Another try: 3D-print of Imperium Spec Lancer

Jamira said:

Yo, got it. But Ultimate Unwrap can handle polygon nets only
There is a reason for why I stopped working with 3DS Max -

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You can make quads also, from a poly mesh in the pro version, but not sure how this work for transfer to other formats.

my tool number one is Sculptris, it really is very creative to use! And free!

Okay, I asked for alternates above. What about a small competition? Who get the best 3D-print of the Imperium Spec Lancer?

Using the original design or the ingame design. That would be very helpful to find the best way to make RL models of Entropia Universe content.

@trance: Give it a try and ask Kawa for a print

It's pretty clear: You cannot use the original 3D-models from ingame for good 3D-prints. The ingame geometry is more or less (***roll eyes***) optimized for a good online performance. It's using bump-, opacity- and texture maps. For a RL model you have to substitute all this by "real" geometry.

I am not sure about I will succeed with my attempt. But I hereby offer a prize of 3k PED if one can beat me.

Jamira said:

@trance: Give it a try and ask Kawa for a print

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I wish i would have the time, not about the competition but more about i wondering to learn more about 3D print.
But since I been working for a US company at a MMO game, i really only have small time left for things like play EU, or even your competition. The last weeks i used every time to create a large viking human village for this game.

Jamira said:

It's pretty clear: You cannot use the original 3D-models from ingame for good 3D-prints. The ingame geometry is more or less (***roll eyes***) optimized for a good online performance. It's using bump-, opacity- and texture maps. For a RL model you have to substitute all this by "real" geometry.

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Try out Sculpris, for such details. only needs that the model is in .OBJ format to import in Sculptris.

trance said:

I wish i would have the time, not about the competition but more about i wondering to learn more about 3D print.
But since I been working for a US company at a MMO game, i really only have small time left for things like play EU, or even your competition. The last weeks i used every time to create a large viking human village for this game.



Try out Sculpris, for such details. only needs that the model is in .OBJ format to import in Sculptris.

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Damn! You were faster with your reply than me with doing the last edition
I will have a look into Sculpris. Probably it'll help a bit.

I think MA would be good advised to help out such competitions. It could become very helpful to offer RL items.

WHAT A MISHAP!

Today I asked my CAD SolidWorks what it estimates that the volume of my model could be so far.

"Guess what, moron," SolidWorks answered. "It's at 30 cm[SUP]3[/SUP] right now."

"REALLY????"

"Really."

"GRUMMEL"

The price at Shapeways' "Detail Plastic" for 1,0 cm[SUP]3[/SUP] is 2,99 Euro + 2,50 Euro shipping or something. So I would end up at 92,20 Euro (~$115) atm. And the model isn't complete yet. Not to speak about colours I have to buy later! Finally we would end up at something like 150-160 Euro for the complete model. That's heavy, isn't it?

Well, after a moment when I was kinda paralysed, I decided to rework the model completely. The tricky part is to find compromises with the wall thickness issues. I used 3 mm so far because I wanted to avoid thin areas from all the engravings. That was a mistake. Good thing with SolidWorks is, that it's a parametric software. You may change each single parameter later over and over again. Unfortunately it produces unwanted results sometimes. Geometry crashs and you get one error message after another.

First step I took was splitting the model in the middle for better access to the inner geometry. Then I went back to the first modelling feature and forward through the whole design history. I am close to the end now. I will post pictures later.

All in all I didn't expect that this aspect would become that important.

Considering such high costs at Shapeways I started thinking about this PEARL 3D-printer again, Trance mentioned above. 130 Euro printing costs at Shapeways for one model only compared to 700 Euro for the printer including 1 kg material. Well, I will optimize my model. But I doubt I can bring it down to something like 30 Euro. And hey! As stated above during the avatar discussion above: I don't want stress but fun!

But me alone cannot buy such a printer. Ideas what to do are welcome.

Here we go:

Really, really bad news:



Back to the roots! I lowered the thickness to 1,5 mm. Right now we see the first problems with the engravings.


Even the sidepart is hollow now. Same wall thickness: 1,5 mm

What I got so far.



Next steps will be marry the single parts, substract all inner parts and add some thickness at thin areas to be sure to have at least 1 mm thickness. Than mirror all and marry left and right side.

That was enough for this day. I will continue tomorrow.

I will go hunt a bit ;-)

Jamira said:

That was enough for this day. I will continue tomorrow.

I will go hunt a bit ;-)

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Hof big!

Nor Alien said:

Hof big!

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Thank you. Okay, not really a big Hof ... but one nice global 71 PED from 90 minutes hunting. I am sooooo happy!

The job is done. The body of the vehicle comes up with thin walls now. Next check of volumes:

Body 85,5 cm[SUP]3[/SUP]
Chassis 8,5 cm[SUP]3[/SUP]
Propeller 5,4 cm[SUP]3[/SUP]

We still miss the engine. But it doesn't matter anymore. Right now I am at ~100 cm[SUP]3[/SUP]. The costs at Shapeways are 2,99 Euro/cm[SUP]3[/SUP] + 2,50 Euro. That means: 301,50 Euro for one print atm. Seriously, who would pay such a sum for an unpainted model? I think we can tick off this part.

What now?

Let's have a closer look to this PEARL 3D-printer and the material costs. The printer with software and 1 kg of material (ABS) is offered for 799,00 Euro. ROFL! Two printed models of the complete Imperium Spec Lancer at Shapeways.

The ABS is offered with 30 Euro/kg. The density of ABS is 1,12 g/cm[SUP]3[/SUP] = 892 cm[SUP]3[/SUP] included in this offer. Let's say I end up at ~150 cm[SUP]3[/SUP] with the complete model including a driver. I could print five complete models with this starter kit. In other words: my current model with 100 cm[SUP]3[/SUP] would cost 3,36 Euro for the material.

Now compare this to 301,50 Euro at Shapeways. I really start to think about this option.

Next thought is: It is the first try only. I know a lot about 3D modelling but I have low experiances with 3D-prints and with different materials. So 300 Euro for a test shot is kinda no-go.

Well, PEARL will deliver the first charge of the 3D-printers tomorrow. It is out of stock already. Let's have a look at the first vendor reports.

I tend to buy one (together with a chummy company). Just for skilling at this area. I think, 4-5 Euro material cost for a model is okay. Considering all the effort to make a good model instead of the rough (and sometimes unusable) geometry from ingame a price of ~20 Euro per model would be reasonable, wouldn't it?

Regarding painting the models: I would ask some folks if they can help me. Okay, I cannot ask some chinese folks so far. But I would if it becomes kinda business.

Okay, decision done! I will buy such a 3D-printer. Let's see when next charge will be delivered.

Just for keeping my nose ahaed ;-)

Jamira said:

Okay, decision done! I will buy such a 3D-printer. Let's see when next charge will be delivered.

Just for keeping my nose ahaed ;-)

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Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out!

Subscribing

Time for some cinema 4d modelling!

Well, let's wait for the first user reports about this PEARL printer. They will deliver the second charge within two days and it's out of stock already too They are unsure about the date of the next charge. But I am sure: If they were able to sell the first two charges that quickly, the next charges will follow very soon

At least I can continue with the modelling process much more relaxed now. No need for thin walls anymore. Today I was able to sign in at Cyrene Forum. I will contact Cyrene staff within next days to ask them about this RL 3D-print issue. I hope they are open minded folks and can imagine what potential the 3D-printing holds. Even if MA denied to make it commercial, planet partners can allow colonists to do it with their own design. But I will check all this before I do further steps than just remodelling items for a good 3D-print.

Well, here we are with the latest update. The pictures doesn't show much differences. But in fact I did major changes. I set the thickness of the walls to 2,5 mm. That causes some irritations to SolidWorks. I repaired all the failures. And I got a clean model now.

I will go to Cyrene Forum now ...

Okay, thread started at cyreneforum. I hope to get some response.

http://www.cyreneforum.com/threads/rl-3d-print-of-an-imperium-spec-lancer.1416/

It's close to 22:00 ... I will go hunt a bit ;-)

I got response from Kris|Cyrene. This guy is relaxed about this 3D-printing issue, but will double check it. My next question was, if I am I allowed to sell such models to others. Let's see what the answer will be.

I decided to continue with the tail unit. It is more interesting than the engine. I merged the ingame geometry to my solid model:

This is another good example to think about the differences between a 3D-model for running in an online game and for printing a nice scaled model.
First of all the cross-section of the wings is rectangular. That would produce kinda no-function in RL. It is for making the model simple and easy to load in an online game. It wouldn't look good on a printed model. At the other hand I have no problems for the print with using hundreds or even thousands of faces. I can make the wings more round. No need to make a cross-section wich would work IRL. The model is too small to see such differences. Next one is the thickness again. I should have 1,0 mm at least. This time I am in luck ... the thickness of the tip of the wing is 1 mm at the ingame model. That's all about this wings so far.

Now let's think about this things hanging under the wings and move outside when you get hight. What is that? Ingame it seems they are steering jet nozzles. But they are not affected by flying right or left. So additional jets? That's all not plausible. Let's go back to the original sketch. At this picture this units look more like weapons, kinda small rocket launcher. That would be the reason for that moving out too. Again I decide to use the original design instead of the ingame model.

I am a mechanical engineer. While having a look at the two thin bars that connect this item to the wing I must say: whatever it is used for (additional engine or weapon) they will break at the first use. Even the 3D-print would ask for a more stable connection (printable thickness). I will make them thicker.

Next question: Since they move ingame, should they be movable at the printed model too? It is possible. But I don't know much about the accuracy of the prints. This is an area I have to postpone until I have more knowledge abut the printing results. I will make a stiff model. So what position shall I use? The inner or the outer position? Since I tend to interpret this item as weapons, I tend to use the outer position. Let's see. It's easy to change for the second print ;-)

Here we go with the tail unit:


I am not satisfied with this rocket launcher. It is too fat compared to the original sketch. And here is the advantage of parametric design: I can change everything.


It's easy. I should bring the rocket launcher closer to the center too.


8 mm is the diameter of a cigarette. It's always good to compare CAD-design to reality ;-)

Oki doki ... lesson learned: 2.5 hours of hunting (~1k PED) without a single global. ~475 PED loss and 3.0 points plus in Longblade (from 12671.6 to 12674.6). Both results are unusual. Over long term I am down at 94.1% return. 54.3% return today. That's not what I want. I will save the next standard deposits for the 3D-printer. Probably I will ask Bank NEVERDIE for some money when I'm in need to keep my part within the top ten of manuel's 50k Atrox event. But I am not sure ... I should better buy a 3D-printer ;-) ... 3-4 month budget ...

Off for watching "The Game" with Michael Douglas

Onward with the rear part.


It seems to be something like a support frame for the engine. And this little asshole took me more working time than the rest of the rear.

Since I decided to build my own interpretation of the whole engin block, I will make at first all other parts. Just to see how much room will be left over.

Comparison

Just to give you an imagination of what we talk about here


The hight of the cigaret box is 85 mm. The length of the 1:50 Imperial Spec Lancer is ~135 mm.

Next step is the cockpit. Some basic considerations before I start as usual. Let's have a look at the situation:


This is a mix of my rear part, parts from the original model and a "paper-Jamira". Driver and seat don't love each other. So poor Jamira is levitating ~150 mm obove the seat (probably some kind of air suspension?) while her legs stick in it:


I will use the geometry of the original control panel and make my own seat. Let's have a look for a nice one:

The red one is my favorite and will be red later as well
I will keep my avatar's position too, because her hands fit to the control levers. Let's start with the panel. Later I will put a nice seat under her bum.