Latest Ramblings

Ive been working with Gmax on and off over the last couple of weeks. I havnt managed to get back in to my obsessive, every day, gmax habit that I was in before, but Im in there at least a couple of times a week recently.

Im about two thirds of the way through my side project, so thats coming along, and Ive done some more on the Tangara in the last few days. I dont have any screen shots, because not much has changed, visually.

Im still working on getting the texture mappings right for the outer body, and have been doing a bit of hand optimising while Im at it. In the last few days I shaved around 50 or 60 polys off of the body. The body itself is around 2300 polys in total, so I think thats a significant saving. It also helps with the texture mapping.

I knew textures would be the hard part. I havnt even started trying to draw in any detail - Im still trying to get the basic shapes mapped out onto the bitmaps. Ive decided to break it down a little. Originally I was trying to map the body to a single 1024 by 1024 bitmap, but Ive now broken that down into two 512 by 512 bitmaps, and will see if that helps. One thing that does help is being able to see how others have done it, so along with all the Auran samples on the Content Creation Art CDs, the side project has also helped in that department.

Im still thinking about the scripting, but that is a while off - I wont be starting on that until I have the control trailer textured so that I can export it to Trainz and test out the scripts. The other reason that it has to be textured now is that once its done, I can begin copying it to create the other cars (9 in total). Since the first one will already be textured, the copies will have most of their textures already in place, and will only need a bit of tweaking, and customisation here and there. It saves me having to go through this frustrating exercise multiple times.

Ive been collecting bits of script for months, and searching the forums for tips and tricks, such as how to tell if you are in driver or surveyor, or how to tell if you're in DCC mode or Cab mode. All of these snippets have been tucked away, and Ive found a few great example scripts which I can use a few pieces from. Many thanks to everyone who releases unencrypted scripts with their freeware - it helps newbies like me learn the tricks and see how they're implemented.

I know there is quite a long way to go. After 9 months, I really wish it was all finished, but theres many more months left to complete all of my currently active projects, and there are many more projects that I want to get started on. Its looking like I'll never get around to some of them - but that is what prioritising is for.

Photo: Rotten Row at Redfern