ELITE ship pack

What is ELITE? Good question and while i could explain it, this site does a better job of it.

http://elite.frontier.co.uk/

Saying that for those that can't be bothered to look, ELITE was the grandfather of all the space trading games you see today. Released in 1984 and written by David Braben & Ian Bell, the game introduced many concepts that we all take for granted in modern 3D space games and was a huge influence for the creators of EVE Online amongst others.

I played it when it came out and nobody had ever seen a 3D space game where there was actual combat, trading and travelling the universe all in one tidy little package. ELITE used wiremesh representations of the ships in the game, although later versions started to use shaded graphics on the models.

There hasn't really been a similar game like it to be honest, many have tried and been found sadly lacking. I'd like to say Freelancer came close, but in all honesty it didn't, although the basic principles were there. Freelancer offers the same ideas but in a much smaller universe, but the advantage Freelancer has is it looks a million times better.

With the 25th anniversary of ELITE, i've taken it upon myself to create an ELITE ship pack featuring all the models from the original game that have been rebuilt and retextured by a fine gentleman called Griff, who very kindly gave me permission to convert them to FL.

First thing, the Coriolis Station, a little flyby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgunOsPTdRY

Ships are now all converted, icons done, in the middle of testing. All models have custom surs, icons and lightmaps and will be free to use by anyone who wants them.

Huor

I'm actually terrible at modelling and haven't created diddly since i started modding FL, specially in the ship department. I'm good at converting things to run in FL, do that all the time tbh, same with these ships, a guy called Griff gave them to me to convert so that's what i've done. I chat with OP now and then on msn, so if he needs help i'm sure he'll ask.

As to me lurking in the Sol system, not wrong there, have a luxury cabin on the International Space Station

Got them all hardpointed and scripted now, next thing is to test them in game and apply the lightmaps and hopefully, job done

Here's a pictorial update on how some of them look in game, still a few to go, 25 ships in total

BOA Mk.I

COBRA MK.I

COBRA MK.III

CONSTRICTOR

Thanks guys. One of the more interesting facts with these illumination effects for the engine is..... they can be changed to match the colour of the engine you want to use. I use Paintshop Pro 7 for all my graphical work and there's a function called Adjust Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Its' a simple slider. With that you can change the glow colour to match the engine of your choice, be it a standard engine or a custom made one. Very handy for making different versions.

Except you'd need to make new ale files first, then you could use the above to match them, but in essence you're correct. Not easy making ale files though lol

Some more piccies

FER DE LANCE MK.II

GECKO

KRAIT

MAMBA

ORBITAL SHUTTLE

THARGOID MOTHERSHIP

And here are some more,

PYTHON I

PYTHON II

VIPER

VIPER INTERCEPTOR

WORM SHUTTLE