Category Archives: Write-Up

Comparing the Homeworld Motherships

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After playing Homeworld 3 recently, I wanted to see how the Khar-Sajuuk and Khar-Kushan compared to the original Motherships (and, for that matter, how the original Mothership and Pride of Hiigara compared to each other) from the prior games, as well as Sajuuk an ancient ship discovered at the end of Homeworld 2 whose technology was incorporated into the next generation of Motherships, and the Kuun-Lan, the flagship in Homeworld: Cataclysm/Emergence, which is seen both its original configuration and its final appearance after several modifications over the course of the game. I extracted the models and texture maps from HWR and HW3 and set up this comparison scene. The scales are all directly as they came out of the game, cross-checked by the old trick of flying a fighter to one end and seeing how far the other one was with the move tool, so these are all to in-game scale.1The Kuun-Lan is at ~31% of the in-game figure, in accordance with the convention that the original Homeworld and Cataclysm/Emergence use feet as the in-game units, while the later games use meters. If anyone wants to use these images in another scale chart, the vertical edge of the image is 3,460 meters tall.

(Technically, the HW3 Motherships are upside-down compared to how they orient vertically in-game, but the top is their “hero” angle, and starboard is the usual perspective on the first two Motherships, so I had to compromise.)

However, I’m not entirely trusting of the in-game scale. After all, the original Homeworld’s manual says the first Morthership is “really” ten or twenty times larger than it is in-game. I made a second image, this time scaling the HW3 Motherships up so the size of their Hyperspace Core modules matched the similar feature on Sajuuk (the main cannon on the Khar-Sajuuk is clearly derived from Sajuuk, but the shape is different enough that there was nothing to scale-match), assuming since the ships from HW1 and 2 can all interact with each other in campaign and skirmish and are all Mothership-class, they’re all correctly sized relative to each other. There’s a little leeway involved, the two Hyperspace Core housings aren’t exactly the same shape, but this method makes the HW3 Motherships about 1.6 times longer than they are based on the in-game scale. The vertical edge of this image is 4650 meters tall, assuming the in-game scale for the HW1 and 2 ships is correct and they aren’t actually supposed to be twenty times larger.

I like this alternate scaling better, myself. Given how massive Sajuuk was compared to the Pride of Hiigara, I think it makes sense that a Mothership that was more-or-less built around it should be a similar leap in scale, revolutionary rather than the evolutionary change from HW1 to HW2. You can’t see it from this angle, but it also makes the Frigate launch bay and the fighter bays at the wingtips close to the same size as the prior Motherships’, rather than noticeably smaller, which is enough to make me wonder if the ship was scaled down after it had been designed for some reason. I did compare some of the other Homeworld 3 ships with their Homeworld 2 equivalents, and it appears if there was a post-design scale-change, the Motherships were the only vessels affected. Additionally, checking against the Hyperspace Core model (reused in Homeworld 3 from Homeworld 2 Remastered directly), there’s excessive amounts of room under the shaded circles on the Sajuuk’s module, the ends only barely exceed the circles of the Khar-Sajuuk’s module at the in-game size, and they’ll even fit centered under the domes of the Khar-Kushan’s module, properly rotated so they don’t collide (and the Khar-Kushan’s cores may not be the same shape or size as the three used in the Sajuuk and Khar-Sajuuk). So the smaller in-game scale for the ships is possible, even if I don’t personally like the idea of the ships echoing features of Sajuuk so closely but at a different size.

Acknowledgement to the original concept and 3D artists and developers of Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm/Emergence, Homeworld 2, Homeworld Remastered, and Homeworld 3. Thanks to ArkFlash for the Cataclysm/Emergence models. Homeworld 1 and 2 Remastered models were extracted with CFHodEd and Gearbox’s Modding Tools. Homeworld 3 models were extracted with UE Viewer and converted using Blender using this plug-in. All models were resurfaced and rendered in Lightwave.

 

References
↑1 The Kuun-Lan is at ~31% of the in-game figure, in accordance with the convention that the original Homeworld and Cataclysm/Emergence use feet as the in-game units, while the later games use meters.

Babylon 5 2×01 Effects Update Supplemental- The Three-Edged Sword

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The surprise Babylon 5 HD remaster came out on Blu-Ray recently. Something I was curious about was how difficult it would be to combine the 4×3 Blu-Rays with the 16×9 DVDs to get a 16×9 pseudo-HD version of the show, with the edges upscaled but the center using real film.

I did a quick test on a frame from “Points of Departure,” and the answer is “not as easy as I hoped.” I’ve tried this technique before, matching and blending the same film from two different releases (and, apparently, two different digital scans), and I’ve also run into this problem of the film not scanning perfectly flat, and having some amount of distortion. I’d have to do further research to see if there are tools to address this that I have access to,1It feels like a combination of technologies should be able to solve this; I’ve got two slightly different sources of the same ground-truth. The HD frame shows exactly how 3/4th of the SD frame should look after it’s upscaled, so it should be possible to have a computer program compare the two, adjust the color, size, rotation, and proportion of the SD frame to match the HD one as closely as possible, apply some ML upscaling (ideally using the very shot that’s being upscaled as training data so the computer can extrapolate the lost detail at the sides of the frame from the existing detail in the middle), and blend the two sources. I know all these features exist independently, but I have no idea how to get them all into one tool. There might also be some complications with the DVDs needing to be detelecined and having scanline issues in the raw data. so this is just a quick test and comparison using Photoshop. The vertical framing of the DVD and Blu-Ray don’t match exactly, and the DVD’s colors are a little more contrasty, so I had to make some adjustments to match better.

First off, the test image merging the two sources. I upscaled the DVD frame using an AI tool, color-corrected it as described above, and added some grain, while softening the border between the HD frame and the widescreen one:

It could be worse!

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References
↑1 It feels like a combination of technologies should be able to solve this; I’ve got two slightly different sources of the same ground-truth. The HD frame shows exactly how 3/4th of the SD frame should look after it’s upscaled, so it should be possible to have a computer program compare the two, adjust the color, size, rotation, and proportion of the SD frame to match the HD one as closely as possible, apply some ML upscaling (ideally using the very shot that’s being upscaled as training data so the computer can extrapolate the lost detail at the sides of the frame from the existing detail in the middle), and blend the two sources. I know all these features exist independently, but I have no idea how to get them all into one tool. There might also be some complications with the DVDs needing to be detelecined and having scanline issues in the raw data.

Tech the Tech: White Star Insignia

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While the White Star was introduced in the third season of Babylon 5, for most of it, only the prototype was seen. It wasn’t until season 4 that we began seeing scenes set on multiple different White Stars. The set for the White Star bridge was also redesigned and rearranged for the fourth season, and the new design seemed to take into account that there would be times when different characters would be seen on different (but identical) ships in the same episode.

From what I can tell, there were four main ways to redress the White Star bridge to represent different specific ships. There were lights in the supports for the railing around the command chair that were changed to different colors, the large light panels on the aft bulkhead had their color changed, some of the computer screens on the aft bulkhead were changed out, and a lit plaque above the main door to the bridge would be changed. For now, I’ll just be going into that last one.

Two different White Stars from the episode “Into the Fire” (4×06)
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Stargate 2020 Effects (Film Version)

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The Stargate VFX from the original film, my recreation, and a side-by-side comparison

“Stargate 3.0 Effects (Film Version)” for Lightwave 2020, Released December 25, 2021 (CC0) —142 MB

After a year and a half, I’m running out of steam on the Stargate project for now, so I pushed myself to finish up the part I was currently working on, the version of the “kawoosh,” “strudel,” and “puddle” effects as seen in the movie.

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Stargate 2020 (Pegasus Version)

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Orthographic diagrams of the model1Atlantis Expedition Logo by CmdrKerner
Showcase animation of the model and effects

“Stargate 3.1 (Pegasus Version)” for Lightwave 2020, Released July 30, 2021 (CC0) —53 MB

Conversion Kits:

After over a year, I’ve reached the end of my 2020 pandemic modeling project with the completion of the version of the stargate used in Stargate Atlantis. Alongside the movie and SG-1 versions, that makes a complete set for this basic design.2The Universe version being a totally different design, and the Origins version being intended to match the movie version, even if it didn’t quite hit the mark perfectly. While I don’t think I’m quite done with Stargate just yet, I’m probably done with modeling actual stargates for a while.

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References
↑1 Atlantis Expedition Logo by CmdrKerner
↑2 The Universe version being a totally different design, and the Origins version being intended to match the movie version, even if it didn’t quite hit the mark perfectly.

Tech the Tech: How to Dial a Stargate

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Or, “Mother, the chevrons are locking!”

Considering it’s just a big, spinning wheel, there’s actually a surprising amount of ambiguity about exactly how the Milky Way version of the Stargate dials. The basics are obvious. There’s an inner ring, which rotates alternatively clockwise and counterclockwise to indicate specific symbols on it, each of which is represented by one of nine corresponding chevrons on the main ring of the device. The chevrons are numbered one through seven, proceeding clockwise, ending with seven at the top, and skipping the bottom two chevrons.1In the subsequent television shows, we saw eight- and nine-chevron addresses. The nine-chevron address engaged each chevron in clockwise order, with the bottom-right chevron becoming chevron four and the normal chevron four being chevron six, and so on. The implication in “The Fifth Race,” the first episode where it was done, is that the first six symbols encode under the normal chevrons, while the additional seventh symbol encodes at the bottom right chevron (briefly seen on a computer screen), with chevron eight at the top, which is confirmed by comparing the visible symbols on the Atlantis stargate in the episodes “No Man’s Land” and “The Pegasus Project” with the published eight-symbol address for Earth.

So the question left is, exactly what position on the main ring indicates which symbol is being encoded or locked by a given chevron?

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References
↑1 In the subsequent television shows, we saw eight- and nine-chevron addresses. The nine-chevron address engaged each chevron in clockwise order, with the bottom-right chevron becoming chevron four and the normal chevron four being chevron six, and so on. The implication in “The Fifth Race,” the first episode where it was done, is that the first six symbols encode under the normal chevrons, while the additional seventh symbol encodes at the bottom right chevron (briefly seen on a computer screen), with chevron eight at the top, which is confirmed by comparing the visible symbols on the Atlantis stargate in the episodes “No Man’s Land” and “The Pegasus Project” with the published eight-symbol address for Earth.

Tech the Tech: The Glyphs on the Abydos Stargate

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I’ve been working on a new 3D model of the stargate. For the moment, I’ve been working in parallel on the variations seen in the original movie and the SG-1 television series, since they share nearly all of the same parts.1The Atlantis stargate, while superficially similar, actually has enough unique aspects that it makes more sense for me to build a separate model based on the parts I’ve made for the movie/SG-1 version. One of the elements I’d like to recreate is that in the original movie, the stargate on the alien planet Abydos had different symbols on its inner ring than the one on Earth. I’ve never seen any listing of these alternate symbols, so I investigated the film to see what I could figure out.

NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE

First, let’s talk about the point of origin symbol. For the TV series Stargate SG-1, the concept of the stargate was simplified, so that rather than each stargate having a unique set of symbols on it based on the stars as seen from its particular location in the universe, every stargate used the same symbols, based on the constellations as seen from Earth, aside from one unique symbol, which represented that particular stargate itself. Finding the symbol that represented the “point of origin” was a major plot-point in the film, though it was only occasionally touched on in the series; unique point of origin symbols were designed for other stargates just twice during the entire run of the show,2The stargate in Antarctica in “Solitudes,” and the stargate on the planet where the population was living a VR simulation in “The Gamekeeper” with other planets normally having one of the regular 38 “address” symbols substituted in their place (another reason I wanted to recreate the Abydos stargate was to have a supply of plausible stargate symbols to use as point of origin symbols for alien stargates on my SG-1 gate model).

Glowing buttons with the Antarctic stargate origin symbol, a large circle over a horizontal line, and the P7J-989 origin symbol, a series of curved lines tapering to a point, similar to an icon of a tornado or vortex
The Point of Origin symbols for the Antarctic stargate (left) and the stargate on P7J-989

In SG-1, the origin symbol for the stargate used by Earth during most of the show was carried over from the film, a triangle pointing upward at a circle, representing a pyramid with the sun directly above it.3The pyramid symbol, and all the other stargate symbols, were remade from scratch for the series stargate setpieces, and don’t precisely match the symbols used in the movie in size, orientation, or proportion. The symbol for Abydos in the series was three equilateral lines extending out from a center point, with two triangles flanking the vertical line.

The Giza stargate symbol, an upward-pointing triangle with a small circle above it, and the series version of the Abydos symbol, three lines radiating from a center point with
The Point of Origin symbols for the Giza (left) and Abydos stargates as seen on Stargate SG-1

That is similar to the way the symbol was described in the film (a pyramid with the three moons of Abydos above it), but it doesn’t quite look like the drawing of the symbol we saw in the film, which consisted of two wide, stacked triangles. And, in fact, there is a symbol of two wide, stacked triangles on the Abydos stargate in the movie. So where’d the symbol used in the TV show come from?

A chalk drawing of a pyramid, with three moons above it, each connected to the others with a line, and two insets of a symbol of a pair of stacked triangles from the Abydos stargate
The pictogram of the Abydos origin symbol seen in the movie, with inserts of the corresponding symbol on the stargate
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References
↑1 The Atlantis stargate, while superficially similar, actually has enough unique aspects that it makes more sense for me to build a separate model based on the parts I’ve made for the movie/SG-1 version.
↑2 The stargate in Antarctica in “Solitudes,” and the stargate on the planet where the population was living a VR simulation in “The Gamekeeper”
↑3 The pyramid symbol, and all the other stargate symbols, were remade from scratch for the series stargate setpieces, and don’t precisely match the symbols used in the movie in size, orientation, or proportion.

Virtual Sets and Educational Animations for UC Scout

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For the past couple of years, I’ve been working at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as part of a team producing video lectures for on-line classes in the Scout and University Extension programs. As my time there comes to a close, I wanted to post a retrospective summary of what I’ve been doing. Day to day, the majority of my time was spent assembling and editing individual lessons, though at one time or another I at least touched on all aspects of production, including filming, quality assurance, and asset creation.

As far as 3D work goes, while I did have the chance to produce short explanatory animations for various lessons, something I volunteered for in the first few days on the job was creating virtual sets for our courses. Our presenters were shot on greenscreen, and I though it would add a level of visual interest to place them in a realistic environment, rather than up against some sort of plain color or gradient backdrop. 

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Tech the Tech: The Tenth Planet in “World Enough and Time”

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Back in the 1960s, Doctor Who introduced the Cybermen as coming from a “counter-Earth” called Mondas, a twin planet of our own that had escaped detection as it orbited the sun exactly opposite the Earth. Mondas was flung into deep space when the arrival of Earth’s moon disrupted the balance between the planets, and the inhabitants gradually surgically altered themselves to survive the increasingly harsh environment, until they were cold, cybernetic monstrosities who strapped enormous engines to their world, intent on returning to their home star and draining Earth of its precious energy reserves. Mondas itself was depicted as being exactly identical to Earth (except upside-down1While upside-down, it is still rotating in the conventional way, suggesting that the Mondasians also consider “north” to be “up” on their maps. I’m not sure whether that means that, spatially, the planet was upside down relative to Earth and rotating in the same direction, or the surface was aligned the same way but was rotating backwards, like Venus . I doubt anyone gave it that much thought.), complete with humans identical to those on Earth.

There is no prize for finding the most scientific inaccuracies in that paragraph.
“World Enough and Time” and “The Doctor Falls,” the two-part season 10 finale of Doctor Who, revisited the Cybermen’s origin. While set on a ship either constructed by or commissioned for the people of Mondas rather than the planet itself, we do see a computer screen showing a display of the planet. At a casual glance, Mondas still appears to be identical to Earth (though right-side up this time2And still rotating in the conventional direction. Maybe they reversed the planet’s rotation when they attached the engines, like that episode of Futurama.), but the Doctor Who art department took the time to subtly modify the layout of the continents as a freeze-frame bonus. I’d hoped that the BBC’s Production Art gallery for the episode might contain a complete map, but, alas, it is not to be, and it seems unlikely the show will be revisiting Mondas anytime soon, leaving reverse-engineering the planet to fans like me.

First, I had to correct for the prespective distortion of the computer screen, so here’s the straight-on view of Mondas, in both Quicktime and GIF formats. Continue reading →

 

References
↑1 While upside-down, it is still rotating in the conventional way, suggesting that the Mondasians also consider “north” to be “up” on their maps. I’m not sure whether that means that, spatially, the planet was upside down relative to Earth and rotating in the same direction, or the surface was aligned the same way but was rotating backwards, like Venus . I doubt anyone gave it that much thought.
↑2 And still rotating in the conventional direction. Maybe they reversed the planet’s rotation when they attached the engines, like that episode of Futurama.

Rogue One Meets Doctor Who (Temp Score Found?)

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The score over the climactic sequence of “Rogue One” always reminded me of something. I tried laying over “The Life and Death of Amy Pond,” from the end of the Doctor Who episode “The Pandorica Opens,” and the pacing and tone matched pretty well. I suspect it may have been the temp score for the sequence.

You can see the waveforms for both tracks here; the film track, “Your Father Would Be Proud” is on top, with “The Life and Death of Amy Pond” is on the bottom. Also, I did slightly adjust the speed (about 1% faster or slower, I can’t remember) of the music so it would hit a couple beats slightly more precisely.