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nanite foliage is there and it tanks framerate, splinters are just alpha masked textures because nanite foliage is already overwhelming the GPU, and 300 NPCs are on strike, damn it. couldn't find just one to take a screenshot with... I'm starting to think they don't like me...

making progress in the hold area. almost done, just a few things left to take care of. right now, I'm concentrating only on construction. fitting out the space will come after I finish the hull... or in between burn outs, lol... and another walkthrough video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKy6i_ElLVM

making progress with internal planking. I've been struggling quite a bit with it, since the drawings don't quite fit scantlings in "Elements and practices..." book. hope it turns out OK... -ish....

finally, the frames are done. like Nate said, interesting little buggers to make, they were nice exercise in patience for a lot of things to come, lol... oh, and it was really bad weather today, so my workers split home earlier again. it's like they're actively avoiding to be photographed...

Nate, I wholeheartedly agree. I'm also done with framing (tight race this one is 🤣), and the work/procrastinate ratio in my case was waaaay in favor of "I don't feel like working on frames right now" 😁. I remember when working on Pegasus, the most fun I had was while working on decks... still some work to do before those...

hello, guys. not much progress this time. fore square frames up to dead flat are done... and I've removed support rods, they were starting to get in the way and were a pain to setup. good thing digital frames can stand on their own... 😁

I thought of making the hull shell in Fusion 360 or Plasticity, but that involves using one more software, learning user interface, learning CAD workflow, import export... The truth is, as I grow older I'm less and less inclined to bother myself with unnecessary cr... er, stuff. so I kept things simple and did everything within blender... great piece of software that one... 😁

ok, here you can see a NURBS curve, and bellow is a simple vertex extruded edge with subdivision modifier lvl4. the result is almost the same, yet allows for more freedom than CAD program. at least for me. I like pushing vertices around, although the result might not be the perfect smooth shape as with CAD, but that's OK, I'm not designing mechanical device, I'm merely making a visualization of one... here you can see the ship's hull which I duplicated and then cut out frames, which I then shrinkwrap back on the first hull shell to keep the shape of all the frames consistent:

I'll try to post some examples on how I tackled ship's hull shell just with some edge loops and subdivision modifier. it resembles NURBS workflow yet still allows some freedom...

oh, now I get it. we'll, I think that Blender is a mixed bag when it comes to complex shapes. on one hand, CAD software allows greater precision in modeling but only if you already know what you're doing and have detailed plans. on the other hand, if you're stuck with badly scanned plans with a lot of distortion, then Blender allows for easier adjustments and corrections along the way. at least that's the way I see it. to give you more precise answer I'd have to build one of these ships fully in CAD to really get to know both camps.

thank you for your comments, guys! 😊 glad you like the ship. Waldemar, to answer your question is Blender really optimal for this? honestly, I don't know. it handled Pegasus pretty well, so I guess it will handle Pandora as equally well, and that's probably what matters the most. "if it works...", right? the thing is, the ship is not really that detailed. I'm making the frames the same way I made those for Pegasus, despite now having newer computer and beefier GPU, because I don't really need that much polygons. if you look at the renders at the shipyard, you can't really see facets and edges although they're quite large. just look at this screengrab from Blender: that's pretty much low poly mesh right there. for an object that's quite as tall as this frame is, you'd think you'd notice polygons when camera gets close, but in reality that's not (always) the case. so there was no need to go overboard with subdivision modifiers and whatnot. so, yeah, I think that Blender is OK for this. I thought about making Pandora in Fusion360 or Plasticity, and as much as I'd like to do it in CAD program I seriously doubt I'd have as much fun as I have working in Blender. we just clicked from day one like 13 years ago and I still enjoy using it, and even if Blender wasn't optimal tool for this (and there's no reason for me to think it isn't) I'd still be using it because it's the tool I'm most comfortable with, and that's what matters the most. oh, and since UE5 literally eats polygons for breakfast because of Nanite tech, I could've exported Pandora with subsurf modifier even if I wasn't going to use it in Blender, but I actually forgot to add it... 🤣

making progress with square frames, albeit really slowly. those irregular futtocks shapes really don't help. frames around forecastle are done...

Druxey, it is if I forget to change the weather. 🤣 but, to my defense, today was sunny around here, so yeah... counter frames and head pieces done. I know, counter frames are just hanging there, but for now they will stay so, until other timbers that connect them are done... and NOW square frames will follow...

and here's another walkaround video.... https://youtu.be/u4vmJBTFf3w

fore cant frames done, onto the square frames...