Semi OT: Spaceship Cockpits?

[Jack Simth]

They use artifical gravity, and most transportation between distant locales is done by the mysterious turbolift - what makes you think those windows are at odd angles to the rooms on the other side?

[geoschmo]

Maybe those were the quarters for the crewmembers from low and zero gravity planets. I could imagine they might have portals that are like the windows on glass bottom boats. You can't walk on them, but they'd have a railing that you could stand around and look down and out of the ship.

Voyager had an episode once that partly revolved around one crewmember that worked in the bowels of the ship. He was a real low-abition type guy that prefered to stay with his current duties because he had a nice view. It was one of those down facing windows. It wasn't really on the floor though. It was kind of at a steep down angle at the base of the wall where you could look out it as you walked by.

[Jack Simth]

Silly photoshopper - the entier enterprise is in very good focus at (what, about a 30 degree angle?) but the stuff beneath it along the entire length of the thing is in poor focus? Real cameras taking pictures of real things don't do that.

[ June 01, 2004, 20:33: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Deth B0y]

The issue with cockpits/windows in space ships is typically tied up in our conception that windows and cockpits represent weak points - ie, that the substance used for them is weaker then the rest of the hull.

If that limitation could be overcame (and the problems, of course, of joining the sections together) then there's no reason not to make the entire ship transparent (such was the case with a book by, i believe, larry niven - the entire ship was one continuous peice, that was totally transparent; you just painted over the parts you didnt' want to be clear).

Of potential interest is that having a visual reference point out at several locations would be very useful for a number of things; murphy's law states that if you have the most expensive and powerful computer and sensor suite in the galaxy, it'll get knocked out in the first 5 minutes and your crew will have to sight-fire the gazers.

just a thought,
deth

[PvK]

Originally posted by Jack Simth:
They use artifical gravity, and most transportation between distant locales is done by the mysterious turbolift - what makes you think those windows are at odd angles to the rooms on the other side?

Blueprints of the TOS ships. I think there are TNG blueprints, and even a game or two that let you walk around inside the ships based on (hopefully the same) blueprints (q.v. Star Trek TNG: Interactive Technical Manual). But I've never looked at TNG blueprints... having been so off-put by the whole TNG thing.

Let's see... quick web scan... came up dry.

PvK

[geoschmo]

Reasons for windows aside, I see very few pictures that have any extensive cockpit-style windows. Only the Urkatal among the stock sets have what even looks anything like that to me. Some have nothing that could even be obviously picked as a window at all. Most have some tiny things that perhaps are portals, but it's difficult to say for sure at the scale which I assume these pictures to represent. Which shipsets are you using?

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

Gotta have something to navigate by when all those sensors/scanners fail.

I sure like the season final of Enterprise. Those aquatic aliens had windows in their ships and the lizard Xindi bLasted the ship and all the water was being sucked out. So I guess those Aquatic Xindi ships are nothing more than mobile aquariums.

[Taera]

Well, im using my own shipset. Here are two links to ships to represent my ideas:

http://tlogicempire.tripod.com/temp/...tlecruiser.gif

and

http://tlogicempire.tripod.com/races...battleship.gif

I'm now in process of sketching a redesign for the blue ships and planning one for the red ones, and i got curious whether should i put those little window thingies or not.

EDIT: EvilGenius, go read the desctiption to SE's Sergetti

[ June 02, 2004, 04:56: Message edited by: Taera ]

[primitive]

Your links are dead (or more precisely wounded by Tripod ). Think you’re over your bandwidth limit.

As for windows in spaceships:
Glass and other transparent materials weight a whole lot more than other potential hull materials, so keeping the amount down to the absolute minimum would be the economical way to do it.

Windows are not really necessary anymore either. Put a camera outside and hang a flat screen TV on the wall. Lighter, cheaper and you can watch something else besides empty space once in a while.
And its safe enough. When cameras and TV screens stop working in a spaceship, you will be long dead anyway

[Baron Munchausen]

Or: Get a filter like Proxomitron that hides your referer. Then nosey sites like Tripod can't interfere with your browsing.