I just downloaded gmax for the first time and I want to build a Norfolk and Western water tender like behind the 765. I might use the trucks from the J 611 tender. Since I'm new to gmax, I had Trainz for over 10 years, at least 4 different versions, now I'm mostly using 2010 and I also have 12, I'd like some help with this. All of the water tender projects I saw seem to be vaporware, and some creators like Paulz Trainz and wgkandsk (Bill) can build stuff for you for a fee, I was thinking on asking Bill to help me build one, in fact he has a site with Steve Lerro and they have one in the works but it was put on hold. It should be a simple project because all it is is a rectangular box with a curved top plus the detail like steps, hand rails, foot platform on roof, etc. I believe it is a little shorter than 765's tender, and a little lower. How do you attach the trucks to the main body model? Can you do it in gmax or do you have to use some other program? Can you import directly to trainz format in gmax? Also how do you attach couplers at both ends? It's a shame there's such a shortage of excursion era equipment for Trainz like water tenders. 630 has a nice water tender, too it's the same shape with a curved roof but smaller than the N&W one. Both tenders exist in MSTS but not in Trainz. Right now, I'm concentrating on the N&W one. I'm going to play around with gmax and see what happens. I have to register it yet.
N&W water tender gmax
- Thread starter rwk
- Start date
This is what I have so far. How do I make the top curved? Is there a tool to do that? How do I scale the box to the correct size for Trainz? And, how do I make the edges rounded?
I want to make it slightly shorter than 765's tender, (the 765 tender by colorado71) and slightly lower. I also want to use the J 611 3 axle trucks for it (the J originally by Ben Neal).
Any help would be appreciated. 10 years in Trainz and I never Gmaxed a single thing. I know sort of how to reskin .tga files, though as I have reskinned many things to suit my tastes.
I want to make it slightly shorter than 765's tender, (the 765 tender by colorado71) and slightly lower. I also want to use the J 611 3 axle trucks for it (the J originally by Ben Neal).
Any help would be appreciated. 10 years in Trainz and I never Gmaxed a single thing. I know sort of how to reskin .tga files, though as I have reskinned many things to suit my tastes.
This is a double post, I just replied to the same question a few moments ago. It is not good practice to double post as all your questions can be answered in the single post.
Perhaps also you might think about creating threads in Content Creation as this is a more specialised section for content creators, but please do not set up yet another thread about the same thing.
You're being sensible choosing a simple box-like model to make but there will be complications when you need to connect the bogey due to this needing an Attachment Point and they must be facing the right way to work.
You will find these under Helpers. To find these click the Create Button, this looks like a mouse pointer with a white star at the end and look along the line of new buttons that appear, these are Geometry, Shapes, Lights, Cameras and then Helpers. Click that once and choose Point and when that menu appears move down and select the Cross option. Generally the X direction of the Pointer should be pointing outwards.
Take your time with Gmax, it is NOT an easy thing to use and takes a fair time to get your head around. But once you have then things suddenly change and the Gmax world is your oyster. If you get stuck with the tender I suggest you put it to one side for a while and try house/shop building until you get more adept at Gmax and understand the program and its options better.
By 'put it to one side' I mean of course Save it to a folder and let it lie there for a while, don't delete it.
Good luck and remember, Gnax is quite a steep hill to climb but the summit is there, it just takes a while to reach it.
Angela
Perhaps also you might think about creating threads in Content Creation as this is a more specialised section for content creators, but please do not set up yet another thread about the same thing.
You're being sensible choosing a simple box-like model to make but there will be complications when you need to connect the bogey due to this needing an Attachment Point and they must be facing the right way to work.
You will find these under Helpers. To find these click the Create Button, this looks like a mouse pointer with a white star at the end and look along the line of new buttons that appear, these are Geometry, Shapes, Lights, Cameras and then Helpers. Click that once and choose Point and when that menu appears move down and select the Cross option. Generally the X direction of the Pointer should be pointing outwards.
Take your time with Gmax, it is NOT an easy thing to use and takes a fair time to get your head around. But once you have then things suddenly change and the Gmax world is your oyster. If you get stuck with the tender I suggest you put it to one side for a while and try house/shop building until you get more adept at Gmax and understand the program and its options better.
By 'put it to one side' I mean of course Save it to a folder and let it lie there for a while, don't delete it.
Good luck and remember, Gnax is quite a steep hill to climb but the summit is there, it just takes a while to reach it.
Angela
I don't really want to dissuade anyone from learning to make content for Trainz, and I know that there are many fine content creators who use GMAX; but to a person who is new to content creation, I'd highly recommend taking a look at the thread http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?98425-Level-of-Detail-how-useful-is-it in the content creation support forum, with special attention to reply number 83 by WindWalkr. Making the N&W water tender will not be quick or simple; there is a lot of complex material hiding in plain sight in the photograph you posted. To start with, I'd not start with a rectangle, but a cylinder with about 24 faces, which I'd use to get the general profile of the tank--with an arched top, and rounded lower corners. And this is such a complicated model--OK, perhaps not quite so complicated as the N&W steamers it serviced, but still, complicated all the same--that unless you have a rare capacity for perseverance, I suspect you'll get into it a ways, and give up.
My suggestion is to start out with a newer platform with the same cost, and a superior tool set, and ample tutorial material, including online ~.pdf and video forms, and printed books: Blender. Then I'd suggest acquiring a copy of John Blain's book on Blender (<http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?99658-Book-Review-John-Blain-s-Blender-2-6x-manual>), learning to use the tool, and then starting to make your tender. I expect that you'll finish the tender in about the same time as you would by just barreling into it, and have better command of the toolset in the bargain. Of course, I'll admit that there's not good reason that you couldn't do the same thing with GMAX, with the differences that the newest books I've seen on using GMAX are 10 years older than the newest books I've seen on Blender (GMAX: 2003; Blender, 2013); a search using my favorite search engine using the parameter "GMAX pdf tutorial" gives 40,000 or so hits, while a search using the same tutorial using the parameter "Blender pdf tutorial" gives more than 1.2 million, and a similar set of searches for video tutorials yields about 38,000 for GMAX, and 2.5 million for Blender.
And by the way, unlike GMAX, you don't need to register Blender--it's open source.
ns
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steamboateng
New member
GMax is a much older program and no longer supported or updated by anyone. If your a novice to graphic arts, I recommend Blender; it's free, supported, and updated regularly. It's also a thoroughly complete program which includes UV mapping and animation.
deadpoolmx55
LETS GO PENS!
the K&L N&W water tender WILL be released! ill bug Steve about it
No, GMAX is most certainly not open-source. While it is true that an online search for "GMAX Source Code" turns up a number of hits, none of these hits is actually for real source code; rather each one I saw was for GMAX files for sets of GMAX for particular objects, such as aircraft models and such. But in fact, these are not source code at all. Source code is the code used to program the GMAX program itself, and if one could gain access to the source code, one could modify the program to accomplish things that the program will not now do. But GMAX source code is not available, and GMAX is emphatically not open source, at least not up til now.
This is made explicitly clear by this thread from the Turbosquid website, <http://www.turbosquid.com/Forum/Index.cfm/stgAct/PostList/intThreadID/8525> cited by WindWalkr in reply 118 in the "Level of Detail how useful is it?" thread I referenced earlier.
ns