dialNforNinja

So, is there any actual information about the Superinvisionspection Army Forces (beyond "owners of the pre-crash Macross," unless you go by the DYRL idea that it was a Meltran gunship) and is a name ever put to their opponents?

I'm assuming you mean actual Macross models, and I don't actually have any of those. The original designs I've been making I kind of need to keep a lid on since they're assets for a game I'm trying to make, sorry.

I suppose that shouldn't be a surprize, that it was already noticed, I mean. Lacking a PS3, I've been avoiding most M30 threads to keep from taunting myself.

especially this image:

Also compare the three view:

And here I thought Kawamori-sensei had stopped emulating real world aircraft so closely... not that I have ANY ROOM AT ALL to cal that a bad thing, considering my own variable WWII fighter designs...

I thought the Supervision Army and Inspection Forces were the names of the opposed factions? Anyway, my conclusion was that one side mostly trusted their people to operate with their normal leaders and an occasional check in with Protoculture high command, while the other insisted on direct and strict oversight of their bioengineered humanoid weapons and/or subject population at all times.

Well, not quite. The Sturmvogel was the night-fighter version, with an enlarged, two-place cockpit and various other structural mods that wouldn't work out on the transforming version. It's probably close enough to count, though. As for the chest, it is made from flat segments, but the way they're arranged the whole thing is actually about as deep as a VF-1's, maybe more since it's wrapped around a horizontal cockpit like the VF-4 and Nightmare Minus are. I've been making a serious effort in all my recent designs to keep the cockpit at the same orientation or at most only tip down partway to reduce the complexity of the pilot's seating arrangements, and that "blossoming" chest is actually nearly as much a standard of my designs (most never getting beyond napkin sketch stage admittedly) as transforming heads seem to be becoming, the 262 being on the simplistic side where it only rolls the "jaw" section up into the "cranium."

Re-rendered video clip:

Note the no longer see-through-hollow G-mode nose section, increased cockpit armor coverage, and yes, a big frikken' hammer, plus vintage Mad SCIENCE! MASER cannon. I recolored the chest a bit too.

And just let me say that figuring out the right compositing node setup to get the glow effect without messing up the rest of the image was a right pain in the arse.

Looking at it realistically, the US would be more likely a part of the Anti-Unification forces and flying SV-52s. I mean, can you seriously see any US administration agreeing to be subsumed to a unified planetary government? Of course, Macross canon says the US was on board and expies of a lot of our aerospace firms are major contributors to the VF-1 systems, but still.

For your model itself, if you're looking for stealth, a VF-1 is the wrong shelf in the wrong warehouse on the wrong airbase - the SW-XA I makes a decent stab at it, but the bog standard Valk is just too gribbly, with too much frontal area and too many right angles - just the seam where the chestplate slides over the nose would likely add more to the radar signature than a true stealth fighter has in total - radar absorption through the energy conversion armor is one thing, but there's no real point trying to put passive stealth features on the beast.

All that aside, it is a very nice looking model, and applying real world physics to giant mecha is a laughable folly anyway, so trick it out however you like! I never have the patience to refine a single design like you've been, I spend a couple of days working out a transformation and tweaking the proportions, then move on to animating it, and sometimes get a ways into texturing before getting sick of looking at it for a while. I guess that's why my mecha models all come in around 3k-5k triangles, that's just how many I can bang into shape in that time Obviously, for my game project I'll need to dive into texturing in a way that goes beyond the basic material colors and occasional diffuse color map I've done in the past, but with several different mecha to work on (plus all the other 3d assets; human and alien characters, scenery, equipment, etc., thoguh I'm hoping to do procedural geenration of the actual terrain at least so as not to take years placing bushes and trees) not to mentoin programming tasks there should be plenty to switch between and always have something different to work on.

Are you going to do super parts for it as well?

Thanks, Semin! How's your game project coming? My own planning has been for all-original content (with addon support for fan-units of various anime mecha, such as Macross) in order to avoid licensing issues, which are particularly vicious since I live on Harmony Gold turf. All the same, I wouldn't mind taking the time now and then to work on the VF-4, VF-9, and or VF-14 (M7 Plus/M+ Movie vers) for yours, since the 9 especially is not generally popular enough to be a likely contribution - I love that shrimpy little thing. It's just so awkward and cute, like a scrappy puppy. Or Cirno from Touhou Project... A Cirno Custom VF-9 like the Sheryl and Ranka special VF-25s & 27s would be icy cool and obviously The Strongest!

@ Paramat - I've heard of it and keep meaning to take a look, but never actually get around to it. Just making the list of models I already have for the project will take weeks, without even accounting for animations and textures! I haven't even decided on exactly what animations I'm going to need, let alone making them! The flyaround transformations are really just for visualization.

Yeah, just try to get something that's shaped like a shark to turn into something that's shaped like a human in a straightforward way It ends up with about 75% of the fusilage turning into the arms and shoulders, the rest being cockpit, head, tail, and struts to connect them. The standard A.1/A.2 versions' upper legs are even skimpier than the HG.I/HG.II, because where the later models have that leading edge extension on the torso that leads to the lightning bolt jag on the leg, the earlier models have half the sweep and the leg is tapered into a leading edge from the knee almost all the way up to the hip. There is a rotation joint not shown in the video in the upper leg, BTW - it cuts across at the notch where the nose/torso LEX meets the part on the leg/wing.

And the rotating micromissile packs? Totally intentional all along. I didn't get around to transforming it and say "oh crap, the outside of the pods in plane mode is the inner calf on robot and hybrid," no way no how.

I may have to re-render it after all, though - I came up with a Mad SCIENCE! gunpod that I simply must use. MUST. Still images at least. It'll mount centerline under the wongs and rotate to sit sideways under the wings in G, must be handheld in B since that location blocks/is blocked by the wings folding.

Carmen Richthofen's Me-262 HG.II as equipped for an orbital raid on the alien fleet.

Integral armament: 4x rapid pulse energy guns (nose/head)

Option parts:
4x Heavy Anti-Ship missile
2x Leg Mounted Micro-Missile Hive (Micromissile x156 total)
2x Lorin-Sanger-Ravvika fusion scramjet boost equipment

Polycount:
mecha: 2770
option parts: 1268
crappy placeholder insignia: 708

As you can see, I went with a variation on "both of them!" as far as the transformation style goes - the no-boost-equipment version is still a more compact form than the original V-style, but retains the visual distinctiveness. March's suggestion with the tailplanes has also been implemented, as you can see. This clip is designed to be looped, and I reccomend downloading it to do so since YouTube doesn't seem to have it as an option - and this time, it's in HD! Still only 720p, but it makes seeing the details easier with the parts all the same color or nearly so, and it takes about 3hrs to render just this much so I'm not going to recolor with the patchwork and do a second version just for that.

I think it's because most people seem to dislike her VF (Personally, I love the gaudy thing - and not just for its FAE-pseudonuke special attack in the Artdink games) and she barely had any screen time outside it. Seeing her in the M30 gameplay videos makes me want to speak Japanese just so I could get a little more idea of her story and character... not that she says much there either. The real question in that game is

A video will come when I finish modeling the legs (though I've already recolored the parts that are done to Carmen Richthofen's "Red Baroness" livery, I can easily enough switch it back to the high-contrast patchwork) but in the meantime, I've actually found a good looking compromise position - wings still folded in a V as in Type 1, but rotating that down about 2/3rds as far as Type 2 keeps the visual appeal while making the back shorter - folding the H.stabs down as March suggested (which I can't believe never occured to me) will also make things neater. I tried it with a V-tail too (ala the first version HG.II) but it just doesn't look as good, and (a far greater sin) gets in the way of the transformation. I'm most likely going to still go to type 2 for boost parts, though - the act of writing the bullet points down sold me on the strategic need for orbit-capable boosters, and that's the best way to fit them.

Carmen is the daughter of the Red Baron's brother and second in command Lothar and one of the aliens who evacuated from the ship that crashed in 1920 - the real Lothar had a daughter by that name but in this continuity the mother persuaded him to use something different, so Carmen comes form the second marriage he never had OTL, due to becoming a commercial pilot rather than a test pilot in the mecha program. He was a much more aggressive and aerobatic pilot than his brother, but the more famous Richthofen's livery was adopted when the propoganda value of holding her up as a symbol of Aryan might (despite being HALF ALIEN, since no full blood human has strong enough psi to be a combat effective mecha pilot though her father had enough latent ability to get one moving - this is the driving force behind gender equality amoung pilots, there aren't enough halfs or fullblood Bluo around for anyone to stand on their conservative principles, particularly when female pilots can usually withstand an extra half to three quarters of a G, let you load a few more pounds of ammo, and fit easier in tight cockpits) despite taking after her parents rather than her uncle in the air. Her signature leather greatcoat and peaked cap are red too. She's the primary enemy ace when you're in the European theater, at least until the main alien fleet arrives.

As you can see, I'm rapidly moving away from anything that really follows Macross in terms of story, aside from general alien invasion and mecha genre standards, but it's transforming aircraft with a hybrid plane/humanoid mode, so I figure it's close enough for a fan forum.

Hey troops, I'm making a variable Me-262 Schwalbe (plus HG.II version with 35 degree wing sweep instead of 18) but I have two nearly equal variants of the robot mode I can't decide between.

Considered on its own I tend toward type 1, but with space-tech versions of the Lorins a VMe-262 HG.II would be able to make orbit on its own, and "get earth ready to fight the aliens" is basically the whole justification for Germany being the aggressor (by wiping out undesirable "weak" strains of humanity, communism, etc. - I never said they were the good guys!)

Got sidetracked. Anyway, givn the emphasis on capability to fight space-based enemies, fighters that can get up there or back down without needing a mothership have obvious importance - otherwise, the only option for that mission type until the 70s style original designs that only appear very late and if you put particular effort into creating them is the variable V-2.

So, do you prefer TYPE 1:

* can use OTL landing gear
* V-shape folded backpack is common element with variable V-2
* less time to pop the wings out for boost jumps
* arms have room to swing back for melee or holding a gunpod

or TYPE 2:

* flatter backpack
* better field of view from head & cockpit
* easily mounts OTL Lorin ramjet boosters




It is possible to have the normal transformation use type 1 but switch to type 2 with optional equipment attached, but this still means I have to come up with different landing gear... for voting purposes, call this TYPE 3

Game design is not a democracy, but I will count audience response when making the final decision.

One more: How the decorations end up in B mode

A few stills of the unit, with option parts and a few tweaks

Just these crappy trim bits add 12,000 polygons - mostly in the font. There'll be simple decal geometry to add a transparent .png onto for the game version, but it suffices for the render.

Note that the last is of a Block 1 unit, with a single-shot brow laser and lacking the ear guns entirely due to difficulty producing the energy weapons it was designed for, and the gunpods which they were delivered with to make up for the lack. Each has a 20mm autocannon and two .50 cal machineguns (as in the OTL P-38) with 150 and 500 rounds each respectively, but each one also holds three of each caliber ammo bins (the .50s are combined into a single unit with two spools that feed into opposite sides) with only the ones closest to the grip actually being used at any one time, as the unit has hands and can switch them like a soldier with rifle clips and the gunpods have to occupy a hardpoint anyway, it was thought that the weapon might as well make use of the full carrying capacity. When occupying the inboard, "armpit" hardpoint, the guns are within the plane of the propeller, therefore they are equipped with an electro-optical interrupter system to prevent shooting off the plane's own propellers. When handheld or one the outboard hardpoints they enjoy their full rate of fire, a truly terrifying concept if all six are filled and fire-linked for a ground attack mission. The pilot's telekinesis is responsible for moving them to and from the hands when transforming.

Thanks! I've decided on a slight modification of my original idea for nose art scheme for the "default skin" when I get around to texturing it - the left side ahead of the cockpit (rear armor cover in B) will have "TWO DEVILS" in block text then "one pilot" in smaller script, and the outsides of the engine cowls will be redheaded Luci on one side and black haired Lili on the other, both with little horns and a spade tail, hearkening to both the German and Japanese pilot's nicknames for the craft ("Fork-tailed Devil" and "Two planes one pilot" respectively.) Right now I'm just trying to get the damn Shinden off the machine I was borrowing sometimes, since it was made in Blender 2.63, which I hate because of the n-gons, and the same rewrite that implemented them means it stores the faces in a way that earlier versions don't understand. Sure, it's "only" about 2500 polygons, but I still don't want to hang every one back on the wireframe manually, not to mention all the hassle spent getting that starfield skin to line up as my first time project in UV mapping. If the sky is particularly blue today, you know I'm doing my part to help...

See new video in first post!

The final model is a kinda hefty 2500 polys, but the P-38 is a curvy beauty and it would be a crime to not do her justice. It'll only be seen when close up anyway, simpler, blockier versions will suffice when the size of the unit on the screen is less, and I've planned all along for agressive LOD handling to accomodate large numbers of units active at once.

Wow... so bad at the game... my pride as a (game) pilot is offended by such pathetic skills!

And yeah, such a beautiful game. I'm seriously considering ordering it despite not owning a PS3, or even a TV to connect one to... I've been handheld and computer/internet only for 15 years now, but for this...

Then again, the power of Macross 30 has compelled me to get off my thumb and get back to programming, trying to get an Irrlicht Engine based environment to use my original designs in.

I'd imagine they don't do so because people living in Japan tend to speak Japanese... as for the rest, Harmony Gold and licensing issues are pretty much the reason, yes. Probably also at the root of the switch from UNS and the fighting kite logo to NUNS and their stupid looking onion.

You can set the controls to use the joystick on the PSP rather than the D-pad, if you like. As for which game to get, I prefer Ultimate as it doesn't require going through a wall-o-foreign-text dating sim mode with pilot skills/stats locked outside the sim, and more units have Missile C (including the VF-27) - Triangle has the YF-25, Tornado Pack, and a couple dozen more missions. Ace's missions are mostly different from the sequels while the later games' are 95% the same.

Could one of you lucky enough to have a copy get a few shots of the side/underside/back of the VF-30 in its various modes? I'm still not sure how the thing transforms even after watching Kawamori-sensei manipulate the LEGO version, nor can I find any more images of it online than the one-per-mode publicity shots that have been out forever.

If you could catch it halfway from J to G, even better.

(sobs over my lack of funds some more...)

RE variable Bf-109:Sadly, no. The Fw-190 is possible but would look kinda goofy (as would any tractor prop single engine plane - you either have propchest or it becomes a big humpback taller than the head) but the Ho-229 might happen, and the Me-262 is as much of a lock as anything can be without doing the model. It likely won't show up until the very end, though, the jet powered Shinden variant and captured alien mecha (risking freindly fire, and hard to maintain) being the faster options up until then.

Hey, good news! It looks like the computer with the vp38 model on it is going to get rezzed soon!

Bad news: I'n not going to be doing a Skull-1style skin for either one, or anything Macross related.

Good news: that's because I'm making an original alt-WWII mecha game of my own, currently titled Astro Cross: Flashback 1942! The design document is underway, as are visual designs for enemy mecha, though the German VV-2 Kreigerakete is familiar too-

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/828/plumbatahead.jpg

Ah, I know how that can be, especially for anything that is technically a hobby but still requires organisation skills - such as managing a web site