TUME’s Simulation of “The Milwaukee Road”

[StorkNest]

If a creator doesn't reply, just say heck with it and find something else.
I've seen creators forget, get busy with something non-Trainz, move to check another thing about it (like TS12 that is out now), etc.
You can look up their profile and check post activity to get some idea. I guess looking at his, tume is using his Trainz time to check out TS12.

 

[tume]

I guess looking at his, tume is using his Trainz time to check out TS12.

Your are right!!

Sorry at all but I really don't have much time left. TS12 really performs much better than the versions before - especially for large routes. At the moment I am about to create new seasonal textures and seasonal houses for Avery-Drexel and Othello-Kittitas. During the last year I learned a lot about creating and using normal maps and I studied several content creation tutorials and web pages about how to push up my level of work just to be able to supply nice stuff which meets the todays standards.
I did a lot of this tutorial work when I was creating my latest PCC streetcars (Torontor CLRV's and San Franciscos's MUNI PCC's). I needed this break from the Milwaukee Road to clear my mind as I could not find solutions for all of my problems with the MILW-Simulation. Now it seams solutions will become more easy with the new TS12 and its phantastic performance.
I mentioned it before and I have to do so once again - my real life job (where the mony comes from) keeps me very busy and also I spend some of my speare time with my family.
Again - I hope all this is understandable. I am looking forward to stuff which is ready and good enough to by released, but it need time. Also the today's nice possibilities even requires more time to create stuff that looks as good as the stuff created by other creators who also whants to supply nice content.
As soon as I will be able to come up with some new screens from my latest work I will do so to share the state with all of you.

Your's TUME :wave:

 

[kwt96]

O.K., thanks very much for the reply.

But are you still going to upload your content for TRS2004-TRS2006 and newer??

It's a yes/no question. Sorry for not metioning that in my questions.

thanks,
kwt96

 

[daylightguy]

Back to the topic of 265 it looked like IRM tryed to do a cosmetic restoration to the old girl and gave up it looks like, it would be cool to see 265 steaming agin, and that Idea for the model for bachmann would be pretty cool id like to have it as a spectrum sound engin. and P.S. TUME keep up the good work.

 

[SpeedRacerFan5]

Back to the topic of 265 it looked like IRM tryed to do a cosmetic restoration to the old girl and gave up it looks like, it would be cool to see 265 steaming agin, and that Idea for the model for bachmann would be pretty cool id like to have it as a spectrum sound engin. and P.S. TUME keep up the good work.

Only problem with making the Milwaukee Road S3 4-8-4's into Spectrum Series W/Sound models is the sound decoder as there is no Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder with accurate sounds for the S-3 class. I could see them making it a standard series model with road numbers like 265, 260, and "Railfan" 261. But not as a spectrum with sound model.

 

[daylightguy]

Yeah I know but heay a guy can dream.

 

[tume]

Loco upgrade for TC3 up to TS12 in progress.

Hallo @ all,

as mentioned before, my work at the Milwaukee Road Othello – Kittitas route as well as at the Milwaukee Road Avery – Drexel (redesign) route goes hand in hand with the improvement of all of my locomotives. This also will include the 4-8-4
Please don’t ask about a time schedule!!! ;-)

For the first time, I am about to remove my trailing bogey arrangement solution. Until some days ago, I still used the “extra sub-bogey car” to be coupled behind the locos to provide a trailing bogey which follows on top the rails when the loco moves through a curve. Those who know my Milwaukee Road Avery – Drexel route at TS2010 will know what I mean.

I invented that “extra sub-bogey car method” for the trailing bogey arrangement at the time I started to create my Boxcab Electrics and there was no other way to go unless to stay with a trailing bogey which leaves the rails through any curves.
Later at TC3 a new solution has been invented by Auran and new tags for the bogey arrangement at the config.txt became available. Unfortunately I did not know that during the time I made all the needed locos ready to became builtin content for the Avery – Drexel route.

Besides some texture improvement and the creation of normal maps for several surfaces the bogey arrangement update will be the major improvement at the locos. Also all locos will be upgraded for the minimum version of 2.7. Therefore it will be usable from TC3 up to TS12.

See some state of work process below. The screens indicates the “Four Boxcab Unit – E25”. Such units used to be the most powerful locos at the Milwaukee Road. This special unit, the E25, once served at the electrified section between Othello and Tacoma and had mostly been assigned for the “Beverly Helper Service” as midtrain helpers had been required to pull the heavy transcontinental fright form Beverly, Wa up the 2.2% grade over the Boylston Pass and down into Kittitas Valley. In the opposite to some other “Boxcab Units” the C and D units of the E25 used to be shortened and got its driver cab removed. Therefore the trailing bogey became obsolete as the main result of this changing.
In the opposite of my E29 boxcab set included in TS2010, this version now contains running numbers. There will be a little roster outlined at the description in the config. txt just to tell the users which combination of numbers should be used exclusively to get a numbering which is historically right ;-)

Please Note – all screens had been taken at TC – I will post some TS12 screens later on.

Some C units had not been shortened but got its pantograph removed, just like the C unit of the E29 and E39. The screen below indicated the non shortened C unit in 50’s livery and numbered as E39C.

Unfortunately I found only a few photos about the internal view of a Boxcab driver cab. These photos mainly indicates the area around the control devices. The photographers mostly used to seat at the drivers position and got its view outside towards the tracks. Therefore it was possible to meet the real thing quite close in the matter of the control devices. But I am not really sure about the appearance of the other corners of the driver cab. Therefore I completed these areas with my fantasy in hope its not too far away from the reality like it was during operation time of this locos.

Your's TUME

:wave:

 

[sawyer811]

mmm...can't wait! gotta love Milwaukee Maroon and Orange!

 

[tume]

Boxcabs at Othello - Kittitas TS12

Hallo,

here some screens from Othello - Kittitas at TS12 within the redesigned Boxcabs.

A westbound train led by E39 is ready to continue westward to Kittitas.

The "Beverly Helper" E25 has been coupled about 40 cars back into the train.

The train moves out of Beverly, Wa to cross the Columbia River.

The train crosses the Beverly Bridge. The impressive Bridge still remains above the river but has been closed for all traffic. Its not even open for people cross the river.

At the west bank appeares Beverly Junction. The "Hanford Branch" splits of the mainline and bends to the left hand side.

I replaced most of the DLS ground texture been built in back in TRS2004/2006 time to put forward with new 2048x2048 season ground texture created by me. Some textures needs to be done as you can see at some places up the slope. Also I invented rock face spline objects to meet the appearence of the rock cliffs in a more realistic way.

I created the grass as clutter mesh comming along with the ground texture. The bushes are parts of LOD spline objects that disappeares in a distance of about 800 metres. But this is still in an experimental state. Also I need to redesign the telegraph lines for a better appearence as it does now.

The "Beverly Helper" passes by as the train goes up the 2.2% grade up to Boylston Pass.


Your's TUME

 

[kittycraft]

Beautiful job Tume.
Question, are those Pipe like loads in the update?
I don't want them, just wondering.

 

[Adamovic]

Excellent job tume. Looks absolutely stunning! Keep up the great work man.

 

[RoysTrainz]

I can imagine what it takes to revamp the entire route

congrats my friend beautiful how you attack things and make them look great. Just be careful with splines like rock you get the repetition to fast and also the light works different than when work with the terrain and ground textures, but that is my personal opinion not critics. Well done, bravo Roy

 

[tume]

congrats my friend beautiful how you attack things and make them look great. Just be careful with splines like rock you get the repetition to fast and also the light works different than when work with the terrain and ground textures, but that is my personal opinion not critics. Well done, bravo Roy

Hallo,

I agree with you about the repetition of rock splines. Therefore I will have to make a set of such splines. Not with a complete new texture, but with some differences in it which take place in the middle part of the rock texture. This will prevent too much of repetition and any visible transition at the positions where one spline object ends and the other starts at the same spline point.

I have got the same experiences about the different lightning between ground texture and objects like splines. The best way would be to get the possibility to add a tag into the config which makes the lightning for a spline object or a non spline object the same as the ground texture. I think a lot of creators would appreciate this.
May I should send this to N3V too just to see what they say ;-)

In between there are several ways to keep the visible effect of the different lightning at a low level.

First: The texture of the horizontal mesh providing the grass surface has to be adjusted very carefully (unfortunately by try and error) until the effect reaches as low as it can be.

Second: Creation of two spline objects looking like the same thing, but for two different orientations. One spline object for the cliffs running more - less from south to north and one for the cliffs running more - less from east to west. This can help to minimize the different lightning between ground texture and objects because the lightning also depends on the orientation – off course as it depends at the sun position.

Third: The placement of grass and bush objects along the border of the ground and the horizontal mesh of the cliff spline helps to hide the “lightning border” between the ground and the horizontal mesh.

Fourth: The cliff spline has been created as a “bridge” object containing an invisible AJS spline. For some reason this also kept the different low. Also it opens the possibility to include a shadow file which is provided within a bridge object.

Fortunately the different lightning between the ground and the cliff spline only effects the appearance of the horizontal mesh which provides the ground surface just until the rock cliff falls down creating the steep slope. Any different lightning between the ground and the vertical mesh which provides the rock cliff itself does not look bad at all.



I already realised point one and four. The screen indicates the situation with a sun position at 12:00 a clock. You can see the transition between the ground and the horizontal mesh surface of the spline object if you watch carefully. Still I did not place bushes along this border but I think it will help a lot to hide the transition line. Also I hope that such bushes wil move the attention of the users eye away from the transition towards the "Cover Bushes". I will see to take another screen at morning and another at evening time, but this will have to wait until tomorrow ;-)

Your’s TUME

 

[denis73]

Hello dear TUME

I'm on Trainz 2010 for 2 months now, as I test the software was the first map I've run over, and this is my favorite route in the map supplied with Trainz 2010

I made screenshots of the session, it's really great, I love the atmosphere of this route:

For holders of Trainz 2010 you probably tested at least once this beautiful map produced by Tume, the Milwaukee Road.

The beginning of the session:

You have to go to the hub of Avery, set the locomotive on the plate and put it in the right direction, then back to the station to get head of the convoy cargo.

It's quite pleasant as simulation, all the maps supplied with Trainz 2010, I think that it is the prettiest.

I obviously made ​​screens throughout the course, they are:

 

[denis73]

Yeah complete session with successfully



Biggest thanks to Tume,
i'm will be very interrested for the future of this map

 

[RoysTrainz]

very nice Denis

good shots Denis represents the route at his real value. Hallo Tume, danke fur deine Antwort und Sehenweise thanks for the response and thoughts of it. I keep my splines in my route to absolute minimum and notice that objects are much more forgiven in big routes as they are handled per baseboard/view depth but with splines you tend to connect to deep and make the program to run for things beyond the horizon. I saw this problem already using 2009-2010 and only splines for routes, poles that's it. and yes track. Look how i tackle trenches, or ravines etc with what type of textures than you not need splines at all and have a good to very good result and best fps and lighting not lightning as you use that word wrong lightning if it hits you your probably dead lol. If you see my pictures you will see the enormous size of the entire landscape but the organization and placing of object per board is crucial for good speed and fps. Keep up the good work Tume best regards Roy

 

[tume]

Hallo Denis,

it is always nice to see that people likes my work and plays a lot with the Avery – Drexel route. Thank you very much to share your train operations with us by taking and uploading your screens.
Have fun with TS2010 – there is a lot of very nice other stuff at it as well. Just have also a look into the routes which have not been marked with a yellow star in the route list. There you can find even routes from TS2009 (The Nidderthalbahn” for instance). I can recommend to take a look into that routes too. My complements goes to the creators of that routes.

Your’s TUME :wave:



Hallo Roy,

thank you very much for your description about single object and spline behaviour. May I should learn a bit more about the theory how trainz deals with the different kind of content.

Back in TRS2004 times, as I started my work at the Milwaukee Othello – Kittitas route, I always had problems to get too much of details into a route. The number of objects like bushes and so on, had to be handles very carefully. Once I created a track like it is standard not with a real rail profile and sleepers created from boxes in gmax. Then I imported that track replacing the previous version. But as LOD was not available back that time, my PC just stopped doing anything after I opened the route – but the track looked great, only you could not do anything in a proper time. Well – I just wanted so see what is possible.

Sometimes it is useful to do such a tests. So I did yesterday too. It was a test about the bush ground cover. As I described before I use clutter mesh for dry grass tufts. Unfortunately it appears not in a density I would like to see, but it looks ok. Also I don’t know any way to influent the density of clutter mesh. But anyway, I am quite happy with that so far.
For the bushes I created 40x40 Metres LOD splines which I pasted everywhere into the landscape. My aim was to save on power, therefore I created LOD splines. Also I created the texture for each LOD step more and more transparent so that the bushes indicated far away does not create a sharp “borderline” of disappearance when the last LOD view ends and the landscape is only covered by texture.
I was quite happy with my solution, but I noticed that the performance started to get slower. I asked myself, why the Avery Drexel route seems to perform better than the Othello – Kittitas route now although I used to put thousands of single tree objects into it. Does the splines makes the different?
So yesterday, I just created four types or single bush objects and pasted it into a huge area like the bush-cover-splines before. I was surprised because the performance now is better again.

Your description tells me, that I came to the right conclusion. So I will put forward in using single objects.
Because of the cliffs – I invented the splines because I have a lot of steep slopes to be created but the track goes not even in a nice angle to the tilling lines. This makes such cliffs and slopes quite bad looking. This is just because of the geometry and can not be changed in my point of view – not even with the best ground texture. But I agree using splines would be a disadvantage. But I can imagine to create several single cliff objects in a way that it can be lined up side by side (the mesh needs to provide some overlap sections to prevent a bad looking transition between such cliff objects). By the way, I used the same technique for some of the cliffs in my Avery – Drexel route. If you would have a look just between the “Bear Creek Trestle” and the “Russel Creek Trestle” (both situated at the south side of “Loop Creek Valley”) you will find it. There I faced the same problem as the track goes in a very bad angle to the tilling lines which make it very hard to create nice looking cliffs.


Your’s TUME


PS: Thanks for the correction of the light … I have to apologize for my bad English spelling.

 

[RoysTrainz]

Hallo Tume

you not have to apologize and it was not critics just a little hint about certain words real meaning but everybody understand you well. Ye the orientation of the track on the map can be very tricky in certain places and have to be camouflaged so to speak. Glad to see you find out splines are nasty fps killers so try to stay away from that technique. I did notice that already in TRS2004 way back but the choices of stuff was not that big as it is now. I am very happy I could help out a little bit and make you and me feel good that is what Trainz and Trainz community is about. Could be an example for the real ugly nasty world out there. Have a wonderful day my friend Roy

 

[RoysTrainz]

what is wrong with the editor it screws up

yesterday and today the forum editor/ replier keep bugging me putting everything in one string/line and no smilies no spaces hmm what next? Roy

 

[Milwaukeeroad261]

wow, to think this all became mostly a forgotten piece of history, until tume stepped in. well done my friend, well done indeed.