HMS Unicorn Virtual Museum

[Pieter Boelen]

It's a good thing the background looks fairly simplistic, because the model itself looks pretty much photo-real!

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Looking downright excellent! Haven't downloaded it yet but I notice from the video and screens that the waist is planked over, which is highly unusual. I could see it being relic of the process of putting her in ordinary, or simply something that is yet to be completed on the model-just thought I'd point out in case it slipped by!

 

[Captain Murphy]

Looking downright excellent! Haven't downloaded it yet but I notice from the video and screens that the waist is planked over, which is highly unusual. I could see it being relic of the process of putting her in ordinary, or simply something that is yet to be completed on the model-just thought I'd point out in case it slipped by!

Really it would have depended on the year she was pressed into service. In that period a TON of frigates were put in ordinary and left as hulks. One of the books I have showed the same class of 38 gun frigate brought into service in different years and as they were pressed later and later the waist was always a smaller and smaller opening until around the early 40's when it was just left housed over. As the Unicorn was an 1824 launch, yes, it could have been opened up but for our build we went with closed in for a 'later' look than one like the earlier Trincomalee.

 

[Flannery]

Captain Murphy is correct.
The change was done as a continuing of the changes that the Leda Class designer (Seppings) started in 1817 by rounding off the stern hull to strengthen the stern against damage. By 1824 this included closing in the waist.

I asked specifically about this when I started the model, since my initial plans had the open waist and the old stern gallery, and thus the original hull I made also had the open waist according to the way the HMS Trincomalee and HMS Shannon has. Even after I modelled the stern gallery of the new design.

When I finally received all of the material I had asked for from the museum, some of the pictures showed a rigged model of the Unicorn done by the in-house caretaker of the museum models, Mr. Justin Dempster. This model had the closed in waist, so I naturally asked both Mr. Dempster and the museum curator, Mr. Billy Rough (yeah.. That's his real name.. ) about it - and I was given the information that I stated above

Glad you are liking the model. It's been a fantastic learning experience.

I would not have minded making her even more detailed, but it would then be merely impossible to run the scene on a mainstream computer.

So I have compromised by leaving out unnecessary details that would not be of importance to the mainstream wiever/player.

Its the experience that is the main focus, and I am very satisfied and happy with the results we are getting.

And I think @Captain Murphy has done excellent work on his part with the shaders and lighting.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And I think @Captain Murphy has done excellent work on his part with the shaders and lighting.

You've both done a good job!
I'm quite looking forward to seeing your work when I visit the HMS Unicorn during the Summer holidays.

 

[Captain Murphy]

You've both done a good job!
I'm quite looking forward to seeing your work when I visit the HMS Unicorn during the Summer holidays.

Hopefully they have their VR setup by then. I love wandering around in the ship with the Rift. I have people that stop by my house do it and so far the shortest time someone has spent in it is around 15 minutes.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hopefully they have their VR setup by then. I love wandering around in the ship with the Rift. I have people that stop by my house do it and so far the shortest time someone has spent in it is around 15 minutes.

Well, tell them to get a move on then! I'll be there sometime in August.
You can tell them "almost the big PiratesAhoy! head honcho is coming to approve their work"!
Or.... maybe not!

 

[Captain Murphy]

Well, tell them to get a move on then! I'll be there sometime in August.
You can tell them "almost the big PiratesAhoy! head honcho is coming to approve their work"!
Or.... maybe not!

Hmm, I don't recall seeing a brig in the model, but they just might make one just for you!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maybe I better stay away then; make some alternate plans for the holidays!

 

[Flannery]

Hahaha.. @Pieter Boelen.. I have already blown the whistle on you weeks ago ;-)

The curator will be expecting you... *evil grin*

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hahaha.. @Pieter Boelen.. I have already blown the whistle on you weeks ago ;-)

The curator will be expecting you... *evil grin*

Sounds like there's trouble ahead!

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Really it would have depended on the year she was pressed into service. In that period a TON of frigates were put in ordinary and left as hulks. One of the books I have showed the same class of 38 gun frigate brought into service in different years and as they were pressed later and later the waist was always a smaller and smaller opening until around the early 40's when it was just left housed over. As the Unicorn was an 1824 launch, yes, it could have been opened up but for our build we went with closed in for a 'later' look than one like the earlier Trincomalee.

Captain Murphy is correct.
The change was done as a continuing of the changes that the Leda Class designer (Seppings) started in 1817 by rounding off the stern hull to strengthen the stern against damage. By 1824 this included closing in the waist.

I asked specifically about this when I started the model, since my initial plans had the open waist and the old stern gallery, and thus the original hull I made also had the open waist according to the way the HMS Trincomalee and HMS Shannon has. Even after I modelled the stern gallery of the new design.

When I finally received all of the material I had asked for from the museum, some of the pictures showed a rigged model of the Unicorn done by the in-house caretaker of the museum models, Mr. Justin Dempster. This model had the closed in waist, so I naturally asked both Mr. Dempster and the museum curator, Mr. Billy Rough (yeah.. That's his real name.. ) about it - and I was given the information that I stated above

Ahh, I stand corrected! I was familiar with Seppings' diagonal bracing and round sterns, but not the closing in of the waist. I suppose with the increasing use of davits for storing boats there was less need to store so many in the waist, and there were surely some strength benefits to having more planking run the full length of the deck, in addition to keeping out the elements.

The Unicorn herself is of course a testament to how well these ships lasted, but plenty of her sisters weren't broken up until the 1860s to as late as 1911, well past their usefulness as warships.

Excellent work by the both of you! There's always a compromise between performance and detail, but I think you've balanced it quite well.

 

[Captain Murphy]

The Unicorn is getting an update. Well, more specifically I am building the Unity project from the ground up again to incorporate the new ways I have learned to do things, lol. I picked up a new utility for baking light maps (shading/shadows) using the GPU, so my iteration time is cut from around 31 hours per bake to around 45 minutes. Quite the improvement. We want to fully flesh out the project, whereas up til now it has been a model, but nothing more. Specifically, we want to add in a few displays, similar to an actual museum so if anyone has ideas of things that may be of interest to see displayed, we are open to any ideas that come to mind. The goal is to make some 3d displays in game that can be seen when near them, so they don't obscure the view otherwise.

 

[Captain Murphy]

Spoiler: Updated Screenshots from the Beta

 

[Captain Murphy]

The beta is now available on Itch.io! HMS Unicorn Virtual Museum by Salty Sea Dogs
Look for version 1.5.x

I added a couple of new features to this build, namely a simple function to 'auto tune' your quality settings. It aims to get you near-abouts to 60fps and will adjust quality settings to get you to that. I also added in an FPS/memory menu (~/` key). A simple screenshotter (backspace) that puts the images in the game folder under "screenshots". Also worked with @Flannery and added a few tweaks to the textures and got the looks a bit more sorted. Don't forget to look up too.. there are some flyers about.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I added a couple of new features to this build, namely a simple function to 'auto tune' your quality settings. It aims to get you near-abouts to 60fps and will adjust quality settings to get you to that.

I only found out a few weeks back that AAA games do that.
Really cool that you made it work too!

 

[Captain Murphy]

Upgraded the candelabras a bit, added candle particles, added some new details (sword, cutlass, pistol, new Ontario model).

 

[Pieter Boelen]

A model in a model? Always a good idea!

Are that table and those chairs as low-poly as I think they are though?
I didn't think "the general game audience" these days would be accepting of that anymore...

Personally, I think it looks great though.

 

[Captain Murphy]

I don't think we ever really intended to get quite as detailed as we have now. The model used to look pretty good back last year, but now it is looking even better with the newer lighting and models, so it makes the 'less detailed' ones start to stand out.

 

[Captain Murphy]

I pushed a fix and a couple of adjustments for the auto-fps system. Apparently it was not catching certain conditions of vsync so it was dropping the performance even if the machine was handling it fine.