A world without humans?

A

Approach_Medium

Trainz Addict
Hi;
Everyone knows that one of TS12's weakest features is animated people. Sure, you can have people standing on stations, and disappearing into or appearing out of trains (without having walked in or out!), but I'm talking about real people walking and talking like real people. Why does it seem that every simulation - I have played most versions of Trainz, and seen YouTube videos of sims like "No Limits 2", a coaster/theme park sim - and the one thing that is always missing is the crowd!!
With the obvious exception of SIMS and other simulators geared mainly towards people themselves, we seem to be playing in a world barren of the people who have created and make use of those creations!

I hope that TANE has lots of animated people. If not, I guess it's time for me to start coding my own...

CP
 
It takes a lot of time, and resources to place people. I agree, there should be people on the side walks of towns, even if just standing there. But I tried to populate a town and it got very tedious.
 
JIb228 said:
It takes a lot of time, and resources to place people. I agree, there should be people on the side walks of towns, even if just standing there. But I tried to populate a town and it got very tedious.
Click to expand...

Maybe what we need is a "people generator", which could - using built-in code - create people quickly and efficiently. But given what I have seen in other sims, I think you have answered my question.

CP
 
Assets Exist to add people. Look Into Neoklai's Animated People. I don't believe they're available on the DLS, but only from his site. I just got done add a ton of these around a specific area of a route I'm working on, as an experiment to see how many I'd have to add to make a platform look populated.

Also, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZIt0LCoI94&list=UUh_cAWhvu3VvvQFZ7r2FLVw
I think it was Steve that did that. He doesn't build routes, just scenes, but wow did that turn out fantastic with all those people. Most of which were Neoklai's I believe, though theres also some Western People as well.

Food for thought,
Falcus
 
Scottish also made some nice "people on a stick" for us, actually my idea that he ran with. These are clumps and queues of folks, the same ones we have on the station platforms actually, that you can place on sidewalks in front of stores on Main Street, or anywhere actually.
 
Approach_Medium said:
Maybe what we need is a "people generator", which could - using built-in code - create people quickly and efficiently.
CP
Click to expand...

Great idea. Speedpeople. It would take the load of us lesser creators who find that people and animals are some of the hardest, most time-consuming things to do.

And Steve's videos are excellent. He's made great use of Nikolai's people and I love the voice-over, the old newsreel production style and way the camera shakes as a train goes past (I've never seen that before, is it a TS12 feature?). A great advert for Trainz actually.


.
 
Last edited:
BuilderBob said:
It's been tried (sort of). Check out any kuid in the range <KUID:70791:35501> to <KUID:70791:35875>.
Click to expand...

These work okay and I've used those to busy up a shopping centre on one of my routes. I had people waiting for the trams, buses, and moving between cars and shops.

These work too and there are variants.

<KUID:359841:101552> People Variable Group SVG20 - 20 Figures

These are the "people on a stick" I mentioned above by Scottish.

John
 
Approach_Medium said:
Can any of these people objects be coded? That would help a lot in creating the scenario one wants.

CP
Click to expand...

Do you mean animated?? If so, then no. They're just crowds. The people by Scottish are the same as those found on the platforms, so if you change eras or regions, they will change as well.

John
 
JCitron said:
Do you mean animated?? If so, then no. They're just crowds. The people by Scottish are the same as those found on the platforms, so if you change eras or regions, they will change as well.

John
Click to expand...

I was thinking code - like tranizscript, that would be put into a .gs file. which would cause the people to animate when triggered, such as a train approaching, or even doing specific things, like taking a photo when the train is at a specific point.
For stations, I would love to be able to script the people to get into and out of the trains when they stop - not just popping in or out as some do now.

CP
 
Approach_Medium said:
I was thinking code - like tranizscript, that would be put into a .gs file. which would cause the people to animate when triggered, such as a train approaching, or even doing specific things, like taking a photo when the train is at a specific point.
For stations, I would love to be able to script the people to get into and out of the trains when they stop - not just popping in or out as some do now.

CP
Click to expand...

I was wondering actually if this was what you wanted. I wondering how difficult it is to do right now, but who knows what T:ANE will surprise us with, especially with the 64-bit code which brings with it a lot more resources for the program to operate on.
 
Yea, at this point I feel it pertinent to point out that, being a 32 Bit program (Pauses for the Crowd's Groan), The VAST majority of the sim has been specifically aimed at Train Simulation, not World Simulation. Hence Products just appear, or at best appear in a puff of smoke, on or off a rail car (At least we can Load products!), and People constitute "Scenary", not the real life Hazard and Concern that they are.

So what its boiled down to is that, with a budget of a maximum of 4Gigs of Ram, Id rather have 2048x2048 Textured Locos with Alpha Channels and Specular Lighting so I can take Amazing Screen shots of them in all conditions, rather then seeing my passengers "Walk on & off" the carriages 5 Cars back under a very narrow set of circumstances.... Oh and give me incredible Rail Cars to look at while you're at it, and some trees that don't look flat or like chicken feet, and throw in some convincing buildings too....

Add into this that if it were up to Auran, we wouldn't even have decent looking Vehicles on the roads (Have you seen their 64bit cars recently? Talk about out of place when sat next to a Modern JR product!), and People keep getting further and further down the list..... I don't even know that they "People" made it on to N3V's Master To-Do List for T:ANE (Though I can hope, and I have to think they will get at least a little attention, particularly after Neoklai's stuff came out).

Atm for TS12, you're better off looking at Animating people as static objects, much the same as Neoklai has done. Accomplish that, and then you can look at creating a station asset with the, what I have to assume would be, incredibly complex scripting it would take to get people to "Walk on or off" their coach. One of the things I will say N3V/Auran has done really well, is when a Creator does good work, extend a hand to them to work with them and include their efforts in the next generation of games *Cough Pofig cough* amongst others (Note, this kind of attention isn't always wanted for various reasons, not the least of which is N3V/Auran's "Umbrella Copyright" policies). The scripting has existed since TRS'04 (Or earlier) for "Load Points" on Wagons/Coaches, the sticking point for making animated station people I would have to believe includes the resources taken to randomly generate 20 people and have them walk on or off the train, and then have them reappear on the coach, or disappear off the end of the platform.... Hope you're the first to make a working Asset, and I'll be the first in line to DL it, after that its all greek to me (Scripting and Coding), so whatever happens happens.

After that, we're all waiting to see what T:ANE presents us with,
Good Luck,
Falcus
 
You have a very good point. No sense in getting stuck with TS12 when we're so close to T-ANE (btw; that's a lame name for the new game. I hope they can come up with something cute). I agree wholeheartedly with you on the point of TS12 being a train sim, not a world sim. If I wanted world sim I would be playing Sim City. The thought of having animated people came to me while watching some YouTube vids of another sim - No Limits 2 coaster sim. It was strange to see those trains going by with empty seats, and no one even standing on the boarding platforms. But that game probably has what TS12 has in regards to people. It's just that the creators of the vids weren't interested in placing them.

Honestly, sometimes when I'm building a route, I just ignore the humans, and work with the trains. It's just nice to see people sometimes. Maybe animation isn't so important either - but Neoklai has done a great job.
Now all I have to do is learn some Russian so I can download them - the webpage has apparently changed since the tutorial has been written, so the screen shots of the website doesn't match. I might just ask my dad - who speaks Russian (along with lots of other languages) fluently to translate the website for me.

CP
 
The surprise for me is that no-one really followed up Neoklai's very effective implementation of animated people in Trainz by extending the range or reskinning and adding to what he created. Perhaps it's because we're more interested in trains?

Paul
 
I have been giving a hand to pware and elstoko in their work to develop a route with mobile safeworking staff operating junction and signal levers, particularly in yards.

In the current version - see here: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...O)-Rule-with-demonstration-route-and-sessions - the safeworking personnel simply 'glide' along an invisible track. When they come close to safeworking equipment - point and signal levers - a small control panel enables them to operate it. Work is currently proceeding on control of electric train staff equipment for block control.

A 'giant leap forward' would be to have animated figures who can actually interact with the equipment. They would need to be programmable.

This is a good example of 'people' being directly involved in operating trains.

You might find it interesting. :)
 
How often do the animated people look like anything but cubism zombies, awful in appearance? Most of the time. Nice to have a crowd at the station, but I'd rather have none than Mr. Blockheads stumbling about. They just look so bad.
 
Have you ever seen the "Walker Lead Pedestrian" and his pal "Walker Pedestrian" ... They are a total gas !

I lost track of them onetime, and later found them derailed, laying on their sides, with arms and legs flailing about :hehe:
 
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