Victoria super Omnia

Still adding details. Here's a progress shot of how far I've gotten now. I'm still looking for a better base texture and an effect that barely shows up on one base texture looks exaggerated on another base texture. That's the reason for why the black lines are surrounded by very obvious white borders. They won't be nearly as obvious when I'm done.

I will be adding lots more detail before I'll call it done. I'm getting closer to how I want the surface to look, though most of the ship is still without any details.

I'm not sure how dirty I want the ship to end up being, firstly because you aren't going to run into much dirt as such in space, so scorch marks are more likely, and secondly because it's going into HW2, where the ships are built on demand, so I'm probably going to go for a "fresh off the assembly line" look for it.

I'm glad I have a copy of the old WC3 playguide for reference, so I can see where they put the panel lines on the original high poly model. Unfortunately, most of the shots in there are greyscale, so there's not much in the way of color reference. At least the front cover is in color.

Bonus trivia question of the day: Who knows where this update's headline comes from?

Later Excalibur

I had forgotten which program I used to model this ship back then, so I had to take a look at this topic. I'd thought it was blender, so I downloaded and installed it, only to find out I couldn't figure out how to use it.

I managed to salvage the model, but I had to restart on the texturing. That was probably a good thing, since I've learned a bit in the time since I worked on the model last. I also found it a good idea to remap the UV a bit, since some elements didn't have the resolution I needed, while others were needlessly detailed.

I consider the base surface texture a placeholder, but I'm not sure if I can find anything that looks better, so I may end up keeping it anyway. I'm currently mapping out the elements I want on the texture before I get onto the detail work.

It will eventually be bump mapped when I get it ingame in Homeworld 2, but I'll have to teach myself how to create a bump map first. In any case, I want to finish the diffuse texture first before getting into that too much.

Nominees Needed

We want to hear your suggestions for Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Voting will occur at the end of the month and be based off the items that you submit! Our prior winners are below. There has been a ton of fan activity lately, so there's plenty of recognition to go around! Check back later this month for information on how to vote for the top sites and projects of 2009.

Call For Nominees

The annual CIC year-end contests are approaching fast, so now is the time for everyone to submit their nominations. Voting will begin soon for Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Choices should be based primarily on how much each contender has contributed to the Wing Commander community in 2009. Previous winners are listed below. This year has been full of fan activity, so there's plenty to recognize this time around. Check back later this month for information on how to vote for the top sites and projects of 2009!

Outside Help For WC4 Homeworld Mod

It's been some time since Aaron Thomas' awesome WC4 Homeworld 2 mod was last updated. L.I.F. was so impressed with the project that he decided to add a few features himself. Here's what's new:

This file is a modification to the already awesome Wing Commander IV mod to Homeworld 2 by Aaron Thomas, a.k.a. czacen. The weaponry of both strikecrafts and capships were tweaked to modify the gameplay as follows :

• Capships and fighters are now able to shoot at and destroy capmiss and torpedoes. In order to allow that, let the ship in offensive stance without a direct attack order (the turrets would then shoot at the targets and ignore the torps. Oh, and enemy fighters near the AAA seem to nastily busy the guns, allowing a clear path for the torpedoes.). It should give a new life to our beloved Southampton, Talahassee and Caernaven (the latter becoming more useful as a mobile AA battery).
• Fighter and bomber guns are no longer able to shoot at capship vessels (destroyers, cruisers, carriers and so on), limiting their target range at frigates, transports and strikecrafts. So, bombers and capships are the only weapons against capships : no Excalibur harrasment on your poor little Durango strike carrier (those phase shields are here for a reason)

I hope HW2 players will enjoy these new gameplay rules.

I'd like to give my thanks to Aaron Thomas and the CIC Staff, for their fantastic work for the community.

You can download this version of the mod here (145 MB). L.I.F. also provided installation instructions:

• Download the file from Confed #1 website (the CIC).
• Move the .rar file to the "Data" folder of your "Homeworld 2" folder.
• Right-click on your Homeworld 2 shortcut and add at the end of the "target" field : -mod WC4S_target_acquired.rar
• Launch the game through this new shortcut.

Homeworld 2 Mod Looks & Plays Great

It's been some time since we've seen a progress update on the WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod, but the existing playable game is still making waves. Fwiffo has made an exciting video demonstrating an epic battle between Confed and the Border Worlds. Check it out here. If you haven't seen the game in action before, the massive fleet battle shown should really impress. HW2 owners can also download and play the mod for themselves here.

This battle was one of my first games testing the mod out, and it is a fully functional modification. I plan on making more videos as I gain experience. I'm playing as the Union of Border Worlds against Confed.

One Week Left

There's just one week left to vote for Wing Commander Web Site and Fan Project of the Year awards. We have an impressive list of nominees this year, so check them out below and then cast your vote!

Fan Project of the Year Nominees

• The Community Replay of the Wing Commander series has been a popular new activity in 2008. Even those who haven't been playing have been joining in on the fun by reading new mission reports each week. The replay has also been a great opportunity to grab new videos and screenshots of missions throughout the series.
• Das Erwachen released Book 2 Stille in 2008 and made progress on the third adventure in this fan novel series. They even held a free book giveaway contest and have started on a backstory reference guide.
• Flight Commander has just recently been upgraded to version 1.6. The latest update contains beautiful new starscapes and powerful new editing tools for aspiring modders. The game is also more realistic than ever with an advanced damage model that affects ship systems as they are shot up and then slowly repaired.
• Privateer Ascii Sector went multiplatform in 2008 and increased its scope quite a bit. The game now sports impressive sound effects, a custom mission builder and planetside character combat!
• Privateer Gemini Gold works hard to recreate the original Privateer experience as authentically as possible. The team has been working this year to upgrade the cutscenes and character models for an even more graphically impressive look that's still true to the original.
• Standoff has made significant progress towards its final chapter this year. Major items such as fiction files, cutscene graphics and voiceovers are now complete, and Episode 5 should be on the way soon.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod's graphics began getting a thorough overhaul in 2008. A number of capships have been completely retextured and TonViper is working to add impressive new lighting and shaders to the engine.
• Wing Commander Collateral Damage is a new Secret Ops mod that debuted in 2008. The goal of WCCD is to bridge some of the events between Secret Ops and Wing Commander Arena, and the result so far has been some awesome Arena models appearing in the classic Vision Engine.
• Wing Commander Pioneer's primary capships got an incredible makeover early in the year. More recently, some concept art ships that appeared in archived Origin material have been modeled for possible use in the future.
• Wing Commander Saga's gameplay portions are now functionally complete. The team is working on a major retexturing effort as it preps components like the fiction viewer for release.
• Wing Commander TacOps players had a ton of fun playing out various tactical scenarios at their Crius.net forum. Expanded rules and new tweaks continue to be rolled out as the game becomes more and more refined.

Web Site of the Year Nominees

• gulikoza's page is the home of the dxmci patch for the Wing Commander 4 DVD version. A 'final' version of the patch was released on New Years Day 2008, but gulikoza has continued to update his DOSBox build and a handful of other tweaks this year.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site is the home to some of the most exotic and amazing patches, tweaks and tools for Wing Commander games. In 2008 HCl worked to make some of his programs more compatible with Windows Vista and other environments.
• Jetlag's WC CCG Site gives many fans a look at part of the series they might have missed. Even those lucky enough to pick up a few boxes of cards on eBay have a ways to go before they can complete their set. Jetlag's easy-to-navigate site lets everyone look up the stats or artwork that they need, and it even provides high resolution scans of each card.
• Paper Commander is the new Wing Commander site that spun off from Pericles' Paper Inside in 2008. It's the home to the most exciting paper models on the web! In addition to some awesome releases, Pericles has sought fan feedback this year to help determine which Wing Commander models will be built next.
• Standoff's website kicked things into high gear in the second half of 2008 to support the upcoming release of Episode 5. There have been a variety of new teaser images, status updates and a steadily filling progress meter.
• Wedge's Wing Commander is a huge reference site organized by Wing Commander game. It has a ton of original content and also links to other resources on the web. The site made some authentic updates this year with access to newly released original Origin material.
• Wing Commander Saga's website is frequently updated with news, sound samples, polls and concept art relating to the WC Saga game. It's also the main download portal for the Saga Prologue and test missions that have been released, and it does it all with a slick presentation and layout.

Vote Here!

The year is quickly coming to an end, so it's once again time to vote for our annual Web Site and Fan Project of the Year awards. We're constantly impressed by the number of fans who keep investing their time in exciting community projects, and so we love this opportunity to recognize some of them. There isn't enough space to recap every single undertaking from the last twelve months, but the items below are a great start. Reading this reminder about all the recent activity should make you proud to be a Wingnut. Skim the list below and then go cast your vote. Without further delay, here are the nominees.

Fan Project of the Year Nominees

• The Community Replay of the Wing Commander series has been a popular new activity in 2008. Even those who haven't been playing have been joining in on the fun by reading new mission reports each week. The replay has also been a great opportunity to grab new videos and screenshots of missions throughout the series.
• Das Erwachen released Book 2 Stille in 2008 and made progress on the third adventure in this fan novel series. They even held a free book giveaway contest and have started on a backstory reference guide.
• Flight Commander has just recently been upgraded to version 1.6. The latest update contains beautiful new starscapes and powerful new editing tools for aspiring modders. The game is also more realistic than ever with an advanced damage model that affects ship systems as they are shot up and then slowly repaired.
• Privateer Ascii Sector went multiplatform in 2008 and increased its scope quite a bit. The game now sports impressive sound effects, a custom mission builder and planetside character combat!
• Privateer Gemini Gold works hard to recreate the original Privateer experience as authentically as possible. The team has been working this year to upgrade the cutscenes and character models for an even more graphically impressive look that's still true to the original.
• Standoff has made significant progress towards its final chapter this year. Major items such as fiction files, cutscene graphics and voiceovers are now complete, and Episode 5 should be on the way soon.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod's graphics began getting a thorough overhaul in 2008. A number of capships have been completely retextured and TonViper is working to add impressive new lighting and shaders to the engine.
• Wing Commander Collateral Damage is a new Secret Ops mod that debuted in 2008. The goal of WCCD is to bridge some of the events between Secret Ops and Wing Commander Arena, and the result so far has been some awesome Arena models appearing in the classic Vision Engine.
• Wing Commander Pioneer's primary capships got an incredible makeover early in the year. More recently, some concept art ships that appeared in archived Origin material have been modeled for possible use in the future.
• Wing Commander Saga's gameplay portions are now functionally complete. The team is working on a major retexturing effort as it preps components like the fiction viewer for release.
• Wing Commander TacOps players had a ton of fun playing out various tactical scenarios at their Crius.net forum. Expanded rules and new tweaks continue to be rolled out as the game becomes more and more refined.

Web Site of the Year Nominees

• gulikoza's page is the home of the dxmci patch for the Wing Commander 4 DVD version. A 'final' version of the patch was released on New Years Day 2008, but gulikoza has continued to update his DOSBox build and a handful of other tweaks this year.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site is the home to some of the most exotic and amazing patches, tweaks and tools for Wing Commander games. In 2008 HCl worked to make some of his programs more compatible with Windows Vista and other environments.
• Jetlag's WC CCG Site gives many fans a look at part of the series they might have missed. Even those lucky enough to pick up a few boxes of cards on eBay have a ways to go before they can complete their set. Jetlag's easy-to-navigate site lets everyone look up the stats or artwork that they need, and it even provides high resolution scans of each card.
• Paper Commander is the new Wing Commander site that spun off from Pericles' Paper Inside in 2008. It's the home to the most exciting paper models on the web! In addition to some awesome releases, Pericles has sought fan feedback this year to help determine which Wing Commander models will be built next.
• Standoff's website kicked things into high gear in the second half of 2008 to support the upcoming release of Episode 5. There have been a variety of new teaser images, status updates and a steadily filling progress meter.
• Wedge's Wing Commander is a huge reference site organized by Wing Commander game. It has a ton of original content and also links to other resources on the web. The site made some authentic updates this year with access to newly released original Origin material.
• Wing Commander Saga's website is frequently updated with news, sound samples, polls and concept art relating to the WC Saga game. It's also the main download portal for the Saga Prologue and test missions that have been released, and it does it all with a slick presentation and layout.

Vote here!

Final Nomination Reminder

This is a reminder that time is running out to nominate your picks for 2008 Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Some of our most dedicated Wingnuts have been toiling away all year to enhance your Wing Commander life, and here's our chance to recognize a few of the best! Voting kicks off next week. Here are the past winners again.

Nomination Reminder

This is a reminder that time is running out to nominate your picks for 2008 Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Some of our most dedicated Wingnuts have been toiling away all year to enhance your Wing Commander life, and here's our chance to recognize a few of the best! Voting kicks off later this month. Here are the past winners again.

Call For Nominees

The annual CIC year-end contests are approaching fast, so now is the time for everyone to submit their nominations. Voting will begin soon for Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Choices should be based primarily on how much each contender has contributed to the Wing Commander community in 2008. Previous winners are listed below. This year has been full of fan activity, so there's plenty to recognize this time around. Check back in December for information on how to vote for the top sites and projects of 2008!

Destroyer Refit Heads Home

Here is Aaron Thomas' improved Southampton class destroyer for the WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod. In addition to a variety of upgraded ships and a stunning graphics overhaul in work with TonViper, the next new release could include a special map pack with familiar locations in the Wing Commander universe. Since both WC4 and Wing Commander Arena take place in the same region of space, some familiar Arena-themed maps would be super...

Homeworld Mod Cruiser Finalized

You Can Go Homeworld Again

Homeworld Mod Cleans Up Its Cruiser

Homeworld Mod Getting Cool Intro

I have been planning to add an opening cinematic to the WC4 Mod for some time now. I have made it past the storyboard stage and started on the 3D modeling. The first model is the Confed Pilot. I initially thought I would just post the final model pics straight here, but it is taking me some time to get it done, so I will post wip images as it progresses. So far I'm still building the suit. There is lots more work left. Lots of detailing still needs to be done and I've only just started working on the sleeves. CIC welcome, have a look. :)

Concordia Carrier Opens Fire

Here's a new batch of updated WC4 Homeworld 2 mod screenshots that include Aaron Thomas' finalized Concordia class gun turrets, engines and bridge textures. The turrets look particularly great in action. With the new hollowed out flight deck, there's also a cool new effect for launching fighters (described below). For now this model is finalized and Aaron has moved on to other capital ships seen in Wing Commander 4.

Now that the hull is hollow I had tried several ways to land the fighters. My initial attempt to make them taxi in and out of the side bays didn't work out too well. They kept flying through the walls and sliding all over the deck. Didn't look very nice. The way it works now is that they land on deck near the side bays and disappear. Then reappear in almost the same location when taking off. With some stretch of imagination it looks quite nice, however I don't think the HW2 developers ever planned for such a scenario. It's fun though - I just keep landing the fighters and watching them take off over and over again. :)

Homeworld Mod Recommissions Concordia Carrier

After I played the Mod the other day after almost 6 months, it pissed me off how shabby the ships looked. To me Wing Commander was always a game that broke ground, and a very important part of that was the graphics. With the HW2 engine being beefed up like avathar mentioned, I thought I'd take a whack at some high-res stuff in game.

The bridge and main engine block are still grayed-out, and the turrets are going to be completely redone. The rest is running smooth. The carrier will be hollow like in the pictures below, and the Hellcat and Thunderbolts will add to the detail only once you build medium fighter bays and heavy fighter bays respectively. This way you can visually tell the carrier's threat level.

You Can Go Homeworld Again

Remember the excellent Wing Commander IV mod for Homeworld 2? Well, after a long absense Aaron is back with an update!:

Hello all fans of the WC4 HW2 mod! I am sorry for not responding to many people who have praised and supported as well as added valuable feedback about the mod. I do feel sad that i have lost touch with this project over the last 6 months and I am sure many must be cursing me for having shelved it for so long, but rest assured this is only temporary. Some work has already been done several months ago towards incorporating the Kilrathi and an alternate version of Confed ships with WC3 markings/colours. But I have genuinely been very busy at work and not been able to follow up with the mod much. I hope to pick up the reigns again in August, I am also dwelling over another entirely new fan project, this time using the Star Trek Legacy engine for WC ships. This engine has more scope than the HW2 engine for ship details and such, plus the gameplay would be interesting. But for now I ask for your patience and thank you all for your support. I will let everyone know the instant I am fully back on the mod.

Last Chance To Vote

We're down to the last hours of 2007, so this is everyone's last chance to vote for Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. If you haven't voted yet, check out the nominees and select your choices at the voting page. The winners will be announced soon. Good luck!

Also don't forget to vote for Flight Commander Mod of the Year contest as well.

Here's another look at the past CIC winners.