UK Content - Work in Progress

[ray_whiley]

Looking forward to seeing these, Chris.

I know the problem about computer time being limited - same here! - so let no-one think that being retired solves the problem! And once I've done something, I always seem to realise immediately that there's a better way of doing it - so back to the 'virtual' drawing board. At least, correcting errors on computer is much easier than with a card/wood/plastic model.

Ray

 

[angelah]

From my own thread

This is a shot from my 'I'm back!' thread just in case you miss it...

WIP on another corner shop, an estate agents and surveyors so it will come under my Commercial heading. Struggled a bit with this one but now it's coming together. Still some tweaking to be done yet though.

Angela

 

[DavidBrown]

Great work as usual there, angelah.

I've uploaded the complete set of UK warning and regulatory road signs which are all available on the DLS. I've also uploded the first of my motorway signs;

Also, a sneaky peak of my first building. I won't be uploading this yet, as my ameteur skills will certaintly show on a model like this, but my intenion is to release everything I create as my skills, and therefore my assets, improve.

 

[privite]

Hi,

I am currently making the West somerset railway with custom content. Im going to upload a few bits of my content somewhere but if if you want some of the buildings etc please feel free to PM me and i will send it over. Also feedback would be great . I have 2 threads on it which include screenshots etc. Hope you like it. Here's a few though:

thanks

 

[angelah]

Looks good

Great work as usual there, angelah.

I've uploaded the complete set of UK warning and regulatory road signs which are all available on the DLS. I've also uploded the first of my motorway signs;

Also, a sneaky peak of my first building. I won't be uploading this yet, as my ameteur skills will certaintly show on a model like this, but my intenion is to release everything I create as my skills, and therefore my assets, improve.

Hi,
Now that looks good to me for a first building attempt. If you want an opinion send me a cdp and I'll have a closer look at it. Ray Whiley and I do this for each others assets just to check before sending them up and I find it helps me enormously.

Ange;a

 

[Deano5]

All of Britain's best come together in one magnificent thread. Well done guys n gals, top job everyone. :wave:

 

[Kessica]

I dont want to highjack this thread, but whilst on UK content and getting some practise in before uploading, I thought I would do a Victorian Terraced Shop after looking at some very old pictures of early 1900s. I think it could be used for most periods. Although the old style canopies are not usually found these days. A few mods to the skin and a high street front could be easily accomodated.

Im off to an MOD camp this weekend and there some stunning Edwardian buildings so needless to say Ill be taking my camera. Texture hunting will of course be one of my activities LOL.

Any thoughts on the model below?

Oh, 130 polys... too many ?

 

[uracco]

I don't know whether I can upload it, but I am doing a First TransPennine class 170 turbostar to go with my London Overground and London Midland Clas 172's.

 

[johnwhelan]

I dont want to highjack this thread, but whilst on UK content and getting some practise in before uploading, I thought I would do a Victorian Terraced Shop after looking at some very old pictures of early 1900s. I think it could be used for most periods. Although the old style canopies are not usually found these days. A few mods to the skin and a high street front could be easily accomodated.

Im off to an MOD camp this weekend and there some stunning Edwardian buildings so needless to say Ill be taking my camera. Texture hunting will of course be one of my activities LOL.

Any thoughts on the model below?

Oh, 130 polys... too many ?

There is an overhead of 300 poly equivalents per mesh and 200 per texture so each model has a hidden overhead of 500 polys so 130 polys isn't that bad. Don't forget TS2010 has DXT texture compression so the textures can be four times larger for the same impact.

The real way to drop the impact is do a block of houses, such as Albert street, up to 48 units of housing in one asset.

Nice to see you back.

Cheerio John

 

[itareus]

Any thoughts on the model below?

Oh, 130 polys... too many ?

Looks excellent !!

As for the poly count I would say that 130 is a very good (well low) figure for that building, so good in fact that I have to ask ask what the source of the poly count was (GMax, Blender or one of PEV's tools?).

Cheers

Chris

 

[Kessica]

That was the count from GMax. I am quite good at optimising meshes manually and reworking polys to reduce the count. The texture file is mainly hand crafted... Taken me most of the day working at pixel level getting the bricks right. Still 256 x 256 pixels. Small but reasonable detail. The shop front is another texture 128 x 128. I thought it better to have 2 small textures than 1 large one with wasted space.

Remember back with the first Trainz? Poly counts were so important. I guess Im still old school as it were.

Kess

 

[paulzmay]

That was the count from GMax. I am quite good at optimising meshes manually and reworking polys to reduce the count. The texture file is mainly hand crafted... Taken me most of the day working at pixel level getting the bricks right. Still 256 x 256 pixels. Small but reasonable detail. The shop front is another texture 128 x 128. I thought it better to have 2 small textures than 1 large one with wasted space.

Remember back with the first Trainz? Poly counts were so important. I guess Im still old school as it were.

Kess

As John mentioned, there is a per-texture overhead, so using one large texture would actually be more efficient. Two isn't outlandish though. 130 polys is quite low by today's standards, and there is always the option to use LOD to reduce it further.

I think the per-mesh overhead John mentions is per unique mesh-i.e. two different assets will load slower than two identical ones, or a single asset of twice the size.

There is also now the ability for different assets to share the same texture file by using a mesh library.

Paul

 

[ray_whiley]

As for the poly count I would say that 130 is a very good (well low) figure for that building

Agreed - and I believe within the suggested poly maximum for a building in the TRS2004 days. My current project, the prefabricated station building with interior detail, works out at 1454 at the moment - but I've still got some culling to do.

Ray

Ray

 

[Kessica]

As John mentioned, there is a per-texture overhead, so using one large texture would actually be more efficient. Two isn't outlandish though. 130 polys is quite low by today's standards, and there is always the option to use LOD to reduce it further.

I think the per-mesh overhead John mentions is per unique mesh-i.e. two different assets will load slower than two identical ones, or a single asset of twice the size.

There is also now the ability for different assets to share the same texture file by using a mesh library.

Paul

Is there any documentation on this anywhere? I have been looking but found nothing as yet :'(

 

[itareus]

.....I thought it better to have 2 small textures than 1 large one with wasted space......

I'm no expert on content creation but I think the current 'wisdom' is to have one texture and that large texture sizes are less of a problem than they were. You might like to check this out on the Trainzdev wiki here: http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Main_Page. Also see johwhelan's and paulzmay's posts about the poly count overheads.

.....Remember back with the first Trainz?.....

I remember Stephenson's Rocket well, but it was more fun riding with Richard Trevithick on his first (unnamed) loco!

I usually check out poly counts with PEVs Mesh Viewer. (http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm)

Look forward to seeing more UK content from you in the future, keep us 'posted'.

Chris

 

[johnwhelan]

Is there any documentation on this anywhere? I have been looking but found nothing as yet :'(

There was a very useful forum when they first brought out TS2009 where we found out all sorts of interesting technical gems direct from the developers. Unfortunately it disappeared.

This stuff should be in the wiki somewhere.

Vinnybarb used normal mapping very effectively for a roof on KUID2: 184151:94004:1 and other variations. I suspect that might be easier in 3DS or blender than other tools.

My understanding is the overhead is per material rather than texture so a normal mapped material is the same overhead as a ordinary one.

Cheerio John

 

[paulzmay]

<snip>

My understanding is the overhead is per material rather than texture so a normal mapped material is the same overhead as a ordinary one.

Cheerio John
[/SIZE]

Absolutely. It also means that there is (I believe) not a lot of point in creating more than one material from the same texture.

And Kessica - those texture files are tiny by modern standards. I generally wind up using a single 512x1024 or 1024x1024 for a building of that size. The built-in texture compression (since TS2009) massively reduces the impact of using larger texture files.

Paul

Paul

 

[Kessica]

And Kessica - those texture files are tiny by modern standards. I generally wind up using a single 512x1024 or 1024x1024 for a building of that size. The built-in texture compression (since TS2009) massively reduces the impact of using larger texture files.
Paul

Hmmm This will certainly make it easier to scale the texture correctly so that for example, bricks look right on a building. Nothing worse than seeing massive bricks on a house when they should be around 8 inches long! I know we are looking for an effect here, but if something doesnt look right, it can stand out a mile. I guess Im a perfectionist at heart!

It is a real shame that the engine doesnt support bump-mapping, unless Im mistaken. Altering the normals is a great way to achieve this, but sadly that is not available with gmax. Apart from 3DSMax, do any other free/cheap modelling programs support normal mapping?

Getting back onto topic though, as far as UK content is required, what periods are people more interested in?

Personally I prefer the early 1900s as I love steam. I especially would love to see more of the "back street" engines rather than the pretty, well known ones. For example <grabs book and thumbs through pages>, the "0298" Class used by Southern for urban work. I havent spent much time looking at other models available in the DLS so if there are any areas that are thin on the ground, let me know and Ill try and fill in the gaps. I dont really want to add to a area that is choc-a-block.

Ill be modelling some more animated Traffic Lights and get them working with road systems (may take a while to script) but if I have any old models I can ressurect, test, and upload, it would be a good start.

Kess

 

[paulzmay]

Trainz supports bump-mapping - the original GMax exporters do not, however PEV has made some exporters that use the up-to-date importer. There are also exporters for 3DS and Blender. There is also a way to use the old 3DS exporters with GMax. I've used bump mapping (and a mesh library) on my 'ML1' range of buildings on the DLS.

For traffic lights, have a look at boat's ATLS system - I suspect that he doesn't mind anyone borrowing his script with credit. There are quite a few things (including older style lights and pedestrian lights) that would be a useful addition to what he has already done.

Paul

 

[itareus]

....I've uploaded the complete set of UK warning and regulatory road signs....

Just downloaded these and the appear with no post attached. Is this intentional and if so what post are you using in your preview images?

Cheers.