Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

WOW. Awsome. The Cumbres & Toltic Railroad is my most favorite part of the Survieing pecies of the 36 inch narrow gauge route. I love that railroad. Keep up the beutifall work on the route and rolling stock. Cant wait to download the finished route and rolling stock. :udrool: :udrool: :udrool: :mop: :) :D ;) :cool:
 
I am very sorry. All my time for the past few months has been consumed by school (I graduate next weekend) and my job. After my last day of school this coming Wednesday, I should have more free time to work on the C&TS. Also, I have a motherboard with six capacitors that are puffing, so I'm going to have to start building a new system...which'll be $200 base, so I'll only start being able to merely THINK about buying parts in two weeks when I get another paycheck. Hopefully, in the next month, I'll have a computer that'll last me and will be much better for Trainz. I apologize for taking so long.

Tim
 
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Considering that's what it's being built in, yes. I'm using the DEM map that's made for 2006, at the actual elevation. I believe the 2004 version of the DEM map is lowered roughly 500 meters, as 2004 doesn't allow elevations above 3,000 meters. Even 2006 doesn't allow editing of the elevations above 3,000, so areas above the 3,000 meter mark are hard to grade because I can't use manual ground editing tools. -sigh-
 
Hi Tim,

Congrats on your upcoming graduation. And, Best of Luck on the future.

Hope to see more of your progress shots throughout the summer. Keep up the great work!

Todd
 
I believe the 2004 version of the DEM map is lowered roughly 500 meters, as 2004 doesn't allow elevations above 3,000 meters. Even 2006 doesn't allow editing of the elevations above 3,000, so areas above the 3,000 meter mark are hard to grade because I can't use manual ground editing tools. -sigh-

I hear you frustration, I been "fighting" Auran ever since I discovered that problem back in the UTC days of Trainz...

Answers always been, start lower, as Trainz can start at -3000 meter...
Never liked that answer, but had to bite it in me and lower my area of interest by 1500 (Pikes Peak area) in order to get below that 3000 meter limit for doing landscape work.

I used to be able to grade slowly by using copy height from a suited point on the grid and paste that to the place I needed changing - but it was dead slow and I decided to lower the landscape instead.
TransDEM made that easier as I could just lower the whole route (and, I might raise it if I ever get done with it, just to get the height correct again... :))

But, both TRS2004 (with SP pack's that is) and later will show the ground and drive trains to above 3000 meter, just as TRS2006 do, but none will let you do ground work with the tools given for the grid above 3000 meter, as it instantly drops down to 3000 meter. :(

One day I hope Auran fixes this and raise the height for us loving the high up railroads. :D

Either way, the route looks nice, and I think you done a great job on what I seen so far, thanks for sharing!

Linda
 
Thank you so much, Linda.

Todd, thank you for the graduation wishes!

And it should get started again soon... I'm in the process of building a new computer. I haven't ordered parts yet, but come my next paycheck, I'm going to be purchasing a 2.7 GHz AMD Athlon X2, an ASUS motherboard, 4GB of Kingston RAM (2 2GB sticks), and a case. I'll have yet to get a new video card, since the MoBo doesn't have an AGP slot, but I need a new video card anyway, so it's all good.
 
Mmhm, I know. I don't think they even make AGP mobos anymore...anyway, I'm getting a PCI-E card...ATI Raedon 9800, 1GB 512-bit. I'll be set pretty well.

Now...I realized I had some screenshots on my USB HDD that I hadn't uploaded yet, so y'all are in for a treat! These are of my latest work, roughly a month ago. My computer is actually completely dead now, so all work is involuntarily halted for the next month or so until I get my new computer completely assembled! :hehe:

Now for the screens!

Phantom Curve
Screen_037.jpg


Somewhere around MP 337 (?), between Lobato and Cresco. The old roadbed for NM Highway 17 is visible to the right...it's the empty part with no shrubbery, for those who are from Missouri, like me. :hehe:
Screen_046.jpg


The latest work on Tanglefoot Curve. I re-refixed some of the gradients, curves, grass, and textures.
Screen_054.jpg


Then after I got done with the work on the previous three screens, I got on kind of a high or something, and went nuts on the area around the trestle at Chama. Haha! It's rather bizarre...even with an aging AGP Ti 4400 card, my framerates were reasonable in this area, so I cannot WAIT to see how my new system will handle it. And yes, these are ALL Dave Drake's VERY hi-polygon trees! It was rather shocking to me my computer didn't just die.
Chama03.jpg


In these Surveyor shots, the train is headed westbound, coming into Chama.
Chama02.jpg


An 'aerial' shot of the train on the trestle. I'll figure out a solution to make a better-looking trestle, or SOMETHING, to make it look more realistic here. I used Dave Drake's Animas River textures here for the Rio Chama.
Chama06.jpg
 
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Beautiful stuff Tim. :udrool: Hard to tell that isn't the real deal. Hope you can get your computer up and running again soon. :)
 
Wish I had the bucks together to build me another puter, ah well!

Looking real good there, hope you get the new puter up and running soon!:wave: :wave: :wave:
 
WOW!!! Coming along really nice there Tim!:D

My apologizes, i was supposed to send you a ton of pics from the route, but haven't got around to that yet. (sorry Todd, your 268 bell is still coming...:hehe:) Now that things are starting to wind down for the summer, maybe i can catch up on my 'To do...' list.

-DRGW489
 
May I recommend a higher res monitor for the new computer? 22" 1920x1080 would be awesome for Trainz ;)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009175

Anyway, mind posting the specs so I can have a look? I just built myself a new comp, so I'm pretty caught up in terms of hardware knowledge at the moment.

Robbie, calm down. I know about the resolution! =P Haha! Remember, I mentioned I was using an aging AGP GeForce Ti 4400 card. I'm surprised it was still doing as well as it did for 1024x768. Besides, that 21.5" is out of my price range. I'll be purchasing a 19 inch...it's on a better sale, and is all I need.

Anyway, here are the specs.

ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core Processor Model AD775ZWCGHBOX

Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

HIS Hightech H485QS1GP Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

So, basically, I'll have 5 GB of RAM (including the video card). I will be using Windows 7, since I only have the 32 bit version of Win XP, which'll only "see" 3 GB of RAM, leaving 2 GB useless. ARGH. Haha! I ordered the case about an hour and a half ago, so it should be in my hands by Friday. I get paid Thursday. Depending on how much I get paid, I'll be purchasing the MoBo and proc next, or just the board. So it'll come together slowly but surely. My goal is not only to have a good machine graphics-wise, but I'm eventually going to use this system for a recording studio.

Todd, thank you so much for the kind words, I appreciate that. Haha, Betsy, I DON'T yet! =P It's going to take a good month and a half to POSSIBLY be able to afford this system, and that'll mean skimping on most everything. DRGW, it's quite alright. As you can see, I haven't been able to do much myself. :cool: Come to think of it, this work was from back in February, so it's been around three months since I've had the chance to merely touch the route.

Thanks, everyone! And I actually have more screens on my HDD I'll upload. Probably won't be until tomorrow evening, though...I'm registering for college classes in the morning!

Tim
 
Hey Tim, I do understand about it taking some time, I'm still running this rental myself, its a decent computer alright, I guess if I pay it off, won't be a problem adding RAM and a decent video card!!!:wave: :wave: :wave:
 
Tim, the video RAM is just that--video RAM. Inaccessible for the computer, and vice versa.

Win7 32 bit(or XP, or Vista, 32 bit) can recognize 3.25gb out of the 4gb you will have available. I actually have XP 32 on my current computer with 4gb; I don't see more than 3.25 ever being needed, if I can run TRS2006, Windows, iTunes and a load of other stuff and not exceed 1gb of RAM usage. For that reason, and incompatibility with a few printers/programs, I won't use x64.

I honestly don't think you'll ever need 1gb of video RAM--I've never had more than 512, though with an HD4650 I can run TRS2006 at 1920x1200 full everything, 45-50FPS on Gfisher's routes. Good enough personally, you can go for more RAM but the card can't really use it. Which is why you see the cheapo cards(HD2400, etc.) with 512mb video RAM....it looks better, but if it can only use 128mb, what's the point?! The 4850 is a good chipset, but I just don't see you using 1gb. Another option, though, could be the new 4770--99% of the 4850's horsepower for $50 less(though Newegg is pretty much out of those at the moment). The 4770 DOES have the expensive GDDR5 memory--which may be useful for future gaming.

The rest of it looks good--though the GeForce chipset makes me somewhat wary(I've had better results with the later AMD chipsets), it should all work. I do really like the CPU--I just bought a 4850e(45W, 2.5ghz) for $55...it's seriously killer. Fast, cheap, cool, and doesn't tax my PSU--hey, I'm running all this stuff on a 350w!

I would upgrade the hard drive, though, if you plan on recording--an hour of recording, multitrack, can easily eat 10-20gb. 500gb drives(Seagate is good, WD is good) can be had on Newegg for $50 or so in their Daily Deals--have a watch out and see what shows up.

Please regard this as my opinion from building a few computers in the last year--if you're dead set on anything for a good reason, go ahead!
 
Those rock and water textures are stunning.

I tried (and failed) to make a start on a SG version of this route in (K)RS but it looks as if TRS will have the definitive version.

Lovely work.
 
Here are a few more from my handy dandy 320 GB USB HDD I decided to share. :hehe: Enjoy!

489 leading a C&TS train downgrade around the horseshoe curve at Los Pinos. I've just started (at the time of this shot...haven't done anything since) texturing the hills, as you can easily see. I'm using Google's satellite imagery to place trees in the area, with the intention of getting it as prototypical as Trainzly possible. Haha!

Screen_056.jpg


Another one of the Chama Bridge shots.

Chama05.jpg


And yet another!

Chama01.jpg


Tim
 
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