Pioneer dev forum

What are peoples thoughts on a Military grade Venturestar "dropship"?

With the large (approx 7m wide x 4.5m tall) loading ramp at the back IMO it would be a perfect dropship for transporting troops / APC's / Tanks for rapid deployment to frontline fighting.

Just as a test I have roughly doubled the main thruster power and to offset I have sacrificed about half the storage space, I also give it a boring utilitarian grey skin to complement the military look.

Good idea.
Maybe you could enlarge the retro and lateral thrusters for increased maneuverability.
Have you considered adding the maneuvering thrusters to the texture?

I have increased the rate of turn slightly but not the other thrusters as I still want it to feel like a transport and not a fighter.

I had the maneuvering thrusters on the Venture star but, due to my poor UV unwrap, some looked quite distorted so I removed them again.

I also removed the hyperdrive but I notice that it has automatically added a Class 1?? wonder if this is a bug or a "feature"

I've checked the model, and yeah, the UV is quite generous on unused space. May I give it a go to unwrap and retexture it? And I think the mesh might benefit from a little bit of cleanup too. Especially on the nose. Why did you triangulate the faces of the arc on the side?
Could you give me that pattern you used on the hull?

Nozmajner: thanks for the help with the model / UI improvements. :)

I have made a few more tweaks and I am going to try and re texture it again.

Your welcome! :)

Here's most of the process in time-lapse, but I'm afraid it's a bit too fast, since I had to settle to a low frame-rate. I hope it's useful anyway. I'm intended to document the creation of a ship similarly.

I think you should put some wear and a bit of plating to the hull. Nut much, but at least some definition around the lateral thrusters.
Can't wait to see the final product.

Working on new textures:

Nice!
Have you tried the ambient occlusion bake? (I can't tell from these images :D )

Yes, its in there but there is quite a heavy cloud layer (an attempt at dirt) in there as well which makes it less obvious.

But you can tell that there is slightly more definition using the AO layer.

It's a cool mesh, but the texture should show some seams on the Hull IMHO. Not rough ones for a bird as streamlined, but you don't expect such a large vessel to be made of one part, and since it's a military ship and not a design piece there wouldn't really be a reason to make it appear so. Modern day fighter jets usually have good examples for the kind of subtle seams I'm thinking about, more like a slight difference in color between cover platings than actually visible seems. Would add a bit of detail to the bird.