sketchley
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Posts posted by sketchley
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3 hours ago, sh9000 said:
It looks like a lot of work went into that hangar for it to just be for display. With the food around it, it's almost like a converted toaster oven. Either way I kind of want one.
It's the "Nyan-Nyan" Chinese restaurant delivery box—a nice visual pun for the ad, as both Minmei and Ranka worked there. 😉
Maybe these delivery boxes are just in Japan... anyhow, a real world example:
(the 2 and 3 level ones are "sold out" at this particular manufacturer)
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1 hour ago, jvmacross said:
never seen it before...I think it may be a fan-made item...
I concur that it's a fan-made item, as I can't see any logos or other markings on it, along with the ruff-cuts on the edges of the clear plastic.
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28 minutes ago, tekering said:
Additionally, this may only apply to me in Japan, but I've never seen wax paper here. Would aluminium foil ensure even distribution of heat in the same manner?
The closest I've seen here* is "cooking paper", which is apparently 'baking paper' or 'parchment paper' overseas. Would that work better?
* also live in Japan
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36 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:
I would imagine though that fossil fuels would be in very short supply though. It would have to be like Macross: slush deuterium/ "heavy water". But even then, that would take some tech and their world looks pretty barren given that.
I was looking through the Great Mechanics G 2023 Winter article on Mospeada, and they mentioned something about the HBT power cells cause some time of intense reaction when used by the mecha in the 1st and 2nd wave—and it's that reaction that the Invit are detecting. The stealth version in the 3rd wave are using some type of system that masks or reduces the intensity of that reaction, which 'hides' them from the Invit sensors.
So Mospeada stealth fighters are not so much 'stealthy' (in the real world sense), but more like have additional shielding and/or use the HBT power cells more efficiently (in a way that doesn't produce an externally detectable energy signature).
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21 minutes ago, sh9000 said:
Great Mechanics G Spring 2024.
While it's great that this magazine is recently featuring Macross, Mospeada, etc. again, it's also disheartening reading the headlines: "Macross 7: Listen to my song for the first time in 30 years!", or Great Mechanics G Winter 2023's "40th Anniversary of the broadcast of Mospeada". Not reminding the readership of their age would be better, no? 😭
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42 minutes ago, TG Remix said:
The account also interestingly has two NUNS modified versions of the Medium Sized Gun Destroyer; a typical version and a more recent 2060 one. Not sure the specific details, but I could imagine instead of just modified ships there would be new Zentradi hulls built afterwards for their proven reliability
I've just looked through all four books in that doujinshi series, and the Environment Battleship doesn't appear.
There are 4 versions of the Medium Sized Gun Destroyer in the publication. I've translated the text for the 'standard' version, and bits of the two UNS versions on my site* (I'm not bothering with the no-main gun 'standard' version for obvious reasons...). Only the first UNS version has any dates mentioned in its write-up (produced from 2010~2030, with 32 produced in total). The second UNS version doesn't have any dates or total numbers at all—perhaps it's the 2060 version mentioned on the Pixiv account? They are both apparently newly built for the UNS.
The UNS modifed version of Buritai's ship appears in silhouette at the back of the Zentradi book (along with Macross II's Macross Cannon!) in an article titled 統合政府で計画または建造されたゼントラーディ軍系の艦艇 (Zentraedi military vessels planned or built by the Unified Government). It's description is brief, but the gist of it is: newly built ships, 1/10 the weight of the original version, uses standardized UNS equipment, improved firepower, mobility, etc., but has weaker armour (literally 'reduced bullet resistance').
* http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/ZentraadiShips/MediumGunboat.php
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9 hours ago, TG Remix said:
That book with the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs is weird to me because they never really acknowledge the actual official UN conversions it had.
The book also apparently had a Thuverl-Salan Battleship converted into an Environment Ship as well. I couldn't find any text or translations of it but it was uploaded on Katsumi's Pixiv: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/102319454
Hmmm... I don't recall seeing the Battleship Environment Ship conversion in those doujinshi. Maybe it was added for the Pixiv version?
Nevertheless, I'll look through them again. If memory serves, the UN converted Nupetiet Vergnitzs does appear, but only in silhouette, only in passing, and its in one of the magazines dedicated to the UN Spacy.
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12 hours ago, TG Remix said:
I'm trying to find where someone said that those ships were put into short-range fleets because they can't make longer trips, although with 7 and Delta showing Zentradi ships within either far-fledged colony fleets or planets I wonder how much that holds under scrutiny. Maybe like the SDFN class, they could've also been used to secure routes for other emigrant fleets since I think the allied Zentradi played a part in the early stages of the Mankind Seeding Plan with their already existing maps of the galaxy.
Nothing comes to mind about the Zentradi ships being unable to make longer trips. Perhaps that stems from a convolution of 'not being able to make comparatively longish individual space folds' and 'not being that fast when making a space fold' (the apparently speedest ship is the Varota High Speed Raiding Cruiser).
It makes perfect sense that the surviving (captured) Zentradi ships would be used to secure routes, as well as play a role in escorting the emigrant fleets.
12 hours ago, TG Remix said:And to get a bit more specific, what would you guys think would be the Zentradi ship classes that'd be best fitted as these Emigrant ships? My safest bets would be the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs class for their sheer size (and I believe some of if not the biggest ships the NUNS have under their control) and the Quiltra Queleual LST for the internal volume and how much it'd carry.
One thing to keep in mind is that despite their size to us humans, the Zentradi ships aren't that large for the giant Zentradi. As you pointed out, it's only the largest that would work as Emigrant ships.
Multiple Buritai's ships appeared in an escort fleet in Macross 7 (official). Battleships Of The Galaxy Book 3: Zentrādi Military Vessels doesn't elaborate on an emigrant ship version of that class. However, it does provide an alternative "Environment Ship" specification of the Landing Ship.
I've translated that doujinshi's description here (not official): http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/ZentraadiShips/LandingShip.php#Environment
Even though it's not part of the official setting, it does raise the possibility that a refurbished Kirutora Keruēru could be used as the main ship in a smaller Emigrant Fleet.
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10 hours ago, MechTech said:
@pengbuzz I see what you mean. Could it be that "anime magic" is also present in live action shows😕 - MT
Yes. One of the more notable ones I know of is in Star Wars (Empire Strikes Back): the pilot of a snow speeder is 'cheated' (as written on the production drawings) to the left so that the over-the-shoulder camera sees more of the cockpit panels as well as outside the canopy. In other words, the actor was squeezed up against one side of the canopy to get the shot.
It's highly likely that the same thing is happening with Airwolf, especially as they were produced around the same time.
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30 minutes ago, TG Remix said:
Which strikes me as weird since Macross Chronicle also references the Queadluun-Nona, which was from the Saturn/PS1 Do You Remember Love? game. Wonder why nothing else was given a mention, much less a sentence, considering even the ones who were stuck in the Advanced Valkyrie series (The V-BR-2, VA-X-3, etc.) also had a mention in the official setting.
The mecha that appeared in the "Macross Chronicle Mechanic Other*" pages are a bit of a grey area. One gets the impression that they were included because that magazine had both access to the designs and wanted to be completionists when it came to Kawamori Shoji's and Kazutaka Miyatake's Macross related artwork.
The Quadoran-Nona isn't the only thing to crop up from the Saturn/PS1 DYRL game: the Meltrandi Assault Plunder Ship and Zentradi Jamming Station also get a write-up: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRmechanic/Other06aHatchetAnnabellaLasiodora.php#reverse
Those three vehicles make a bit of sense, because that game is essentially an embellishment of the TV series and movie. However, the page with the VF-X-7, Ghost Valkyrie, VF-X-11, VA-X-3, V-BR-2, and Stampede Valkyrie is much more confusing. None of them are apparently part of the official setting! 🤷♂️ http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRmechanic/Other09Astampedvalkyrie.php
* http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRmechanic/MCRmechanic.php#Other
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2 hours ago, Jeff J said:
1) When did they come up with the decision that DYRL was an in-universe, movie re-telling of SDFM? Was it when the movie was released or was that decided years afterward?
If memory serves, it was when M+ and M7 were released. In short: they needed to pick a definitive timeline (as the 2 versions differ), and opted for "TV series story, movie designs".
2 hours ago, Jeff J said:2) Were games like Macross 2036, Macross Eternal Love Song, or Digital Mission VF-X ever considered part of the official canon? I vaguely recall an old Animerica issue from 1998 or so that made it seem like PC-Engine CD games were...
Digital Mission VF-X (and its successor VF-X2) are part of the official timeline—along with Macross M3 and Macross 30. As Macross 2036 and Macross Eternal Love Song are part of the Macross II timeline (if memory serves), if they were ever part of an 'official' timeline, they were moved to the alternative one when Macross II was first deemed to be in an alternative universe (which happened at the same time as the answer to 1 above). -
5 hours ago, djivaldi7 said:
But, what I can't get any visual on is the tech itself... the fold generator, manifolds, power systems etc that were used for the VF-19 shield or any other mecha up to the SDF-1.
In short, they don't exist for the PPB.
Regarding the Fold System itself, I am aware of 2 images, both from SDFM. One is the system inside the Factory Satellite (I can't find the images online), the other is the Fold System in the SDF-1 (note the person for scale):
From the SDF-1 Macross link on: https://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/sdfmacross-index.html
While the greebles are different, the overall shape of the Fold System is the same.
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I think there's a bit of 'lost in translation' (E→J) and 'wasei eigo' (Japanese English) that makes the naming confusing for us native English speakers. Macross Chronicle* explained the roles of each type of Variable craft somewhat. VA and VB are:
QuoteVA (Variable Attacker): VA's are centred on such things as ground attacks. Even though they have low manoeuvrability and their hand-to-hand combat abilities are inferior, compared to a VF, the VA has the advantage of excellent bullet resistance as well as being able to be equipped with large amount of munitions.
VB (Variable Bomber): VBs carry out ground and anti-ship attacks. They have a specification that takes the performance inclination of the VA to the extreme, are the largest class of variable craft, and are equipped with the maximum strength of firepower and bullet-resistance.
It also doesn't help that the only example of a VB we've seen is the VB-6...
* http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRtechnology/01aVariableFighter.php
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11 minutes ago, Space Casual Life said:
I'm thinking there was a timeline published even earlier referencing that "Earth lost contact with the Megaroad-01 fleet as it was somewhere near the centre of the Galaxy" though. I BELIEVE there's even a reference at the end of Macross 7 (Kawamori-verse) to this? Does Gubaba still post here? I think he used to know this kind of stuff.
It's possible. Kawamori-san has always said that contact was lost—what amounts to the original cast having their happy ending and having ridden into the sunset. The specifics (and time) where unknown until that mail-in gift card.
As for Macross timelines: they tend to get rewritten a lot, and tailored to the latest Macross series.
QuoteOh and btw there were some hardcore otaku bilingual people on Animerica like Trish Ledoux and Toren Smith. I'm pretty sure someone there would have mailed in for the gift at the time.
Hearing those names brings back a lot of memories! LOL
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7 minutes ago, Space Casual Life said:
Hmm, I'm sure this fact was published in timelines much earlier than the mention in the release you're talking about. I think I probably first read it in a translated timeline in an issue of Animerica in the '90s. I'm hazy on where it exactly it can be found in Japanese publications.
Was it this item*? http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/OTother/MinmeiLastMessage.php
While it specifically states Minmei's last message was sent "July 7, 2016", I think it's fairly safe to say that the Megaroad-01 didn't disappear that very same day.
* The mail-in gift was created for a 1997 Sega Saturn / 1999 PS1 game. It's unknown if a non-Japanese publisher (e.g. Animerica) would have known about it.
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18 minutes ago, djivaldi7 said:
Oh...example #1 considering translations, it's rather from the translation "fold projector" is more like the M-II Minmay Attack hologram and those are holographic lens clusters?
Speaker pods weren't really a thing until Macross-7, right? So fold projection makes more sense.
Yes, something along those lines. However, "Fold" probably isn't used in the same way as it came to be used in Macross Frontier.
And yes, Speaker Pods didn't exist until Macross 7.
17 minutes ago, djivaldi7 said:The third example VF-25.... did the book give any hints in Jaoanese from the concept sketch progression?
3 large Fins on each outboard engine pod → single fin on enlarged gun under fuselage → finished design (2 stubby fins on each outboard engine pod)
There are only the two rough design iterations in the "Macross Shoji Kawamori Designer's Notes" book. The two iterations in Fighter, and then the two iterations in Battroid.
Given that the fin moves to the large (beam?) gun pod, it lends credence that it's a cooling fin. A radome like greeble appears on the finished design, which suggests that the fins in the 1st image may be pulling double duty (radar-like sensor and cooling fin).
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1 minute ago, djivaldi7 said:
Presuming then from example#1 that those are each clusters of pods and the extending arms on the shoulder units are transmitters/signal boosters?
It's possible.
Kawamori-san also seems to have a thing for halo-like forms projecting off the back of his mecha (not only in Macross, but a lot of other series). So, those things may have just been a design itch that he just had to scratch.
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3 hours ago, djivaldi7 said:
And 3rd example a hauntingly sexy VF-25 Armor variant...can't tell what the triple vanes are, the housing they spoke from, or the forward facing instruments or weapons in front ofvthe vane hub, and behind the cockpit.
Genius design, but struggling to understand what these "semi-canonical" accessories represent...help appreciated.
This particular greeble only appears on this rough draft. I suspect that they are either additional sensor antenna (radar arrays) and/or some type of cooling system. As Kawamori-san was very conscious of the power generation requirements for the Armour Pack and their related cooling systems—and has incorporated cooling mechanisms in other VFs released in the same period—I'm tempted to say that those fins are more likely giant heat sinks.
Nevertheless, Kawamori-san has a history of adding extraneous fin greebles to change the silhouette, and I think that's all that they are at this point of the design process (as they did't appear in subsequent iterative designs, I suspect he didn't have a plausible explanation for them, as well!)
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3 hours ago, djivaldi7 said:
2nd example...
For the PC Games SDP1...are these attitude thrusters and an antenna?
It's unclear what they are. I pulled out my copy of the book and there aren't any descriptive notes. However, they are present on ALL variations Kawamore-san drew.
Therefore, they are either a) something the client asked for, or b) a design greeble that Kawamori-san was obsessing about. The later makes a lot of sense, as Kawamori-san is very picky about differentiating the silhouette between various designs (Valkyries and otherwise). So, I suspect they are something added to give it a different silhouette. What are they? I haven't seen the game it appears in, so I can only guess, but either antenna, or some kind of light (to help the player spot it on the game screen).
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3 hours ago, djivaldi7 said:
Pursuing ambitious scratchbuild endeavor for SK's brilliant prototype & concept designs, but not sure what some of the accessory items are... In this first set of images on the VF-1SOL are these mini-missiles? Or something else? And the expanding/retracting vanes on the shoulder units?
Text descriptions (Japanese)
1st picture: Minmei Fold Projector
2nd picture: 3D (illegible) projector [left], Minmei Fold... [right - text cut off]
3rd picture: Minmei Projector
From what we've seen in various Macross shows, these appear to be 3D holographic projectors for the 'Minmei Attack'.
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In researching my earlier post, I came across this description on Wikipedia that may help others grasp the unique circumstances that are colouring Kawamori's depiction of the internet, Galaxy Network, and so on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Japan
The most relevant to existing Macross series (and perhaps the next Macross series) is about the circumstances and problems unique to Japan:
QuoteThe Japanese model of optical fiber deployment is difficult to compare to other markets. The last kilometer is often done on lattice towers, shared between operators, even cable operators. This distribution technique reduces the vulnerability to earthquakes and lowers costs dramatically.
The prevalence of FTTH can be explained by the Japanese government's forced local loop unbundling of NTT and very low charges to connect for new Internet service providers (ISPs), leading to new ISPs connecting DSL with low cost and being able to charge cheaper prices due to having a smaller scale operation to challenge the incumbent NTT into using its greater finances to lay fiber to the home to distinguish itself from the competition with higher speeds and also incentivizing some other ISPs to explore fiber to the home, although it remained the dominant fiber provider.
The unique problem facing Japan's broadband situation is due to the popularity of high-speed FTTP. Operators struggle to maintain enough bandwidth to allow maximum usage of the service by customers. Even the largest operators have capacities in the region of tens of gigabits while customers with 1 gigabit FTTP services (or higher) may number in the thousands. This problem is further compounded by limits caused by internal router bandwidth.
The middle and last paragraphs tie directly into my earlier points about trunk-line bandwidth limitations (many local 'small scale' providers licensing certain percentages of the overall bandwidth, etc.), and about the local caching of data (if the Emigrant Fleet is akin to multiple local connections each with huge bandwidth, but the trunk network itself has limited capacity and 'internal router' bandwidth problems).
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9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Macross Frontier elaborated more on how fold communications work. From the name, I'd think of something like what you're envisioning.
(...)
A transmitter that creates a tiny space fold to connect two points in realspace. Instead, what Frontier established was that fold communications is more...
Fixed.
You also seem to be approaching this from the perspective that MF is the be-all and end-all of Macross. This is at odds with what Kawamori-san himself has said: each Macross series is an in-universe dramatization of historical events.
Also note that I based my earlier post on what was depicted in MF, M+, and so on.
9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:it's seems very likely that the relay satellites used in the Galaxy Network are little different to the communications satellites today.
"Seems" being the operative word there. In short: we don't know.
9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:If we were to look for the closest real-world analog, I'd say it's probably the in-flight wifi and phone systems of modern jet airliners.
There's that "we" again.
You're also speculating that it is based off of current (as in early 2020) capabilities. I'm approaching it from the perspective of "what was the state of things when XYZ series was released?"—which is what was informing Kawamori-san when he was producing the shows and deciding how to describe future technology to his audience. For example the addition of cell phones and smart phones in Haruhiko Mikomoto's SDFM, but the lack of them in the original TV series simply because that technology existed (in palm-size) in 2009 but not in 1982.
Therefore, "we" think that this topic should be approached from the perspective of 'what were the communication capabilities in Japan in 1994 and 2007*?'
* when M7 (when the Galaxy Network is first mentioned) and MF were being produced.
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10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
That said, I'm not sure latency is all that big of an issue c.2040 or beyond except perhaps for the farthest-flung reaches of the galaxy. Macross 7, Frontier, and Delta offer examples where people are shown to be able to access realtime or near-realtime video streams (including bidirectional video calls) for people and events that are tens, hundreds, or even thousands of light years away without cheats like fold quartz. For a conversation to flow naturally the way we see in-series, a real world video call generally needs a latency of less than 150 milliseconds. It's not quite "online pro gamer" levels of low ping but that's not much different from what you'd get browsing on a typical 4G cell phone.
There's a bit of artistic licence going on in the Macross shows—heck, all SF shows—as the reality of space travel is rather boring and we are being shown what is effectively a highlight reel.
At work today I was thinking about this: what are the costs (energy, etc.) involved in maintaining a constant connection on the Galaxy Network? Such as we know that multiple relay satellites are used, and that there is a significant energy/material cost when an Emigrant Fleet undertakes a (long range) space fold. Do those relay satellites have the power resources and/or capabilities to continuously open multiple (micro) space folds in multiple directions? Or are they more like repeater stations that only 'dial' the next relay satellite after 'receiving' a data transmission? I'm sure they would have protocols in place for high priority (ie military emergency) communication, but in so doing, how much would that impact, reduce or otherwise delay the non-high priority (e.g. civilian) communication?
Then there's the physical network itself. From what we can glean, it is more akin to a series of cell phone towers rather than an all-powerful network that covers the entire galaxy. Therefore, just like a cell phone network, would there be areas where the signal drops out, or is otherwise very poor? ... and that's not even taking Fold Faults into consideration! (Would they be akin to a tree falling on a telephone line during a windstorm?)
I also came to the same conclusion as JBO: it just makes much more sense to send regular updates and cache things locally.
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6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Eh... given the state of computer hardware in the Macross setting, I doubt it's anywhere close to that bad.
After all, the galaxy network connecting the various New UN Government member states - be they fleets or planets - is an internet backbone that supports not just the ever-growing volume of civilian and commercial traffic but also the military's communications needs. The typical individual line in a backbone connecting networks on the internet today runs at 100Gbps, and most backbones have far more than just one line. To give everyone living in the Macross Frontier fleet basic DSL-level internet connectivity, your backbone would be running at over 36,500 Gbps to cover peak loads. Traffic across the modern global internet backbone networks is typically measured at 500 Tbps or so.
Consider as well that the state of computer technology in Macross is at least several hundred years ahead of the modern day's thanks to OTM. Odds are the fidelity of things like music, movies, and the other data like blueprints for nanometer-precise engineering being sent over the network commercially is probably MUCH higher than anything we have today to support. I'd expect an emigrant fleet to have enough bandwidth in its galaxy network connection to rival the internet backbone of a far larger modern metropolis if not a small first-world nation like Japan.
(Hell, considering video games today are already tens if not hundreds of gigabites in size... imagine how bloated they've become in a world where someone can walk into a store and buy a laptop with a 250GHz processor, a few hundred gigs of RAM, and a graphics card with enough shaders to render the electron orbits in a character model's hair?)
I'm approaching it more from the perspective of 'what was available when Kawamori-san made his comments' coupled with how long it takes for the material to come after you ask for it—as in, it takes milliseconds to display a request when I select a link in MW, but that's planet wide. Even with using Fold Communication relays, it will take significantly longer for the request to go down the network, and a response to come back.
To clarify, what I'm getting at is a "speed" limit rather than a "volume" limit.
Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!
in Movies and TV Series
Posted
They don't.
Long story short, the canon VFs in Plus and Frontier were outperforming the Macross II Valkyries in all aspects (speed, manoeuvrability, firepower, etc., etc., etc.) If anything, the Macross II Valkyries arguably fit in (capability-wise) somewhere between the VF-11/VF-14, and the VF-17.