Littoral Combat Ship

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

I realize that this may be a controversial choice, given the polarized opinions about this vessel, but I've decided to do the LCS-1 as my second project here.

 

My main reason for choosing the Freedom class is a selfish one: She's stealthy! The low-RCS shaping means the vessel is geometrically simple, with an uncluttered deck and superstructure, and in turn, low polygon requirement. So, just like the real thing, I'll be able to go from drawing board to launch in much less time than it would take to build some other ship. The early (very, VERY early) render you see below is a mere 600 polygons.

My second reason is also selfish: I happen to think the ship is pretty cool looking.

The initial release of this vessel will be armed with a 57mm rapid fire gun, two 30mm autocannons, and a RAM missile launcher. As more info about the different mission modules becomes available, other weapons and systems will be added in the future. In the mean time, I think she'll make a decent escort for other task elements against threats that get too close for Standard Missiles. Plus, she's FAST! The disproportionately large flight deck should be able to support two helicopters, providing for some potentially interesting rotary wing operations.

 

If you have any comments, questions, or feature requests, let me know.

[colmack]

WBS

 

Nice! this is one i didn't even know about, I'm glad your doing it! I will be looking forward to the gestation of this project.

[+JimBeamer5]

Yep, nice big helo deck! Just enough room to land my latest helo project... :wink2:

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

Somehow I got sick and fell behind schedule this week, but the mesh is nearly done.

To save time and polygons, I've simplified the detail under the waterline, unlike with my Tico where I did the screws and everything. Ships don't capsize very often in the game anyway, so hopefully no one will complain. I think she's looking pretty nice so far.

 

Anyway, I'm just about ready to do the most fun and least fun parts: weapons testing and UVW unwrapping. >_>

 

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing JB5's MH-53 on the deck...

[colmack]

WBS

 

Hey I have a USS Bainbridge CGN-25 model that is aching to be animated,painted and compiled. it would be pretty easy to convert it to Leahy class CG also I think, plus a few more laying around in the yard that you might be interested in.

 

you can hit me up at bbtbmb-at-gmail-dot-com if your interested I know you were gunna take a break after the LCS so no rush.

[+JimBeamer5]

Somehow I got sick and fell behind schedule this week, but the mesh is nearly done.

To save time and polygons, I've simplified the detail under the waterline, unlike with my Tico where I did the screws and everything. Ships don't capsize very often in the game anyway, so hopefully no one will complain. I think she's looking pretty nice so far.

 

Anyway, I'm just about ready to do the most fun and least fun parts: weapons testing and UVW unwrapping. >_>

 

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing JB5's MH-53 on the deck...

 

 

Looking good WBS

 

Unfortunately the MH-53J on hold for now , a couple of issues I couldn't overcome. Maybe they'll be a proper one coming in the not too far distant future instead of one of my "Lego" creations. What I can say is that there's another large helo coming shortly to a sky near you.

 

JB5

[KJakker]

I don't think their is an existing "Bofors 57mm L70 Mk3" AKA "57 mm/70 (2.25") Mark 110 Mod 0" in the game. The attached file is the one I created for myself from this data source http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNSweden_57-70_mk123.htm combined with some existing similar guns as temples. I hope it is useful to you.

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

clocmack: Check your inbox.

JB5: Don't give up on the MH-53! But honestly I'd be happy to see any helo you can give us.

KJakker: Great minds think alike. I already put in the 57mm gun, using the data from the same website you linked, and my numbers are pretty much identical to yours.

Speaking of which, here's a pic from the initial weapons testing (sans paint):

The 30mm bushmaster guns are also new, using data from that navy weapons site. I found out that they use basically the same turret as the (cancelled? delayed?) USMC Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. And apparently the mountings are completely modular and able to be swapped out for different weapons easily.

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

The skin is 90% done, and she's helo capable now, so here are some preview pics:

Because I suck at painting, I decided to try something different and use cut and edited photographs wherever practical.

As promised, this ship can readily handle two medium helicopters. (Chinooks and Ospreys might be a bit too big to fit more than one on deck though.)

Did you know that you can make aircraft launch aft instead of forward?

In order to facilitate the AI wingman being able to take off and land, the deck has fake catapults and arresting wires. The number two position is staggered back a bit so the AI has a better takeoff run. Seahawks work perfectly so far.

 

I still need to do the decals (easy) and the RIM-116 missile. I considered just using a stock Sidewinder model, but you guys deserve better than that, right?

Also, I'm considering adding the four .50 cal machine guns, which will take a little while longer, so I'm not sure if it's worth it from a tactical or immersion point of view.

 

Let me know what you think.

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

LCS-1 is underway and will be uploaded shortly. It took me just under 20 days from start to finish.

 

I decided to add the .50 cals after all. And here's the RIM-116 RAM being launched. I temporarily changed "ShowMissile=TRUE" so you can see that each missile is in its correct spot in the launcher.

 

Here's a render of the missile.

 

I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm going to get right back to work on yet another project.

[+PureBlue]

I'm enjoying your work very much mate, thank you for developing

[+PureBlue]

I've been testing this and can't get the RAM-116 to lock on me and fire.

Went through the data.ini and perhaps somethings up with the radar, not sure..

[+Julhelm]

The photos you used for the texture look very low-res. You'll get much better results if you use them for reference only and paint the textures yourself in Photoshop. I don't know how you've mapped it but from the looks of it you should easily have something much nicer looking using a 1024 map. Also you can try sharpening the texture and see if that makes it look more crisp.

[dsawan]

Looks nice. Any chance in future you caan work on one of these:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotlin_class_destroyer

[+Stary]

yes, not hijacking, we need more Cold War ships

[dsawan]

i can try to find more sketches on the ship if you like? there were 2 versions of the ship. The all-gun type and the SAM Kotlins. We could have both types.

Edited June 26, 2011 by dsawan

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

The photos you used for the texture look very low-res. You'll get much better results if you use them for reference only and paint the textures yourself in Photoshop. I don't know how you've mapped it but from the looks of it you should easily have something much nicer looking using a 1024 map. Also you can try sharpening the texture and see if that makes it look more crisp.

 

The original photos were fairly decent resolution (mostly around 1200 x something, best I could find), but in the process of using the scaling and perspective tools, plus trying to get the brightness/contrast/color balance even over the ship, the apparent quality went down. Ideally, you're right, hand-painted textures look the best in this game, but as I said I'm not skilled in that area at all. I'll see what I can do to improve the textures, though.

 

As for a Kotlin, I'll definitely consider that. At some point I'm thinking of doing a Krivak or Neustrashimy too. More cold war era targets would be good, after all.

I've got some other stuff in the works before that, though, so please be patient.

[+Julhelm]

Well get base images from places like cgtextures.com and use these to create your own textures. Photoshop layer effects like drop shadow etc can be used to great effect to produce sharp looking textures. And like everything else you get better by doing.

[dsawan]

Hi, samurai. I think a neustrashimy has been made for sfp1 already. i think it was hosted here but not sure. Just needs a conversion to sf2. But glad you may consider the Kotlin

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

dsawan: I can't seem to find the Neustrashimy in the downloads section. If it's still in there somewhere, can you give me a link please?

I've been testing this and can't get the RAM-116 to lock on me and fire.

Went through the data.ini and perhaps somethings up with the radar, not sure..

 

I just tested the ship against a large variety of aircraft using different flight profiles, and I did notice that the missile fails to fire under some circumstances. I deduced that the seeker isn't functioning properly. I changed ShowMissile=TRUE and now they're shooting perfectly against all targets.

I'm not sure why the missile needs to be visible for it to see targets, but... Hey, if it's stupid but it works, then it isn't stupid!

 

Julhelm, thanks for letting me know about cgtextures. I had no idea there were sites like that.

I spent a lot of time today redoing the texture for the LCS. I found some better aligned and crisper photos, and I think it looks better now. I hope this is more satisfactory.

 

I did the vents above the bridge by hand and got almost exactly the effect I wanted.

 

Unless there are any more suggestions, I'll upload the new textures and missile issue fix as an update.

 

Lastly, I'm attaching alternate .LODs for SF1 users who aren't seeing the model properly. (Only use these if the original ones don't work!)

LCS-1 alternate LODs.rar

[+Julhelm]

Yeah, it's starting to look much better. I'd recommend finding a good base texture and do the deck fairly highres, and use max's render to texture function to bake some ambient occlusion and use that as a multiply layer. It's similar to when you apply a wash to a plastic model to bring out all the geometric detail. Also start looking into doing some basic normal and specular maps and preview them in a game engine such as Marmoset toolbag.

[colmack]

Admiral WhiteBoySamurai Commander surface action squadron 1 ComSAONE

[EricJ]

I agree, looking much better...

[+PureBlue]

Nice improvement with the skin

 

I got a question:

 

Considering the SAM complement, what's the difference in listing the various missile variables, (eg: MissileRange, Datalink, launcherPitch/yaw etc..)

under the [WeaponSystem] section, from listing them in a separate [RAMLauncher] section?

The LCS-1 has them listed under the former, and CG-47 Tico the latter.

 

Edit: Is it because the RAM-116 is an infrared-homing missile? Though it integrates with the ships radar..

Yet, The LCS-1 data [RAMLauncher] has DATALINK=TRUE but no NetworkType callout. Perhaps not needed here(?)..

 

Edit2: I think I get it, it doesn't integrate with Ships Radar but it's homes in to radar-energy at first phase, then infrared-homing.. So I think you've got it setup perfectly as much as the game allows..

 

 

I know you've been researching these while designing. That's why I'm asking, and the topic is very interesting I think.

Thanks for the insight!

Edited June 27, 2011 by PureBlue

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

New version is uploaded with new textures and the missile fix. I hope you guys like it! I feel like I'm learning a lot from the feedback.

...Especially when that feedback requires me to google stuff like "ambient occlusion."

 

Nice improvement with the skin

 

I got a question:

 

Considering the SAM complement, what's the difference in listing the various missile variables, (eg: MissileRange, Datalink, launcherPitch/yaw etc..)

under the [WeaponSystem] section, from listing them in a separate [RAMLauncher] section?

The LCS-1 has them listed under the former, and CG-47 Tico the latter.

 

Edit: Is it because the RAM-116 is an infrared-homing missile? Though it integrates with the ships radar..

Yet, The LCS-1 data [RAMLauncher] has DATALINK=TRUE but no NetworkType callout. Perhaps not needed here(?)..

 

Edit2: I think I get it, it doesn't integrate with Ships Radar but it's homes in to radar-energy at first phase, then infrared-homing.. So I think you've got it setup perfectly as much as the game allows..

 

 

I know you've been researching these while designing. That's why I'm asking, and the topic is very interesting I think.

Thanks for the insight!

 

Yes, that's basically the idea. The LCS should be able to use its radar to cue the missile, just like when we slave a heatseeker to the radar in a fighter. I tried a different configuration early on (with the gun as the main weapon and the RAM as a separate weapon entry) but it didn't seem as effective.

 

However, I don't actually need the separate launcher entry for the CG-47. Because it's the ship's main weapon and is directly tied to the radar, the WeaponData is all it needs. I had hoped to get both twin-arm launchers working, which is why there are separate entries for them still in the data file.