Another Re-imagined Enterprise

[Starship]

Originally Posted by MadKoiFish

Windows on the main hull!
...I havent decide if Ill do any windows on the saucer rim. I most likely will in the end...

Windows on the saucer rim will be fine, as some on the neck too.

[3DTEKO6]

One thing I really enjoy looking at regarding this model are the engines. They look powerful (big, purposeful) as they should. That and the defined neck details. Really top notch designing.

[Dr-Timelord]

Windows on the Hull look great, invokes the TMP feel. by which i mean the level of detail and accurate placings of them

[MadKoiFish]

I havent decided on the registry on the saucer yet, I might just go tos style with it using the same font as on top. Nacels will get reg as well the ncc l70l. The markings on the nacels though might get redone.

[Melak]

Fantastic model!
As always

I believe the Mental Ray update in one of the more recent max versions added support for light emitting sufraces/materials,
I don't suppose there is a way to update just Mental Ray in older max versions though :/

[MadKoiFish]

Max 9 has something but Im finding MR in max has more than one way to do things. The one I found is use Arct mat and in the self ilum slot and use glow (lume) shader.


Issue is I am not using MR on this project. And most likely will not for the time being. Maybe in the future Ill spend the time to rerig all the materials and optimise it for that but right now the drawbacks in time and visual detail, I am sticking with scanline.

[PixelMagic]

I really see no problem with using scanline for starships. They don't really need heavy reflections and advanced materials associated with Mental Ray.

[deg3D]

What is Scanline? Is that 3dmax's renderer?

deg

[MadKoiFish]

Yes it is the default set renderer other is Mental Ray since max7?

[Basajaun]

Originally Posted by PixelMagic

I really see no problem with using scanline for starships. They don't really need heavy reflections and advanced materials associated with Mental Ray.

You can use MR for simple scenes aswell. Even if you don't need to take advantage of MR's advanced features it is probably going to give you better results than Scanline. For example, MR's 'Area Lights' are a lot better than MAX's default 'Area Sahdows'. You can take advantage of 'Raytraced Sahdows' -i.e. when using Opacity Maps- which render faster and offer greater qulity.

I've been using Scanline for quite a long time and I feel very confortable working with it but recently I've been considering using MR as my default renderer. It's very powerfull even for simple renders.