NSW South Coast Line (WIP)

[taggy]

Hi everyone

I get asked fairly often about the South Coast project so I thought I'd make a thread for it.

This project is a very successful partnership between myself and the very talented Grazlash.
The map is a DEM based on the NSW South Coast Line. It runs from Sutherland (Cronulla and National park) to Port Kembla/Bomaderry and Moss Vale.
The era chosen is early 00's and the line is electrified to Port Kembla and Kiama.

The map is signalled using Ranger_51's signal pack. Scenery is currently placed between Coalcliff and Corrimal, along with Albion Park and Robertson.

I aim to update this thread with screenshots from time to time so you can all see the magic happen.

 

[grazlash]

Very nice shot Aaron! It'll be a nice surprise to see the extra detail around the stations and the new wiring work when I get the route back. I'm also looking forward to seeing the extension to Nowra.
cheers
Graeme

 

[Roy3b3]

Great stuff Aaron and Graeme. Fantastic work.

Creating a unique forum thread for the layout is a top idea. We are all looking forward to the 'Magic' taking place, as it all comes together.

Well done fellas!

Cheers,
Roy

 

[taggy]

Thanks guys.

Here is an update of Scarborough. L3 stands on the down platform with a Port Kembla service.

 

[tomtre]

Hi Aaron and Graeme
Those shots are so realisticly detailed.
Well done
Tom

 

[cabnz1]

Very nice guys

 

[taggy]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

In the last two weeks, I've had the map and have been hard at work. I successfully merged the Nowra section at Kiama and then laid the track and stations to the Southern Terminus Bomaderry.
Overhead wiring has now been Completed to Wollongong, with just the yard to do to connect up with the wires already done to Port Kembla.

Signalling has now been fully converted to Ranger_51's stuff. I've also gone through the map and deleted stray bits of track that popped up for no apparent reason.

All stations in areas that have had the scenery completed are detailed with objects and I'm happy with how it looks.

No, the map is on its way back to Graeme for the next round of his magic touch. If they can successfully implement the multiplayer builder it would life a little easier so both us can work on it at once.

Heres a few scenes.

 

[grazlash]

Mt. Murray

cheers
Graeme

 

[taggy]

Looks incredible graeme!

 

[grazlash]

Thanks Aaron, check these out! I'm nearly to Summit Tank where I'll leave the Moss Vale branch for now and head back to the coast.

cheers
Graeme

 

[taggy]

Absolutely beautiful Graeme.

 

[grazlash]

I managed to get to Summit Tank and I've been working back detailing trackside. I did just have a hiccup, one too many trees too quickly and copped a CTD. Hopefully I haven't lost too much.
Here's an overview of the work on the Moss Vale branch

and a few shots of near complete areas

After all of the performance tuning I did yesterday, Dangavel's cliffs are able to be used again.

These cliff splines are a good match for the rock texture in the bottom right of shot

Summit Tank Loop
Edit: The route recovered well from the crash, only about 10 minutes of work lost and already redone
cheers
Graeme

 

[taggy]

NR60/107/17/AN11 lead WM2 Steel to Melbourne.

Near Summit Tank



Cross at Mount Murray



Near Ocean View

 

[grazlash]

Very nice shots Aaron! Towradgi is starting to take shape, literally. The DEM was way off, so I had to raise the ground around the station. It's now 16 metres higher at the bridge.
cheers
Graeme

 

[blueodessey]

Evening Sir,

Beautiful Route you are creating, heard you experienced a CTD due to too many trees.........I would like to offer some thoughts here if I may?

I run a Asus Strix 17 GL703GE with 32 GIG RAM, 1050 NVidia 4 GIG Of Ram, and SSD drives both Primary and Secondary. Laptop is just over one year old and it is setup as Gaming computer.


So here's the Rub, my NVidia is built-in and can't handle as much GPU load for some the Trainz Routes, and generally speaking it falls distinctly into 2 problematic areas.

Either one or both combined causal factors mitigate the CTD for me when editing or running the Route.

Two many Tracks in one area, IE 15 or more Tracks in a Rail Yard......

OR

Two many Trees in one area of Route or all over the Route......

Resolution for me. If 15-20 track Rail yard, I have to pare it down to 10-12 Tracks.

With Trees, I need to select all the offending Trees, and do Bulk Delete Globally on said Route, which comes to 10% up to 50% in extreme cases....

I have downloaded Huge Routes such as JR Folco's Etc, and had to pare down Tracks and or Trees, in some cases just Trees and it loosens up the Graphical Load.

Another item that shows, when I have too much Track on a Route, in Surveyor Mode, editing either Adding or Deleting Tracks, as I select and use Track Tools, I find the Track's in one area will disappear while I doing track edition commands. This only happens when there is just too much Track-age in that particular Route......When you see the same type issues repeatably over time, it serves as visual warning, and the need to fix it or face the consequences of CTD, which i have seen more times with Trainz than I would want to ever admit.....

Hope my little story here helps you,,,,,,,,:wave:

 

[grazlash]

Thanks for the compliments Blue. The problem wasn't so much the number of trees, but the speed at which I was placing them after the route had been open for 9 hours. At a loose estimate I reckon there would be 200 thousand trees on the route at present, however because 99% are the same tree and have a library I still achieve great framerates with a GTX1660ti 8gb. Most of my performance issues stemmed from grass splines with no LOD. TurfFX rocks as it doesnt cause lag.
cheers
Graeme

 

[grazlash]

Towradgi before

and after Megaquick Earthmovers had been on the job

cheers
Graeme

 

[NSWGR_46Class]

would you not be better limiting the modeled area to about 2-3 map grid blocks each side of the track

 

[grazlash]

would you not be better limiting the modeled area to about 2-3 map grid blocks each side of the track

It would be less work, but I doubt it would look anywhere near as good. You'd lose the escarpment and have gaps everywhere and fewer long views. Using the assets wisely keeps the framerate up and I constantly check performance.
cheers
Graeme

 

[grazlash]

Towradgi now - still a bit of detailing to do here

cheers
Graeme