UK Content - what do we need?

[jayholland]

@mezzoprezzo,

Casper, I sent you an email a couple of days ago, but I'm not sure my email is working properly. Did you receive it?

J

 

[pfx]

I'm a fiend for trackside infrastructure so anything that be added to that is always a bonus in my book. Perhaps more relay boxes (I can only find 2 that are suitable for UK routes) better cable ducting, and here you must excuse my ignorance, the big yellow cans that seem to squirt oil onto the line? What are those things? One particular infrastructire item I would particularly like to see, is the orange piping used to take cables under the track. I've seen it attached to the likes of point motors but not as a unique item.

Sorry, I'm heading off on a gimmepig rant. Last place I want to be.

 

[Hullbilly]

DMUs

Can you please let me know how to get British DMUs and level crossingsas i have created a British fictional City and like to have right trains on it hope you can help

 

[mezzoprezzo]

@mezzoprezzo,

Casper, I sent you an email a couple of days ago, but I'm not sure my email is working properly. Did you receive it?

J

Hi J.

Yes -all received. I'm half way through a reply and trying to find some file attachments. I hate Vista!
Will reply asap

Cheers
Casper

 

[ray_whiley]

Hi Angela

Glad to hear I am not the only one who gets stared at when taking snaps of what other people think of as 'strange' things

Perhaps the weirdest of mine so far was an alley made of small coloured pebbles. With some computer trickery, that has now seen the light of day as two of my ground texture splines - a) concrete and b) gravel. Perhaps one of these days it might even become a pebbled path!

On second thoughts, I believe it also became the new coal texture used on my coaling stage mentioned above.

Ray

 

[paulzmay]

If you wish for ultra realistic content then go ahead and make some. I am sure all Trainzers would be thankful.
But you might suddenly find out how hard it is to get the texturing right and looking as if it is in the real world, not to mention how the file size may start to bump up.

I try to use actual shots of buildings if possible, but it isn't always as easy as one might think, and getting weathering onto home grown (your own) textures to look right is extremely hard because weathering is very subtle.

And it also make me wonder that with a route full of super assets just how much PC power might be needed to run it?

Angela

The key to getting ultra-realistic content into Trainz without bringing the computer to its knees is LOD. That way you can have an asset that appear detailed in the foreground, but drops details as it recedes into the distance. Combine this with normal mapping to give surfaces some texture, and use a minimum of texture files (i.e. 1 if possible), but keep the resolution reasonably high. Textures derived from real photographs are a huge plus, as that brings out a lot of the subtle shading that is very hard to add in photoshop (yours are always first rate).

It's quite reasonable since TS2009 to use .jpg for the main texture file, as Trainz turns it into a .texture file on commit. This can reduce downloaded file size somewhat.

And while we're asking what we would like to see, I'd like some modern concrete sleepered track with pandrol clips, in both main line and tramway rail weights. And if I'm really pushing it, I'd like animated points to match (or at least track that makes spline points without z-fighting).

Paul

 

[itareus]

......Perhaps a thread on what creators are actually working on might be helpful! ...

Ray,

I have been "messing about" making some road/path splines which match up with your street/avenue assets, albeit with a slightly different texture and am thinking about doing a few more assets - junctions etc. which also will match up with yours. It would be good to have a way of checking that we are not duplicating each others efforts. I don't like "pestering" people with PM's / emails so maybe a forum thread, perhaps a dedicated UK one, is a good idea.

......Also plenty of photos of Portmeirion - in case anyone wants to stage 'The Prisoner' in Trainz .?.....

Hope you are doing an animated "ball" for the beach and some driveable buggys !

Cheers

Chris

 

[ray_whiley]

I have been "messing about" making some road/path splines which match up with your street/avenue assets, albeit with a slightly different texture and am thinking about doing a few more assets - junctions etc. which also will match up with yours. It would be good to have a way of checking that we are not duplicating each others efforts. I don't like "pestering" people with PM's / emails so maybe a forum thread, perhaps a dedicated UK one, is a good idea.

Chris - Thank you for letting me know of your plans and I look forward to seeing your roads, paths and junctions. At the moment I am not thinking of making any new assets of this kind, except perhaps for a few more of my 'ground texture splines' - to use when a clearly defined area of ground texture is needed. Just now I'm updating my earlier 'modern' (1964) UK prefabricated station buildings - now that I have mastered the art of transparency for windows.

Hope you are doing an animated "ball" for the beach and some driveable buggys !

This reminds me of Cyril Freezer's classic comment that the model railway enthusiast who is mainly interested in operation would be satisfied with a train of tennis balls provided that it ran at the correct speed, observed all signals, and followed the rule book (or words to that effect.) Now there's a thought - a tennis ball set up as a loco ...

Ray

 

[falcon500]

Oh, dear. Before I settled on making 1930s vehicles, I made this basic mesh. I have just fished it out again and stuck some wheels on it. I suppose you would like me to finish it...?

More toil...

I have a 1950's Leyland Tiger at a similar stage in Gmax. This is being textured for Rockhampton City Buses in silver and green, was thinking of making a couple in generic colours too as these were used in many countries. Similar to picture. Should be useful for UK and Ireland routes.

 

[klambert]

I think as a whole the UK Content has some major holes in it that are slowly but surely being filled. I just wish that I had the patence to learn Gmax to contribute, and a decent re-skinning program like photoshop.

Another thing were a bit thin on the ground with is the latest privatisation company rolling stock liveries, my point is that I have found some Class 315s, but they are in First Great Eastern livery which would be fine if you were making a route that was based 5 years ago, but we havnt got any 315s in the NXEA Blue & White Liveries. At the the moment I'm trying to fill the gap with some of my 317 reskins but they're not great.

Also is there any Eurostar sets on the DLS?

 

[jayholland]

klambert.

If you want to re-skin, try GIMP - it's free, and I think it is as good as Photoshop.

J.

 

[angelah]

First set

Here is the first set of light industrial units....

As can be seen there are several that can be mixed and matched. On the left is the full set as a complete module and then they gradually decrese in 3, 3, 1 and then the office.

Now working on a second set.

Angela

 

[Kessica]

..
As for future plans, well, whilst on holiday in Llandudno I photographed a lifebuoy on the prom, a litter bin and some other items which probably attracted some puzzled stares.

I was the laughing stock of London Area Sea Cadets last weekend. Whilst we were there for shooting practise I took quite a few pictures of various buildings and stuff for textures. The cadets couldnt understand why I was taking pictures of bricks and windows :hehe: but we had a giggle about it.

Longmoor has some amazing Edwardian buidlings and one has a crest in it so it is quite rare as Edward abdicated after a very short reign. The general public are not able to visit these places so these are good oppurtunities to get some awesome textures and hopefully more accurate period buildings uploaded. It is not until you see the architecture that you realise just how much effort went into some of these buildings... the detail in the brick work is staggering. And you should see the fireplaces inside!

 

[robd]

...Longmoor has some amazing Edwardian buidlings and one has a crest in it so it is quite rare as Edward abdicated after a very short reign...

Kessica.

Just a note to say I think you're getting your Edwards mixed up. The Edwardian period 1901 - 1910 was named after Edward VII, he died in 1910.

The Edward who abdicated was Edward VIII, he abdicated in 1936 after a reign of just a few months in order to marry Wallace Simpson, which was a great scandal in those times. The Edwardian period was long over by the 1930's.

It would be interesting to know what the crest is representing, do you know?

Rob.

 

[Kessica]

I am not a historian by a long way. The crest is Edward VIII as you can see by the image. Would this be classed as Georgian then? It is difficult to determine the actual date the date of the building unless it went up in the 325 days of his reign.... I wish I had studied history more when I was at school, but in those days I found it boring. How things have changed

 

[pfx]

I know this is heading slightly off topic but the motto is that of the Order of the Garter. The initials on that crest would appear to be E viii R. The current crest having E ii R at it's centre. The crest itself is that of the Royal Engineers.

While the crest doesn't relate to the period known as Edwardian in architectural and cultural terms, it would certainly seem to reference Edward VIII, regardless of his short time on the throne. I'm speculating by saying this particular building was perhaps opened during that time but without any further details, I can't say for certain.

 

[robd]

I know this is heading slightly off topic but the motto is that of the Order of the Garter. The initials on that crest would appear to be E viii R. The current crest having E ii R at it's centre. The crest itself is that of the Royal Engineers.

While the crest doesn't relate to the period known as Edwardian in architectural and cultural terms, it would certainly seem to reference Edward VIII, regardless of his short time on the throne. I'm speculating by saying this particular building was perhaps opened during that time but without any further details, I can't say for certain.

I agree with what pfx says.

Rob.

PS. Georgian, early 18th to early 19th century.

 

[Mick_Berg]

I am not a historian by a long way. The crest is Edward VIII as you can see by the image. Would this be classed as Georgian then? It is difficult to determine the actual date the date of the building unless it went up in the 325 days of his reign.... I wish I had studied history more when I was at school, but in those days I found it boring. How things have changed

Definitely not Georgian, this era was pre-Victorian, and before the railway age.

A lot of classical Georgian-looking buildings are in fact Victorian, they were the masters of imitation.

A fine example WAS Euston station, with its massive classical arch. Demolished in the sixties, of course and replaced by the sad shack we see there now. All part of the sixties' governments' plan to continue the work of Adolf Hitler. Do you detect a note of resentment? Sure!!:'(

Mick Berg.

 

[NikkiA]

Definitely not Georgian, this era was pre-Victorian, and before the railway age.

A lot of classical Georgian-looking buildings are in fact Victorian, they were the masters of imitation.

A fine example WAS Euston station, with its massive classical arch. Demolished in the sixties, of course and replaced by the sad shack we see there now. All part of the sixties' governments' plan to continue the work of Adolf Hitler. Do you detect a note of resentment? Sure!!:'(

Mick Berg.

If it's any consolation (and I know it isn't much), they ARE planning on rebuilding it as it was, sometime, soon, real soon, well, once they've made life hard enough on the disabled and less fortunate and thus can afford it.

 

[Mick_Berg]

That's good to know. I think that on the whole, recent work on stations has been pretty good, eg Liverpool Street and St. Pancras.

In the 'fifties there was no money, we were still on our knees after the war. That's why so little was changed, and why anything still standing seemed almost Victorian in appearance.

Then the prosperity of the 'sixties came along, and all hell broke loose.

Mick Berg.