And now for something completely different...

[Reiko]

Well it still looks awesome! Loved that you added Nessus.
Can't wait to see the finished product!

[t00fri]

Hey Runar,

now I see why graphics drivers are needed that can serve more than one screen, hi hi...

Another thing I wonder from your above picture is whether these two beasts have to shave in the morning and if yes, whether they use one or two shavers

Fridger

[rthorvald]

I wonder from your above picture is whether these two beasts have to shave in the morning and if yes, whether they use one or two shavers

Well, he?s insane, so i don?t think he bothers to shave. Probably just wanders around in his pyjamas all day talking to himself and letting the hygiene go...

-rthorvald

[John Van Vliet]

--- edit ---

[rthorvald]

if you are a kizin don't let that thing turn( as if to run away) and let it kick you .

- rthorvald

[Guckytos]

Hi Runar,

the double sphere bike looks a lot better, IMHO.

And Nessus on the bike is also cool. What kind of model did you use for him? From the Kzin ass-kicking picture, it looks like you took a T-Rex or a veliceraptor and modified it.

Regards,

Guckytos

[rthorvald]

What kind of model did you use for him? From the Kzin ass-kicking picture, it looks like you took a T-Rex or a veliceraptor and modified it.

Exactly! I used the hind legs and lower body of a velociraptor, and made the upper body and heads myself.

- rthorvald

[John Van Vliet]

--- edit ---

[MKruer]

rthorvald, I meant to post this a while back to give you some ides on how to create the ship. This was from the Robotech Sentential Series. The Invid Assault Speeder has a (in this case) four sphere design. Its a cross between a bike and a car, and it seems to fit the brief description you had.

[Reiko]

The cover for the 4th ringworld book has both the ship with the quantum II hyperdrive and the hover bikes.

[rthorvald]

Well, at this stage the two-sphere design is pretty fixed. But thank you anyway!
I haven?t read the fourth book, i remember the third was pretty boring, so i gave up after that... But i do like that cover illustration!

- rthorvald

[Guckytos]

Well, at this stage the two-sphere design is pretty fixed. But thank you anyway!
I haven?t read the fourth book, i remember the third was pretty boring, so i gave up after that... But i do like that cover illustration!

- rthorvald

Third book, do you mean "The Ringworld Throne"? It was the same for me. I found the book also not so good and moved on to other SciFi.

The cover really looks good.

[Reiko]

Well, at this stage the two-sphere design is pretty fixed. But thank you anyway!
I haven?t read the fourth book, i remember the third was pretty boring, so i gave up after that... But i do like that cover illustration!

- rthorvald

Yes the 3rd book was pretty slow. The 4th is much better and reads faster.

[rthorvald]

The Lying Bastard:



And close up, to see the inside:


The human models and part of the cat is made with resources from a couple of freeware modelling sites.

Incidentially, it was incredibly difficult to find a female character that was not overtly pornographic. What is that? Are 3d modellers in general this geeky?

- rthorvald

[Reiko]

That's just awesome! I noticed you added the wings to the Lying Bastard something the artist left out on the book cover.

[Guckytos]

Awesome!!

Looks really like the real thing. I want a ticket!!!

Keep up the excellent work. Just one side question: Can't remember, should really read the books again, weren't those two spindles the same size?

And can you make the ship use the fusion drives to illuminate the underside of the ring, as they did in the novel?

Regards,

Guckytos

[rthorvald]

Can't remember, should really read the books again, weren't those two spindles the same size?
And can you make the ship use the fusion drives to illuminate the underside of the ring, as they did in the novel?

I don?t know about the spindles, it?s been more than twenty years since i read it.

As for lightning up the underside, no. I would need a real light source (a star) to do that. I don?t think it is possible to make a (tiny) star follow the ship.

- rthorvald

[Guckytos]

Can't remember, should really read the books again, weren't those two spindles the same size?
And can you make the ship use the fusion drives to illuminate the underside of the ring, as they did in the novel?

I don?t know about the spindles, it?s been more than twenty years since i read it.

As for lightning up the underside, no. I would need a real light source (a star) to do that. I don?t think it is possible to make a (tiny) star follow the ship.

- rthorvald

I read up again on the spindles. Seems like I was wrong. Wikipedia also says that: "A #2 GP hull is a cylinder 300 feet (91 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, pointed at both ends and with a slight "wasp-waist" constriction near the tail."

Edit (This is from the book itself): Okay it is a General Products Mark II ship, meaning that is composed of 2 spindles and one spindle has a long tapering end. (sorry if it sounds bad, I am on the fly translating from german) it's diameter is 6 meters, and it's about 100m long, they had 3 cabins for sleeping, 1 living room, 1 control room, and a lot of other smaller things (autodocs, kitchen, etc.)

And that about the star, too bad. Wouldn't it work to give the star an own mesh and define it as orbiting the same barycenter as the "Lying bastard", with fixed positions to each other? And then defining an orbit for the barycenter?

Regards,

Guckytos

[rthorvald]

And that about the star, too bad. Wouldn't it work to give the star an own mesh and define it as orbiting the same barycenter as the "Lying bastard", with fixed positions to each other? And then defining an orbit for the barycenter?

We cannot make stars that small. I tried once, and if i remember correctly, the smallest star that worked was several kilometers in radius - a lot bigger than the ship.
btw, here is your autodoc:



... I had originally planned to put Nessus in there without the one head, but decided it would look funnier with him piloting the ship, both heads intact

I am not going to script in any bits of the story. The Lying Bastard have a fixed, eccentric orbit that takes it close to the Great Ocean two times each full orbit, and close to the shadowsquares at perihelion, with the aphelion far below the ring floor. On it?s way up it passes within a few kilometers of the Rim Wall, and on the way down it flyes above the ocean. It is maximized to give various views of the landscape.

Something else: Louis flying around on the Ringworld, at dawn:


As with the spaceship, the flycycles orbits within a narrow area below the great mountain, more or less circling the area where the story took place.

I decided against scripting the flights because i did not want to set the time to get to the scenes. This way, one can just go there without bothering with dates. And with the orbits set up this way, it is possible to get a *lot* of different good scenes from the scenario (with different lightning, etc).

- rthorvald



- rthorvald

[Reiko]

How long before get to download?