Here’s the free 3D model of the Ouroboros/Galactica for DAZ Studio converted from tan.j’s Lightwave meshes (ouroboros_v2_f3d.zip). This file is in DAZ Installation Manager (DIM) format for easy installation and removal from your runtime. This DIM file does not include Smart Content metadata, you will need to look for the Battlestar in your Scenes folder in the Content Library pane.

Download from Here.

A few things to keep in mind are:

Scene Settings

This is a scene file and will be installed into your runtime’s Scenes folder. Look for her there.

I have set the Environment Mode to “Sun-Sky Only” in the render settings and I have preset the “SS Sun Node” setting to the included Sun Dial to help you move the sun around. If you would like to render the battlestar without it looking too metallic, like the renders I have posted on this blog and on Facebook, you can set the “SS Sun Node” setting to the Camera Sun that I have also included in the scene. This will set the sun to shine at a certain angle to the battlestar and not make her render too shiny.

The Environment backdrop is set to black. You can control this setting from an Environment pane. If you don’t see one on screen, go to your menu bar and click on Windows>Panes (Tabs) and find the Environment pane and add one.

I turned the headlamps off in the render settings and all the cameras’ settings included in the scene. If I had not they will mess with the space-like scene I created. You can turn scene lights on just for the viewport by hitting CTL+L and you will see the objects in the scene lit again on the viewport when viewing thru a camera with headlamps turned off, otherwise they will display as dark objects.

The Pixel Filter is set to Mitchell with a Radius value of 1. This setting is located under “Render Settings>Filtering”.

The Ground is turned off.

Under “Render Settings>Progressive Rendering>Update Intervals (sec)”. I have set the update interval value to 60 seconds.

Switching Between The Battlestars’ Name Plates

The name plates for each Battlestar’s left and right pods and middle body objects are named in the following formats:

Just hide and unhide them from the Scene pane, and don’t forget to switch the texture emblems for the correct battlestar from each end of the flight pods’ runway to match the battlestar name you have chosen. The default name is Galactica, BS 75.

Rotating the Cannons

I rigged (locked in place) the cannons to the battlestar using the transform parameters.

You can rotate the body (canopy) of a cannon 180 degrees and raise it up from the platform. I renamed the translation parameters “Y Translate” and the rotation parameters “Y Rotate” to “Raise Canopy” and “Rotate Canopy”.

The barrels can be raised up and down as much as 90 degrees. I renamed the barrels’ rotation parameters “X Rotate” to “Rotate 90 Degrees”.

Retracting and Extracting the Flight Pods

Make sure you are selecting the entire pod, they are named “gtype_left_pod_v2_main” and “gtype_right_pod_v2_main”, and use the “X Transform” parameter, which I renamed to “Retract & Extract Pod” and gave the proper minimum and maximum movement values to.

The Runtime Paths

These are the path and folders where the files will be installed in your DAZ Studio Runtime:

..\Scenes\NN\tan.j

..\Runtime\textures\NN\tan.j BSG Models\ouroboros_v2 Object

Included in this ZIP file is a DIM thumbnail so that you can copy it into your DIM’s thumbnail folder. It’s not needed to use the battlestar, it’s just for DIM.

A Quick Tip

You can recreate the promo image I rendered for this project. Set the Environment Mode to “Scene Only” and switch to Camera 8.

Final Words

Please don’t host this file anywhere else. It will really help me if you just point people back to this blog and download page and help my blog grow. It’s the only thing I ask in return.

Thanks and I hope you get lots of fun and use out of this model and the many more that I hope to convert to DAZ Studio (as time permits).

A Collection of Realistic HDRI Space Environments and Props for the Creation of Realistic Space Scenes.