Big Bertha - Cab Interior Update 23 Jul 12

[pcas1986]

The cab is finally getting nearer to completion. Completed stuff include:

Dials including Boiler Pressure, Speedometer and Brake Cyl and Brake Reservoir.
The Steam Supply controls.
Injector controls.
Main brake.
Whistle.
The Fire Plates.
Blower.
Sander.
Regulator.
Cab sandboxes.
Water level.
Water lever isolation valves.
Water level drain.
Doors - these open.
And a couple of steam valves.
The copper plumbing is done although I don't like the texture much. So far I've tried the reflective brass material (too bright) and about three different non shiny brass textures. Currently it reminds me of some sort of sausage like salami.

Currently BB has a standard reverser, one of Paul Hobbs' creations, and its very crowded in that space with pipes etc. For a BR version I will change it to a screw reverser.
The materials are about all contained in one onetex material. I may yet change this.

The firebox still needs to be textured and remapped. I deliberately left this until last to see what would be obscured by controls.

I still have to add a light switch for the headlight. After playing with the kind "button" I decided that it was a bit iffy so it will be a simple lever switch. Currently its the black box next to the driver position on the right.

I finally got the N3V fire attachment working after playing with the attachment points. The fire noise comes on at odd times and sometimes just stays on whether the fire doors are open or not.

Here are some pictures:

Drivers side - standing back a bit:

The dials. Big Bertha was stationary with the brake on at the time.

From the Fireman's side:

And a view of the Fireman's side from the Driver's side:

Maybe I'll take pity on the driver and fireman and add a couple of seats. The floor also needs a small platform to encompass the back of the firebox and the pipes. It looks like a small step.

I haven't tracked the time for each Big Bertha component but the cab interior has taken the most time so far. Except for the reverser, I have had to make or re-make every other mesh.

 

[captainkman]

Great work! It looks great to me, and it mimics a 7F cab very well.

 

[Edweird]

Starting to look the business now Paul! The salami joke made me laugh. They look like doner kebab meat to me. :hehe:

I think seats are a must, given the amount of time Bertha might have spent idle with a fire up and the gentle coast downhill being 50% of the journey.

 

[pcas1986]

The pipes have a dull brown texture with a "distressed" black spotty pattern. The problem is that the spots are being stretched during the mapping which gives the even salami finish. I tend to use the "map to view" option when mapping pipes as you can get odd "joins" when using the other options. This technique tends to make long objects, such as pipes, map as skinny objects and that results in the stretching. Except for some of the attachments all of the texture is contained in one 1024 * 1024 TGA file. I might try a separate file for the pipes.

I'm not sure where to put the seats. The 7F has a gap behind the sandbox and the door and there is a lever there. I've no idea what that is or a couple of other levers poking through the floor so I left them out. The 7F drivers seat sits above the reversing gear but on Big Bertha the reversing gear may get in the way.

There is another lever on the 7F that I saw the driver in the video using when at slow speed and I think that may be another braking system. A couple of the photos suggest the actuating rod for that goes through the floor near the drivers standing position. The BB driver side arrangement is so crowded I doubt I could incorporate it even if I knew what it did.

 

[Edweird]

I've got a generic Trainz question if you don't mind me asking it.

Is there a way I could add headlamps to locomotives I've downloaded that don't have them already. I found a thing called an invisi-cab which is effectively an invisible locomotive, so I was wondering if you could have a similar piece of 'rolling stock' that was just a floating headlamp or tail lamp. Do such things exist?

 

[pcas1986]

I gather by your question that you don't want to make the headlamps or tail lamps yourself?

You could use PEV's attachment maker to add an attachment to a clone of an existing traincar (loco, truck or carriage). I believe you can then attach a lamp either as an asset or as a mesh to that traincar.

Many BR locos, or at least the steam ones, use Paul Hobbs headcodes script to add lamps to their locos in the Session. You add them via a popup browser. Big Bertha has had them from the start. These are dynamically assigned assets and look like those old fashioned railway lanterns.

I don't know anything about the invisible loco but I doubt if it would be suitable for this particular purpose.

There are probably lamp assets on the DLS. I found a loco the other day with all its interior controls created as assets.

If you give me the kuid of a sample traincar that you want to add a lamp to then that would help.


EDIT: PS - there are some older style lamps by Jonny211 on the DLS. They come with and without coronas (the actual glowing bit).

 

[Edweird]

The reason I asked was because I don't have a clue what I'm doing when it comes to assets and such. I don't even know what PEV stands for.

The reason I ask is just because yesterday I downloaded an updated version of a route and went to check out the new sections. As I was doing so it turned dark and I found the locomotive I was using had no lamps. I was just wondering if there was a simple fix for a 'noob' like me.

 

[pcas1986]

Well you could change the environment settings so its remains daytime but that doesn't answer your question.

If you have no interest in creating your own assets or modifying existing one by cloning then, to be honest, it would be a struggle. It would be easier to use a loco that does have headlights.

But if you want me to give you advice on how to modify an existing loco using the attachment maker then I can do that - depending on the loco.

PEV stands for Peter Villaume who, together with Andi Smith, makes free tools to assist content creators. I had forgotten this was a blog and not the Content Creation forum. Peter's stuff can be found at http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm

 

[Edweird]

So if I downloaded an appropriate headlamp from the DLS, what programs would I need to add a headlamp to a locomotive? (I'm sure the same principles would apple for a tail lamp and rolling stock.)

I'm guessing attachment maker?

 

[pcas1986]

Get AttachmentMaker from the website I gave you. Clone the traincar that you want to add the attachment to. With AttachmentMaker, open the default mesh IM file and place an attachment point where you want it. If it is in front of the traincar then I suggest you place it a bit further out - say a couple of feet or a metre. This is so you can easily see the attachment in game. You may have to go back and rotate it. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to go back and position the attachment point wherever you like.

Name the attachment point with an appropriate name and save the file. In my test I named my attachment a.my_lamp. Note the file will be saved as "attach_mesh.im". This is different from the original file name.

Using CCP amend the config file for the cloned asset to include the following within the mesh-table.

 attachments
  {
    mesh                                "attach_mesh.im"
    auto-create                         1
    
    effects
    {
      lamp
      {
        kind                            "attachment"
        att                             "a.my_lamp"
        default-mesh                    <kuid:523:1972884>
      }
    }

In my example I used an Auran lamp which has a red corona. And here is how it looks in Surveyor:

Note that the lamp is pointing the wrong way, which I half expected, so I went back and edited attach_mesh.im to rotate the attachment point 180 degrees around the Z axis (the vertical axis).

Note that when editing an attachment mesh, you must first open the original mesh and then also open the attachment mesh using the Open Attachment Mesh command.

The AttachmentMaker tool can be a bit fiddly and its best to make it full screen as it is very easy to "lose" the attachments because they get hidden behind windows.

This is a shot from AttachmentMaker with my attachment point after I corrected the rotation:

ps. I used one of Andi06's AEC Railcars which is one of my favourites. It did give me a few problems as it was made for an earlier version of Trainz which I had to correct to get it to load.

 

[Edweird]

Just spotted a massive derp in my comment!

So if I downloaded an appropriate headlamp from the DLS, what programs would I need to add a headlamp to a locomotive? (I'm sure the same principles would apple for a tail lamp and rolling stock.)

I'm guessing attachment maker?

I almost split my sides laughing. It should be apply, obviously.

Anyway, thanks for the advice Paul. I shall go and experiment.

 

[pcas1986]

Didn't notice it. Maybe there is a new IPhone, Ipad, ... in your future.