Model Railroadz

Nice screen shot Norm ... but since Narrow Gauge is my normal home mine would read "Gone standard gauge logging on Lillyput Logging" taking a Lima B28-2shay, 2 climax's oil and coal fired and a Hiesler... there is some generic logging flats and high and low gondolas plus i've been using Central Pacific Railroad items as well.


Tom

Phil- You know, its sort of ironic. Every time I've moved forward to the next iteration of trainz, it usually has to do with one of your updated routes. I think last time it was trinity bay. This time its gonna be cilie oldphartz. The beta stream process sounds very cut throat. Sounds like something with a lot of negative potential, like you're basically relying on your beta testers to go the extra mile and be both well rounded and objective. It does seem like the model railroading side of trainz is at some risk of being left behind. Maybe time to regroup and strategize? Honestly cilie oldphartz is an awesome route. The mining narrow gauge version is my favorite, I've gotten a lot of operating potential out of it. I did make a couple changes, hope its cool!



Also, I noticed that a perfect shadow track object for the tunnel portal you're using is up on the DLS, did you notice it? I looked closely at your video to see if you might have added it, but couldn't be certain. This is also a good a time to say that your adaptations of these track plans is awesome man, they are super fun to drive on and operate.

Tstead - That makes perfect sense! lol I bet that is fun using diverse logging cars, keeps things interesting.

edit - name of that track object (just incase) is Portal Tunnel Shadow 1v760mm <kuid:177684:45>

After reading your post #3140 Phil now I know why nothing much in the way of new DLC is ever released and why anything new is vanilla mainstream of little interest to anyone who has interests outside of that. I think it's pretty poor though that anything submitted falls into a black hole and creators aren't given any feedback as to progress or what is happening with what they've created.

Phil,
I'm kind of stunned by that information. All your routes have been very successful, and when you updated some of them, they have all shown the best new parts of TRS19 in very positive light. I'd say that many people picked up TRS19 just because of you updating your amazing routes into TRS19, and showing off new things like the new turfX and other effects. If anything, I would have expected that any route you submitted would be rushed into the downloads, simply on your reputation alone. It is free advertizing for N3V to show off how great TRS19 is.

I don't know what else to say. Your routes are always special, extremely popular, and very well done.

Heinrich505

Heinrich505 said:

Phil,
I'm kind of stunned by that information. All your routes have been very successful, and when you updated some of them, they have all shown the best new parts of TRS19 in very positive light. I'd say that many people picked up TRS19 just because of you updating your amazing routes into TRS19, and showing off new things like the new turfX and other effects. If anything, I would have expected that any route you submitted would be rushed into the downloads, simply on your reputation alone. It is free advertizing for N3V to show off how great TRS19 is.

I don't know what else to say. Your routes are always special, extremely popular, and very well done.

Heinrich505

Click to expand...

Pardon my confusion here. Is DLC payware? Is what you are talking about also applicable to your uploaded freeware routes?

Hi Heinrich --

Thanks for those comments. They are appreciated. The comment about free advertising for N3V. Yes, and they also get part of the revenue generated, which I've always thought is one way that I can pay N3V for the pleasure I derive from Trainz. I suggested a price of $10 for the Odphartz, which I thought was reasonable for the three included layouts and would also be affordable for most people.

Hi pitkin --

DLC = Down Loadable Content. A euphemism for payware. This is the content you buy from the Trainz Store, here:

https://store.trainzportal.com/

On the other hand the material that is available from the Download Station and through Manage Content is free. Content creators upload this material to share with others. They get no rewards (apart from the comments from the likes Heinrich, above).

In my particular case I enjoy the challenge of spacial relationships and constructing railroads that could never exist in real life. I try to make the routes and layouts so that they do have a purpose, like real railroads, which is generating revenue by providing a service to those who want something moved from one location to another. I also try to make them entertaining -- multiple levels, interactions with AI trainz, operational challenges, ... .

I figure that if I like the outcome others might like it too. But I'm also aware that I'm very reliant on other content creators -- those with the incredible skills to make the structures, textures, tracks, locomotives, freight cars ... . To me they are the real heroes and I'm just the journeyman who puts it all together.

Phil

Philskene.

One reason I like your routes and sessions so much is because they seem to be grimy and run down (sorry), just like real railroad settings here in the United States. You can almost smell the smoke and feel your hands getting dirty.

pitkin --

Dirty, grimy, run down, dilapidated? Yes, I think my latest, "Krashnburne", is all of those:



"Deepwater" too:



Maybe even the "Hoofhearted & Smelz":



And the "Innter Kohn Necktion":



It's not a model railroad, "Rivercide" has the model railroad feel:



Though I think we all have to admit that smyers (image towards the top of this page) is the supreme Grand Master of achieving this effect.

Phil

philskene said:

Seven (yes SEVEN) months ago I put this version into the N3V DLC approval stream. Waited, waited, waited, ... . Asked for an update -- no reply. Asked again, and again, ... . Last week in desperation I emailed Tony Hillian. Three days ago I received an email from Paul Olsen that the Oldphartz had been marked "failed" because I needed to re-submit the package in the new N3V evaluation process. This creates a dilemma for me.

My reading of the new process is that I submit the layout, the N3V "system" builds it into a package suitable for release, I download the package and test it, and then if I deem it satisfactory it goes into the Beta Testing phase. Now to quote from the N3V documentation:

"Once 10 or more beta testers claim your package the status of your Project will change to Beta Testing. During the beta testing phase if all beta testers complete their testing before the beta testing period is finished then the beta testing round will be marked complete."

It's the "claim" bit that causes me concern. Presumably there is a continuous flow of content entering the Beta Testing. Now say, for example, there are 40 beta testers. Perhaps only eight of these may have any interest in model railroads. And of those eight perhaps four might be interested only in UK model railroads. In this hypothetical case there will never be ten testers to claim The Oldphartz, the layout will linger in the process for eternity, by which time both you and I will be even older oldphartz.

Click to expand...

Hi Phil
Part of the reason for the change to the new DLC system is to avoid the massive delays that the old manual system entailed, especially if our team were busy (Which they generally are).

For the new system, this is still coming together at the moment. Some of the information provided is still a bit of a work in progress, as is the system itself (although it's pretty good so far), or is based on how the system will work when fully adopted.

For the beta testing specifically, as we are still bringing people onboard with the new system, testing will in part be done by our own QA team to speed things up a little until we have a large pool of beta testers involved. So the '10 testers' minimum isn't currently active (but the information is there for when it becomes active, so it can't be forgotten when this happens!). The hope is that when we have a larger pool of testers, that few if any DLC packs will be 'missed'. And if we find that DLC packs aren't going into beta testing quickly enough, we will look at changing the requirements to go into beta as needed

Believe me, we want to streamline the DLC packaging and release system as much as possible, as that will definitely benefit everyone!

Unfortunately this change does require the DLC packs to be submitted in the new tzarc format, which will require TRS19 SP2 when released (or the TRS19 Platinum Edition, or the last 2 TrainzPlus releases). We're hoping to be able to announce more regarding TRS19 SP2 soon, but I can't currently say exactly when.

These changes have been in the pipeline for quite some time, but unfortunately with a small team it can mean that some things take longer than we would sometimes prefer to. This has included processing of DLC packs, and is why we want to streamline it as much as possible.

Regards

I can tell you, the new TCCP is pretty nice. I been testing it and have a few packages built, just not into beta as they're too big in size that a traditional version of Trainz won't be able to handle. They also updated the content creators login page, so you are redirected to the new TCCP system. If you want to hear more, DM me.

-----------------------------
Got a few pics of my model Trainz route that'll someday be released.





Cheers

Many thanks Phil. That means a lot coming from a top tier route builder...



Much of the effect is from JohnnyC1's ground textures. They're terrific.

Best,
smyers

Hi Zec --

Thanks for that reply.

SP2? I didn't even know it was in the works. I'm still using TRS19 without SP1 for route construction because it has the undo/redo buttons at the top of the screen. For reasons that I cannot comprehend these were removed in SP1. Those buttons are absolutely essential when making routes and layouts. Please hasten to reassure me the buttons will be reinstated in SP2.

I don't have the Platinum or Plus edition of TRS19. So, please correct me if I'm wrong, but:

• 
  [*=1]I cannot use the old method of getting DLC into your evaluation system because the old method has been superseded.
  [*=1]I cannot use the new system because I don't have the required version of TRS19.
  [*=1]I will have to await SP2 to use the new system, but the release of this update may be days/weeks/months/years (select the correct duration) away.

In the words of Indiana Jones's father "My situation has not improved." And "It's intolerable."


Zec -- any suggestions?
_____

hiawathamr --

That looks good. TurfFX. Good to see you are using it. It's a pity many TRS19 route constructors don't. It's a bit of challenge but well worth it.
_____

symers --

I really enjoy your scenes. I agree those textures are excellent and certainly add to the overall effect of decay and neglect. The only drawback is that many of the textures are not seasonal.
_____

Klozett RRCo:







Phil

philskene said:

Hi Zec --

Thanks for that reply.

SP2? I didn't even know it was in the works. I'm still using TRS19 without SP1 for route construction because it has the undo/redo buttons at the top of the screen. For reasons that I cannot comprehend these were removed in SP1. Those buttons are absolutely essential when making routes and layouts. Please hasten to reassure me the buttons will be reinstated in SP2.

I don't have the Platinum or Plus edition of TRS19. So, please correct me if I'm wrong, but:

• 
  [*=1]I cannot use the old method of getting DLC into your evaluation system because the old method has been superseded.
  [*=1]I cannot use the new system because I don't have the required version of TRS19.
  [*=1]I will have to await SP2 to use the new system, but the release of this update may be days/weeks/months/years (select the correct duration) away.

In the words of Indiana Jones's father "My situation has not improved." And "It's intolerable."

Zec -- any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Hi Phil
Unfortunately to be able to implement the new processing system, we have had to replace the old TCCP system rather than introduce it alongside.

So as to be able to process the DLC packs correctly, the new DLC upload system can only accept uploads through the new in-game upload system (note, this system does generate a file that can be manually uploaded as well if needed ).

We don't currently have a release date for TRS19 SP2, however we hope to be able to announce further news on this in the near future. Once TRS19 SP2 is release, you will be able to upload routes using the new 'Open TCCP Project List' tool in TRS19.

Unfortunately we cannot accept cdp files for DLC pack submissions anymore, and as such until TRS19 SP2 is released any in development or as yet unfinished/unreleased DLC packs (unless actively in beta testing, and not requiring any further changes) will not be able to be processed.

The only suggestion I can make in this case is to email the content team at contentcreators(at)n3vgames(dot)com (replace '(at) with '@' and '(dot)' with '.').

In regards to the undo/redo buttons, the changes to the interface in Surveyor were made to bring the interface into line with the Driver interface, in particular with changes both introduced in Trainz Plus releases and planned for future. Please note, TRS19 SP1 is essentially the Trainz Plus '2' release, with a system that turns off some features when Trainz Plus access is not detected and as such both use the same interfaces/etc in-game, and any changes made to handle Trainz Plus features may carry across into TRS19. That said, we are looking at options relating to this, but we cannot say what may happen in future releases at this stage.

Regards

All that makes me wonder why anyone would want to bother with submitting anything to the DLC program. Making a decent route is hard enough and then there's all this to face to get it through the gate. And having done that it might not even be accepted because the beta testers aren't interested in what you've done.

Lillyput logging SG ... Waiting for the yard master to decied where to leave the fresh drinking water at the logging camp

Ah, Tom, the Lilliput Logger (with an "i" not "y") -- yet another of my TRS19 layouts.



Your screen grab is from the standard gauge version. There is also a narrow gauge variant:





Phil

philskene said:

_____

hiawathamr --

That looks good. TurfFX. Good to see you are using it. It's a pity many TRS19 route constructors don't. It's a bit of challenge but well worth it.
_____

Phil

Click to expand...

Cheers Phil!
It took me awhile to get the hang of using the TurfFX, but once I mnaged to do it, it's pretty easy (basically what you said). I know it doesn't work with 10m baseboards that well, but when its 5m, then things are much easier and can achieve some excellent results (like in the screenshots I shared).
I personally find it much better on performance than I did when I was using the spline grass back in the TANE days and haven't used the splines so much, but there were times the TurfFX grass won't work at certain angles that splines had to be used (provided you could find ones that looked good in TRS19...).
Pretty much all of my routes(excluding desert routes) uses TurfFX now, and most of my TANE DLC's (excluding certain routes) had the splines replaced with TurfFX, as its just perfect.

----------------------------------------------------------
A few more screenies:





Cheers

Just an afternoon run around Whamm0's lovely Oyster Bay layout.








Cheers,
Piere.

As mentioned here I am posting some of my efforts at small layouts. Most are taken from Model Railroader.

Pike City


Toledo


Sheepscot (HOn2 but twice the size of the Model Railroader original to get it to work)


Tar Branch (work in progress)


Zanesville


Port Ogden and Northern (a rework of slickerj's version of the original plan)


Piddle Town. Don't snigger, it was a genuine place here in Dorset. It has now become Puddletown (just east of Dorchester) but if you look at the first edition of the Ordnance Survey one inch map from the early 19th century you will find all the Puddles were Piddles and we still have Piddlehinton, Piddletrenthide and the River Piddle. So perhaps the Tolpuddle Martyrs should be the Tolpiddle Martyrs (at the time they were referred to as the Dorsetshire Martyrs).

True enough that many published model railway plans are highly optimistic about what can be fitted into the plan. Most need some measure of reworking so it's possible to actually build them.
Nice work John. I tend to think that smaller layouts are more in the spirit of the TMR format.