Route builders - How do you deal with excessive perfectionism?

This has always been a problem for me, and I suspect I'm not alone in this.

If you've ever tried to model a historical prototype, sooner or later you will probably discover that, no matter how much good documentation you have, it can only go so far.
There will always be that one building smack-dab next to your right-of-way that was never photographed, looks like an indecipherable blur in aerial photographs, and there's nobody who remembers what it was.
You can always guess (out of countless possibilities) what it might have been, and put a random, period-appropriate structure there, but there is that one part of you that will always be bugged knowing that it's not accurate.
It doesn't have to be a building, maybe it's an industrial siding that's too blurry on the maps, and you can't tell exactly how or where it diverged from the lead.

Speaking from personal experience, I often find this incredibly frustrating, and I don't think I'm the only one.

To the seasoned route-builders of the community - How did you learn to come to terms with the fact that you're routes will never be perfect, or 100% historically accurate?

In my experience, a perfectionist is one who takes great pains---- and gives them to others.

I worked with a fanatical perfectionist once and he would take hours to make something absolutely perfect--- and many times it would be something that NO ONE, not even in a billion years--- would ever notice. Many times I wanted to tell him, just FINISH it and GET OVER IT!!!!!

Realizing that no one will ever notice or really care as long as you have something that reasonably represents that building. And, knowing some other perfectionist will eventually mention it to you so you will be able to put in the correct building.

There comes a point when I say, If I can't find out what it is or was then probably nobody else will so apply creative license and move on to the next problem ;o)

I subscribe to clam1952's point of view.

Back in the early days of building routes for MSTS, I agonised for hours over the possibility the gradient profile was slightly out or didn't match the terrain (post DEM data era). In the end I decided if someone is sad enough to point out the gradient is 1 in x out or stops 1/4 mile short of where it should so I could build the station/yard on the level...I don't give a flying fig! That's not to say detail and accuracy isn't important, unless you want the software equivalent of a child's crayon drawing but needs to be tempered with reality, particularly if on limited time or a raft of other projects you want to do.

If no-one knows what it looks like, how do you know that your guess isn't perfectly right?

I too am a bit of a perfectionist, so it is frustrating when you cant find an image or info on a item, but I've learned to do a section as best I can at present and resolve to improve it in the future, that way i can move on . the biggest frustration is a lack of suitable plants when doing particular areas such as deserts and arid areas , but again, unless we have botanists using routes . as long as you are close, I think it best to make the compromise and decide it can be revised later on.
it works for me to some extent, its also good to have another project in the works to give you the impetus to finish the one you are on so you can move on to the next route.
most people will not notice flaws which you are worried over.

My current WIP is my first experience of trying to construct a genuine prototypical route. After spending many hours, days, weeks even, detailing bits and pieces all over my WIP I reached a point where I felt that I'd had enough. I just felt burnt out and didn't want to do anymore. My interest had died.

I left the route alone for a few weeks after which I felt the urge to return to Trainz in one way or another. After a while, rather tentatively, I reluctantly did a sort of "walk through" on my own WIP to see what it looked like to me after being away from it for an extended period. I didn't wander all over the route but stuck to the path of the railway itself. I really quite liked what I saw but it suddenly dawned on me how much of what I had been doing would not be visible to anyone driving along that route. That I had been worrying and wasting my time on so much that was irrelevant. Most people enjoy Trainz because of the trains, not because of some houses half way up a hillside 15 miles away or the office blocks in the town that the railway just passed through.

When you're building a route, for public consumption at any rate, you have to keep reminding yourself that the goal is to get from A to B in a fairly convincing manner. Most people either don't really know or don't care about what sits beside the railway. From what I've seen, a sincere effort to be as accurate with the track layout as pleases the modeller him/her self is usually enough to satisfy the end user. As a former train driver in the UK, I've seen some horrendous examples of signal placement on some of the British routes that have been released over time (particularly with the use of the old semaphore distant signals.) However, it doesn't seem to have spoilt anyone's enjoyment of those routes (and it's certainly not my place to criticise the builder.) The end users love what's been given to them because it's a genuine and convincing effort.

It is only through my current project that I have finally realised just how much time and effort goes into building a prototypical route and I take my hat off to all those who've gone there before me - particularly those who've done what they've done without the assistance of TransDEM. However, if I could give any advice to a new route builder it would be that, for the sake of your own sanity, you need to quickly learn to leave out the idea of lineside precision and really accurate scenic stuff; just try and keep the railway as accurate as you can. After all, railway buffs remember the railway; not the tree next to the gate near the telephone box...

Cheers

Dave

I will have to perfect not being a perfectionist!
I agree it can be very frustrating at times when you can't get an object or do what you want and have to compromise.
Now, if it looks good enough, it is good enough.
Although I do strive to get my track as neat as possible when doing my routes. Poor track laying can be very annoying.
At the moment I am being frustrated by turntables
I need to see a compromise on the horizon, so I'll turn Trainz off, do something else and come back later with a plan B.

It's not easy being retired and Trainzing

If you want to spend the time to get every rivet and nail perfect, go for it, especially if you get some pleasure from it. As long as it stays fun, why should anyone else tell you to stop?
My fun in Trainz derives from building to the point where it works and looks reasonable. Any thing more takes time away from the next project. Since perfection is in the eye of the beholder my perfect object might be someone else's mess.
As was mentioned above, if the information doesn't exist any more, then your best guess is as good as it gets. Whatever you do can't be validated so anything you add as long as it is appropriate would work. Even if you don't add anything, it would be a declaration that nothing was there which could also be wrong. Ah the dilemma.

I stopped worrying about it when I found myself putting rose bushes in the front yard of a house six blocks from the nearest track.

Although my family tells me I AM a perfectionist, I disagree. I rarely go to great lengths to make something ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. I mean, what's the point? Who cares if that doorway to that building isn't 6 feet eight inches tall? As long as it's close it's fine with me.

But I get fanatical when I do rolling stock and begin to place the lettering on the side of the car. I have searched for literally hours trying to find a photo on Google Images that will tell me what that small writing on the bottom of a boxcar or gondola says! Sometimes, I give up and just write anything there, just so I can finish the project!

But generally, if something is close it's okay with me. If someone else wants to worry with it that's their kick. "Don't sweat the small stuff" I always say, though there are those who, I am sure, will disagree with that statement!

Cheers,

Dave

PS

But I know what Blutorse is talking about when trying to find a certain building to complete a scene. It's why I started creating content in the first place. I couldn't find it so I made it myself!!

I think the simple answer is that you don't come to terms with not achieving your aspirations but you learn to live with them and question have you done the best within your current resources, knowledge and ability at this time and less of the 'if only' and 'what if'. I'm in my 70's and only a couple of months ago was give photographs of my parents which I'd never seen previously taken before I was even born. So just because perhaps information is not forthcoming today doesn't necessarily mean it never existed or is lost forever you may well learn of it in the future although I hope you don't have to wait 70 years. In the mean time you backup and shelve, but not forget, the current project and plan the next which likewise I'm sure will be equally as difficult. Peter

In some respects our quest for perfection is also driven by the information now available. The first couple of routes I built for Trainz were done by crude eyeballing from an Ordnance survey (UK topo) map. Mapping with aerial views simply did not exist back in 2002 - 2003 or was at best in its infancy. Many areas of the world - even UK and Ireland - were only covered by low res imagery and Street View was a distant twinkle. Likewise MSTS, the first few routes were done by copying co-ordinates off the maps and converting via a third party programme and later tracing contour lines off scanned maps. No wonder my eyesight isn't so good these days!

nfitzsimmons said:

I stopped worrying about it when I found myself putting rose bushes in the front yard of a house six blocks from the nearest track.

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:hehe: PMSL!!! Yeah, I think I woke up at a similar point. It's like a stone hits you on the back of the head and you think, "What am I doing??? Who, in God's name, is ever going to see this part of the route?" But it's still a fight with your inner self to stop doing it.

Cheers

Dave

nfitzsimmons said:

I stopped worrying about it when I found myself putting rose bushes in the front yard of a house six blocks from the nearest track.

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I still do this and even further from the track. Why? I like my route to have "life" not only near the track or just a little bit further beyond. It is fun placing small pockets of "easter eggs' so when one goes wandering, there is still something to be seen and to ponder over as to "why is that there" or "what is happening". It is more time consuming too, but it is just what I do.

I've done this myself. As a classically trained musician, I am a perfectionist. We try to get every note perfect every time we play. The opening chord is worked out carefully so that the right pause occurs carefully and precisely at the right moment. The intonation, and implication of the feeling has to be there. The tempo has to be perfect. The notes 100% perfect all the time.

This perfectionist nature rubs off on other aspects of my life such as route building. I've started projects more than once only to find that there's something that can't be done, or are well beyond my modeling skills and the abilities of Surveyor. Even with compromises, this will sit and bite at me because I know there's something wrong with the route just as I know I hit a D instead of the F-sharp on a chord and I used my 4th finger instead of the 5th.

Over the years I have become a bit more lenient on myself, and have found that if I do things in layers so to speak, I can build a route and then fiddle afterwards. Once the route is operational, I'll go back and futz around with trees, buildings, and such until I get the scene to look right. My CART (Cape Anne Regional Transit) route is like this. It's more than a boat here, or a boat there, or adjusting a tree. It's fixing a floating road or switch stand which is out of place, or replacing a building or tree with a better suited one for the area. I've also found that if I walk away from the route for awhile, I can go back later and have a better time with it and actually make some building progress as I work along the line.

Sometimes I think, and I'm telling myself too, we need to let go and enjoy what we have rather than pick endlessly at the project. I wish it could be so easy!

euromodeller said:

At the moment I am being frustrated by turntables

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Divulge a little more as to what is "frustrating you", then maybe someone can help out?
Like so many of the community we sometimes struggle unnecessarily.

I have been hard put, to find a suitable way around the transfer table and sector plate that were installed at the Snow Hill Station and Moor Street stations in Birmingham UK.
Eventually Compromised by using half a turntable, with a bridge of the wrong gauge, not ideal but it works, in the space allotted for the original turntables. Unless you get as close as a gnats knee is to the floor I doubt if it's noticed by the eventual end user.
Like wise the North Signal Box at Snowhill, I compromised, my depiction is not accurate but certainly gives a suitable impression of the original which is now long gone. Anybody who knew that box or has an old photograph would know my inaccuracies but then it's that or nothing as I don't have the knowledge to make my own asset.

Returning to your problem, like that darn rabbit says "What's up Doc?"

Regards and happy hunting for the answer you need.

JP.

How does a painter know his picture is finished? Artist friends of mine have this problem too!