Vanhoover Southern

Just some pics of a route I'm working on, I want to release it when I'm done but I'm not sure how much everyone would like it. -shrugs- Anyway, here are a bunch of WIP shots. Been working on it for about 5 months now, still ALOT to do. Tips welcome. [/IMG]

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WoW! they look great

Thanks AJ.

Why I think you should upload your Route

:wave: Good afternoon joshmeister,

I would like to share my thoughts in the hope that it will help your decision as to whether or not you make your Route available on DLS?

Generally anyone can upload whatever they want to DLS, when it comes to Routes, you need to make sure your dependencies you used in the Route are available for the end user, or if not explain how they may be obtained, location, free or cost involved. When a member downloads your Route it can be frustrating when they find several things missing and haven't a clue as to where to find said items.

Quality not Quantity is a measure of success in my books, it speaks loudly, so when I have downloaded Routes in the past, I have found out that what was said was not what was advertised. A Route with one track going in a circle on one board and in some cases a single Track......Really have to wonder what people where thinking when they uploaded this to DLS?

Now lets discuss your Route a bit, you are off to a great Start:

You provided us great pictures to get visual idea of what your creating.

It has good looking Scenery (looks very natural)

Very interesting Shunting Tracks in Picture Msg #1 (peaked my interest)

A city concept. Everything is neatly laid out not all jammed together.( its ok to Jam things together in some settings, but my preference is to have some logical symmetry)

5 months invested in it, says you are serious about making a creation that you feel good about.....

So at this point, I would like you to consider uploading the Route so we can play with it and give you some honest feed back.

What you may or may not know about me, I'm a merger Crazy, I like to take other folks layouts and stitch them together too see what I come out with?

Question is why do this? Well I do not have that great of Creative mind as others here do, and I get some really good ideas on what I think I want by playing and downloading other folks work,,,,,,From yours I just got an idea as to how I want to do some Switching setups in Industrial Yards.

I continue learning everyday from gifted members in this forum. My current Route has 19 merges in it,,call me crazy, and that's OK, I'm good for it! LOL....But it has helped me learn so much over the over the 2 years I have played Trainz. (I started with a simple Trainz Driver2 for Ipad) I still play on it occasionally when the wife isn't playing her games.

So I really hope you will upload your Route when your ready, and I will be one of those who would be happy to Download and play on it.

Thank for your efforts.

Thanks for the kind words Blue, they mean a lot to me. As far as the first pic, that is an unfinished Steam, Diesel and car shop at the south end of the route which is the town of Tall Tale. The major city at the north end is Vanhoover. I'm planing on surrounding the large facility with woods and will have a 5 track flat yard on the other side of the main so that Vanhoover Southern trains can interchange cars with the Equestria National at their junction. (Yes by the way this is a freelanced MLP route in case names didnt already give that away. As far as the route goes, I'm trying to make it as a "Run from the cab" type of route, lots of details close to the tracks, less as you move away, hence why if you look closely at the city of Vanhoover, there actually arn't any roads around all of the buildings as you would be able to see them from the cab or ground level anyway. It worked really well with the LaSalle route for MSTS, which some of this route is based on. One thing I'm not sure I like is grass. I'm using JVC's "wide" splines but I'm not sure if they look good the way I'm doing them or not (My pc is more than strong enough to do what I'm wanting to do. Also, My transition from thick woods, to semi wooded to open fields is terrible, I'm not sure how to go about with a natural look to go from thick woods to open fields and such. Sometimes I wish I could get multiplayer working so I could have others helping me with this route, can be pretty frustrating at times. I'll for sure need ppl to test it when ever I get done with it, maybe even help me wright down all the content, where to get it, and even help me upload it, but thats still a LONG way off. Plus, I'd have to take to a few content creators about engines, rollingstock and buildings I've repainted to reflect my fictional railroads. K&L Trains will be the hardest seeing as how my vintage passenger train is re-skinned from the 819 pack. I'll post more pics later this evening if I feel like working of the route any more, been kind of dicking around with it for the past week or so. -Shrugs.-

You are on the Right Road Sir,,,,

Sorry my memory is not at it's best sometimes,

I might remember better, but someone in the Forum was working on their Route and they would share copies of it I think, and others would work on it as well, and shoot the updated CDP back to the main person that was building the Route.... I don't recall at the moment who it was, I just remember the discussion. I'll do some more searching of that and post here if I find the answer?

Now for the Grass, here is a link and I think this is what might help you with selections for better Grass

https://www.google.com/search?q=Grassy+Grass+for+Trainz&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

As far as seeing items just off the tracks versus, back in the woods where your not running Tracks, I agree, some things depending on your GPU, mine for sure , it's that dumb built in the MOB, I hate it too, will not show until your a certain proximity to them, and in some cases only when your working in Surveyor, so I'm judicious in the amount of items I put far away.

In your pictures I saw the tall buildings too, and agree they look perfect and you wouldn't see the roads in there.......You might just have a short highway somewhere near the tracks, and then have it look like its going to the city, but send it around a curve and into some trees, so it disappears around the Curve, but you think it is headed to the downtown City, the illusion is what I mean if that makes sense?

I like the story line and ideas you have.....One of my friends here would send me a Beta of his work, and then I would run Trains and do things to give him feed back, I think there were 3-4 of us checking out the Route......That's one way you could do it...........

Don't know how to do Multiplayer, or set a Route, as I prefer running my own Game if you know what I mean, some others can probably advise you on how to make your Route Multiplayer compatible.....

I know this is kind of a petty excuse for an update, but I find that trees, bushes and shrubs make for good gap fillers in areas such as a town, I think it looks a little more natural like this and adds just a little more to the area in question.

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Oh Heck no, we like to see the changes too,,,,,,

It's a good thing,

Here is a suggestion to think about when your decorating,

Try things such as a changing your weather up, Stormy, Like Rain or Snow, and also do some night shots with small consist etc, coming across late at night on that diagonal RR Xing this will give you a feel as to how things look, also think about taking a Ride in the Cab of one of your trains.... I found more of my mistakes this way, when I did that, due to the fact it didn't show from the Chase or above view.

In one case, I found a Signal and Sign of some type that had wondered into one of my Tunnels and was affecting my Trainz Speed movement, never noticed or knew they were in there till I did a Cab ride......Who KNEW? I sure didn't......:hehe:


Getting them out of the Tunnel was a Royal Pain in the Neck!!!!

I had to do a deep extraction of 60 feet down, meaning, I had to drop my texture, remove and then re fix the Hill Texture:'( Why u ask, well, I went into Grid View, and could not whatever I did, get the mouse to pick up either of the items, they were out of I guess you would say Sensor Range..... (SCOTTY LAD, Beam me up, and I mean now)


..........Taught me not to Drop things into my Tunnels.

Heres a Vanhoover Southern train roaming its way North bound somewhere along milepost 37 or so, out in the middle of nowhere really, kind of a hike to get out here...


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