Austin Tate's Blog

Blue Origin (blueorigin.com) is to auction the first seat on a crewed flight to space on the New Shepherd rocket and capsule planned tor 20th July 2021 with the proceeds of the auction being donated to the Club for the Future (clubforfuture.org) charity to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space. The flight is a ballistic trajectory similar to that flown by Alan Shepherd, the first American into space 60 years ago.

Note: There are 29 A4 pages of Terms and Conditions, privacy notice and other information on the multi-step and US$10,000 deposit process to raise your bid limit to be competitive.

Earth Day – 22nd April 2021 – Space Rocks – Vangelis

I have been a fan of Vangelis since hearing his track “Alpha” (from Albedo 0.39) on the collection of music loved by Carl Segan when he was on BBC Radio’s “Desert Island Discs” and used by him on his TV Series “Cosmos”. Vangelis has been a soundtrack to future sounds in films like Blade Runner, and in composing pieces for space missions like NASA’s Mars Odyssey (Mythodea) and ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander.

Vangelis VEVO Channel on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWWBOAJrQd7UqNundwjGb-w

Earth Day – 22nd April 2021 – Space Rocks – Vangelis

I have been a fan of Vangelis since hearing his track “Alpha” on the collection of music loved by Carl Segan when he was on “Desert Island Discs” and used by him on his TV Series “Cosmos”. Vangelis has been a soundtrack to future sounds in films like Blade Runner, and in composing pieces for space missions like NASA’s Mars Odyssey (Mythodea) and ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander.

The fictional base in the Nevada desert for the team in Gerry Anderson’s Supercar TV series is called Black Rock Laboratory. For 3D modellers it is a nightmare as many of the sets use din the TV series are separate filmed elements and do not sit well together or fit sensibly into the external envelope for the lab. The lab exterior only appeared as a drawing in series one.

This was replaced by a miniature model built by Derek Meddings in series two. The series two model added a concrete reinforced blockhouse on one end.

Mick Imrie built a 3D model of the core Supercar hanger part of the lab interior to try to make sense of this… and Austin Tate built a simple exterior model top fit this in.

The fictional base in the Nevada desert for the team in Gerry Anderson’s Supercar TV series is called Black Rock Laboratory. For 3D modellers it is a nightmare as many of the sets used in the TV series are separate filmed elements and do not sit well together or fit sensibly into the external envelope for the lab. The lab exterior only appeared as a drawing in series one.

This was replaced by a miniature model built by Derek Meddings in series two. The series two model added an extra concrete reinforced blockhouse on one end, and it might be that Derek did this to house the control room which protrudes beyond the roll up garage door as seen from the inside of the hanger.

Mick Imrie built a 3D model of the core Supercar hanger part of the lab interior to try to make sense of this… and Austin Tate built a simple exterior model to fit this in. The lab is arranged in 5 segments: two contain living accommodation, then two over the Supercar hanger floor area with roof door overhead, and then a final segment over the control room. There is a block of smaller rooms along the front of the lab and a separate smaller building with the radar dish on top.

Images of the Interior Looking Towards the Control Room

Images of the Control Room Position and Roll Up Garage Doors

Some TV images do allow (with a bit of imagination) for an interpretation that the “internal” roll up garage door leads to an area that is still within the lab space and is not directly to the outside. And that the outside door is different to the inside one…

Unfortunately external plants show in the image from the outside viewpoint, as confirmed by a wider shot in the Runaway Train episode.

Assumptions for Modelling of Black Rock Laboratory

1. The Supercar hanger area is very well shown in the TV series and if at all possible its visual appearance and layout ought to be preserved.
2. That means that the Control Room is within the floorplan of the main laboratory rather than being housed in the blockhouse added for season two.
3. That also necessitates a double garage door arrangement.
4. The door to Beaker’s Laboratory appears to lead directly outside unless an extended lab space of approx. 1.7m single storey area is added behind the lab.

Trying to Make Sense of This

The sets used for filming were often separate or rolled into position depending on the camera angle. So, of course there are a number of problems with the Black Rock Lab layout as used in our models to date…

1. From an inside view of the lab, the roll up slatted “garage” doors are flush with the front of the control room, whereas on the exterior they are situated on the end wall.
2. If the control room is set where shown in the TV stills, then the interior part of it cannot sit back into the blockhouse, which would have made some sense as a protected location.
3. Dr. Beaker’s lab door is alongside the high voltage equipment area, but that would lead directly outside the lab. The “Laboratory” door would have to lead to a corridor width passage behind it and then access to the right to a room alongside the control room for this to make sense.
4. Position of the elevator must be in corner somewhere to the left of the AVGAS hose door, but it does not show in TV stills showing the control room wall. Perhaps it could be there but hidden by the “internal” roll up garage door when that was closed.
5. The elevator shown in “Tracking of Masterspy” and “Talisman of Sargon” shows an indicator for 4 levels whereas the lab is a 2 storey building over a basement area. Masterspy also appears to come DOWN from Level 3 which he refers to as the “gallery” when he steals into the Lab.
6. After the “Rescue” episode Jimmy Gibson is shown in a bedroom that looks out through the double doors under the gallery to the Supercar hanger floor area, whereas in other episodes a corridor is behind those double doors.

Revised Black Rock Laboratory Plan

Firstly lets change our current 3D model to more closely resemble tge season two model by repositioning the blockhouse more centrally on the end wall and making its floor plan square, and widen the block of bedrooms or offices at the front of the lab a little to allow space for a corridor. And show a possible area where the basement sits (in red). Some adjustment to the radar/communications block upper structure and the upper windows in our original 3D model building also needs to be made.

The main externally visible change is the addition of approx. 1.7m of extra space for Dr. Beaker’s Laboratory at the back of the building.

Seeking to Explain the Control Room Placement and “Garage” Roll Up Doors

We have to accept there are multiple (non-exclusive) possibilities here:

1. The TV stills show the control room front flush with an internal garage door, and fairly close to the nose of Supercar in the hanger. This would imply that there are two sets of garage roll up doors separated by one unit of the 5 unit laboratory. That would be enough space to park a pickup truck, and tyre marks are shown in outside views going into that space.
2. The blockhouse addition was probably meant (by Derek Meddings in season two) to house the control room interior, so the control room is really set back one whole lab unit. There is then just a single garage door.
3. The blockhouse should not be there at all and was a continuity mistake!
4. The blockhouse was a later addition to house Dr. Beaker Experiments and to provide a playroom for Mitch!

I am going for the moment with (1) and (4)!

Seeking to Explain the Position of Dr. Beaker’s Laboratory

This is a tricky one. The door as it sits alongside the High Voltage zone would appear to lead directly outside. There are two possibilities perhaps:

1. The door leads to an external room. Unfortunately the series two model seen from the back does not show this clearly, though many of the images of the back side of Black Rock laboratory are in deep shadow!.
2. The door is misplaced and actually stands inwards a little (corridor width) and then the Laboratory itself opens to the right off that entry space and is placed alongside the control room.

After consulting with Mick Imrie, I am going with (1)!

There is a TV screen shot of the laboratory door partially open where it seems that there is a narrow corridor snd wall immediately behind the door, rather than the main laboratory space opening out immediately behind that.

Seeking to Explain the Room behind the Double Doors under the Gallery

The double doors might open onto a corridor that runs to the side rooms and in some way to the kitchen/lounge areas. A further set of double doors aligned with the hanger bay ones would allow Jimmy after his rescue to see through when both sets are opened.

There is likely a corridor behind the double sliding doors across which another set of double doors gives access to a room that may be a guest bedroom and/or infirmary.

Jimmy being in the “bedroom” that looks out to the hanger floor in the first Rescue episode might be explained by that being an infirmary or guest bedroom and not Jimmy’s allocated bedroom after he joins the team! We see a TV monitor in the room on which Mike shows Jimmy Supercar in the nearby hanger before opening the double doors to show him the actual craft.

The rooms alongside the lab in the single storey may all be bedrooms as the lights all come on in all four rooms one at a time when the team is disturbed one night (episode 70-B-Lo). Popkiss’s room light is already on first, so his bedroom is at the left of the block of bedrooms.

Seeking to Explain the Elevator Levels

Is this a plausible explanation of the 4 levels shown on the elevator indicators?

• Level 1 – basement (partial floorspace of lab only) where safe is. Assume its an area where AVGAS tank is under the AVGAS door, boiler room, mechanical workshop and storage.
• Level 2 – hanger floor level
• Level 3 – mezzanine level within garage area to access gantry
• Level 4 – engineering position to locate lift a metre or two above highest normal level for elevator repairs

In the episode “Tracking of Masterspy” Masterspy (dastardly man that he is, and due to careless BRL team security) had snuck in through the outer garage doors and had already taken the lift to the “gantry” level (level 3) at that end of the lab (Masterspy refers to it as the “gallery”) to spy on the team from behind the (closed at the time) inner garage roll up doors to wait for the plans in the briefcase to be brought over by Jimmy before he re-enters the elevator to descend to the hanger floor “ground” level (level 2) as Jimmy approaches it!

Seeking to Explain the Position and Use of the AVGAS “Door”

The red AVGAS panel in the corner of the laboratory hanger floor has on it the SAVGAS fuelling hose and valves. The panel looks like a door, but with no handle. It does not match up with any external door in the lab, so it must just be a panel attached to the wall.

Seeking to Explain the Upper Storey Windows Slats

The external appearance of the window slats appear narrower than those on interior hanger bay views.

To reconcile these, the outside appearance could be designed to offer sun protection to the interior by using a outer beam that has a tapered shape which is wider on the outside and is narrower at the inner side to leave an opening there between beams that is wide enough to match the larger internal window glass panel.

Speculation on the “Garage” Area

Assuming that the lab has two roll up doors, and inner one and the external one, we can speculate on what is in that space… especially as TV episode camera angles don’t show its upper parts.

• The space between the roll up doors provides enough space to garage a pickup truck. This is necessary as we don’t see the team’s truck parked outside in any TV episode.
• The clearance available allows Supercar to be pushed out on roller skates with wings retracted, though Supercar’s wings are also removable to make it narrower for such manoeuvres if necessary.
• The elevator shaft is positioned just inside the inner door. Hence the reason it is not seen in camera angles from the Supercar hanger floor.
• There is likely a heavy lifting hoist and pulley mounted on a track on the ceiling of the garage area. This is used to load or unload heavy equipment from the pickup truck.
• There is likely a floor lift that can lower or lift large items to or from the basement.
• There is a garage gantry that can bridge between the elevator level 3 position and a doorway that leads to storerooms that sit above the control room and adjacent areas. This gantry is often not visible in scenes that show the garage area as it retracts telescopically and hinges up to fit against the elevator shaft when not in use… allowing full headroom clearance out through the garage when necessary. Note that Masterspy refers to this garage gantry as the “gallery” when he sneaks into the lab via the garage and elevator.

Speculation on the Tanks and Pipework at Back of Lab

At the back of the season two model there is a storage tank spaced well away from the main body of the lab, connected by pipework in a girder arrangement to the lab at the level of the building eaves. This could be AVGAS fuel, but it comes in high up, rather than near the inner lab door that has the AVGAS hose. Heating fuel would likely come in at a lower level or feed a boiler in the basement. Could this tank and pipework be related to air conditioning and/or fire protection?

Speculation on the Basement

The basement is referred to as “downstairs” from the Supercar hanger level and there is a safe down there. Some ideas for that level besides the safe could include an AVGAS storage tank under the AVGAS hose door, boiler room, mechanical workshop with heavy machinery tools and storage.

Speculation on the Pickup Truck

The truck is probably meant to look like a 1960 US vehicle. Mick Imrie thought that the small model shown on an exterior shot of Black Rock lab may be a Land Rover.

For colour, Ford Pickup truck colours from around 1960, especially early 1960s pastel colours, may be appropriate as its MEANT to be a US (Nevada) pickup. Land Rovers tend to be sludgy colours and often blue or green.

Maybe something like the Ford Tidewater Aqua (Ford 1960), Ford Waterfall Blue (1956) or Land Rover Marine Blue (1958-1971) could be the colour.

Speculation on the “Communications Block”

The separate building with the radar on the roof probably houses communications and computer equipment related to the radar, radio, telemetry and high bandwidth Clear-Vu links. Computers would be old style 1960s mainframes and tape drives. Power generation units for the whole laboratory and cooling units would also be needed for such equipment. A storage tank is located under the colonnade at the side of the building, which may house fuel for power generators.

Some Experiments with the 3D Black Rock Lab Model in OpenSim

Following images show Interior Rollup Garage Door closed and Interior Rollup Garage Door open with Elevator Position and Gantry in its retracted and folded up position and when unfolded and telescopically extended…

Following images show the area of the basement (terrain removed) and Dr. Beaker’s Lab Door access to his Laboratory which partially occupies the space next to the Control Room and a short extension outside (approx 1.7m extra depth) the main hanger wall line (with windows similar to the front block rooms)…

The Lab exterior therefore might look something like this (note the upper windows need better modelling to be similar to the Season two model)…

A seminar in Moon Dialogs Peaceful Moon Salon on “International Collaboration for Lunar Bases” was help in Zoom on Monday, March 29, 2021 3:00 PM (BST).

A Google Document is used to capture comments and resources shared during the event…
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qQKOAhVrfx_M8FMMGfijqmxB81jzRpiv4wKHNcY64OU/

Contribution to Relevant Initiatives, Reports, Events

ESA and other missions to explore the possibility of using lava tubes as a moon base… https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Preparing_for_the_Future/Discovery_and_Preparation/ESA_plans_mission_to_explore_lunar_caves

Vimeo Video Recording of Event

Report from the Event

https://bit.ly/3w9ANqz

A seminar in Moon Dialogs Peaceful Moon Salon on “International Collaboration for Lunar Bases” was help in Zoom on Monday, March 29, 2021 3:00 PM (BST).

Trust in News Conference: The View from the Frontline Fighting Disinformation
Online event – 24th March 2021 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trustinnews

Hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent, speaking to representatives of the social media platforms about their part in turning the tide on disinformation.

Questions can be asked on Twitter or Slido.com using the hashtag #TIN21 …

• https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TIN21
• https://app.sli.do/event/pvlynit4/live/questions

Resources

BBC – Beyond Fake News Resources

• Misinformation refers to false or out-of-context information that is presented as fact regardless of an intent to deceive.
• Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is intentionally false and intended to deceive or mislead.

Project Origin – Protecting Trusted Media: involving BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, The New York Times, and Microsoft has been working to define an end-to-end process for the publishing, distribution and presentation of provenance enhanced media. This tamper proof indication can be adapted for audio, video, images and text-based digital media.

Content Authenticity Initiative: is building systems to provide provenance for digital media, giving creators tools to express objective reality and empowering consumers to evaluate whether what they are seeing is trustworthy.

EBU Publications: Report: Fast Forward: Public Service Journalism in the Viral Age.

Reuters Fact Check

AFP Fact Check

Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft… “I don’t want to be in a world where I can’t trust any sources anywhere anymore”.

Trusted News Initiative (TNI): Jessica Cecil, BBC Trusted News Initiative Director.

Trust in News Conference: The View from the Frontline Fighting Disinformation
Online event – 24th March 2021 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trustinnews

Hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent, speaking to representatives of the social media platforms about their part in turning the tide on disinformation.

• Misinformation refers to false or out-of-context information that is presented as fact regardless of an intent to deceive.
• Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is intentionally false and intended to deceive or mislead.

Firestorm 6.4.13 + P373R VR Mod: This build includes P373R’s VR Mod 6.3.3 changes merged into Firestorm 6.4.13 release branch. It is created using “GitHub Actions” (GHA) thanks to Humbletim… see
https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases/tag/v6.4.13-vr-alpha-0

The user instructions are identical to Firestorm VR Mod 6.4.12 which is described at
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2020/12/11/firestorm-vr-mod-6-4-12/

Firestorm 6.4.13 + P373R VR Mod: This build includes P373R’s VR Mod 6.3.3 changes merged into Firestorm 6.4.13 release branch. It is created using “GitHub Actions” (GHA) thanks to Humbletim… see
https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases/tag/v6.4.13-vr-alpha-0

The user instructions are identical to Firestorm VR Mod 6.4.12 which is described at
http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2020/12/11/firestorm-vr-mod-6-4-12/

Images from https://dearmoon.earth/.

Fly with Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) who aims to be the first civilian to fly around the moon on
@SpaceX and has reserved all the seats on the craft. A selection process is underway to select those who will accompany him.

This mission will head to the Moon aboard Starship and Super Heavy Rocket, the next-generation reusable launch vehicle developed by SpaceX. It is a supersized rocket and spacecraft designed for transportation of people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Step 2: Initial Screening by 21st March 2021

From this step the terms and Conditions do not allow further communication about the selection process unless approved by the dearMoon mission organisers.

The Applicant may… publicly announce … only the fact that the Applicant has applied for the Selection and the result of the Selection, but the Applicant may not disclose… the remaining process of the Selection without the prior consent of SPT (SPACETODAY INC.)….

dearMoon Resources in the Virtual World

Prototype facility for social collaboration, interaction, training and education started on the OpenSimulator-based OSGrid dearMoon region and the nearby Space City region…

• SpaceX Starship by MartianDays, Creative Commons Attribution
• Moon by AirStudios, Creative Commons Attribution

Flight to the ISS 2021

Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2021 as a preparatory mission for his Moon flight. He has asked for suggestions for 100 things to do while at the ISS on his 12 day stay. I contributed one…

From the ISS Cupola check off items you can see from a pre-prepared checklist of man made objects said to be visible to the naked eye from space.

I hope you have time to just look at the Earth from space and what better viewpoint than the ISS cupola. This “task” may make the experience more fun and provide some feedback to those on Earth as to what a space farer can actually see from large to smaller man-made objects. The check list of items could itself be something you seek to gather from your social media followers prior to your flight and provide the results afterwards. Bon voyage!

Images from https://dearmoon.earth/.

Fly with Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) who aims to be the first civilian to fly around the moon on
@SpaceX and has reserved all the seats on the craft. A selection process is underway to select those who will accompany him.

This mission will head to the Moon aboard Starship and Super Heavy Rocket, the next-generation reusable launch vehicle developed by SpaceX. It is a supersized rocket and spacecraft designed for transportation of people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Step 2: Initial Screening by 21st March 2021

From this step the terms and Conditions do not allow further communication about the selection process unless approved by the dearMoon mission organisers.

The Applicant may… publicly announce … only the fact that the Applicant has applied for the Selection and the result of the Selection, but the Applicant may not disclose… the remaining process of the Selection without the prior consent of SPT (SPACETODAY INC.)….

dearMoon Resources in the Virtual World

Prototype facility for social collaboration, interaction, training and education started on the OpenSimulator-based OSGrid dearMoon region and the nearby Space City region…

• SpaceX Starship by MartianDays, Creative Commons Attribution
• Moon by AirStudios, Creative Commons Attribution

The Future of Health – 2 March 2021 – the first event in the Edinburgh Futures Conversations series involved experts from around the world sharing their perspectives of the Covid-19 pandemic and explored how to change and reshape public health systems to transform outcomes.

https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/2MQP-3D8/edinburgh-futures-conversation
https://twitter.com/UoE_EFI #EdinburghFuturesConversations

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health organization also presented a recorded video to give his inputs to the meeting..

Closing Session

“Meeting our neighbours’ needs, meets our own needs”.
Sign the UN #VaccineEquality declaration here.

The Future of Health – 2 March 2021 – the first event in the Edinburgh Futures Conversations series involved experts from around the world sharing their perspectives of the Covid-19 pandemic and explored how to change and reshape public health systems to transform outcomes.

https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/2MQP-3D8/edinburgh-futures-conversation
https://twitter.com/UoE_EFI #EdinburghFuturesConversations

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health organization also presented a recorded video to give his inputs to the meeting..

Closing Session

“Meeting our neighbours’ needs, meets our own needs”.
Sign the UN #VaccineEquality declaration here.

Mick Imrie created a detailed Supercar 3D model in Cinema4D back in 1998-1999 and this has been used as the basis for many ports to other 3D modelling tools, game platforms, flight and space simulators and virtual worlds platforms since then. See http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/supercar-3d.html.

Mick has now begun the creation of a new Supercar model taking on board experience gained. As previously, the reference point is the puppet-scale studio model. [There also was a mid-sized model and a smaller “flight” model details of which differed from the puppet-scale model.]

Mick is positing about the new model on the EagleTransporter British SciFi web site.

Model Licence

Supercar was created by A.P. Film Studios in association with ITC (now ITC Studios). Supercar 3D Model by Mick Imrie with technical assistance from Austin Tate. Original Supercar designed by Reg Hill of A.P. Films. This is fan produced material to promote the shows of Gerry Anderson and provided for your enjoyment, and should not be used for any commercial purpose.

Mick aims to make the Supercar models available to others. Possible licences suggested by Austin are Creative Commons By Attribution Non-Commercial (or its Share-Alike variant)…

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Model Improvements

The new model accounts for some of the following inputs:

1. Availability of higher quality visual reference material published over the years and higher definition TV screen captures from the TV series. Mick has been able to use these to provide corelated reference images to better inform the modelling shapes.
2. The main hull shape has been refined using the detailed screen captures and normalising them. This led to the shape changing in ways consistent with Phil Rae’s 1990 revision of his Supercar blueprints. Wing position, nose shape and front light pod size and position also altered. Retro jet length was shortened.[Phil Rae produced a Supercar blueprint for a centrespread in Fanderson’s SIG no. 3 in Autumn 1981 and revised it in 1983 for a set of A3 Gerry Anderson vehicle blueprints. In a personal communication to Austin Tate on 18th August 1990 he offered further revisions as an amalgamation of the three studio models (Puppet scale, Bill James’s 3ft. version and the smaller “flight” model.
3. Improved accuracy of the wing slot on the fuselage.
4. Improved understanding of the colour and shininess of some parts and trim on the Supercar from improved colour reference material. E.g. the puppet-scale model hull piping is pale brass rather than chrome.
5. Improvements to the texturing of the model to allow for simpler use on other platforms.
6. Detailed research by Mick to identify original parts and instruments used in the construction of the puppet-scale model. He is documenting this material on a new web site to help other modellers. See ‘deconGA’ (deconstructing Gerry Anderson).
7. Improvements to the Supercar dashboard using screen grabs of the human hand scale dashboard. However, this dashboard often had replacement instruments and switches to accommodate the story lines and cannot be reconciled to a single consistent model.
8. Design to allow for a simpler texture based dashboard, as well as a detailed 3D modelled version to support different delivery platforms.
9. Significant reductions in polygon count for the hull, fuselage piping and other complex curved elements of the design.
10. Use of curve based modelling (NURBs) where useful but ability to export as polygons for those platforms needing this.
11. Canopy structure, size of holes in rear support improved and added small block on rear support to support the canopy top.
12. Cockpit interior details for the interior sides, front bench seat, rear seats and pipework in the rear corners was made using better reference images.
13. Compatibility with Supercar Schematics Details (PDF) where feasible.
14. An “add-on pack” for accessories such as Clear-Vu mounted gun and fairing, magnetic grabs, nose drill attachment, canopy mounted searchlight, etc. Possibly also in including the lab blast shield, Dr. Beaker’s lab console and remote console.

Initial Plans as at 18-Feb-2021

Initial Model as at 23-Feb-2021

Model and Initial Texturing as at 1-Mar-2021

Model as at 11-Mar-2021

Model as at 24-Mar-2021

Fin Remodelling as at 27-Mar-2021

Model as at 1-Apr-2021 – No Fooling

Canopy Structure

Mick has put quite a bit of work into getting the canopy structure to better reflect the Supercar puppet-scale studio model. This includes adding the small canopy top piece support block on the rear framework, and making the holes in that part more accurate.

Cockpit Interior

Details of the cockpit interior are to be improved. The front bench seat piping, trim on the top of the back (based on “Hidem Banding”) and the seat base shaping and upholstery buttons are all to be improved.

Dashboard Details and Instruments

Mick found that many of the instruments used appear to come from the cockpit of the Gloster Meteor NF12.

My own notes on the dash and the instruments that appear is in this diagram.




Supercar Dash – Work in Progress – Font Swiss921BT – 20-May-2021 – Mick Imrie

Model Complexity

The new Supercar model is designed to be less complex than the previous 1998/1999 version which had a high polygon complexity (measured in vertices and triangles). The 1998/1999 model complexity was approximately (see this blog post for initial mesh upload experiments):

The new 2021 model has complexity approximately:

Supercar Colours and Fonts

Mick Imrie made these notes back in 1999/2000 for the original 3D model…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/SC-MODEL/IMRIE/MODEL/information.txt

The font used for the Cinema 4D Supercar model was a TrueType font supplied with Corel Draw called SWISS911 XCm BT (free download). This was selected primarily on the basis of the ‘S’ shape. The logo is obviously all in capitals, the ‘S’ is 118 point size and the rest of the characters are 78 point.

On the subject of colours, Austin and I spent some time trying to get the colours as good as we could given the vagaries of colour photography. What we came up with are as follows (all given as RGB values):

Red bodywork: 255,0,0 Light blue: 204,255,255 Yellow: 255,255,0 Off-white bodywork: 254,250,230

Piping noted as likely a light brass colour on 3-Mar-2021. Perhaps “Gold Tone” Brass such as in this example [RGB: 236,236,186].

Mick Imrie created a detailed Supercar 3D model in Cinema4D back in 1998-1999 and this has been used as the basis for many ports to other 3D modelling tools, game platforms, flight and space simulators and virtual worlds platforms since then. See http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/supercar-3d.html.

Mick has now begun the creation of a new Supercar model taking on board experience gained. As previously the reference point is the puppet scale model. [There also was a mid sized model and a smaller “flight” model details of which differed from the puppet-scale model.]

Model Improvements

The new model accounts for some of the following inputs:

1. Availability of higher quality visual reference material published over the years and higher definition TV screen captures from the TV series. Mick has been able to use these to provide corelated reference images to better inform the modelling shapes.
2. The main hull shape has been refined using the detailed screen captures and normalising them. This led to the shape changing in ways consistent with Phil Rae’s 1990 revision of his Supercar blueprints. Wing position, nose shape and front light pod size and position also altered. Retro jet length was shortened.[Phil Rae produced a Supercar blueprint for a centrespread in Fanderson’s SIG no. 3 in Autumn 1981 and revised it in 1983 for a set of A3 Gerry Anderson vehicle blueprints. In a personal communication to Austin Tate on 18th August 1990 he offered further revisions as an amalgamation of the three studio models (Puppet scale, Bill James’s 3ft. version and the smaller “flight” model.
3. Improved understanding of the colour of some elements and trim on the Supercar from improved colour reference material. E.g. the puppet-scale model hull piping is pale brass rather than chrome.
4. Detailed research by Mick to identify original parts and instruments used in the construction of the puppet-scale model. He is documenting this material on a new web site to help other modellers. See ‘deconGA’ (deconstructing Gerry Anderson).
5. Improvements to the Supercar dashboard using screen grabs of the human hand scale dashboard. However, this dashboard often had replacement instruments and switches to accommodate the story lines and cannot be reconciled to a single consistent model.
6. Design to allow for a simpler texture based dashboard, as well as a detailed 3D modelled version to support different delivery platforms.
7. Significant reductions in polygon count for the hull, fuselage piping and other complex curved elements of the design.
8. Use of curve based modelling (NURBs) where useful but ability to export as polygons for those platforms needing this.
9. Refinements to the colours used and shininess of parts was made using more colour images now available.
10. Improvements to the texturing of the model to allow for simpler use in other platforms.
11. Cockpit interior details for the interior sides, seats and pipework in the rear corners was made using better reference images.
12. An “add-on pack” for accessories.

Dashboard Details and Instruments

Mick found that many of the instruments used appeared to come from the cockpit of the Gloster Meteor NF12.

Initial Model as at 23-Feb-2021

Model and Initial Texturing as at 1-Mar-2021

Model as at 11-Mar-2021

Supercar Colours and Fonts

Mick Imrie made these notes back in 1999/2000 for the original 3D model…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/SC-MODEL/IMRIE/MODEL/information.txt

The font used for the Cinema 4D Supercar model was a TrueType font supplied with Corel Draw called SWISS911 XCm BT (free download). This was selected primarily on the basis of the ‘S’ shape. The logo is obviously all in capitals, the ‘S’ is 118 point size and the rest of the characters are 78 point.

On the subject of colours, Austin and I spent some time trying to get the colours as good as we could given the vagaries of colour photography. What we came up with are as follows (all given as RGB values):

Piping noted as likely a brass colour on 3-Mar-2021.

On 18th February 2021 the NASA Perseverance Mars Rover landed on Mars..

This was my setup for watching the mission with NASA TV Live and a real time simulation of the landing in NASA Eyes…

Along with participation in the British Interplanetary Society Mars Rover Landing Party in Zoom…

The Rover is the size of a small car…

Real Time Landing Simulation

First Image from Mars

Congratulations NASA and JPL

On 18th February 2021 the NASA Perseverance Mars Rover landed on Mars..

This was my setup for watching the mission with NASA TV Live and a real time simulation of the landing in NASA Eyes…

Along with participation in the British Interplanetary Society Mars Rover Landing Party in Zoom…

The Rover is the size of a small car…

Real Time Landing Simulation

First Image from Mars

Congratulations NASA and JPL

This is a page of resources related to creating mesh models suitable for upload and use in Second Life and OpenSim.

• http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh
• http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh_background_information
• http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Exporting_a_mesh_from_Blender
• https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/import_export/collada.html
• Cleaning up your act – how a round trip through Blender can improve your mesh – Blog Post by Beq Janus, 13-May-2020.

Beq Janus Advice

Beq Janus, who improved the mesh uploader now in use in Second Life/OpenSim viewers, and hence understands the limits, offered this advice…

Collected Hints

1. Any 3D modelling software will work, as long as it can output models in COLLADA (.dae) format. Note: Second Life uses COLLADA 1.4.1. (see Second Life Wiki – Mesh Background Information
2. A “model” can have many separate “mesh” parts in it.
3. The maximum mesh asset size after compression is 8MB, roughly equivalent to a 256MB raw COLLADA file. An entire region can support up to 128MB of distinct mesh assets after compression, not including attachments.
4. A single convex hull is limited to 256 triangles.
5. Maximum number of vertices is limited to 65,536.
6. Scale limit is set to 64 meters.
7. Take care to create low polygon meshes (as few verts as possible).
8. Use no more than 8 face textures (8 materials assignments) on any mesh. These will import as “faces” in Second Life/OpenSim, which can be individually textured. You need to create a UV mapping for your model and its mesh parts which defines what part of the texture will go on which polygons of each mesh.
9. Avoid intersecting faces (unless intersections are intended).
10. Avoid duplicate vertices (unless you want to use the split modifier).
11. Avoid creating more than 21844 tris per texture face.
12. Avoid creating extremely small polygons (< 0.1 cm edge length).
13. Make sure the objects, materials, submaterials and textures in the meshes do not contain any spaces. (so not “Box 001” which will give the “Error: element is invalid”, but “Box001” or “Box_001”).
14. You can use any of the modelling tools while working on your model, but in the final form it should be saved before export as an Editable Poly.
15. Before you export your mesh, make sure that it doesn’t have any stray vertices or overlapping edges. These will either cause unexpected visual results in Second Life or worse, the mesh will fail to upload entirely.
16. For all meshes, make sure that the “Up Axis” is set to “Z-up”. If the axis isn’t set to Z-up, the mesh axis will be flipped on its side and/or rotated in Second Life/OpenSim.
17. Advice on Levels of Detail (LOD)… note the need for the bounding box to be identical in all models, and all LODs to have same number of textures. See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh_and_LOD.
18. Textures can be provided for the usual diffuse image, a normal map (Bumpiness) and for specularity (shininess). PNG and TGA formats are allowed. PNG is to be preferred. Stick to x/y dimensions that are a power of 2 as on import textures are reduced to the nearest power of 2.