News 3d models from NASA

[n0mad23]

Hello all,

Just found this and thought I'd put the link up here. Sorry if it's a duplicate.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/models.html

 

[Moach]

35k polys for a Saturn 5... oh my...

those are rather high-res, so i'd advise anyone aiming to get them into orbiter to give them a good optimization run before proceeding...

sure, a regular model for any modern game has probably twice that poly-count, but remember, Orbiter still relies on DX7, and many orbinauts aren't toting heavy GTX580-type beast GPUs as of yet... so it's always best to take it easy on those polys whenever possible

just for reference, the G42-200 has less than 5k triangles on the VC, and abot half on the EXT model... still some users get low FPS...

lowering poly counts isn't hard, but i'm not sure how well it can be done in programs other than 3ds max...

just a thought - nice find! :thumbup:

 

[Cras]

But for those of us with the GTX-580, let it rip!

This is a great find, I had no idea such a resource was up at NASA.

 

[jangofett287]

I knew about this, the high res ISS model is soo detailed, its in its component parts. kudos to anyone who can put it together!!

 

[ky]

I knew about it too.I was going to make some add-ons from these.

 

[Loru]

35k polys for a Saturn 5... oh my...

Actually 35k polys is not that scary. Afaik XR-5 has around 160k.

 

[n0mad23]

I actually hesitated linking this as the polygon counts are pretty high, but remembered that it's possible to lower the poly count with several different software choices.

Pretty nifty finding 3d models officially posted by NASA though.

I took a couple years away from Orbiter and am delighted seeing what's evolved in this time frame.

 

[Coolhand]

35k polys for a Saturn 5... oh my...

those are rather high-res, so i'd advise anyone aiming to get them into orbiter to give them a good optimization run before proceeding...

sure, a regular model for any modern game has probably twice that poly-count, but remember, Orbiter still relies on DX7, and many orbinauts aren't toting heavy GTX580-type beast GPUs as of yet... so it's always best to take it easy on those polys whenever possible

just for reference, the G42-200 has less than 5k triangles on the VC, and abot half on the EXT model... still some users get low FPS...

lowering poly counts isn't hard, but i'm not sure how well it can be done in programs other than 3ds max...

just a thought - nice find! :thumbup:

whoa now, you really don't need a brand new 500 dollar GTX graphics card to run a 35k model in orbiter now do you? Just a slight exaggeration i think there

These days a very cheap older card will happily run DX9 or dx7 with something like the XR5 (which is more than 100k at least) at a half decent, playable frame rate... are we really encouraging the community to build for a standard that's more than a decade old and hardware to match?

Its always good to keep models as light as possible of course, but 35k is likely not much for such a model, something like that, whether we're talking the true triangle count, or poly count (if its 35k polys, as you know it could have a much higher triangle count) it would run fine in orbiters dx7 on my ancient, retired, 7600gs (better graphics chips than that are embedded in $50 motherboards these days) that said it wouldn't surprise me if you're correct in that it could be optimised a lot for no loss of quality.

 

[Capt_hensley]

I'm attempting to get the Dryden PAO and Capture 3D to release the X-38 scanned 3D model into the 3D resources website. I will be using a modified version for my CRV on Gateway Station.

My version of the CRV will include the de-orbit attachment(sans shuttle bay attachments), and the nearest paint scheme to the CRV illustrations found elsewhere. It will also include the LIDS interface in the nearest to prototype configuration as possible.

There were plans to launch the CRV on an Atlas, I will also need to create the custom fairing for this launch configuration.

I bought the turbo-squid version, and have begun modeling the modifications already.

If NASA had not canceled the program we could have been using the CRV for crew transfer already.

 

[Ae7flux]

Thanks for this. A brilliant find! I'm particularly happy to see the Agena since I'm planning to do an Atlas Agena in (what shall I say) ultra high res. (Yes, I am counting the rivets!).

As for the mesh size thing, in my view there's really only low res and every thing else - low res for older machines and things with Intel integrated graphics and other for anything built in the last few years with discrete graphics. The Saturn is nice but I wouldn't particularly call it high res. In fact I doubt that I'll be able to resist throwing a few more polys on the body. The LM, on the other hand, is superb. (To think I almost purchased one on Turbosquid for some ridiculous sum). I'm definitely putting that into Orbiter if someone else doesn't get there first.

 

[Loru]

The one reason I don't use 3rd party meshes in my add-ons is the fact they're usuallu not optimized for animations and rendering with orbiter engines. Intersecting faces (triangles) can produce nice results in 3ds max/blender and other 3d software but often produces artifacts in inline orbiter client.

Also while making a mesh I usually note axes of rotation etc. for animation coding and prepare elements for that purpose (like naming mesh groups etc.).

Last thing is usage of multi-materials on one mesh group and model needs retexturing/UV mapping.

But these models aren't usefull for me. They're excellent reference to load into modelling program and mesh your project around it.