CP C&M Subdivision
- Thread starter ZZ_Tops
- Start date
Quick Update
Just a quick update to let you all know why I haven't released those promised screenshots. I haven't made any progress in pretty much the past week due to a ton of midterm exams. I may or may not make a bit of progress during this week, but I'll be traveling next weekend, so I can't make any promises. I might decide to just log into Windows (I have a Macbook Pro with Bootcamp, so I can only log in to one OS at a time, and since all of my schoolwork is in OS X, lot's of studying means less time for Trainz). So I haven't forgotten about the project, bailed out on it, or any of those other things. If I was doing that, I'd post it up and put the unfinished work in the DLS for someone else to work on. But I am running into some delays due to college being what it is and having to balance time in a way that makes the most sense for me.
Anyways, I'm hoping that between the end of next week and the beginning of the pre-thanksgiving assignment rush (followed closely by final exams), I'll be able to chip away at the north end of the line. If not, winter break lasts for a month.
Just a quick update to let you all know why I haven't released those promised screenshots. I haven't made any progress in pretty much the past week due to a ton of midterm exams. I may or may not make a bit of progress during this week, but I'll be traveling next weekend, so I can't make any promises. I might decide to just log into Windows (I have a Macbook Pro with Bootcamp, so I can only log in to one OS at a time, and since all of my schoolwork is in OS X, lot's of studying means less time for Trainz). So I haven't forgotten about the project, bailed out on it, or any of those other things. If I was doing that, I'd post it up and put the unfinished work in the DLS for someone else to work on. But I am running into some delays due to college being what it is and having to balance time in a way that makes the most sense for me.
Anyways, I'm hoping that between the end of next week and the beginning of the pre-thanksgiving assignment rush (followed closely by final exams), I'll be able to chip away at the north end of the line. If not, winter break lasts for a month.
Last edited:
The only TT I have was from 1995....And you seen that one Steve
Screenshots!
All right, I promised screenshots at some point, so I have some ready to upload, just as soon as someone explains how to actually upload them. But I am ready to go other than that and the other problem.
The scroll wheel on my mouse officially broke yesterday, I'm off to the store to buy a new one after I post, so all of these are from the max zoom out (it's zooming in that doesn't seem to work anymore.
So if anyone can answer that question about how to upload screenshots in the next 30 minutes, I'll have screenshots up right when I get back from the campus book store.
All right, I promised screenshots at some point, so I have some ready to upload, just as soon as someone explains how to actually upload them. But I am ready to go other than that and the other problem.
The scroll wheel on my mouse officially broke yesterday, I'm off to the store to buy a new one after I post, so all of these are from the max zoom out (it's zooming in that doesn't seem to work anymore.
So if anyone can answer that question about how to upload screenshots in the next 30 minutes, I'll have screenshots up right when I get back from the campus book store.
Hi,
I have all the Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, St.. Louis, Kansas city and other surrounding areas in a single fragmentation Dem map, but this is my path. I have some difficulties while it did not. I think that will soon submit their work progress...
You can connect all of dem lat-long selection, but you have to convert your DEM UTM - Lat-Long Dems. This requires a program Microdem...
am sorry for my english...
I have all the Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, St.. Louis, Kansas city and other surrounding areas in a single fragmentation Dem map, but this is my path. I have some difficulties while it did not. I think that will soon submit their work progress...
You can connect all of dem lat-long selection, but you have to convert your DEM UTM - Lat-Long Dems. This requires a program Microdem...
am sorry for my english...
Screenshots!!
Thank you.
Screenshot time!
[just north of Wisconsin route 50]
[industry spur north of the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant]
[tract homes in northern Pleasant Prairie/southern Truesdell]
[Lakeview Parkway, and some buildings nearby]
As is pretty clear, this isn't a finished project. There's a ton of work to be done in improving textures, scenery, and other stuff.
Thank you.
Screenshot time!
[just north of Wisconsin route 50]
[tract homes in northern Pleasant Prairie/southern Truesdell]
[Lakeview Parkway, and some buildings nearby]
As is pretty clear, this isn't a finished project. There's a ton of work to be done in improving textures, scenery, and other stuff.
Weekly Update #3
Now that the mid-term period is pretty much over, and there's a brief lull before the Thanksgiving/final exam cascade of assignments and work, I'm going to try and get some work done on the route. This past weekend I was able to get in about 3 hours of work, and got the North Section textured and with most objects up to Somers. Progress will likely be limited this weekend, though during the week I won't be busy and may be able to reach Sturtevant this week.
I'm looking to the possibility of outsourcing the short section of the route (I have a DEM map of the Rondout-Wisconsin border section that I can upload to the DLS). That section is just under 20 miles long. It's also a pretty simple section, mainly light suburbs near the southern portion, also passing through a few forest preserves and prairie-type areas.
Also, I'm still looking for volunteers to do buildings for the project. I'd like to have accurate buildings if possible.
Now that the mid-term period is pretty much over, and there's a brief lull before the Thanksgiving/final exam cascade of assignments and work, I'm going to try and get some work done on the route. This past weekend I was able to get in about 3 hours of work, and got the North Section textured and with most objects up to Somers. Progress will likely be limited this weekend, though during the week I won't be busy and may be able to reach Sturtevant this week.
I'm looking to the possibility of outsourcing the short section of the route (I have a DEM map of the Rondout-Wisconsin border section that I can upload to the DLS). That section is just under 20 miles long. It's also a pretty simple section, mainly light suburbs near the southern portion, also passing through a few forest preserves and prairie-type areas.
Also, I'm still looking for volunteers to do buildings for the project. I'd like to have accurate buildings if possible.
Not to bad....I would find some better tree splines though...And when you lay ground texture....You should tap this key here ] that way the ground texture will look a lot better....
Keep up the good work :Y:
Weekly Update #4.1
So this is a bit early, but I did get a good bit of work last night, which I'll have some screenshots uploaded for on Monday. Just one or two things I wanted to mention:
1. First of all, I finally began working on Sturtevant
, so far most of the textures have been laid and I've put in a few buildings (just some houses and basic buildings. That also gives a decent picture of how far along I am. The north section started at roughly MP 48.5, and the new Amtrak station is around MP 63, so I've gotten through 15 miles of a 87-mile route (mind you, there's more detailed work to be done). I've been trying to use the Station kit buildings and splines for the station (for now at least), which has led to one or two annoyances. Does anyone know any good buildings on the DLS that would work for the (new) Sturtevant station?
2. A lot of the work I've been doing has been trying to construct as accurate a picture of the route as possible. Although I'm a native Chicagoan, I'm currently in Washington DC until mid-December. I've been using Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and a few other tools to try and piece together an accurate base of information to work with, and so far that has actually worked out pretty well. That said, any track profile info, signal location info, etc. is greatly appreciated and makes things easier for me.
3. More screenshots will be up on Monday, hopefully before dinner. I should be able to get in a good 2-4 hours of work on the line tomorrow afternoon (not a lot of homework+weekend+college=progress, drunkenness, or both).
4. [edit] Also, special thanks to WCL for the tip about using the ] and [ keys when texturing. Suffice it to say, that will have a noticeable influence on the texturing.
So this is a bit early, but I did get a good bit of work last night, which I'll have some screenshots uploaded for on Monday. Just one or two things I wanted to mention:
1. First of all, I finally began working on Sturtevant
, so far most of the textures have been laid and I've put in a few buildings (just some houses and basic buildings. That also gives a decent picture of how far along I am. The north section started at roughly MP 48.5, and the new Amtrak station is around MP 63, so I've gotten through 15 miles of a 87-mile route (mind you, there's more detailed work to be done). I've been trying to use the Station kit buildings and splines for the station (for now at least), which has led to one or two annoyances. Does anyone know any good buildings on the DLS that would work for the (new) Sturtevant station?2. A lot of the work I've been doing has been trying to construct as accurate a picture of the route as possible. Although I'm a native Chicagoan, I'm currently in Washington DC until mid-December. I've been using Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and a few other tools to try and piece together an accurate base of information to work with, and so far that has actually worked out pretty well. That said, any track profile info, signal location info, etc. is greatly appreciated and makes things easier for me.
3. More screenshots will be up on Monday, hopefully before dinner. I should be able to get in a good 2-4 hours of work on the line tomorrow afternoon (not a lot of homework+weekend+college=progress, drunkenness, or both).
4. [edit] Also, special thanks to WCL for the tip about using the ] and [ keys when texturing. Suffice it to say, that will have a noticeable influence on the texturing.
Last edited:
Why did you post that here? It is 2 subdivisions away from the C&M...
Oh's well....Just an idear shot I guess...It dont harm anything :hehe:
Thanks...I want your route to look good...So thats why I mentioned it for ya....
Weekly update 4.2 continued
2. Currently, track is laid for all track that I have info for. It turns out the Wisdot info had some issues in terms of signal locations and I actually used Microsoft Virtual Earth to track down signals (which took me a good 3 hours). Luckily, it looks like the
3. I'm still looking for track info for the other parts of the route. While I could easily just spend several weeks working on texturing and developing the area I have, I want to try and move forward so that I end up with all the track laid so the route is at least functional; that would allow me to do play-testing as I work on the rest of the route. Right now it looks like I could buy an old (1954) chart of the Chicago-Milwaukee line, but I'm pretty sure they've changed a lot of the grades, signalling, and connections since then. If anyone can do a quick search and point me to anything more recent, that would move things along.
4. Can anyone point me to a good spline for adding small trees e.g. the bushes and trees along the sides of the tracks on much of this route? I've been trying a copy/paste method, but it's really slow and graphics intensive.
2. Currently, track is laid for all track that I have info for. It turns out the Wisdot info had some issues in terms of signal locations and I actually used Microsoft Virtual Earth to track down signals (which took me a good 3 hours). Luckily, it looks like the
3. I'm still looking for track info for the other parts of the route. While I could easily just spend several weeks working on texturing and developing the area I have, I want to try and move forward so that I end up with all the track laid so the route is at least functional; that would allow me to do play-testing as I work on the rest of the route. Right now it looks like I could buy an old (1954) chart of the Chicago-Milwaukee line, but I'm pretty sure they've changed a lot of the grades, signalling, and connections since then. If anyone can do a quick search and point me to anything more recent, that would move things along.
4. Can anyone point me to a good spline for adding small trees e.g. the bushes and trees along the sides of the tracks on much of this route? I've been trying a copy/paste method, but it's really slow and graphics intensive.
Weekly update #5
Since I posted screenshots last week, I'll be waiting until next week to post more. Final exams are right around the corner for me and that means two things: 1. lots of work, and 2. consequently limited progress on the route. My goal is to get in 4-6 hours of work on the route this weekend. The good news is that winter break is immediately after and that's pretty much 1 month where I can get a TON of progress.
I did end up ordering the old track charts for the route. I'm guessing they're mostly accurate for grades since no significant regrading has been done on the line in a while. If I do notice any glaring issues, I'll have to try and look at more current information, or just estimate numbers.
Edit: I just received the track charts I ordered. It turns out that the C&M division is pretty much unchanged; just a quick look-through shows that there have been very few (if any) changes to the track itself i.e. re-grading. Signals are more likely to have changed, and a number of spurs are no longer present. So that's good; it means I can proceed with laying more track.
Since I posted screenshots last week, I'll be waiting until next week to post more. Final exams are right around the corner for me and that means two things: 1. lots of work, and 2. consequently limited progress on the route. My goal is to get in 4-6 hours of work on the route this weekend. The good news is that winter break is immediately after and that's pretty much 1 month where I can get a TON of progress.
I did end up ordering the old track charts for the route. I'm guessing they're mostly accurate for grades since no significant regrading has been done on the line in a while. If I do notice any glaring issues, I'll have to try and look at more current information, or just estimate numbers.
Edit: I just received the track charts I ordered. It turns out that the C&M division is pretty much unchanged; just a quick look-through shows that there have been very few (if any) changes to the track itself i.e. re-grading. Signals are more likely to have changed, and a number of spurs are no longer present. So that's good; it means I can proceed with laying more track.
Last edited:
\
Unless you can find tree and bush splines that have been modified to work correctly in TS2009 then I would stay away from the older stuff. They will have a really negative impact on your framerates and draw distance.
William
Weekly update #6
I'm going to wait until next week for the next batch of screenshots; Thanksgiving break will be a good chance to catch up on texturing and object plopping. A lot of the work I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks is actually going to be figuring out how long the grades are, where signals should go, and putting that into a simple format for my purposes. I've been suffering from more than a few headaches (including literal ones) with some of the track chart stuff, which I figured I'd point out (consider it a tip for prototype routes in general):
You should never take the listed scales on the track chart for granted UNLESS you have the actual track chart. I bought a bound photocopy, which is problematic for surveying because it was re-sized (I think). If I use the stated 1 inch=4000 feet conversion, the length of the line is 113 miles. Yikes. I actually re-calculated the scale and it looks like the charts are actually at a scale of roughly 1 inch=3100 feet. I averaged the inches/mile for about 10 different random sections of the line (each one mile long), and ended up with 1 inch=3103.980404 feet.
The moral of the story is that if you want to model an actual line accurately, be prepared to spend some time in Excel crunching numbers.
I'm going to wait until next week for the next batch of screenshots; Thanksgiving break will be a good chance to catch up on texturing and object plopping. A lot of the work I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks is actually going to be figuring out how long the grades are, where signals should go, and putting that into a simple format for my purposes. I've been suffering from more than a few headaches (including literal ones) with some of the track chart stuff, which I figured I'd point out (consider it a tip for prototype routes in general):
You should never take the listed scales on the track chart for granted UNLESS you have the actual track chart. I bought a bound photocopy, which is problematic for surveying because it was re-sized (I think). If I use the stated 1 inch=4000 feet conversion, the length of the line is 113 miles. Yikes. I actually re-calculated the scale and it looks like the charts are actually at a scale of roughly 1 inch=3100 feet. I averaged the inches/mile for about 10 different random sections of the line (each one mile long), and ended up with 1 inch=3103.980404 feet.
The moral of the story is that if you want to model an actual line accurately, be prepared to spend some time in Excel crunching numbers.
Weekly Update #7.1
I'm going to be putting up the first screenshots of the southern portion of the route later this week (most likely Thursday or Friday, but it could be earlier too). Because I forgot to bring stuff like the track charts home this weekend, I was limited to texturing and building placement. That said, I actually am pretty comfortable with the square mile around A5
.
I'm still trying to decide how detailed much of the route is going to be. As of now I've been putting down buildings within 3 blocks of the track itself; I might lower this to 2 blocks on either side if I think frame rates are going to be a problem (which at this point is likely).
Does anyone have detailed info (i.e. a chart) of the Western Avenue Coach yards? As of now that's the only yard I'm pretty much obligated to model; once everything is done and the route is up on the DLS, someone else can do other stuff like Muskego yard, I just don't have enough patience for it. The Coach yards are right next to the tracks though, so I'm sort of obligated to include them.
I'm going to be putting up the first screenshots of the southern portion of the route later this week (most likely Thursday or Friday, but it could be earlier too). Because I forgot to bring stuff like the track charts home this weekend, I was limited to texturing and building placement. That said, I actually am pretty comfortable with the square mile around A5
.I'm still trying to decide how detailed much of the route is going to be. As of now I've been putting down buildings within 3 blocks of the track itself; I might lower this to 2 blocks on either side if I think frame rates are going to be a problem (which at this point is likely).
Does anyone have detailed info (i.e. a chart) of the Western Avenue Coach yards? As of now that's the only yard I'm pretty much obligated to model; once everything is done and the route is up on the DLS, someone else can do other stuff like Muskego yard, I just don't have enough patience for it. The Coach yards are right next to the tracks though, so I'm sort of obligated to include them.