Konichiwa

Im in Japan! While Im here, I will be taking lots of detail photos of various infrastructure, such as buildings, signs, bridges, traffic lights etc, so I can model them in the future (way in the future). These signs are at Fukuoka airport.

If I dont get deported for being a suspected terrorist (photographing stuff with little artistc value), I should be home in about two weeks time.

My wife's home town is on the southern island of Kyushu. We caught the Relay Tsubame (Info | Photos) from Hakata station in Fukuoka, and I got a lot of good pictures of the interior, as well as a few close up shots of the pantograph etc. The photos linked here are not mine, but will fill in a lot of gaps

Ive mentioned before that I'd like to do a Japanese route one day. I was considering the Shinkansen line from Tokyo to Osaka, but the truth is, its too long, and in Trainz it would be over 1000 base boards - I want something a bit smaller if Im going to be modelling the content, as well as laying the track.

While I was on the Tsubame it hit me - why not model the JR Kyushu main line? JR Kyushu has some unique trains that are only found on Kyushu, such as the Relay Tsubame, and to the south, they also have a new 800 series Shinkansen which runs to Kagoshima, and eventually to Hakata. I have wanted to model the 800 series for a while.

If you have Microsoft Trainz, you will remember the Kyushu Railway Company (aka JR Kyushu), since MSTS includes a scenario which begins at Yatsushiro (just down the road from where Im typing this in Kumamoto). In the scenario, you drive a small KiHa (diesel railcar) over the mountains. They give some good reasons why they chose to model the Kyushu Railway (and that particular branch line) and it makes a lot of sense for me too.

So, the Japanese route idea has evolved a little further, and it now looks like when I start it, I will be modelling the line from Hakata to Kagoshima, with perhaps the Yatsushiro branch line thrown in for good measure.

In a couple of days, I will be catching the 800 series to Kagoshima, and back, and then it will be back on the Tsubame to Hakata, and from there, a 700 series Shinkansen (most probably) to Tokyo, with stops at Osaka, Kyoto, and hopefully Hiroshima as well. I will be taking as many photos as I can of anything and everything (but especially the trains and buildings etc) along the way.

Oh, did I mention that I bought a new camera especially for the trip? (and lots of memory cards).

Follow the links to photos and info about the trains that Im talking about.

It goes up, It goes down

A quick update to show some more of the pantograph. Ive added the cross-arms and animated it. There is still a little more to do on the details and animating other bits such as the pistons which operate the pantograph. So far the entire pantograph, including the base, weighs in at about 980 polys, which I reckon is pretty good, considering whats in it. I need to add a few more though.

I also discovered a small miss-match between the interior and exterior around the small side windows, so that has been fixed as well.

While I'm here, Im going to play around with the blog template a bit. It seems that I cant do much about the width without changing all of the background images. Eventually I'd like to redo the whole thing with a proper Redfern Workshopz header and a variable width template. Perhaps one day.

You can actually see that Im only working on half a loco in the screen shot above.

Update: 31 Jan - The pistons are now animated. Im not going to animate the springs. Still some polys to add on the contact. The pant is now 1020 polys. I removed some jigs that I had hidden - the model is now 8703 polys. File version is 108.

File Version: 106
Poly Count: 9031

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Pants!

My head hurts.

I've done a bit more on the 86 Class. I added the last of the hand holds (at the front) and have started on the first pantograph. All that concentration has given me a headache.

Im making a heavy duty version of a cross-arm pantograph, as was originally fitted to the 86 Class (Like the ones you see on the S sets, but tougher). I also plan to build a heavy duty version of a high speed panto, which were used on the 86 Class in later years. (Like the ones on the Tangara). While the loco itself is going to be payware, the pantographs will be free, and available on the DLS. I will also eventually be building a light duty version of each, and have already started on the high speed version for the Tangara. These will also be on the DLS, and having all four versions used by Railcorp / Cityrail will allow me to use them on other locos in the future. If you like them, you could even use them on locos make by other creators.

I've finished the base and the contacts, and added the pistons and springs. I need to tweak those some more. I havnt built the cross-arms yet, but they will be next. You can just see the pivot bar for the arms in the base, if you squint :)

Somehow, I managed to freeze the ditch lights, so they havnt been appearing on recent screenshots. They're back now, and integrated into the base so that they wont go missing again. I havnt started on the headlights yet.

I also did a bit more work on the catenary, and have the first model almost ready for testing in Trainz.

Im off to Japan at the end of this week, so if I dont post anything for a couple of weeks, you know why.

The poly count has crept up a bit - remembering that the number below represents half of the loco. Im not sure if you can use LOD modelling on pantographs, but I guess I will find out. Im building this one with a lot of detail, but I can make it a bit simpler if I have to. I plan to animate it, and besides the usual up and down motion, you should also be able to see the pistons and springs expand and contract. I want the workings to be apparent. The panto itself isnt really using a lot of polys. The number below includes a lot of things that will be separated into different files, so individually, it should be fine.

File Version: 102
Poly Count: 8931

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Sliced & Diced

Ive stripped the Tangara back to bare metal and sliced it up a little. This will allow me to break the texture maps of the body into smaller chunks so that I can get a better resolution on the texture itself. It will also help when it comes to constructing the remaining carriages.

Now that I have finally figured out how to UVW Map the body, I removed all of that, and using the Slice tool, cut the body into thirds (Kind of like they did to the 4D, if you ever saw Ian Green's "after" pictures). I then spent a few hours hand optimizing the cuts to reduce the poly count as much as possible. Together the two slices ended up adding about 80 polys.

Next, I will redo the texture map from scratch, since there are now more maps / materials to work with.

Along its length, the body was essentially one piece. I could divide the maps horizontally into walls, roof, floor etc, but I still had to fit the full 20 metre length across a single 1024 pixel texture. I didnt want to use a larger texture, so this gave me a resolution of about 20mm per pixel, which was not good enough for lettering or fine detail. I can now bring that down to around 6mm per pixel, which although not perfect, is a big improvement.

File Version: 384
Poly Count: 17631

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

NSW Catenary

Ive had this on my project list for a while now. One of the guys on the Trainz forum who is working on the Cityrail project asked for catenary, and I figured I could help out, and added it to my list. I figured it was about time I actually started on it.

Ive knocked out the first variation. There are quite a few more to go, but hopefully they will be easy, since I now have the main components made, and only need to work on the differences for each variation.

Obviously the Tangara comes first, but I wanted to show a little progress on these.

I have yet to texture this one, and test it in Trainz, but I will do that soon. Once I have it looking the way I want, I will work on the rest, in-between working on everything else, and release them when I have enough variations to build a decent overhead system.

I plan to add tension weights and anchors, as well as dual track (dual mast and gantry versions) and will also do a few "glue" pieces to join things together, such as wire only etc.

This one is a 40m inner arm version. The polly count is a little higher than I'd hoped, due to the I-beam and insulators, but I thought it was important to capture those - especially the I-beam, as it makes our masts distinctive.

File Version: 01
Poly Count: 209

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Tangara Texturing

Just a quick update to show whats happening with the Tangara. Im currently in the middle of texturing the Control Trailer, which will be my "base model". As you may know from earlier posts, the plan is to complete the base model, including textures, before I continue on to the remaining carriages. To make all the different train variations, (T Set, G Set, 4D etc) I will need to build around 8 carriages all together, and it will be so much easier if I start from a base model which is already textured, rather than building and texture mapping each model from scratch.

Im starting on the body. This is my first time texturing such a complex model, and there has been a steep learning curve. I think I must be on about my 10th attempt by now, each time starting over as I figure out a better approach. I think I finally have the idea, and should hopefully be able to show you the finished result in a few days, with some basic textures on it. Then its on to the interior...

The texturing process has highlighted a few slight problems such as extra faces that I did not see before (stuck inside something else or back-facing) and edges which should have connected, but didnt etc. As I map each surface to a material, I occasionally end up with a few left-over faces which did not get mapped to anything, so its just a matter of tracking them down and fixing the problem. Wireframe mode has helped find a few stray edges that showed up this way.

As far as posting is concerned, it seems Im damned if I do, and damned if I dont. I just installed Picassa on the new machne, and it has shrunk the screen shot down to a reasonable size (as compared to my 1280x1024 screen), but now I cant add tags to this post and it doesnt contain the template that I set up to show poly count etc, so once I post this, I will have to edit it to add all of that. Sheesh.

You may just have to put up with the large screen shots because manually resizing them is more effort than a simple post should require. Picassa seems to be having issues, so Ive uploaded them manually again.

Update:
Ok, well I finally have the body mapped. Here is a shot with the texture file straight out of lithunwrap - naturally it needs a bit more work.

Before I start drawing a Tangara on it though, I need to do a bit more tweaking. I want to add the doors and gangway, which are separate objects, so that I can put them on the same bitmap as the body. This will help keep the major parts together for reskins and the various versions.

Im also thinking about breaking the sides and roof up, because even with the length taking the whole 1024 pixels across the top of the bitmap, the resolution isnt as good as I hoped. Breaking them in half will double the resolution, but will use more space on the texture. Oh, and I removed the transparency from the windows in preparation for giving them a proper texture.

File Version: 381
Poly Count: 17557

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Latest 86 Class Progress

Here is a screen shot, as of tonight. Apologies if its a bit big, I will get Picassa installed on Minotaur soon, and that should shrink the screen shots down a little.

I know everyone is waiting for a Tangara update, and I will try to get one posted before I go to Japan in 2 weeks. Im still working out the UVW mapping.

Ive been working on the 86 Class recently. Ive found that once you've been away from it for a while, it takes a little time to get everything organised in your head again, but I also found, that this gives you the opportunity to look at the model with a fresh perspective.

One of the things I noticed was that the interior floor was too low. The photographs I have show it as being level with the bottom of the door surround, which sits a few inches above the yellow base. The door surround was too low, and so was the floor. Ive raised them to where they should be.

I also added the foot and hand holds on the side, and have started on the last of the hand rails. There are just two more small grab handles at the front that I havnt started on yet. The cut outs for the hand holds on the side caused a few problems. The boolean tool did its usual damage, but it wasnt too hard to fix. Ive tried other methods of hole punching, but even with its problems, boolean is still a lot easier to use.

For the most part, I think the body is just about finished. There is just a little detail to do on the roof, and a bit more on the front. The interior is just about done too, but will still need more work to dumb it down for the exterior view, and separate the high detail interior into its own file where I can finish off all the levers etc for CAB mode.

One of the most annoying things about building these models is that I have a lot of ideas for features that I want to build into them, but not having a finished locomotive yet, I have nowhere to test those ideas, so I find that I have to keep remembering them until Im up to that point. Ive been making notes. One thing that I wont forget (because I'm looking forward to it myself) is that the 86 Class will operate like the real thing (as much as possible). The annoying part is that I can't start writing the cab script for that until I have the loco in Trainz so that I can test it, and there is quite a bit to do before it gets to that stage.

The next update (in a few days) will be all about the Tangara, which is progressing slowly, but still progressing. (Yes, I do work on it - I just don't have a lot to show right now - its all been tweaking and struggling with textures - but more on that later).

File Version: 95
Poly Count: 6999

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Alpha Sorting and other fun stuff

Ive been working on the secret side project a little, and spent a bit of time trying to figure out an Alpha Sorting problem. Alpha sorting is basically the layering of transparent objects so that you see what you would expect to see behind them. For example, when looking through a carriage from the outside, you would expect to see through the windows nearest to you, then the interior, and then through the windows on the other side to finally see whatever was behind the carriage.

I'm working on a door animation and when the doors are open they partly cover a window in the carriage body behind them. The problem is that the part of the window that should be obscured behind the solid door appears to be in front of it.

I found a few mentions of this kind of problem on the net, but none of the tips seem to apply to Gmax or Trainz. At the moment I'm ignoring the problem, but I will ask on the forums later on - I have plenty of other things to keep me busy at the moment.

Ive finished installing Gmax on Minotaur, and tweaked it the way I like it. I also have most of my other tools and utilities there now (Normals map generators, editors, format converters etc) so the new machine is feeling a lot more comfortable and easier to work with.

I also replaced the old template of this blog with the new "Blogger Beta" layout widgets which are a lot more flexible. When I moved this page to the new blogger I was worried that I would lose the modifications that I had made, but the guys at Google / Blogger are so smart that most of my custom modifications were automatically converted to the proper widget and the whole process was a breeze! I'll be going back through old posts and adding tags to them so that you can easily find them from the Tags section in the sidebar.

I'll be in Japan at the beginning of February, but hopefully I'll post a few more updates before then. Among other things, we will be buying a 7 day Rail Pass, and catching the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Fukuoka to Tokyo. we plan to take our time and stop at Osaka, Kyoto and Mt Fuji along the way.

86 Class Update

A few months back, before I disappeared I mentioned that I had done some more work on the 86 Class but didnt post any pictures of it at the time. Here are the latest shots, as of today.

After installing Gmax and other tools on the new graphics machine (I call it Minotaur - its easier to call it by name in future) the first thing I did was finish off the basic structure of the 86 Class cab. When I left it, there were a few problems with the front windows and I had not created any of the window sills (front or side) that join the interior and the body together. Thats all been done, so now I just have a few more details to finish off, such as the gauges on the drivers console etc.

As mentioned before, all of the attachment points for the levers and dials that have been added so far are there - I just have them turned off in the pictures so that they show the model better.

Basically I removed the interior's front windows completely and replaced them with a copy of the body's front windows, but moved back a little, so that they would be in alignment with the body. Then I just had to move a few vertices around and weld everything together. I created the sills and realigned the console so that it joined with the new front wall, and that was about it for this session. The interior and body now fit together perfectly.

My web server died - the one whose disks I am upgrading. It keeps resetting every few minutes for no apparent reason and no amount of reseating cards, replacing cables, or cleaning away the dust seems to make any difference. I have one more thing to try, but the next step will be to borrow the HTPC's motherboard and use that temporarily. The poor HTPC is starting to look like an empty shell as I continue to borrow parts from it. My wife (who helped pay for it) is starting to wonder when she will be able to use it. Doh! Did I mention I hate computers?

File Version: 86
Poly Count: 6601

Note: The poly count shown here is for the gmax model in progress. The count will generally be higher than that of the finished in-game model since it includes various tools and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. LOD modelling will further reduce in-game polygons.

Happy New Year

I've been meaning to post an update here for a while, but writing tends to take time, getting the thoughts down, editing, rearranging, editing some more, correcting etc... I havnt been able to bring myself to do it until now. The good news is that while I havnt been posting here, I have been making progress on some of the infrastructure that I mentioned before - the underlying base on which everything else sits.

I've cleared away a lot of the clutter - various little things which were being ignored and were nagging at me. I reorganised my blogs and migrated them to the new version of Blogger. It helped that they released the new version recently - it meant I could finally migrate a couple of blogs that needed some features that werent supported in beta until just before the release. Theres links to my other blogs in the sidebar in case you're interested, but I havnt updated them in a while either - I'll get to that soon. Some are still works in progress, so dont expect too much just yet.

I updated my web server and created 8 new web sites (4 sites and 4 development versions of them) which I am still working on - including a Redfern Workshopz site. I moved all of my web-based utilities and internal applications over to the new sites and continue to set them up. At the moment they're not accessible until I get the layout and themes right, but at least they are there, and I have been migrating content over from the old sites (which are also not currently online).

I did some maintenance on the servers, fixing a few hardware problems along the way. At least 2 of them have died in the past few months and needed parts replaced or the operating systems rebuilt (or both). One of them has been upgraded, and Im still setting up the RAID array for the new disks on that one. Ive also built two new computers - one is a Home Theatre PC (Personal Video Recorder), and the other is built specifically for 3D modelling. Im still working on the HTPC - I had to canibalise some parts from it to fix a few hardware problems, and I borrowed its power supply for the 3D Modelling machine.

I have only just finished building the new machine for 3D modelling. Its nice. It runs an AMD X2 Dual Core 4600+ CPU (basically two 2.4Ghz CPU chips in one) on an Nvidia NForce4 chipset, and has TWO Nvidia 7600GS based graphics cards. The dual graphics cards are linked together via Nvidia's SLI interface and work as one, giving around twice the graphics power of a single card. If I can remember how to display the frame rate in Trainz, I'll post it here, but Ive seen it running at 40fps while switched back to the desktop. Trainz runs really smooth with all the performance parameters set to the max, but still (even in SP1) has some flickering and the audio problems that we all put up with.

I've loaded up Gmax, and an old copy of 3DS Max, and have copied all my models over to the new machine. Last night I installed the Normals Map plugin for Gimp, and set up the Trainz Content Creation Studio, with the Max 4.2 plugins, to enable bump mapping in Gmax. Im still setting up a few other supporting utilities, but its all working and looking good so far. I've probably forgotten a bunch of other things that I've been doing recently, but suffice to say, I havnt made any further progress on the Tangara or the 86 Class since the earlier posts - Im hoping to remedy that situation very soon.

Appologies for not responding to the comments, but I have been reading (and publishing) them. I also appologise to the people that emailed me and didnt get a reply. Sometimes I just need to get away from things, especially if I've been working on them for a long period or if Im concentrating on other things. Its just how it works with me, and is pretty normal. Don't let that stop you from sending them though - I need someone to bug me every now and then to keep me focused on things. I appreciated recieving them, and each one reminded me to get back to working on the models as soon as I could.

Well, thats about enough text for now. Its late (early actually). I'll add links and things later.