Hull

These settings control the main body of the spaceship, such as the number of hull sections, number of subdivisions, transformations and other shape altering properties like extrusion bumps.

Figure 1

These are the Hull properties and what they do:

Hull Sections

These determines how many numbers of hull sections the ship has by extrusion.

Figure 1

Tolerance

Normal threshold which determines if the faces needed to extrude the hull can include faces in the x and z axis.

Figure 2

Generally left to default values but exposed if you want some weird shapes.

Auto Smooth

Auto smooth angle for the mesh if using Limit Smooth: None and Shading: Angle in the Plating section.

Figure 3

Triangulation

Angle threshold by which to triangulate faces. This is used to make certain faces look angular or alter its shading.

Figure 4

Quadify

Angle threshold by which to quadify faces. This activates after triangulation. Triangulation is used in the mesh to basically to make most of its structure look angular then quadification is used to quadify the mostly flat faces that does not need the triangulation effect.

Figure 5

The Auto Smooth, Triangulate and Quadify properties can affect the ships topology as well as its shading.

Origin Mode

This comes with two options: Dynamic and Static and determines the way the hull is extruded to form its sections.

When using Dynamic, the hull sections will be extruded randomly in the front or back of the ship.

Figure 6

When using Static, the hull sections will be extruded only towards the front or the -y axis direction unless inverted.

Figure 7

Hull Length

The total length of the hull section. The resulting hull length will be randomized between the values of the mix and max properties.

Figur 8

Edge Cuts

This involves two properties which are the Count and Seed. This generates lateral edgecuts in random hull sections with the amount controlled by the Count property. The Seed property is used to randomize which of the hull sections these edge cuts are generated.

Figure 9

Generating more faces this way creates more shape variety when using plating details or wing extrusions.

Base Move

Moves the mesh in the local x, y and z axis.

Figure 10

Base Scale

Scales the mesh in the local x, y and z axis.

Figure 11

Base Rotation

Rotates the mesh in the global x, y and z axis.

Figure 12

The Base Rotation property rotates the mesh in global space meaning all proceeding detail will also rotate with it which is useful for aligning the ship to other objects in the scene.

Bevel Offset

The bevel properties are the primary control for the overall shape of the hull sections where all the other shape affecting properties follow.

Figure 13

They ensure that shapes generated from other settings create more variety compared to just being extruded from a simple cylinder.

Bevel Segment

The number of segments when beveling the hull sections.

Figure 14

Bevel Profile

This is made to generate the star shape profile when facing the front of the ship which of course you can modify like a normal bevel profile resulting to other shapes.

Figure 15

The bevel properties are key to generating the shape of the ship and when viewed from the front will give you an idea on how some details can be accidentally generated and made to look convincing.

Figure 16

Section Scale

The scale of the extruded hull section face. This is randomized between the values of the min and max properties.

Figure 17

Section Interval

The number of hull section count before the Section Scale property can take effect. For example, if you have 3 section intervals, this means scaling will only occur in every third hull section.

Figure 18

In Figure 18, you can see the ship has a total hull section of 8 so when the scale interval reached this number all of them have the same scale because the scaling only started at the 8th hull section.

Uniform Scale

Percentage for which uniform scaling can happen on a hull section. By default, the section scaling creates a random value for the x and z axis.

Figure 19

This property ensures that a particular hull section will have a single value used for scaling in the x and z axis making it look more cylindrical.

Bump Mode

This determines which elements are used for the bump effect. This bump is another shape altering property like the bevel properties.

Figure 20

There three options which decides what element you want to bump or offset: Edge, Face or Both.

Bump Limit

This controls what part of the mesh will be bumped or offset.

None means all edges or faces can be used for bumping. Adjacent means an edge or a face can only be bumbed if it is one edge or one face away from a bumbed edge or face.

Figure 21

Figure 21 is an extreme example but clearly demonstrates the difference between the two limits.

Bump

This contains the properties: Count and Seed. Count determines the number of edges or faces to be bumped and Seed randomizes which of them in the mesh will get offsetted.

FIgure 22

Bump Offset

This determines the strength of the bump or offset. This is randomized between the values of the min and max properties.

Figure 23

Offset Seed

Random seed control for the bump offset property.

Figure 24

Subdivision

This contains two properties: Level and Smooth. Level is the amount of subdivision for the mesh and Smooth is the amount of subdivision smoothing.

Figure 25

The smoothing here is different from the Hull Smooth property as this is connected to the subdivision operation and smooths its result. This is exposed only for more shape variation possibility.

Hull Smooth

This represents the true smoothing property for the mesh and smooths all the vertices subdivided or not.

Figure 26

Post Subd

The level of subdivision for the subdivision modifier added to the mesh. This modifier will be intact in the modifier stack of the resulting starship mesh.

Figure 27

Triangulate

The percentage of faces to be triangulated. This is generated after the Auto Smooth, Triangulation and Quadify properties above to influence the pattern created by the plating details.

Figure 28

Hull Seed

This is the random seed control for all the hull properties above and randomizes their result if possible.

Figure 29

You can consider the hull seed property as the master control for the rest of the section seeds as changes in the hull will greatly affect the rest of the sections below it.