South Australian railway content

Keep up the great work Dan! I know the lack of South Australian assets make it a real challenge when route building. Keswick and that screenshot under the Henley Beach Road bridge look fantastic.
thanks for the encouragement, I'm feeling rather negative today ,I can have days where I just see the flaws in my work and get discouraged by my lack of progress .There are days where half my time is spent looking for suitable assets,the problems finding stuff on the DLS that I can use and not have to modify, or finding an asset that could be used if i could only modify it and then finding out I can't because the maker doesnt allow it , or has disappeared / or died , really gets on my nerves.
 
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For screenshots, I think you should enable shadows and make spline points invisible.
Actually I Remember now why I disabled shadows, when I turn it back on, most of the items I'm using don't seem to have shadow capability ,the stobie ( metal concrete power /Tele) poles we have in SA are everywhere and none of the models available have the ability to cast shadows, it looks pretty weird when half the items have shadows and the others not . Hence I've turned it off.
 
All the scenery and spline models of "Stobie" poles throw shadows just like any other objects. Not sure why you don't see shadows on just these ones. In any case, I think it's weirder to have nothing casting shadows than the anomaly in one set of assets. Seems like an over-reaction to turn shadows off for everything.

b25ieYH.jpg
 
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I've got shadow settings on low.
Can you explain this one, SOME of the single stobies DO cast shadows , but others don't, and the stobie splines don't cast any shadows at all.
Your Willunga platforms do not cast shadows either ,( see left hand side of this screenshot- no shadows ) but your buildings do !
wDjM48w.png


I've just tried a whole lot of different splines and most of them didn't cast any shadows either. I'm using sp4 2019, might have something to do with it , i am reluctant to change versions as at least i know what is not working in SP4 and sp5 might just introduce a whole of of other faults .
I dunno, things happen with splines with this install when in surveyor, if I change them with a bulk replace they sometimes disappear completely then they reappear if I move them. Anyway, it looks worse in my mind to have deep shadows cast from one item and no shadow from something sitting next to it, totally incongruous, but lets agree to differ on that one .
 
Sure. I would say the majority instances of "no shadow" are due to your low shadow setting. My prediction is that if you increased your shadow settings, and your graphics card could handle it, most of the assets shown in your scenes will cast shadows. If your graphics can't handle it, then it's a sign that you need a hardware upgrade.

Most of my Willunga platform splines explicitly call for shadows because they include the tag "does-cast-shadows 1" in the mesh table part of their configs. But even without this tag present, the default behaviour would be to cast shadows, so it amounts to the same thing.

There are only 2 exceptions in my Willunga spline assets that have been deliberately configured not to cast shadows. They are essentially mounds of dirt that are supposed to have smoothly curved profiles.

<kuid2:68213:37411:1> Willunga dirt 01 mound
<kuid2:68213:37410:1> Willunga platform extend

With shadows enabled, I was finding the shadows were ugly, hard polygons rather than smooth shading, so I disabled that kind of shadow just on those assets by adding the tag "does-cast-shadows 0". They should still show the more subtle, smooth ambient shading on the non-sunny sides.
 
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Sure. I would say the majority instances of "no shadow" are due to your low shadow setting. My prediction is that if you increased your shadow settings, and your graphics card could handle it, most of the assets shown in your scenes will cast shadows. If your graphics can't handle it, then it's a sign that you need a hardware upgrade.

Most of my Willunga platform splines explicitly call for shadows because they include the tag "does-cast-shadows 1" in the mesh table part of their configs. But even without this tag present, the default behaviour would be to cast shadows, so it amounts to the same thing.

There are only 2 exceptions in my Willunga spline assets that have been deliberately configured not to cast shadows. They are essentially mounds of dirt that are supposed to have smoothly curved profiles.

<kuid2:68213:37411:1> Willunga dirt 01 mound
<kuid2:68213:37410:1> Willunga platform extend

With shadows enabled, I was finding the shadows were ugly, hard polygons rather than smooth shading, so I disabled that kind of shadow just on those assets by adding the tag "does-cast-shadows 0". They should still show the more subtle, smooth ambient shading on the non-sunny sides.
You are right, its the low setting, as I hardly ever drive when making routes, I use low setting and I cant be bothered to do restarts to change settings , but yes, if I set the graphics to ultra the missing shadows are there on those stobies , still ,since I only take screenshots every now and again, I'll need to remember to do that if I want to make more classy screenies.
My desire to do so is ,however, diminishing as my faculties and my level of enthusiasm for the game fade.
 
Well Deane you've actually done me a favor,although I think its also gonna be a hell of a lot more work, but better I found out now, , before i did more, now I have shadows turned on, I realize that all the pavements and roads I've done will look appalling as one can see the shadow gaps between the pavements and ground due to shadows being turned on. My own stupid fault, I've never made a route with so many suburban roads before.
Ah well another indication of how stuffed up my brain is becoming , time to give this game a rest after this route I think, find something less challenging to do.
 
I could sense the tiredness. I'm not sure if Trainz is a hobby or a disease sometimes. Anyway, a break might be in order. I do hope you complete the Route, even if it's just to give all those horrible red/white/blue Willunga-specific buildings I made a reason for existing.
 
I could sense the tiredness. I'm not sure if Trainz is a hobby or a disease sometimes. Anyway, a break might be in order. I do hope you complete the Route, even if it's just to give all those horrible red/white/blue Willunga-specific buildings I made a reason for existing.
Call me Mr Despondent ! :)
I'll get it finished, and no doubt I'll do more later on, am somewhat depressed by our collective stupidity at the moment, Halls Gap and the wonderful Grampians getting burnt out and my neck is getting worse again these past weeks . Now its got really hot a whole day shift at the animal shelter is wearing me out and it takes me a whole day to recover afterwards. Without work I feel useless. I have to try and shake myself out of the blues and get my mojo working again ! I must admit the addition of higher settings does make everything look a lot better once I've fixed the gaps, so it has been a help !
 
This is the old NG loco shed in Port Pirie. Has anyone seen a model available that looks like this? Or a model that looks like half of this and duplicate?
Scan11624-2.jpg

As a work around I've been using NSW Cooma Loco Shed (KUID 2:97008:36099:1) but would prefer to get something a little closer. Any suggestions?
Goods Shed Quorn is similar shape but wrong type and does not support the dual lines
Here is a scene from the top of Ellen Street, 22.7.1967
2022-06-27-174919.jpg
Where can i download this?
 
Where can i download this?
This was a route I was working on a while ago. Sort of parked for now until I get time to resolve some issues with it 8had spent some time and sorted some but not all). It is designed to be joined/merged with PWARES amazing SAR Peterborough Division. It covers Gladstone to Port Pirie via Narrow Gauge with the new standard gauge built alongside to near Gladstone. There is also the SAR Broad Gauge down to Redhill and CR Standard Gauge to Mambray Creek.

I am now working on another route whihc will connect to both my previously incomplete map just mention as well as into PWARES SAR Peterborough Diivison connect at Gladstone and Terowie. This covers the following lines:
1. Pirie Line (Mallala to Redhill) about 110kms (plus Lochiel Branch)
2. North Line (Roseworthy to Terowie) (to merge with PWARES route) about 180kms
3. Moonta Line (Hamley Bridge to Moonta) about 130kms
4. Kadina - Brinkworth about 70kms
5. Balaklava to Gladstone (to merge with PWARES route) about 110kms
6. Riverton to Spalding (not yet started) about 100kms
7. Roseworthy to Robertson and Morgan (not yet started) about 130kms

A few more images of my latest for interest

TEROWIE STATION
TWNBxl4.jpeg


WHYTE YARCOWIE
ZToe0iw.jpeg


BURRA
4lVjfPu.jpeg


HAMLEY BRIDGE
jA9fp15.jpeg


BALAKLAVA
rRVcJtI.jpeg


LONG PLAINS
s3yBTeG.jpeg


HUMMOCKS REGION (Northern Spencer Gulf)
z1LOexS.jpeg
 
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It's got that real South Australian arid look. I can almost feel the dry heat.

In the shot of Hamley Bridge. is the blue trackside shed the old version with invisible inside/underside surfaces? Or has dangavel uploaded the updated/fixed version?
 
It's got that real South Australian arid look. I can almost feel the dry heat.

In the shot of Hamley Bridge. is the blue trackside shed the old version with invisible inside/underside surfaces? Or has dangavel uploaded the updated/fixed version?
Thanks Deane. Trying to get the right feel and hoping I have it (well it works for me at least :D). The section up north of Hallet and into Terowie really looks dry and crispy. This area has a lot of red /orange soil. Kind of hard to reuse the same grass textures I've used elsewhere so still trying to get that section right

The shed is the updated version
 
Thanks Deane. Trying to get the right feel and hoping I have it (well it works for me at least :D). The section up north of Hallet and into Terowie really looks dry and crispy. This area has a lot of red /orange soil. Kind of hard to reuse the same grass textures I've used elsewhere so still trying to get that section right

The shed is the updated version
However , you can still see through the roof in several places if you go inside the building, I keep on meaning to let Rico know but too busy with other aspects of the route. SShots look great btw.
 
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