We got another TT5 release. This looks like it's getting close to a final version heading into general availability. There are now a lot of really lovely presets that make getting great results as easy as a couple of clicks. Previously, you needed a maths degree and several days of experience experimenting with noise filters.
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| Quick Luna terrain test |
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| True-Terrain 5, with its powerful new water system |
New Project
So, the Boulton-class ship is waiting for a final cleanup. Instead of working on it's sub-craft, the Gordon-class Sloop, I decided to go big, very big.
I will tackle the giant interstellar ships from the Terran Republic novel: the Shift Carriers.
Illustrated below is official art by Ian Stead that featured in the second edition of the first novel, Fire with Fire
Ian did a great job of producing tight, easily understood schematic drawings and illustrations. I'll approach it differently, with a bit more artistic freedom and make the ship way -- way -- way more detailed. Also cinematic. I don't recall doing a ship that's 2000m long.
The design follows some of the hard SF theories used in the Avatar films. Power comes from matter, annihilation for power and Fusion. The ships are equipped with big radiators or heat sinks and use suspended animation to keep passengers frozen during relatively long transits.
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| Main truss segment |
This truss/cage forms the spine of the ship. Two transit tubes, each 3 m in diameter, are included.
The central truss runs the whole length of the 2000m-long ship. Here's one side of the main drive block. This section is about 500m, so about a quarter of the overall length.
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| Drive block |
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| Engines and pipework |
I need to place the power plant at the forward end. It stores anti-matter, which requires zero-failure magnetic confinement, or the ship instantly turns into hot particles.
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