Big Bertha Build - Main Body Texture - 1st Version

[pcas1986]

The last week or so I have been playing with materials and textures to give Big Bertha a decent coat of paint. My aim is to use the tbumpenv material type to allow some bump mapping and environmental reflection. This is rather like a low sheen reflection rather than a full gloss finish. Its also the same finish as used by N3V's Duchess that I am using as a reference. AFAIK Big Bertha's paint scheme has always been plain black. As I have no colour photos it's rather difficult to tell if she ever had the odd red stripe trim frequently used by BR locos. When I get around to releasing the 58100 BR numbered version, that paint scheme will include the stripes. The version below is the original Midland Railway number of 2290 and has no detail at all except the brassy finish for the sandbox covers and the copper tubes of the Silvertown Lubricators. The sandbox covers probably were not polished brass but I felt it needed something to brighten it up.

The specular settings are still not right as it gives off rather more of a reflection in sunny conditions than I would prefer.

I intend to give the main loco a break for a while and go build the tender. After that I'll start on the cab interior.

 

[captainkman]

Awesome! I think that you should try to get the texture the same as the wheels, then it will be great!

And here's a link to the MSTS version, so you can see the lining.
http://members.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info.php?form_fileid=23957

 

[pcas1986]

The wheel texture has reddish bits in it so it might look a little odd. But I can do a rusty BR version. Curiously, the wheel texture came directly from a photo I took of a loco at the NRM in York. However, I wasn't particularly happy with the textured result - perhaps it is a resolution problem or even reflections from an adjacent loco.

The MSTS version has a reverser rod located on the right hand side that I haven't implemented - yet! I was wondering what the dotted line in the drawing represented.

 

[captainkman]

Can I ask, will you be doing a Works Grey version too? Or can I just reskin it into that? I have a plan to use it in a video!

 

[pcas1986]

No, I wasn't planning on a works grey version and you are welcome to reskin when it is released. I was planning on an LMS and a BR version both in black. If I still have sufficient interest in the project I will make a LMS/MR version in a crimson lake finish. Don't think it ever sported those colours but I think it would look nice.

I will need to remap the texture in order to facilitate reskinning but I wasn't very happy with the current version anyway.

While building the tender I've run into an interesting situation regarding the cab interior. I might ask a question in the Content Creation forum if I cannot find another loco in Trainz with the same issue.

ps - the release date is a long way off yet!

 

[captainkman]

Alright, thanks. Can I reskin it before it's released? :hehe:

And if you want a tender to stand in before you release the model, to test its looks, there is a G2 'Super D' tender on the DLS with a cab on the front, like Big Bertha's tender. I'd like to see a picture of the model with the G2 tender, until you build a matching tender for Bertha. I'm curious as to how it looks.

And I prefer my locos fried, not baked. But we'll let the community decide that. Let the voting begin!

Note to other readers: Apparently sometimes Gimmie-Pigging pays off, if done in the correct manner.

Kman.

P.S. I'll do some screenshots of the MSTS version, showing more detail than that picture can show. Unfortunately, there is no custom cab on the MSTS version.

 

[Edweird]

If you don't mind me shoe-horning my way into a blog for a loco that appears to be this far done, I would like to say that it looks spectacular. I've seen pictures, paintings and a couple of video footage shorts of this one-of-a-kind locomotive and you have done a sterling job at recreating it. The valve-gear in particular looks splendid. I look forward to watching your progress.

 

[pcas1986]

If you don't mind me shoe-horning my way into a blog for a loco that appears to be this far done, I would like to say that it looks spectacular. I've seen pictures, paintings and a couple of video footage shorts of this one-of-a-kind locomotive and you have done a sterling job at recreating it. The valve-gear in particular looks splendid. I look forward to watching your progress.

Thank you.

It's actually a long way from completion and one of my objects for this blog was to demonstrate how long it takes to build one of these locos. The mesh creation is one of the easiest parts of the project although time consuming. For example, I had no ready made wheel for the tender so I had to build one from scratch. That took a few hours because I hadn't made one before. Paul Hobbs' library had a wheel that was a half inch too big and two spokes short.

The loco body mesh and valve gear is mostly complete. I missed the external reverser shaft and I want to add some bits to the cab part of the exterior mesh. That I will do after completing the cab interior. As a rough guess the initial release is at least a couple of months away. There is a project plan of sorts at the start of this blog.

 

[Edweird]

Thank you.

It's actually a long way from completion and one of my objects for this blog was to demonstrate how long it takes to build one of these locos. The mesh creation is one of the easiest parts of the project although time consuming. For example, I had no ready made wheel for the tender so I had to build one from scratch. That took a few hours because I hadn't made one before. Paul Hobbs' library had a wheel that was a half inch too big and two spokes short.

The loco body mesh and valve gear is mostly complete. I missed the external reverser shaft and I want to add some bits to the cab part of the exterior mesh. That I will do after completing the cab interior. As a rough guess the initial release is at least a couple of months away. There is a project plan of sorts at the start of this blog.

Well, you've caught me. I admit I don't know how these models are produced. I presumed that, as the locomotive appeared to be working in the game that production was well underway. I took a look at the 'project plan' you mentioned. from what you've said, I deduce that the loco textures, tender, cab, 'shadow mesh', sounds and spec parts all remain to be completed? Does sound like a lot. Shame I'm such an unskilled dunce. Still, I shall continue to pay close attention regardless.

Nice to hear from you too. Thanks.

 

[pcas1986]

Yes, mostly.

I'm working on the tender because I got tired of working on the main body texture and put that aside for a while. While the texture might look OK, there are many things I dislike about it and Kieran (CaptainKMan), who asked for it in the first place, wants to reskin it so that means I need to rework the texture file.

Making shadow meshes is fairly simple. Currently I'm just using PEV's Shadowmaker tool that gives a reasonable result but I will make my own eventually.

Making the Level Of Detail (LOD) meshes involves taking the meshes for the body, body bogey, tender and tender bogey and reducing the detail that would not be seen at certain distances. These distances are determined by the author. Trainz requires that complex meshes use LOD to reduce load on the program otherwise the simulation slows down.

I haven't given much thought to smoke etc yet. In real life Big Bertha would be throwing out a lot of grey/black smoke when assisting trains up the Lickey Bank, so expect to see more than usual for a loco of this size.

Big Bertha also had two internal cylinders that I did not include in the mesh as I thought they would be invisible. However, at a very low angle in front of the loco, I believe it would be possible to see the internal crank on wheelset 3 (middle set). So, that is more work to be done.

 

[captainkman]

Can I make a suggestion for smoke?

I think it might be better to use the older style of smoke, rather than the new textures. They can still be synchronised with the wheels, by using the mode set to speed, and start set to "0,0.25,0.5,0.75". This produces 4 puffs per revolution. Maybe I could write some smoke tags for you. I can include an idle effect, the puffs and some smoke that shows when the engine is working hard.

I'll send you some shots of the effect on a different loco.

Kieran.

 

[pcas1986]

Can I make a suggestion for smoke?

I think it might be better to use the older style of smoke, rather than the new textures. They can still be synchronised with the wheels, by using the mode set to speed, and start set to "0,0.25,0.5,0.75". This produces 4 puffs per revolution. Maybe I could write some smoke tags for you. I can include an idle effect, the puffs and some smoke that shows when the engine is working hard.

I'll send you some shots of the effect on a different loco.

Kieran.

Please do. I think I'd like it to look like the video.

 

[Edweird]

How does the lighting work on locomotives? Do you just sort of tell it to have a light source in a particular point, which you'd then place on the lamp lens, or is it more involved?

 

[captainkman]

Please do. I think I'd like it to look like the video.

Alright, I'll try my best!

 

[pcas1986]

How does the lighting work on locomotives? Do you just sort of tell it to have a light source in a particular point, which you'd then place on the lamp lens, or is it more involved?

I'm assuming you are talking about the headlamp on Big Bertha rather than the lighting effect on the whole loco. The trick is to use something called a corona and you can find more about that by searching the TrainzDev WiKi. Currently I only have limited experience with coronas but it will be something I will be playing with a lot since a feature of Big Bertha was its headlight. The purpose of the headlight was to facilitate coupling Big Bertha to the rear of trains as part of its Lickey Banking duties.

The model's headlamp has a "glass" mesh at the front and I have deliberately textured the inside of the lamp with a light coloured material. I will probably experiment a bit to try and get the best effect. Below is a photo from Backtrack (Spring 1988 edition) showing a head light test.

Turning the headlamp on and off will be interesting as I doubt in real life that the headlamp would be on after coupling at the rear of the train. So that means it cannot be treated as normal night lighting. My intention is to have a switch inside the cab. There may have to be some script code to go with it.

The photo suggests that there were two bulbs inside the lamp but whether the lighting effect on the ground and on the debris to the right is caused by the headlamp is unknown. I doubt if I can replicate the effect in the photo but I do recall a discussion about "pools" of light in another thread a few months back.

I believe the headlamp was transferred to a 9F loco after Big Bertha was withdrawn from service in 1956.

ps Looking back at your question - this is particularly about Big Bertha rather than Trainz locos in general.

 

[pcas1986]

...And if you want a tender to stand in before you release the model, to test its looks, there is a G2 'Super D' tender on the DLS with a cab on the front, like Big Bertha's tender. I'd like to see a picture of the model with the G2 tender, until you build a matching tender for Bertha. I'm curious as to how it looks.

...

Sorry Kieran - I forgot about this request. I couldn't find the tender on the DLS so do you have a kuid for it?

Here is BB with half a tender:

This is a sanity check to ensure that I am in the right direction! Not as silly as it sounds as the first attempt had the tender in reverse and half buried in the loco itself. Some of the attachments were wrong. The tender cab roof lines up OK with the main body cab roof.

I've coloured it with a crimson colour so I can play with trying to replicate the LMS Crimson Lake colours while building the tender. Currently it needs to be darker I think.

The tender wheel I had to build from scratch as Paul Hobbs' collection didn't have the right size or the correct number of spokes. A lot of work considering it will be mostly covered by the suspension. The suspension is one of Paul's and is fairly close to the drawing. I still have to add the brakes, the divider in the coal bay, the water tank hatch, some beading, plus a bunch of other stuff. This needs to be done before mirroring.

I haven't decided whether to animate the coal load. Other models have animated water tank lids and I'd like to do that.

The rivets on the footplates look a bit big so I'll probably replace them. And the lamp brackets are in the wrong position!

I have no information about the interior of the tender cab except in one photo there appears to be a handbrake wheel. But there is nothing I can find on the coal loading arrangements so that will an educated guess!

 

[captainkman]

Great job on the tender so far! I think handbrake wheels would be a good idea, and I recommend animating the coal and water filler lid.

The tender is <kuid2:142268:15020:2> by cmburgess, and is called "Ex-LNWR Class G2 Tender BR".

 

[pcas1986]

Adding the tender handbrake wheel is no problem but, because it would be part of the tender asset, I cannot animate it as I could if it were part of the cab interior mesh. The animation would only be the wheel turning. It doesn't actually do anything to the braking system.


Don't think the G2 tender works very well with Big Bertha! I'd have to build some steps down to the tender and I doubt if the fireman would appreciate having to lug coal back up the steps. Not to mention the OH&S issues of possible decapitation. :hehe:

 

[captainkman]

EDIT: Whoops! Double post!

 

[captainkman]

Alright. I was just curious. I thought it might not fit.

And I don't mind if the brake wasn't animated. I didn't suggest it anyway. Or at least not intentionally.

I'll try to get the smoke effect video to you soon. It's too big to attach to an email.

If I may suggest an enginesound, I think <kuid2:81997:53009:2> (Engine Sound 2 cyl loco 09) would go very nicely, it's nice and deep.