The Excalibur Project
 

So, for a while now, I’ve found myself developing quite a liking for this ship, so much in fact, that I’ve a picture of her in a Transwarp corridor as my desktop wallpaper. Anyhow, whilst it is true that there are already a few Excalibur Class models on A2Files (and quite possibly AFC) none of them match up to the quality seen in the Excalibur model by LC.

His Excalibur is on both SFC (Starfleet Command) & BC (Bridge Commander), however is not publicly released for the A2 community, though it has been seen in various PoTD’s, thus some people do have it in game.

Regardless, the ship (regardless of which game you get it from, be it SFC or BC) stands at around 11000 polygons, which as the majority of you will know, it very high, and will crumble on Armada I & II (unless your playing the game on a computer within NASA).

Anyhow, due to my recent affection for this ship, I decided that it would make a nice Map Unit for Zero Hour. My first action was to e-mail Greathor, hoping that the version he has shown in various PoTD’s is a reduced version, and A2 friendly.

However, from the three or four e-mails, PM’s etc I have sent him, none have been returned, thus I’ve taken it upon myself to reduce the 11000 poly version model for Armada usage.

Anyway, a direct picture of the model before I started reducing it:

Spoiler:

http://static.filefront.com/images/p...klagyfdhyv.jpg

I've started already, and it has been quite a job to say the least, most of the polygons are / were on the saucer & nacelles, the nacelles I have sorted (almost halved), though the saucer is proving to be tricky.

Anyway, I'll get another picture up of the reduced version (should be done by the end of the week if I'm lucky) and if I'm feeling in a generous mood, I might just release her on A2Files for you lot to play with ;)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Hello:
Wow, you are making a very nice work Ash :cool: , I hope you can reduce its poly-count without destroying its look, because I agree with you, this is the best Excalibur I have seen.
You deserve a :beer: , and I hope it will help you finish this great model.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Ah, sorry, haven't checked my emails for a while. I didn't really have to poly reduce it to run it on my computer, so I didn't try :)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

I attempted to poly reduce this ship ages ago.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Tycoon have you tryed sending him a pm at http://www.teamlynxifer.co.uk/bcn/index.php his new name is legacy check this forum out
http://forums.filefront.com/bridge-commander-general-discussion/300637-help-contacing-member.html

PS:Seen as your doing a poly reduced verson could you do a none poly reduced verson as well as I think my pc can run it I can run 26 9168 poly ships with out to much laging and seen as the exscalbure class is a large battle ship I wont have that meanly in game at one time

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Thanks. I also believe you'll be wanting this when I'm done (I think it was you that asked me to send it to them before)..?

Well, at least I know why I haven't got a reply :lol: Shame that you've not got a reduced version though, however, lucky for you that you've got a PC that can run this :lol:

I assume that your attempt failed?

Does he have a reduced version, or are you just giving me his name & links for fun? :lol:

If & When I release it, I'll pop the non-reduced version in the file for people like you to use. :)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tycoon (Post 3571412) However, from the three or four e-mails, PM’s etc I have sent him, none have been returned, thus I’ve taken it upon myself to reduce the 11000 poly version model for Armada usage.

No its the name LC goes by now and away of contacting him
(only way I know of)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Ah, I see. Thanks! :)

Anyway, time for a quick update on the project. Been working on it again today (well, this afternoon) - the morning was spent sleeping and such. But I've managed to get it down to around 7000 polies. I've not finished yet, I haven't taken a single polygon away from the saucer section, I think that is going to be trouble doing from what I've attempted so far, however I've not yet given up.

So yeah, we'll defiantly have a 7000 poly version. Just need to get that down to around 5000 and I think I'll be happy.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Hello:
I reduced its poly-count to 6386. But I lost some details so I'm using the original warp coils (blue lights) and I had to rebuild some details in the stern (that red and green lights), but that was fast to make :D .
Even though I did my own version (with hps, strobes,...) I look forward to see your version, I hope it will look far better than mine :nodding:

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

6386 is better than what I managed to do. If you've still got the model, I'd like to have a look at it if you don't mind. Maybe I can get a better result using my reduced version, along with yours.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Your best bet is to rebuild the saucer, nacelles and nacelle supports. Poly count should be around 3500-4000 depending on how many slices the saucer has.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Whilst that is probably true Major, you must remember that I can't model. I'm 'moderate' when it comes to Poly Reduction, some things I can do with ease, others no so much.

If I were able to create models, or parts of models, then I'd have completely rebuilt this (or at least attempted to do so) by now. Unfortunately my skills are limited in this area.

Nope, I just never finished it as I started work on Yesteryears. ;)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Fair Enough :lol: Well I can send you mine once I'm done with it if your still interested :)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Yeah that would be great, would be a nice addition to any TNG era mod.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Consider it Sent (in advance) ;)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Thanks Ash. :)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

I love this ship too. Good luck and if you need my help (not sure what I could do) I'd be happy to. :)

Look forward to its release.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Right, I've done everything I can to further reduce this thing, and I'm afraid it isn't going to happen. Anything else I do to is just makes the ship look bad, and messes with the texture. Even as it is now, it isn't perfect, though it is playable.

The current poly count is 7203, which (whilst high) is fair I think for the ship in question. Considering this thing is going to be rivalling the size of the Dominion Battlecruiser, and Cardassian Hutet, i can't see a load of them being used simultaneously.

I'm hardpointing her as we speak, so if all goes well, I'll have her on A2Files later this evening, or maybe some time tomorrow depending on how I get on. The only way this ship is going to be lowered (in regards to poly count) is if someone were to rebuild her, using LC's textures.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Zomg double post!:p
I have downloaded it, but i haven't yet added it to the game. As i said, sorry for the delay with the textures as this would have been up earlier, perhaps last night. From the pictures, it looks brilliant, so i recommend that everyone download this.


But, the model is rather high poly, even though Ash has put his time into reducing it to a very low level and hasnt lost any of the detail it had, so low end machines may not cope with this.

Great work mate.:)

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Thank You very much :) And not to worry about the textures, the ship is up now (better late than never) and everything has worked out. Even though it would have been nice to have a smaller polied version, but I'm fairly happy with the result.

Hopefully, it wont be spammed (Excalibur Class X16 + Mission to Destroy Enemy Base = LAAAAAAAAAG).

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Hello:
I agree with that. hopefully nobody will attempt that ;)
The ship is looking goood, but I'm only watching at the normal one now, maybe someday I'll attempt the Transwarp on this one :p

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

There is an Transwarp variant in the pack, same as the normal one :uhm:

You could always open up Photoshop, and turn them white :p

:lol: The good old days (when there was a bigger community, and more files).

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

I've never liked the excaliber purely because of the black bits on it, if not for that, it would be a fairly good design I think.

This rebuild comes out at 7000 polys I believe, I remember a time when we had modders thrown into shark infested waters for models of above 2500 polys, lol

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Yeh, it is very high, but the thing people have to think about is the original poly count which was about 11500. Ash, i believe, did an awesome job reducing it.:)

:lol:

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Indeed a great job. I was kinda wondering if there was any chance of this being released for Armada 1. *biggest puupy dog eyes so humanly possible*

I tryed it out in the Demo and it looks amazing. Great work, really very great.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Hello:
I know there are both variants in the pack Tycoon, it is only that I prefer the normal one because I'm not used to see Fed ships with green glows :p
Good work to you and Gavin, and as I said in armada2files, I'm almost jealous.:D

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

Ok peeps, apparently there was an error with the download on A2Files, yet nobody had complained about it before saying it hadn't worked for them.

Thus:Quoted directly from the File Comments.

Has anyone downloaded this only for it be corrupt, or to have files missing? I'll be re-uploading it in time, but wouldn't mind knowing if this has always been corrupt, of if it has only recently become corrupt. If so, we need to figure out as to why that was.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

As i said, this is only a recent error. There may have been a problem when it was uploaded via FTP and it may only be a problem on one of the Filefront download servers.

Try downloading it from another download mirror like PlanetMirror.

Re: The Excalibur Project
 

I highly doubt downloading it elsewhere will solve the problem, and there wasn't a problem with the FTP Upload, else nobody would have been able to download it properly.

Something has happened somewhere between the upload, and now, where the error has taken place.

Update: The File has been fixed now, so there shouldn't be no problem with the download. If there is, let me know.