately, and applying that mindset to the screenshot, I reckon that I could animate that model in a weekend were I to have the CAD model for it. And given Frontier will have the 3d model for it in whatever program they used to model the seat, I'd imagine it would be a similar askance for them to animate the gutyamaya sear - assuming they hadn't already modelled it's animation.
I also reckon there is a good chance tha the seats are already modelled to be able to move out of the way when needed, checks out the slots in the floor of the iCourier's cockpit:
Again, there's a track in the iEagle, and I presume the other narrow cockpits like the eagle and viper have them?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pAR_UKt34k&ab_channel=TheGamersShow
But I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not enthused to prowl the internet for images of every narrow cockpit in elite - sorry :-(
Designing 3D models using CAD for actual structural engineering purposes is NOT the same process for designing 3D models for video games. CAD isn't even used in game development, not according to the game design course I took at IADT, and not according to any one I know that have actually worked on video games, so I don't know what you are trying to prove with this.
Last edited:
I never said or meant to infer they use CAD for making the 3D models, however it doesn't take a technical genuis to establish that there is bound to be an element of commonality between the 3D modeling packages most likely;y used in the games industry and the CAD used in engineering. Quite often CAD and 3D modelling programs can open each other's files, or at least find a common language to transfer files between the various applications. For example, a list of file types that 3D studio Max can open, taken from:
What file formats does 3ds Max import and export? | 3ds Max | Autodesk Knowledge Network
What file formats does 3ds Max import and export? 3ds Max can import to and export from a wide variety of industry-standard 3D file formats, as outlined in this article: 3ds Max Geometry File Formats. For a more in-depth look at these formats, please note the following: The 3ds Max .MAX file...
knowledge.autodesk.com
Import File Formats
3ds Max can import the following file types:
- Autodesk (.FBX)
- 3D Studio Mesh (.3DS, .PRJ)
- Alembic (.ABC)
- Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
- Catia V5 (.CATPART, .CATPRODUCT, .CGR)
- Autodesk Collada (.DAE)
- LandXML / DEM / DDF (.DEM, .XML, .DDF)
- Legacy AutoCAD (.DWG)
- Flight Studio OpenFlight (.FLT)
- Motion Analysis HTR File (.HTR)
- IGES (.IGE, .IGS, .IGES)
- Autodesk Inventor (.IPT, .IAM)
- JT (.JT)
- Catia V4 (.MODEL, MDL, SESSION, EXP, DLV, DLV3, DLV4)
- gw: OBJ-Importer (.OBJ)
- ProE (.PRT, .NEU, .G, .ASM)
- UG-NX (.PRT)
- Revit importer (.RVT) (can also use the File > Link to RVT feature to link to Revit files)
- ACIS SAT (.SAT)
- 3D Studio Shape (.SHP)*
- SketchUp (.SKP)*
- SketchUp (2015 and older) (.SKP)*
- SolidWorks (.SLDPRT, .SLDASM)
- StereoLitho (.STL)
- STEP (.STP, .STEP)
- Motion Analysis TRC File (.TRC)
- Universal Scene Description (.USD, .USDA, .USDC)
- Autodesk Alias (.WIRE)
- VRML (.WRL, .WRZ)
- VIZ Material XML Import (.XML)
*Sketchup is in Green as it's a bit amateur/entry-level/hobbyist, the blue items are standardised interchangeable file formats, and the orange text denotes the native file formats of the three mainstream CAD packages, Solidwoks + Autodesk Fustion 360 + Autodesk Inventor.
The reason the files are relatively interchangeable is because the contents are broadly comparable, so importing a 3D model from Maya or 3DSmax into Solidworks is more akin to importing a word document into libre office's word processor than it would be trying to open a wave file with excel. So knowledge of CAD or 3D modelling gives you a reasonable insight into, although not necessarily an expert knowledge of, the other. As such I'm able to take a (reasonably) educated guess into what would be involved.
Landing gear. That's how SRV's work.
For anything else they would have to do additional work and there's covid 19 and better just leave them alone.
Oh wait.. so if they got given a senior management design goal of "neil armstrong moment" and decide to put you at the top of the stairs.. that will certainly mean for odysee they'll be redoing.... the staircase landing gear.... for all ships. That will be hilarious if they only update the landing gear and leave everything else as nothing. I would laugh pretty hard.
For anything else they would have to do additional work and there's covid 19 and better just leave them alone.
Oh wait.. so if they got given a senior management design goal of "neil armstrong moment" and decide to put you at the top of the stairs.. that will certainly mean for odysee they'll be redoing.... the staircase landing gear.... for all ships. That will be hilarious if they only update the landing gear and leave everything else as nothing. I would laugh pretty hard.
.
Airlock and then the outside doors opening makes sense to me. If some of the inner doors have windows in them, where you can glance bits of the interior, that'd be a nice tease.
That's not the only transition either. There's getting in and out of SRV's and entering bases and stations. Planetary bases should have their own airlocks.
I'd hope that they don't have an arduous air cycling routine. For me, those doors opening is going to be more of an "Armstrong moment" than actually setting foot on a planet.
Some of the ships have permanent stairs/lifts on landing gear. Cobra, Krait etc. Some eg Anaconda and Alliance Chieftain etc have what appears to be stair/lifts which are folded up, think millennium falcon ramp.
All of them could be fade-in and fade-out at the top of the ramp, with the view from other commanders being a closing/lift animation.
All of them could be fade-in and fade-out at the top of the ramp, with the view from other commanders being a closing/lift animation.
There's airlocks at the top of all those ramps/lifts. Commanders fabulously strutting out of the doors in their finest attire is the best outcome.
i'd at least like them to create a sequence for each ship as a compromise for interiors as the bare minimum, so at least whne it fades to black you leave your ship how your meant to for that "Neil Armstrong" moment, better still, stop messing about and just do the bloody interiors for all ships so we can walk to the "airlock"
My negatives to my own opening post
Stairs negatives
My only issue with top of the stairs is....
Some of those stairs are reeaaaaalllllyyyyy long.
I mean an escalator is more appropriate for longs flights of stairs and high-gee planets.
guaranteed People will be jet-packing their way up after the first couple of bored attempts to walk up the krait mk2 never ending staircase
Lifts negatives.
Lifts are more practical for the larger ships, because not all ship designs have a visible back-door and lift but I think someone pointed out the balcony of the type9 is forward facing, meaning “lifts” could be hidden all over the ship behind retractable panels.
The negative is there will be a disconnect from
either solution of the Crotch Panel (I’m keeping that terminology) or the Cockpit back-door menu, as the lifts are “somewhere” on the ship which I you won’t be walking in to complete the feeling of wholeness between ship and pilot.
walking-around-cockpit negatives
I totally think it doable and believe many of the animations have been shown to work already and definitely thought in parallel with original design othe ships.
walking around the cockpit will appease the “I want to walk around my ships” crowd, to a degree.
I think it will be a joy first but also the worst kind of tease.
And if we are thinking the Neil Armstrong moment on the planet, the standing up and walking around the ship “moment” will be ruined by having the momentous “standing up” and being able to look around your cockpit and the rest of your ship for the first time as a “whole” experience.
Be able to walk around cockpits, sounds cool until you bake into the issues presented by the larger multi-leveled cockpits, like the type-9 and a player falls off the bridge to another level.
Suddenly you have to build the rest of the doors/corridors and make sure the magnetic boots work etc etc.
And that’s not even getting into the weirdness of Having a co-op gunner with multi-crew enabled.
can they also run around the cockpit?
Are they still a hologram?
keeping everything as it “is” in the crotch panel, maintains the current paradigms and status quo.
So if we were to have the pragmatic mindset Frontier have been known to have, I think “crotch” panel avoids extra dev issues with walking around the cockpit which walking around the ships would have to address as well.
Stairs negatives
My only issue with top of the stairs is....
Some of those stairs are reeaaaaalllllyyyyy long.
I mean an escalator is more appropriate for longs flights of stairs and high-gee planets.
guaranteed People will be jet-packing their way up after the first couple of bored attempts to walk up the krait mk2 never ending staircase
Lifts negatives.
Lifts are more practical for the larger ships, because not all ship designs have a visible back-door and lift but I think someone pointed out the balcony of the type9 is forward facing, meaning “lifts” could be hidden all over the ship behind retractable panels.
The negative is there will be a disconnect from
either solution of the Crotch Panel (I’m keeping that terminology) or the Cockpit back-door menu, as the lifts are “somewhere” on the ship which I you won’t be walking in to complete the feeling of wholeness between ship and pilot.
walking-around-cockpit negatives
I totally think it doable and believe many of the animations have been shown to work already and definitely thought in parallel with original design othe ships.
walking around the cockpit will appease the “I want to walk around my ships” crowd, to a degree.
I think it will be a joy first but also the worst kind of tease.
And if we are thinking the Neil Armstrong moment on the planet, the standing up and walking around the ship “moment” will be ruined by having the momentous “standing up” and being able to look around your cockpit and the rest of your ship for the first time as a “whole” experience.
Be able to walk around cockpits, sounds cool until you bake into the issues presented by the larger multi-leveled cockpits, like the type-9 and a player falls off the bridge to another level.
Suddenly you have to build the rest of the doors/corridors and make sure the magnetic boots work etc etc.
And that’s not even getting into the weirdness of Having a co-op gunner with multi-crew enabled.
can they also run around the cockpit?
Are they still a hologram?
keeping everything as it “is” in the crotch panel, maintains the current paradigms and status quo.
So if we were to have the pragmatic mindset Frontier have been known to have, I think “crotch” panel avoids extra dev issues with walking around the cockpit which walking around the ships would have to address as well.
You don't just appear on the surface in the SRV.
You appear in the SRV bay before descending to the surface.
The closest analogue to that would be fading to an airlock before the doors open and finding yourself at the top of the steps/elevator.
Going by cutscenes like the Krait MkII I'd guess we're getting an airlock leading to the rear exit ladder / lift, so that'll be the 'Armstrong Moment' they apparently want. We've already got an interior in the form of the SRV bay, so it's not like they can't do it.
Cockpits are probably on the back burner until they get around to fixing the clipping issues you mention.
Cockpits are probably on the back burner until they get around to fixing the clipping issues you mention.
Black screen, but I don't know where that is on your ship.
Indeed, if the top level design goal is "Neil Armstrong moment" then I think all we can be sure of is that the transition won't simply spawn your character out on the planetary surface. Instead you will get control of your character on foot someplace attached to the ship, so you proactively "step out" onto the new planet. It seems to me there's two basic approaches possible under that constraint:
1. Every ship gets the same animation, and you are lowered via a lift that comes down from the cargo/srv bay. There is a door on the inside of the cargo bay prop, so that would at least be consistent, even though it would blatantly make the various back doors/exit hatches/landing gear stairs utterly superfluous.
2. Every ship gets a custom exit point that meshes with existing visual features of that ship. So a lift platform that lowers you or an extending ladder you climb down from the ships that have an aft access hatch. Walk down stairs or take a powered escalator ride down the landing ramps of ships that have those. Probably some kind of elevator for the Annie, because its underside is a really long way above the ground.
If they're doing the second one, I am certain they already have the designs done and are working on implementation, because again, 38 individual solutions to build.
As you say most of the ships have ramps close to the cockpit, it just needs a corridor/lift to the airlock and then down the stairs you go.
However it's not looking likely "at launch" ...
Damn you. Now I have coffee all over my keyboard.
You're welcome lolDamn you. Now I have coffee all over my keyboard.
(sorry mate!)
The cutter's forward steps are a tad big to strut down. Maybe hop, skip, and jump instead? Either that or change it to a platform elevator.
Some have mooted that it's an escalator.