3D and the Lack Thereof

It always annoyed me that LCARS 47 didn't have 3D elements in there. There were a few tiny 3D elements, but they were done on the fly and let's face it, they're pretty crude. Other bits just 'look' 3D through perspective trickery.

Well, all that's about to change. I just learned 3DS Max... This image will become part of a "Molecular Analysis" animation for the medical systems. Click the image to the right to see an animated GIF version. It's basic, but it's 3D. So far, my skills are limited, but I'm told I have a warped mind, so I should be able to pick it up fairly fast.

Thankfully there are a ton of 3DS starships out there on the Internet already meshed up thanks to the generous contributors of places like Scifi-Meshes and so on, so I guess there's no knowing how far we could take this.

Cardassian Alphabet - Part 1

 

This is the first of a two part post about the Cardassian alphabet we have come up with here at LCARS 47. It is, to say the least, a bit complicated to explain, but I will try my best to keep it concise and understandable. So here goes...

In analyzing the the Cardassian text in Star Trek, I noticed several things of interest:

• There are a lot of rectangular letters...
• Some of the rectangular letters have one, two or three rectangles cut out of the top of them.
• One or two dots occur in texts frequently between the main rectangular letters.
• Text can run horizontally or vertically, left-to-right or right-to-left

All of this indicated that something a little more intricate than a simple alphabet was going on. I decided to look to Star Trek for examples of Cardassian words, names, and phrases to give me a clue about what kind of sounds a written language should be representing. There were very few actual Cardassian words to go on, but there was a large number of names of things, such as people, planets, ships, etc.. This gave me the clue that the phonology of Cardassian was as complex, of not more so than English.  

At this point I looked to inspiration in the other languages of the world, and noted with interest the Caucasian languages of South West Russia and the Caucasus Mountains. These languages (in particular the Northwest Caucasian languages) have very few vowels (usually just "ah" and "uh"), but very intricate consonant systems: the consonants have secondary articulations such as palatalization (pronouncing a consonant simultaneously with a "y" sound), labialization (rounding the lips simultaneously to give a "w" sound), and pharyngealization (a tightening in the throat). These secondary articulations affect the two basic vowel sounds to give the languages more actual vowel sounds than there appears to be at first glance.

Taking all this into account, I decided that Cardassian phonology should be based on the Caucasian languages. Based on all of this data, I can break down the Cardassian alphabet as follows:

• There are 37  basic consonants, many more than English.
• Cardassians has a three-way distinction between stops consonants and affricates: voiceless & voiced (like in English) and ejective (pronounced with a glottal stop;  the sound in-between the "uh" and "oh" in "uh-oh").
• There are only 3 base vowels: a schwa or "uh", which is unwritten; "a", written with one dot; and "ah", written with two dots.
• Most of the consonants can have secondary articulations: palatalization, indicated with one rectangle in the upper corner of a letter; labialization, indicated with two rectangles; and pharyngealization, indicated with three rectangles. 
• The secondary consonant articulations effect the pronunciation of the base vowels: after palatals, "uh" becomes "i", "a" becomes "e" and "ah" becomes "ae"; after labials, "uh" becomes "u", "a" becomes "o" and "ah" becomes "oh".
• Pharyngealized consonants don't affect the pronunciation of the basic vowels too significantly, but they do give the syllable a slightly creaky sound.
• The semi vowel consonants, "y" and "w" affect the vowels the same way the secondary articulations do.
• At the end of a syllable, "y" and "w" lengthen and alter the preceding vowel.

In part two, I will discuss writing direction, paragraphs & punctuation, and anything else I've left out of here, because this is beginning to turn into a novel!

For Cardassia!

403 Bandwidth Exceeded

Okay guys this is becoming a major problem for LCARS 47. Users are reporting issues when viewing image on LCARS47.com and our Facebook page. The error message is because it's maxing out our image hosting bandwidth (currently Google).

I know that those of you that are reading this are not responsible; it's the bots that crawl through our pages in search of stealing wallpapers and hotlinking. Either way, it's killing our bandwidth and subsequently affecting the quality of LCARS 47. Please accept our apologies while we rectify this issue.

MSD Cutaway Development Videos

If you're with us on Facebook, the chances are, you've already seen these videos. If not, we've uploaded them to YouTube.

Computer Breakdown and Possible Delays

Hi guys. Got some bad news. Today, after installing updates for Windows, my computer refused to let me log in. Instead, it decided that rebooting after a Blue Screen was better than working...

I found the problem (eventually), it was the remnants of an old camera driver that was not compatible with Windows Vista after I used Windows Update. So every time Windows starts, loads drivers, it Blue Screens. After spending hours sifting through the System 32 directory and manually deleting driver files to no avail, I decided to reinstall, but not before tricking Vista to let me in via Safe Mode to copy the project files over to a new hard drive.

Anyways, the good news is, I now have all the project files stored in a protected backup and once I relink all the hierarchical references in the project files, we should be back up and running. Delays are however, expected. On another note, I did manage to locate my old camera (the perpetrator) and smash it to bits—which made me feel good.

Shuttlecraft Systems and Image Library

I thought I'd add some pictures of the shuttles I've been working on. These were made primarily as a resource for a what-if scenario should images of shuttles be needed. I figure they'd look nice in a database somewhere.

I'm also gonna use the images as part of a shuttlecraft compliment directory, where you can launch various shuttles and so on (although that aspect is still in the preliminary stages).

I'll probably add Danube class Runabouts to the compliment of larger class ships such as the Galaxy and Nebula, as well as add the Flyer to the Intrepid. There's still a few more to do, but they don't take long to draw so there should be all of the shuttlecrafts ready in some form, even if it is just a database module.

One of the main problems, however is scaling, but I'll leave that for another post.

Drydock II

As you might have guessed, for the new custom cutaway MSDs to work, you'll need to install them via Drydock. This means we're gonna be updating Drydock completely in successive releases hence the current blog poll. We figured we'd release each starship class in order of popularity (starting with the Sovereign class).

The new Drydock plugins will be installed just like the old ones, but will contain the new MSDs as well as some completely new interactive diagrams—landing struts, saucer separation, that sort of thing.

The image to the left shows the cutaways so far (the Intrepid class landing pad animation is incomplete and the Defiant class is just a quick doodle so far, to get the basic scaling right). The Akira class will be harder, since there are no canon diagrams to work from, so I hope you'll forgive the artistic license that will be used. As for the Prometheus, it's had a slight redesign of the shuttlebay to make it structurally sound during the MVAM animation (big thanks to Greg Mortensen for the input there).

At this stage, I'm still taking suggestions of what to include in the cutaways, so as always, let me know if you have any ideas.

In related news, there will also be a separate Drydock plugin for use with Anticuus that will have all the features of Drydock II but with older ships like the Excelsior, Constitution Refit, Miranda, et cetera.

Please State the Nature of the Medical Emergency

I've started work on the Sickbay/Medical systems and monitors today. The whole module will feature a few animations based on those seen throughout Star Trek. Some modules will also contain custom files like the Roster database where you can add custom medical reports and such.

There's also a microscope feed monitor where you can hook up your webcam (like the Security Monitor Feed) or even a real USB microscope if the webcam option is not enough for you.

I'll probably include a medical catalogue database as well, which will contain various data file on common illnesses such as the Vidian Phage (Voyager: "The Phage", "Faces"), Anchilles Fever (TNG: "Code of Honor"), Levodian Flu (Voyager: "Tattoo"), and so on.

I'll also be adding a 'lifesigns monitor' and a few static images for good measure.

The Written Klingon Issue

A lot Klingons the world over have pointed out to us that the Klingon text in HaSta 'elqarIS is not the Klingon Language Institute's pIqaD, or alphabet, but is instead the "Skybox pIqaD", an alphabet used on Fleer/Skybox Star Trek trading cards in the early 1990s.  The Skybox pIqaD uses the "Okuda Ten", a subset of ten Klingon Glyphs which form the bulk of all Klingon text seen on screen.

It was pointed out that this usage was wrong, and that the KLI pIqaD should be used instead; in part because the Klingon speaking community has adopted KLI pIqaD as it's "Klingon writing system" of choice, because it is easy to read, fairly simple to write, and has a one to one sound to grapheme correspondence.

While we appreciate this view, we are sticking with the decision to continue using Skybox pIqaD (for want of a better name), for several reasons:

• The "Okuda ten" are canon, in as far as the vast majority of all Klingon text seen on screen actually only contains those ten letters.
• Conversely, on an on screen basis, the KLI pIqaD is categorically not canon, containing letters that seem made up.
• Although on screen Klingon text was just random letters, a way was found to make those random letters say something (at least on those trading cards), which became the basis for the written Klingon script today.
• The upcoming release of the book "Federation, the First 150 Years", uses the Skypox pIqaD in it's artwork to write a Klingon document, showing that we're not the only one's using this alphabet.
• Early Arabic and the Younger Futhark Viking runic alphabet were fairly ambiguous in writing their respective languages (insomuch as having far more sounds than actual letters in thier alphabet, like Klingon).
• Scotty said "Damage control is easy, reading Klingon... that's hard!"  Go figure...

I hope that this clears up our stance on the Klingon script, and why we are going with the more canon option. We would ask our users to remember, this is just a novelty, a bit of fun.

So remember, Qapla'!

Project HaSta Dev Screenshots

Because we can't have an idea and not work on it. After watching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, I started drawing up some initial animations.

These images are taken from some sort of 'sensors' program. I don't know what they do, really, I just kinda' drew them up based on General Chang's viewscreen and tried to make them look right.

All of the buttons and the database texts in HaSta are in actual written Klingon, something which was important to us from the start, since we believe that adding real Klingon text (rather than random Klingon letters) would make the project really stand out. We know that most of the users might not speak tlhIngan Hol, so it'll be arranged in an easy-to-remember format. Failing that, we suggest you get yourselves a Klingon dictionary.

If you want to see a preliminary Flash version, click here and let me know what you think.

When we release the next update to LCARS 47, we'll include a beta version of Project HaSta, and Project Perfection, the Borg computer app.

Project HaSta 'elqarIS Announcement

For all our Klingon users, we're pleased to announce yet another app development. This time, you've guessed it, a full Klingon computer with real written Klingon (no English).

I've been toying with the idea for a while now (during the early development of Anticuus), and now I've been able to lay down some foundations, I'm happy enough with it to reveal it to you. Development starts in September and should be up for an early beta release around November

Qapla'