The purpose of this post is to help those builders (and or outside software, i.e. blender, maya, cinema4d) on tips and strategies for building a boat in Roblox.
Now for those who do not know me, I am Inyo22, main builder for VVG’s “Roblox Titanic”. I built one of best representations of the ship in Roblox as pictured here
(The WIP replacement 2.0 ship pictured here)
Now the Titanic is not the only ship I have made, in Roblox I have made many varieties of ships, ranging from Battleships to simple rowing boats.
Now when it comes to building a maritime vessel in Roblox I recommend you must answer these few questions first.
- Type/Size of the vessel
- Main Purpose (Functional controllable object, or a static background object, or a physical playfield)
Now, type and size of the vessel matters depending on the amount of effort you want to put into building a presentable ship. (This is null if it is a static background object not meant to be seen up close).
The main purpose is arguably the most important aspect of your ship. This also affects the load of work effort to go into a boat or ship. If it is a static background object from a reasonably far distance, detail can be low and light while the general outline and lines of the vessel will suffice.
If it is a physical (non-moving) playfield, detail can be high or low (depending on your preference) but more effort must be done into its construction to have a presentable map.
Now onto the big one, a controllable (or a.i controlled) moving object that can double as a playfield. This is where it gets tricky, for you must be mindful of detailing and part count (or tris count if you use outside software) to have a smooth functioning asset. Too high the detail, game performance is rubbish, too low of detail it becomes somewhat disinteresting to players.
Now with this in mind, begin doing research on the vessel you wish to model. Plans here are very important and recommended plans which will be of great help will be the following.
- Line Plans
- Deck Plans
- Framing Plan (Not Needed, unless you want to mentally torture yourself)
Now, what is a line plan? well in short: a line plan shows the curvature of a boat or ships hull onto a 2d dimension plan, these are the most useful in constructing the basic shape of the vessel (Example)
How to read a line plan is rather simple, there are numbered ‘ticks’ showing where each transverse (front on) frame went (Station view). Then there is the profile and plan view which shows were stringers (longitudinal frames) went along the ship. In general you only really need the transverse frames shapes and positions. The stringers only come into hand depending on the hull style of the vessel you are making.
With the appropriate plans acquired you can now start construction on your ship in Roblox (or blender).
In the case of modeling the vessel in Roblox, a crucial plugin I recommend is a fixed version of Stravants gapfill, and resize align is a bonus.
With your line plan in place in Roblox, set up a series of cubed dimensioned parts (1x1x1, or .2x.2x.2, depending on how thick you want your baby back ribs) to outline the basic shape of a “rib” frame of the ship. Use the aforementioned plugin to connect the dots to make your frames. (Make sure to remove the placement cubed parts, they are not needed after this point)
After this with the ribs in place, connect them again with gapfill, or if you’re a glutton for punishment, manually apply a “skin” over these ribs using a triangle plugin. With the ships hull applied with gap fill you can remove the ribs to save part count. The same applies to the triangle plugin (if the hull skin is applied outside the ribs and not from edge to edge)
Now for making a boat in blender, or maya etc, that is a can of worms for another discussion. For now I hope this long winded speech of mine will help you aspiring ship builders of Roblox to have a better understanding of making a boat for Roblox.