Me Again

*Sneaks in hoping no-one notices*

Wow... Its been a while.

I could lie and say I spent the last couple of years in Japan, but where's the fun in that? The truth is, having some time off, away from my computers got me thinking about other things, and my priorities kind of changed for a while.

This project has always been in the back of my mind, but several factors stopped me from getting back to it. The 'priorities' mentioned before, troubles with my job - hearing that Auran went bankrupt didn't help either - for a long time, I thought, "Well.. thats the end of Trainz". I was also wrestling with texturing the Tangara Control trailer, and in the end, it became too hard, and I put it off for a while. With everything else in combination, that "while" got longer and longer.

In the last couple of years several things have changed for me. I still love electric trains, that much hasn't changed (especially the Tangara and the 86 Class of New South Wales, but increasingly also the Shinkansen (Bullet Trains) of Japan, as I got to know them more) but there are a few issues that are still keeping me away from this project.

In recent months Ive been yearning to do some more work on the 86 Class locomotive, and see it running in Trainz, as I envisioned it (Did I mention it would be fully operational, including the awkward way its driven? (ie: 1-2-3-2-3-2.. etc, for those that know). I'd even like to finish the Tangara, which isnt really that far away from loading up and running - the motor car, and variations (G Sets) wont take a lot of work, although the scripting I had planned for it will take some time).

The issues keeping me away right now, are firstly that my PC died (along with all of the Gmax files on it) and has been out of comission for probably over 18 months now. In fact, since it died, 5 other computers have died as well (I have a lot of computers on a big network). All of these are still dead, and right now, I'm on the oldest, slowest machine I have (excluding the unix systems, which run web services and other work for clients) and it just wont handle Gmax.

Originally, the problem that caused the demise of my PC was hard to diagnose. It was a hardware failure, but I didnt want to replace working components, and I didnt have any good way of figuring out which part was broken, so I just used another computer for a while. Finally (just recently as it happens) that other computer also died, and I had a chance to swap components. The good news is I narrowed the problem (on both machines) down to the motherboard. The bad news is, with 2 dead motherboards, I still cant make one working good machine.

The other big issue thats affecting me right now is that I left my job mid last year (it was long overdue), and so far, havnt found another. I dont have the money to repair the machines at the moment, so Im stuck on this slow one for now.

I heard about Trainz 2009 being released, and that gave me some hope that all this work wasnt wasted. Its re-kindled my interest in finishing what Ive started, as it seems that there is a future. The other good news is, as partial payment for building and maintaining a web site for my wife's business, she has agreed to pay for repairs to all of the dead computers, though that will depend on when she can afford to do that, and is conditional on me getting a job again.

So, the upshot is that things are slowly coming full circle, and I'm beginning to think more and more about this project. I said to myself at the beginning of this post, that I wouldnt apologise for being away so long, and I hope that you understand that we (content creators) do this because we want to, and have the resources. We are not obligated to do it. For a while I wasnt able to spend the time, or didnt have the resources (or both), but in the near future, that should be changing, so consider this post the first buds of spring :p

Another thing that helped keep me away, was the disapointment I felt about the way Railcorp approaches heritage issues in New South Wales. I touched apon it in previous posts, but since then time has shown that the token gesutres made thus far have had little real benefit (if any). They seem to have no interest in "Heritage", other than generating goodwill with a few well composed press releases. Unfortunately that goodwill on the part of the public, doesnt seem to be balanced by any real advances in rail heritage. Despite their words I can cite many examples where Railcorp's own actions could be viewed as having little concern for rail heritage. Private groups are doing far more, but its Railcorp's bat and ball (its even their ballpark), and they dont seem to want to play - they just leave the lights on so that it looks like they're interested, and when someone else kicks the ball around, they can say that by leaving the lights on they enabled them to do that! Perhaps in future posts, I'll give a few examples.

Even more future posts will probably also talk about the N Scale layout I'm planning to build in a spare room (Another thing that has got me thinking about this project). I'm hoping to capture aspects of Japan's rail system, including Shinkansen, regular passenger, freight end even metro systems.

As you can see, I have a lot to write about. I guess in a way this post is designed to put leverage on myself. Much of what I want to do, requires me to get a job, and with you lot knowing that Im still here, its even more pressure on me to get on with it, rebuild my systems, and get these models finished and uploaded to the DLS!

Update: 9 Feb 2009 - Ive just spent several hours tweaking this blog, adding tags, gadgets etc. I cant access Gmax for a while so I do what I can. I also replied to a lot of old comments, so that the answers are on the same archive page. Its been tough going because this old machine is so slow. Something is chewing up all the CPU, but it isnt as simple as a worm or spyware or anything obvious like that. Im a geek, but so far, its eluded me. Im still working on it.

Looking back over old posts I realised how much I have forgotten about Gmax, but Im sure it will come back to me when I get started again, and I have lots of notes. The hard drives in my machine are still ok, and mirrored just in case, so once its fixed, everything will be right where I left it.

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.

Buffers, Tangara, and Japan

I released the buffers recently, despite not being 100% happy with them. I had thought about releasing a scripted buffer that would allow the placement of the light (left, right, center, none) via surveyor, but it seemed too hard for what it was. I also wasnt happy with the textures, but they had been sitting around for a while, so I thought they were better out there, than on my hard drive.

I hope to update them soon, fixing the textures, and adding a parameter which should make them actually stop slow moving trains. I have to admit, Ive read the CCG many times, but this hadnt stood out. It makes sense, since without such a parameter, Trainz has no way of telling a buffer from any other trackside object. For the moment, this feature is broken in TRS2K6, so it wont matter until after SP1 is released (unless you have 2K4).

I spent last weekend mainly researching other projects which have caught my attention. I wasnt making much progress with the Tangara texturing, so it was a welcome break. Above is a screenshot I grabbed a couple of weeks ago, and meant to post here at some point. Today is as good a day as any.

There has been some discussion on the Trainz forums recently about Japanese trains and routes, with a few new items being worked on. This is something close to my heart, since my wife is Japanese, and we have close ties to Japan. Much like my reasons for building NSW trains, I'd love to build some Japanese ones too, since there is virtually nothing available to date.

Yes, I know about the two Shinkansen (Bullet Trains) on TrainzLuvr, but those are a few cars short of a train set, and have other problems as well. There are also two 500 Series Shinkansen on the DLS by Tesla and Votkov. The one by Votkov looks promising but I havnt tried it yet. If I can repair the faults reported by 2K6, it may be the only one which is complete.

Japan has a rich variety of trains, from steam to single car diesel railcars, to freight, to the latest and most sophisticated EMU sets (There are around 14 different series of Shinkansen alone, since the original Bullet Train started in 1964). Add to that the awesome and wildly varying scenery, and its a no-brainer. It has to be one of the best countries for railfans to model - hands down. Japan is built on rail. There are rail lines everywhere! Do yourself a favour and take a look.

So why is there nothing available for Trainz?? Well, I thought about that while I was looking for somewhere to run the Shinkansen I was testing. There arent a lot of routes to run a 320 meter train which travels at 300km/hour. There certainly arent any Japanese routes or Shikansen lines on the DLS. I think the biggest obstacle to route builders is the lack of Japanese buildings, scenery, and textures. Regardless of whether Auran thought about marketing Trainz to Japan or not, it would be pretty difficult to do so without Japanese content and without a lot of Japanese creators on board, the content hasnt appeared. Its a catch 22.

Well, the flow of content is starting to trickle in the form of rollingstock, but that still leaves us without any routes to run it on. There have been a few attempts at a Japanese route, but these havnt looked the part, since every building, sign, signal, and station has had to be substituted with an existing US, European, or Australian model. Unfortunately, if it doesnt look the part, its not much different to whats already available, but Its a good effort, and we have to start somewhere.

We have to give our route builders a leg-up. They need scenery to work with, so while I have my hands full modelling local content, Ive started to collect photos and other useful research material from the web, including some really good finds. I have SRTM data from Tokyo to Osaka, (and more on the way) and have thought about building the Tokaido Shinkansen line, but its a huge project (500km from end to end, including that classic scene of Mt Fuji) and unfortunately its not something I have time for right now. I estimate it would be over 1000 base boards, but it would be SO worth it. (Yes, 1000+ its possible - check the forums).

For now, the research and data is here, but this will have to wait. I may knock out a traditional house, or a Japanese advertising sign, a prefecture castle, or a temple occasionally. I'd love to see a group form who could focus on Japanese content, but I have a few local things to do first before I can start one - any takers?