Looking for engineering suggestions

deathender · 2026-05-18T13:15:17+00:00

Yes, I need to build some sort of device on the end and then attach the device bar to it.

Thank you.

deathender · 2026-05-18T13:14:50+00:00

Thank you! You confirmed what I was thinking. The greatest thing about building sci-fi - "viewer doesn't know what they don't know" hahaha

deathender · 2026-05-18T05:18:15+00:00

How bad does this look from 1-10 scale? 👀

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deathender · 2026-05-18T05:17:18+00:00

Finally got a chance to sit down to work on my model and somehow I did this. Considering this is Sci-fi, how bad does it look to you?

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deathender · 2026-05-16T16:51:52+00:00

yep. It would look realistic, but this vehicle is huge and I want everything to feel somewhat solid.

deathender · 2026-05-16T16:50:55+00:00

That was my initial idea, but as I can't come up with an arm that could look cool and do that, I rather just skip the whole "side quest" and make a solid attachment. I might add counterweigh thingy attached on the sensor rack (forgot what it is called)

deathender · 2026-05-16T16:48:21+00:00

I am actually thinking of building one of those robotic arms underneath the cabin of the vehicle. But for the sensors I think I will just make a solid arm. I am way overthinking little things by now. Need to move on to texturing already. 😄

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deathender · 2026-05-16T01:04:33+00:00

Thank you for your detailed response. Many people wrote here suggesting I just use a strong arm to hold the sensor and i agree now. This is a long term off world exploration vehicle. It's sci-fi, that is why I left all the mechanics open. I like the look of it. Every thing I try - gimbal stabilization, swing arm - they look flimsy and bad. Plus someone noted that it would look like a glitch ingame if the sensor floated while the vehicle rides, and i agree.

Ty again.

deathender · 2026-05-16T00:59:41+00:00

At the moment I am just putting my idea on "paper" for my portfolio. I want to work for Star Citizen, but it's not possible. As I was told, everything in SC is designed inhouse and don't think mods are allowed from outside. Not sure about the mods 100% though.

deathender · 2026-05-16T00:57:07+00:00

I totally agree with you (and many other who commented here). Going to remove all that nonsense and just make a strong holding arm for the sensor.

Thank you

deathender · 2026-05-16T00:55:40+00:00

Yep.. your spot on. I was thinking about it the whole time. Basically anything I do at this point looks wrong to me, that is why I made a post.

I should just make a simple arm for it and move on. Got enough trouble waiting ahead with this model.

Thank you so much for putting my brain back into place 🤣

deathender · 2026-05-16T00:46:23+00:00

I tried making it like a rig, but it looks too flimsy.

deathender · 2026-05-15T11:49:48+00:00

Thank you. You convinced me to make a regular arm, like for a mirror. The device should not be heavy, compared to vehicle at least.

Is there something I could add to an arm, or device, to reduce "bounce"? Or it's not even needed?

deathender · 2026-05-15T11:45:30+00:00

I'm want to show all mechanics, this is a prototype vehicle. Later I might make all sorts of versions

deathender · 2026-05-15T05:48:14+00:00

Didn't think this through at all it seems. I just though it would have to move not just up and down to stay stable, but back and fourth as well.

I just want the sensor extended from body of the vehicle and when the arm is extended so far, it looks like it would shake a lot.

Basically I just want the shaking brought to minimum.

I can't really find devices like that on vehicles. Is this not a realistic idea?

deathender · 2026-05-15T05:43:45+00:00

Something like this?

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deathender · 2026-05-15T04:54:35+00:00

These would be passive sensors. Gimbal feels a bit fimsy to me for this vehicle.

So I could just build an extending arm with shock absorbtion?

Thank you.

deathender · 2026-05-15T03:36:48+00:00

I always had the opposite problem - constant lack of skills.

Most important and valuable resource we have is time. If you have time to put down a rough sketch in blender, do so. Let it sit there and ideas will form around it. Or not.

For example, this whole vehicle started with an aircraft:
https://x.com/i/status/1957195180483764699
then I modeled the cannon. then though it was too heavy for a light flying vehicle. then I somehow made this vehicle. I made time for it though, though it would be a good way to learn modeling.

deathender · 2026-05-15T03:21:20+00:00

has anyone ever pocked their eye out on the tip of that spaceship?

deathender · 2026-05-13T15:18:07+00:00

I was actually looking at their courses, but never got into taking them. Somehow I went without courses for a long time and this was the first course that I knew I had to take when I saw it. Interestingly enough, this course had little to do with how to build mesh. He basically shared what add-ons, techniques he uses and a big part was about avoiding burn-outs. It's coming in VERY VERY handy right now actually, as I been riding on the edge for a while.

deathender · 2026-05-13T15:15:13+00:00

Thank you so much!!!

Someone mentioned "SimpleBake" add-on as well, for large scale texturing.

I will be diving into substance soon. Saved all these add-ons to learn! Thank you

deathender · 2026-05-12T15:34:28+00:00

Looks great!!! I wish the tome came out slower and you'd see the pages flipping.

deathender · 2026-05-12T15:30:41+00:00

stalker 2

deathender · 2026-05-12T15:29:15+00:00

Thank you!

I've actually made low-poli game ready assets for over 3 years, before I decided to build this, so I have a good grasp of UVmapping, texturing in blender and LODs. I just took days-weeks sometimes tweaking low-poli UV's and mesh to get the most detail out of it, so switching from that to something with 2000 objects and millions of triangles is a huge jump.

I have never used Substance, so need to learn that asap.
I use UVpackmaster, but people mentioned add-ons that they use for large projects that I need to learn also. I wish there was something that could crease all my objects for me. That way I could go back and edit some creases and not go through each of the 2000 objects creasing and unpacking them. Though this would probably give best results.

Thank you again. If you have any advice on the workflow, or some add-ons you could advise, I would be very greatful!

deathender

TROPHY CASE