Released The Empress finally arrives!

[Legendary_Spider]

Iron Roger Flint has just handed me my next texturing project . . . his beautiful model, the Empress!

I'm really looking forward to working on this ship.

She doesn't have a crew yet, but they'll come along eventually.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

There should be a walk file for her on ftp, or did I not upload it?

 

[Legendary_Spider]

There should be a walk file for her on ftp, or did I not upload it?

It's there. I guess I didn't install it correctly.

I'll get that worked out.

Holy crap. You went all out on this model!

Amazing detail. Somehow I just know Armada's gonna complain about all those polys.

haha But she looks amazing!

I'm honored to work on your project. I'll turn her into a masterpiece. Don't worry.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

Compared to some other ships, it's pretty modest on polygons, although I could have made it less

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Well I think it's awesome. You even got the dragons on the lantern.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I'm gathering all the photo references I can find. Looks like I won't be able to make the textures entirely from photographs like I did with the Queen Anne's Revenge (because not many pictures exist of the Empress), but I can just do them by hand. No worries.

I'll get those sails looking better too. Especially the "wooden" parts.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

I'm gathering all the photo references I can find. Looks like I won't be able to make the textures entirely from photographs like I did with the Queen Anne's Revenge (because not many pictures exist of the Empress), but I can just do them by hand. No worries.

I'll get those sails looking better too. Especially the "wooden" parts.

"Wooden" parts

I used those just to see how the battens would be oriented in game; should be bamboo btw.

As for images, there really isn't much on the net. Basically the model was produced by studying the movie captions, and two other reference images I found on the net. Gonna attach them if you might not find them youself

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Yeah I have plans to make them look more solid and bamboo-like via some optical illusion tricks that I used on the Black Pearl.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Or are you actually gonna put real battens there? If so, great. If not, I can fake it.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Oh yes, do you think you could maybe make me a guide showing me how you placed the UV maps? So I know what textures go where and do what? Armada made me a guide for the Pearl and QAR and it made life so much easier. I hope you placed your UV maps correctly. Bonjourmonami did some really bizarre things with his UV maps on the Black Pearl and Queen Anne's Revenge. Armada finally had to fix it for me.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

Currently, the sails are moving as realistically as the engine allows it. If I would to add modeled battens to it, they would not move down or with the wind as canvas does. However I'm gonna research some possibilities to introduce a more realistic junk rig, but for now - fake it

EDIT: There should be one such map with instructions uploaded, for the rest I'll upload them later, as I'm not currently at home

 

[Armada]

Haha, I knew you'd like this project, LS! Nice to see you've taken it on.

Holy crap. You went all out on this model!

Amazing detail. Somehow I just know Armada's gonna complain about all those polys.

haha But she looks amazing!

I haven't complained yet. Besides, it was always going to be a high-poly model with all those details!
Still, it can't hurt to ask... how many polys does she have, IRF?

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

I haven't complained yet. Besides, it was always going to be a high-poly model with all those details!
Still, it can't hurt to ask... how many polys does she have, IRF?

Everything - 80k tris. Compared to 'le Fleuron' - it's nothing

Also encountered some weirdness while checking UV's. Gonna fix it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This is wonderful! I've been interested in a Chinese type ship in the game for some time and people occasionally have been asking too.
It'll be great to have another one for the list of "oft requested and now realized" things!

 

[Armada]

Everything - 80k tris. Compared to 'le Fleuron' - it's nothing

Yep, that's a good amount. Anything less than 100k is usually best for in-game performance, anyway.

 

[tommy61157]

That ship looks awesome, now there's a ship I sorta wish I had in real life, lol

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I've tried her out in the game and she seems to work just fine. Except when you go to battle sails, two of the three sails drop and she slows down to a crawl. Maybe we should fix that?

I think the official PA motto should be: "Don't tell us it can't be done!" lol

So many supposedly "impossible" things have been accomplished lately. I bet one day, someone will figure out how to have lights on the ships.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

the info on UV's is uploaded to my folder on ftp, also do download 'empress.gm' again as I fixed some uv weirdness

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I know this will come up later so I need to ask, are those fins on the cabin sails? Or are those actually part of the model? I will need to put holes in them, so if they're actually modelled, that will be problematic. Perhaps you could take the fins off, but leave the wooden frames for them, and you or Armada could make me one of those special surfaces (like we did for the skeletons on the QAR). Basically, turn the fins into a texture instead of part of the model, so that way I can put holes in them so it is film-accurate. If you don't know how to do that, Armada definitely does.

I'll download your updates. Thanks.

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

I know this will come up later so I need to ask, are those fins on the cabin sails? Or are those actually part of the model? I will need to put holes in them, so if they're actually modelled, that will be problematic. Perhaps you could take the fins off, but leave the wooden frames for them, and you or Armada could make me one of those special surfaces (like we did for the skeletons on the QAR). Basically, turn the fins into a texture instead of part of the model, so that way I can put holes in them so it is film-accurate. If you don't know how to do that, Armada definitely does.

I'll download your updates. Thanks.

You mean alpha mapping? You should be fine. The fins are modelled and use separate texture 'EmpressAlphaMapped.tga'. It also contains parts of the rudder, that need to be alpha mapped.