We need elegant signage solutions.

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
Is there a more elegant custom business signage solution for Trainz? Don's Diesel Stop is on standard packaged-in large warehouse signs but does not look elegant on my custom filling station overhang. What might be cool is illuminated letter signs that are custom name-able.

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Spam reported...



Just kidding. Since it actually is related to trainz but since images are now shown on the little feed on the main page all I saw was the text and immediately I thought. "This looks like a spam" anyways nice work.
 
Spam? It's a fictitious business sign on a Trainz route. I could name it "Don's Dogcrap Factory" if I wanted to but then again, no, text too long for those signs. Anyway, my question was about available, readily downloadable, signage content for our game. I prefer no payware signs to boot.
 
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Spam? It's a fictitious business sign on a Trainz route. I could name it "Don's Dogcrap Factory" if I wanted to but then again, no, text too long for those signs. Anyway, my question was about available, readily downloadable, signage content for our game. I prefer no payware signs to boot.
I was only joking as I stated further down bellow the reported. I have not actually reported. "Just kidding" means that I was only joking.
 
Spam? It's a fictitious business sign on a Trainz route. I could name it "Don's Dogcrap Factory" if I wanted to but then again, no, text too long for those signs. Anyway, my question was about available, readily downloadable, signage content for our game. I prefer no payware signs to boot.

Why? Is that because you are too cheap to pay someone for their hard work making a batch of 'elegant' signs for you.
 
The issue here is what counts as "elegant signage". My opinion would be different from yours and different from anyone else's. How many different types of "elegant signage" exist? I suspect that the only ones that would meet your (and my) sense of aesthetics and "elegant-ness" would be the ones that we create ourselves. Go for it!
 
No, there is a bunch of Trainz stuff I like already I did not have to pay extra for on top of my purchase of Trainz. The Trainz game purchases are rather costly in themselves. Don't content creators get kickbacks on Trainz sales revenue?
 
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Why? Is that because you are too cheap to pay someone for their hard work making a batch of 'elegant' signs for you.

Please look at this gas station overhang and the trademark on it. Doesn't that thing look pretty? Won't a double-decker cattle truck fit under it to put diesel in the tank?
img_industry_gas_8.jpg
 
Don't content creators get kickbacks on Trains sales revenue?

Only if you create for the DLC where you get a percentage (50% I believe but could easily be wrong) of the sale price for each DLC item of yours that is sold (a few $$$ each). Anything you upload to the DLS is free for anyone to use and you get no financial payment, but you do get a "warm glow" for contributing to the Trainz Community - for many of us that is enough.
 
Is that sign strictly black and white text? Or are there font options, color options, etc? Ideally, can you paste an image into the frame of the sign rather than inserting text?
 
You would have to create a new sign asset with the image you wanted as a texture that will be added to the mesh. I have done this in the past for train speed signs but if you are going to use it in a route uploaded to the DLS then would also need permission from the original creator.
 
This is the best I can do with available Trainz signage for Don's. The extra large platform sign has to be high on the overhang panels so the legs (posts) don't protrude out the bottom. Drivable trucks on schedules stop at Don's for pretended fuel. Some drivable trucks also stop at Sam's for a pretended wash. There is invisible track right through the stall of that car wash. The car/truck wash content has renamable signage. At Don's, up to 4 trucks could be "refueling" at the same time. Eastbound trucks use the inner island pumps (2 lanes) while westbound trucks use the outer island pumps (2 lanes) as this Dairy Farmer's milk tanker truck is doing. This route also has a Hood Dairy scene for these trucks to pick up pretended Holstein cow milk. The CeeBee Supermarket was chosen because it's illuminated at night unlike the Kroger content. CeeBee's has loading docks in the rear. A static semi is parked there but a drivable Kenworth/refer rig also backs up there to deliver pretended grocery stock.
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You would have to create a new sign asset with the image you wanted as a texture that will be added to the mesh. I have done this in the past for train speed signs but if you are going to use it in a route uploaded to the DLS then would also need permission from the original creator.

Or the OP could find an existing sign of the desired size and shape on the DLS and reskin by modifying the existing graphic file by using GIMP or Paint.Net etc. This approach would not require learning a modelling program such as Blender. I have done such minor reskinning myself. Just don't reload to the DLS without permission as pware has said.

Here is a way to get realistic sign images with little effort. Using google maps, find a building of an industry that interests you. Click on the business and usually a link to the company's web page comes up, which will often have a logo and/or the company name. Then snip and save and you have the graphics you need for reskinning. I have done this many times with good results.
 
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Part of the issue is we're limited on system-installed fonts and not any font. This is to make the assets cross-platform should they be uploaded to the DLS. The non-system fonts, being those found on foundry websites such as DaFont and others, would mean the asset would be missing the fonts if the other users can't download the fonts, besides, some actually are copyright-protected and can't be shared.

Creating a 3d-sign such as the Valero sign above is all well and good, but that has its own issues such as the mesh needed for the letters, and yet again more polygons, LOD, and all that goes with that. The other thing too is each one is custom for the asset, making them a limited item.

So, what's the alternative? Use the existing station signs. Some hang, some are on posts, some are small and some are large. There are even signs that support multiple lines and those too come in various sizes. These at least can be customized, text-wise anyway, or can be cloned to change the color on them. In that case, you'd have to change the color of the font as well so it's not invisible or difficult to read.

And finally, the only other thing you can do is to customize each asset with its own painted sign as you've done. Nothing difficult, just one more option.
 
Please look at this gas station overhang and the trademark on it. Doesn't that thing look pretty? Won't a double-decker cattle truck fit under it to put diesel in the tank?
img_industry_gas_8.jpg


The other option would be to ask one of us to make some custom signs for your route.

Something like that Valero sign would be about 30-40 minutes work in photoshop, then maybe a good hour or so modeling to outline the letters with the bezier tool, then extrude them to get the same look.
If you wanted the sign to be lit at night, that's another hour or so in photoshop.


This giant lit billboard I made a couple years shows both the extrusion modeling and light effects.

Sehrness-Plumbing-sign.png




Night time




Sehrness-Plumbing-night-sign.png



This link is to an album of all the signs I made for my Chicago Switching MRR layout. https://ibb.co/album/PFR3qJ

If you would like a few custom signs made, I'll make them for you. I just need some examples of the style/type and what each should read. :)



Rico
 
Beautiful signs! - Is your Route available to others?


Thanks ")

No. not the Chicago one. That one unfortunately was lost when I had an HD crash a while back. The above pics are from a U.S. MRR route called Laurium-Mowhawk, based on the trackplan by Larry Burk https://www.trains.com/mrr/how-to/track-plan-database/on30-laurium-mohawk-brockway-ry/

I do have all of the models I made, and have the track laid, but I'm really into building German based MRR layouts, one about half done, the other finished but for the AI session.

I am about to release a small MRR switching layout, Sissiboo Logging.

U.S NG 30 gauge. It will have alot of new scenery models and one AI/Player session


Rico
 
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