WIP HMS Indefatigable (1784) frigate - take 2

[Martes]

Aft platform, pillars, preparing hatch and lid cover cuts. The small things. There will be doors, even. Eventually.

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[Martes]

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You are looking here:

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The capsule is human-sized (courtesy of @Armada ). I guess if the lower decks are ever to be browsable in first person mode, there should be a crouching pose implemented (for NHR, obviously), as the decks hardly enable a 1.8m person to stand, and beams loom considerably lower (note the pillar height). And a lantern might come in handy.

With help from Diana plans I deciphered what the aftermost room actually is - (the script on orlop plan is very difficult to read with that resolution) - and it is the aft magazine, hence the strange vertical position.

 

[Martes]

BTW, the place on the aft platform where the capsule stands is, in fact, the ship's cockpit, the place where Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and his colleagues had to live during their service on the Indy.

 

[Martes]

Crawling through the hold.
This is the forward magazine, with opening to lanterns in the light room (no walls inside there yet), and several bulkheads positions marked for the fore platform. You can see the foremast step near the lanterns.
And an omnipresent capsule, of course.

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I suppose, visiting that place had to be an extremely claustrophobic experience.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I suppose, visiting that place had to be an extremely claustrophobic experience.

That reminds me off visiting HMS Unicorn.
They deliberately had the lights off all the way forward and provide electrical lanterns instead (that actually look like old-school lanterns).
Have quite a creepy atmosphere! Which they made use of by having an exhibition about sea monsters right there.

 

[Captain Murphy]

Depending on how detailed this model becomes, we can look at giving it the HM Frigate Unicorn treatment.

 

[Martes]

Depending on how detailed this model

Since I still want to keep the face count somewhere near sane, I am planning to keep it somewhere around what can be seen on the screenshots, adding doors with rectangular windows, hinges and handles. The rest may depend on the textures and lighting.

I might add barrels and hanging lanterns at some point, though.

As I mentioned before, everything below the upper deck will not be included in POTC export, but Unity should handle that nicely.

(and, of course, low-poly parts could be replaced with more detailed versions, depending on availability)

 

[Martes]

One step back, two forward.

I realized I ran into a dead end with the light room, and after a long and tedious going through a pile of books (and even several sketches on paper), decided to make it in an empty model and as a wireframe, since faces have a tendency to obscure each other. I will add them later, as soon as I grasp the whole picture And then paste the whole ensemble back to the hold.

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As I mentioned before, Indy has a hanging magazine (separated from the lower deck, and going well under the orlop). This was done during fitting her as a frigate.
But except that her magazine is very similar to that on the Diana.

So now we can see the magazine, half-separated from the filling room with racks, lightroom and lanterns, and positioning of bulkheads, doors and ladders around. Note the relatively very low door that leads into to the magazine.

 

[Armada]

As I mentioned before, everything below the upper deck will not be included in POTC export, but Unity should handle that nicely.

I don't expect we'll be able to give lower decks much gameplay purpose yet, but the extra detail shouldn't affect performance too much. Ideally, though, those decks should not be rendered unless you're right next to or on board the ship, which can be done via LODs.

The amount of research you're putting into this ship is remarkable.

 

[Bava]

Modeling stuff like this would drive me crazy. Kudos for going the extra mile, this is going to be an extraordinary model!

 

[Martes]

I don't expect we'll be able to give lower decks much gameplay purpose yet

Sometimes is more than OK here. I just hope it will look more realistic than boarding gundeck/hold locations in POTC

The amount of research you're putting into this ship is remarkable.

Aside from genuine interest in how all this wood fits together I found interior design to serve as a good verification tool - if everything is matching there, there is a good chance the exterior isn't screwed up as well. Hopefully.
Especially, if you can reasonably squeeze the capsule through the doors, hatches and corridors.

Modeling stuff like this would drive me crazy.

Wait until you see the hatch that goes from the light room to the fore peak. Half of it opens in the wall to one side, half in the floor to another, and there is a ladder there. That thing IS crazy.

But, seriously, I did always envy your models on NA forum.

 

[Bava]

Wait until you see the hatch that goes from the light room to the fore peak. Half of it opens in the wall to one side, half in the floor to another, and there is a ladder there. That thing IS crazy.

Um, what? Does it bend the space-time continuum, too?


And my models are rather amateurish, check out this one on MSW. Really crazy pro stuff

By the way, I´m currently preparing a blender tutorial group build over at NA (all participants model the same ship). Once we get started, I'll open a thread here, too. I thought as a fellow Blender user you might be interested and it never hurts to have another experienced ship modeler on board

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And my models are rather amateurish

You'll have to forgive me for taking that with a massive grain of salt!

 

[Martes]

Um, what? Does it bend the space-time continuum, too?

Very close to that

check out this one on MSW. Really crazy pro stuff

Thanks!

Looked there before, but there are two new interior shots that I find extremely useful

But there are two dreadful words in in-game modeling - that is if you want your ship to sail and fire in the end - and that's "polygon count", so I am not trying to go completely that way to recreating each part of timber. I just want that it would be thought it is there

By the way, I´m currently preparing a blender tutorial group build over at NA (all participants model the same ship). Once we get started, I'll open a thread here, too. I thought as a fellow Blender user you might be interested and it never hurts to have another experienced ship modeler on board

My first priority is to finishing the Indy, but we'll see In any case I am going to watch it closely.

 

[Captain Murphy]

But there are two dreadful words in in-game modeling - that is if you want your ship to sail and fire in the end - and that's "polygon count", so I am not trying to go completely that way to recreating each part of timber. I just want that it would be thought it is there

Yeah, that is always the trade off. We would love to use the Unicorn in a game with the detailed interior, but that many poly has to go through a MASSIVE amount of optimization and then add to it the lighting and culling makes for a far too complicated object for any real game. We just decided to make it static and bake the lighting so we could target machines that weren't bleeding edge and at least let more people enjoy the ship.

 

[Martes]

Oookay...

I found a good scheme in "Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War", which supplements what I had already (mainly shutter configuration):

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And here is what the magazine, lanterns and shutters look like now:

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I am going to add cartridge shelves, and then move to doors, finally.

 

[Martes]

Magazine: the magazine itself, filling room (separated), light room, cartrige shelves, door, ladder.
From inside the magazine already has a visible roof, and from this perspective it will be covered by the lower deck.

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And a little bonus - comparison between the previous model and the new one. Completely different ships, despite the fact they share a similar profile.

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[Martes]

Doors and two more lanterns.
That almost concludes the fore platform (what remains is ladder to the forepeak and it's very unusual hatch set).
I think I will pass on most of the shelves, etc for the time being at least

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[Martes]

The new shot locker:

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[Pieter Boelen]

Wonderful detail, @Martes!