Bowfin Light Fighter

[FluffyFreak]

Very nice update.

I think that the normal map issue is because you are supplying the textures as PNG files and the game is then compressing them.
We will all see different results when that happens so I'm proabably not seeing the same compression artefacts as you but I do still see some.

To avoid this when you are testing edit you "config.ini" and change the line "UseTextureCompression=1" to "UseTextureCompression=0" and the artefacts will go away... useful titbit to remember :)
It's worth trying them compressed using ATi's Compressonator (use 32-bit version!) (tutorial) to see how they're going to handle being compressed.

You have a lot of curved thin lines with high-contrast to the neighbouring pixels that are never going to compress well i'm afraid as DDS works on blocks of pixels (4x4) so you'll (always) get macro-blocking artefacts.
I've been trying to find an old-guide to minimising these kinds of artefacts by slightly changing the authoring of textures but I cannot find it, my Google-fu is weak today.

Andy

[bszlrd]

Neat, thank's for the info. I'll figure out that dds compression then.

[FluffyFreak]

Yeah we may need to look into another image loading library like SOIL2 or Crunch that have support for newer/better/more compression options that better handle normal maps too.

The system I wrote/adapted is ok but it's just for the basic DXTn (1/5) options and a more robust library might be what we need now.

[Keeper]

It became a Light Fighter after all, when I put some other ships next to it to see it's scale.
The sketch:

For comparison's sake, as mentioned in the other thread, I went with this sketch idea to add another paint scheme to my zip file of paint schemes:


A bit tricky to get everything lined up, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

[Thaeris]

Nozmajner,

I was wondering if I could ask the man himself about some of the "lore" behind this ship!

There are notes on a specific military variant, which we actually mused about a little over IRC a few weeks back. I presume that version is only available to diplomatically-qualified governments in the CIW, or to players who are tightly aligned with the militaries of those governments (if and when such a feature arises).

...With the currently flyable Bowfin, that is clearly stated by the Wiki as a sort of "export variant" which also has civil applications in terms of security, freight, end etc. However, is it also possible that smaller colonial governments, militias, and poorer governments would use the ship as a first-line fighter - again tying into the "export version" idea? Just an item of curiosity for me, as I think you did a stellar job with the design of this ship!

[bszlrd]

Hmm, I guess I should add that to the article, because it does makes sense. Thanks!