CP C&M Subdivision

[JCitron]

ZZTOPS,

If you're looking for decent buildings and city blocks, look for the content by DmDrake on the DLS. He made a series of Cityscape buildings that are both objects and splines. They are complete city blocks that only require roads and rails to go with them. In addition to these, he also has some low-poly 2D/3d buildings. These are from various cities including the Chicago area. They are more like the upper parts of buildings, but when placed in clusters with higher-quality content in the front, they fill in the scene nicely. The great thing about his buildings is they are fast loading.

From your screenshots, I can see that you are already familiar with his wonderful trees.

Good luck on your route, and remember to take your time. I know what you mean about going back to school. I start back on 1/25. So much for trainzing for awhile. At least not until spring break.

John

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Update

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Update

Right, so now that I've got the screenshots of (the still in progress) Rondout, one or two things:

I'm confident I should be able to have the full route ready by June. Just a little housekeeping/clarification:

1. the Western Avenue Coach Yard and Muskego Yard WILL both be included as accurately done as possible. The California Avenue Coach Yard will be included in a highly simplified form.

2. The Fox Lake branch will be in a later release; my goal is to do that line, then merge it with the main route. I might do something similar with one or two other projects I want to do (such as the NCS and the UP New Line).

3. The content will obviously be larger than 50 MB, and Content Manager keeps telling me that I can only upload if the file is under 50 MB. So the question, then, is who wants to host the files? Or is there some way around that size limit?

4. I've been really bad about limiting the number of dependencies used, mainly since this is one of my first projects so I'm learning as I'm going. I'll try and post a list at least 2 or 3 weeks in advance of when I finish.

 

[007007]

Abbot Park siding ties into the main and not the Fox Lake line I do believe. Only thing I see wrong.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Abbot Park siding ties into the main and not the Fox Lake line I do believe. Only thing I see wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZZTops89#p/f/14/Hle6RjR-Ec4

Skip ahead to 2:01. It's tough to make it out, but the Abbott siding actually curves out a little bit (looks like the change happened at least somewhat recently given the different ballast color) and then ties on to the Fox Lake track just after it breaks off from the main. Google Maps and Bing Maps also show that this is the case.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

update

Screenshots of some areas around Chicago, and the beginnings of the Western Avenue Yard will be up late tomorrow. I've mentioned before that I'm in school in Washington DC, and thanks to the snowpocalypse I've been getting a ton of work on the route done. I'm hoping to have a continuous stretch from Forest Glen all the way up to Rondout done by the end of next week. That would bring the total done/near done area of the route up to roughly 50 miles.

So far this week I have gone to exactly 0 classes. Thursday has already been canceled, and one of my professors relocated an exam that would have been on Friday to next Tuesday, since it's VERY likely we'll have Friday off. That would give us a "nine day weekend". Albeit, we might end up hungry - the grocery stores are all out of everything.

 

[007007]

Right you are about the Abbott Siding! Looking forward to the next update!

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Near Morton Grove. I'm not done with this area, but there's basically a large warehouse-y area right around there.

Edgebrook viewed from the north. Still haven't added trees and stuff, but I'm inclined to keep those framerates from hurting.

Edgebrook viewed from the south.

West end of the Metra yard. I still haven't added in the other coach yard. by the way, I changed my mind, that will be done accurately.

The rest of the coach yard. It's kind of hard to notice from this distance, but I changed the layout of the east yard entrance tracks (circled), mainly because I anticipated that in sessions, the real-life layout would lead to some chaos with the AI. I've already seen AI trains try to use the lard tracks instead of the main tracks when testing things >_<

Anyways I'm gonna be working on the Glenview area this weekend.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

More shots

Some piece of [deleted][deleted][deleted]eating[deleted][deleted]hole pulled the fire alarm in my dorm building last night at 3 AM. Considering I was only able to go back to the dorm at 4 AM, I got some work done.

Edgebrook. Just happened to notice some useful stuff on the DLS for these crossings yesterday.

Golf (looking north)

Golf (looking south).

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Update

Sorry for no screenshots, I haven't been able to get a lot of work done since snow-pocalypse because all my profs have added more work to compensate for missing a week. Spring break starts tomorrow, which should be a good opportunity to make some headway.

I did end up adding the Fox Lake subdivision, and I'm starting to work on it.

For anyone interested, I'll be at the Amtrak/Trains conference on Saturday in Chicago. Is anyone else here going? I'd imagine that considering the subdivision I'm doing is in the chicago area, there's probably people from chicago who are following the thread.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Update

Haven't updated in a while, so here's what's been going on: I've done some work on two areas, the first one is from Union Station to A2, the other is the gap from Rondout to the IL/WI border. Having the 35-mile area from Lake Forest to Sturtevant pretty much done (I'll go back and polish stuff up later) is good. I'm gonna post some screenshots today.

 

[007007]

Lookin forward to the shots!

 

[chrisracer8903]

This looks great. I can't wait to see shots of Bensenville since I was there last year (Railfanning the last 2 days of EJ&E before it became CN).

Are you planning on including scenarios/ sessions showing the real operations of the line?

 

[ZZ_Tops]

This looks great. I can't wait to see shots of Bensenville since I was there last year (Railfanning the last 2 days of EJ&E before it became CN).

Are you planning on including scenarios/ sessions showing the real operations of the line?

Bensenville will NOT be in this map. However, I am planning on including sessions with the route. To reiterate previous posts, here's what to expect:

1. Chicago Union Station-Milwaukee Intermodal Station and about .5 miles of track west of there.
2. The Fox Lake subdivision.
3. About 1 mile of the UP line east and west of Shermer.
4. Western Avenue, California Avenue, and Muskego Yards. Some of the minor yards along the route will also be included.
5. Several industry spurs including the Pleasant Prairie tracks.

This is already well over 100 MB and well over 100 miles of track.

That said, as a result of numerous questions about Bensonville, I'm going to add in those areas and put in track. Unfortunately that means using new DEM/TIGER data and merging it with the existing stuff, so the results won't be perfect. There's actually already 400 extra feet of track in the Fox Lake tracks due to that.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Also, screenshots!

Gurnee area. Yes, I know most of those closer houses are identical. That will be fixed soon.

Near Union Station.

Also near Union Station. Lake Street can sort of be seen in the background.

Union Station. Still haven't finished texturing/detailing here, but the basic station is well underway.

Union Station. I still haven't figured out a good way to model the commuter platform stairs well. Those exits are weird.

 

[WCL]

Looking good :Y: Keep up the good work :Y:

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Quick update

I'm working on the Bensenville area and some other stuff today. I've also decided I'm going to add a secondary thread for this project in the works in progress forum. That should be up in a little bit.

I'm going to continue posting regular updates here, as well as screenshots, but adding in the new areas has complicated a few things, not to mention I'm still working on finding the right stuff for making the route look good.

I finally got around to actually merging the Bensenville stuff and the rest of the project today. I'll be mainly working on the Bensenville area for the near future. Final exams are coming up, so I should be less busy after that once summer break rolls around.

 

[WCL]

Got any updates ? ¿ ? ¿ ?


:wave:

 

[ZZ_Tops]

Started my summer job this week. I will update this weekend. I promise. And there will be screenshots. It will be good.

 

[ZZ_Tops]

And when the update is over, you will all be rewarded with cake.