Lancersreactor

Regular models in Freelancer have less extrusions and are more flat.
Models in Continuum are more embosed and have more extrusions to be less flat.
Sticks & Stones.

But if you wish to lend a lend, welcome on the bandwagon.

Well, we're basically using this kind of style in order to keep a low poly count in view of possible players that have an out-dated system on their hands. Very detailed models would ruin the gameplay for them, with local stuttering in an area or general lag.

As Folgore specified above, we need to combine the beauty with performance. I was thinking that overloading the model with many mesh forms could increase the polycount and have problems with performance for some players, but also the texturing will be plain difficult and could take an enormous amount of time for only 1 single model. I am aware that some models need to be revised (and yes I am speaking of the Bretonian models) but that will be discussed later. Textured the models will look more detailed.

Well, our team is always open if you wish to join us. Having different modelling styles would help the development a lot.

Over greebling a mesh is one of the most common failings, blame the holywood people for that.

They came to the conclusion that for a 'mega space destroyer (tm)' to look real, it had to have lots and lots of fussy detail, salvaged from every platic airplane kit the fx workshop could lay its hands on...

Problem is this, yes large objects have lots of detail, but... most of it is the kind you just can't model by hand, all those rivet heads on the WWII battleship for example.

In the real world, once you mentally convert the unmodelable detail into texture and bump maps, what you end up with is large flat areas, with the modeled detail concentrated in small areas. This is how it should be. Tall skyscrapers, large areas of 'flat' glass and concrete, with smaller areas of 'fussy' detail, the helipad on the roof and all the stairwells, n doors to access it, or the ground floor entrance lobbies etc.. The 400 floors between the roof and the ground, flat and boring as hell.

Just adding more greebles to everything, bad idea. Makes them look fake.

As for 'extrusions' being the only way to detail a mesh, try using a 3d application rather than a web-toy like sketchup, you'll find there are lots of alternatives...

Freelancer models are generally pretty flat, the already existing models for continuum are a major improvement

i can imagine that things can be done in a different way but when I look at other existing space games the stations are mostly simple (maybe i misunderstand what you mean... very likely i do as you probably have something in mind that is best being displayed visually)
we dont have to worry much about the poly count or anything like this... that should not be the problem
however it still should look similar to the original FL somehow

Indeed there are more powerful tools for 3D editing that could create extraordinary details and shapes but I think that Ketchup-SketchUp is more then good for FL style models.

One of the first things any 3d modeler should learn, in my opinion, isn't how to use all the bells and whistles of their modeling app, or the mysteries of uv mapping etc...

It's far more basic than that, and comes in two parts...

1 Form follows Function.

Sure, architects design mad looking buildings, but... What shape are most houses, and why... Why are doors all around the world, slightly higher and slightly wider than a person... Why are elevator buttons always at the same height off the floor, etc.

2. Model what you know...

Any one can make to wheels, and a styled body shell to connect them and say "look a 3d motorbike", but if you know nothing about bikes, then odds are the first biker who sees it will say 'unusable deathtrap'. A friend of mine, a professional architect, who had made a highly popular series of over 100 futuristic architectural city blocks, tried his hand at making a gun prop,m despite knowing nothing about guns at all. Result was a gun where the ejector port was shorter and narrower than the cartidges... No way to eject the spent brass after firing, hace to pop the clip, and poke the spent shell out of the breech with a stick and shake the gun so it fell out of the magazine well...

So, think about the problems with building large structures in zero g and hard vacume, when every planetary rotation takes your worksite into the shadow, where the temperature drops to -273 degrees centigrade, then back into the harsh glare of sunlight, with no atmosphere to shield and tone down the radiation, where the glare can fry your retinas.

Your hull will be prefabricated panels, built in pressurised workshops, attached to prefabricated structural members also built in pressurised workshops, simple girder frames, with flat panels joined edge to edge, so, your uv's are going to be tiled, repetition of the texture is almost mandatory, either boxes because its a simple shape to build, or spheres because its the smallest and thus cheapest surface to enclose a given volume, or a compromise, the cylinder, because people dont like rooms where the floor is a mad shape and awkward to fit carpets...

Your sample models tell a lot, sketchup works well on face extrusion so thats what you use, but thats not how buildings are made, so your models dont look like buildings, simple as that.

Thing I'm most famous for modeling, if famous is the right word, is weapons props, especially swords. Why? Because before I started making swords, I went and watch a swordsmith...

Once had somebody who downloaded one of my free meshes post a reply "who models a full tang on a 3d blade prop'. I do, because thats how they are made, forgetting that there should be a tang means you forget how the proportions of the weapon should match up, it's like those moronic 'buster' swords you see in japanese manga based stuff, blade 6 feet long, 8 inches wide, attached to a grip thats thinner than a broom handle, snap right off when you lift it, assuming you can life a sword that must weigh at least 100lbs.

Making a gun mesh, first thing you make is a round of the ammo, as that will determine the whole size and shape and layout of the weapon, cartridge too long to pass through the grip, no through grip magazine, either a forward shift, for a mauser m96 look, or a backward shift to a bullpup design, like a calico 950. The length of the brass determines the length of the recoil stroke, size of the bolt, and the reciever, and the ejector port, how much propellant in the brass determines minimum barrel length to allow the propellant to burn before the slug reaches the muzzle, and so on.

With sci fi stuff, you have to think about who will use it, and what they will use it for. Take a look at the Destroyer mesh pictures I posted here in the gallery... Now you might not like the design but..., the reason it doesnt have a load of greebles on the hull is that such things would weaken the structure of the ships armour. I didn't model an interior, but if you ask me, I can tell you exactly how many decks it has, and what they are used for, and why C-Deck has no windows...

Form follows function...

Yeah, now and then an architect will find somebody willing to pay for a mad design with wierd sticky out bits in mad places, but... 99.9% of the worlds skyscrapers are rectilinear glass, steel and concrete boxes, because they are easier to design, cheaper to build, and more convenient to live and work in. Your carpet fitter doesn't need a degree in differeltial calcllus because your room's floor plans are based on hyperbolic curves...

Interesting stuff, we've just recently managed to get our greasy hands on another modeller, with a professional background this time, only that he is lacking concepts for his future work. So I was wondering if someone with some artistical knowledge would want to become the Concept Artist for Continuum.

I'm cleaning my hands with this, since I'm not so good at 3D modelling or I just do it for fun.

Interesting suggestions enenra and really that style is not too hard to get, and it's even more eye catchy.

yeah, i have to agree the examples are convincing

the point about the logical structure of stations that Aesthetic brought up too
however, i dont believe that both views exclude each other

@enenra

Referring to the details. I am aware that some models could be revised but most of the houses have their unique style. I don't think that all of the factions will have their own custom models , but that is still in discussion. From the recent models i've created especially for the Coalition I used the style you showed before.