Well, its been some time since my last update. The last couple of years have taken me in different directions, but all the while, this project has been in the back of my mind. I know I have (or had) a lot of people watching, and by now some of them may have given up, and I dont blame them, but the wheel has turned and I've found myself back here again.
For many years I've wanted to build a model railway, but never had the space for it. It occurred to me recently that these days, with the various rail simulators available, younger people would probably just build a virtual railway than use up an entire room for their hobby. Virtual railways have a big advantage when it comes to space. you can easily create a layout that is much bigger than anything you could build in a room, and a lot more interactive. I still plan on filling a room with trains one day, but recently I've started building my own virtual railway in Traiinz TS2009.
There are a couple of existing routes that I like. They're big. They're Australian, specifically New South Wales. They're full of NSWGR and SRA content, and they look and feel quite good, but they all have similar problems. I considered updating one of them with better content, replacing thousands of signals with the NSW ones available on the DLS, replacing all the stations with better ones, etc, etc. About the only thing I didnt have to change was the scenery.
Add to that the problem of older content not working properly, or failing to load entirely, I came to the conclusion that I would have to build much of it myself, from scratch, right down to the 3D models, since a lot of the classic NSW content are progressive meshes which are no longer supported.
So I've decided to make this a long term project, like a physical model railway, that I work on when I have the time. Anything I produce will be available in some form or other, and I may even consider making them available for other rail simulators as well.
The first thing I need to do is fix my own content. The buffers have always flickered, and I have a new version without any flicker that I am putting some final touches on. I changed it a little and now attach the lamp to the buffer, and then the corona to the lamp, but Im having a little trouble getting the corona to attach to the right point. I'm not even sure at this stage that its possible. I'll figure it out eventually.
The Train Stop will be next. I only just realised that stopped working, and even worse, causes other signals on the route to fail. Its a scripting problem, and I'll have that sorted out, and updated on the DLS as soon as I can.
Then its back to the Tangara and the 86 Class. I really miss the real 86 Class and finishing off the model will at least let me see it running again. I have another side project as well, but I cant talk about that. Im updating someone elses content, and will have to waiit until its done and I contact them again before I can announce it. Its not a big job, just a little time consuming.
Finally theres my route. That will be put together over time. Since the 86 Class were built for hauling coal and container trains through the mountains, naturally it features mountains. At the highest point the rail is 600m above sea level, and I plan to have a port at sea level too, so it's going to be big, with lots of gradients, and will have a city area for the Tangara and other commuter trains.
It sounds like Im taking a lot on, when its already taken me a long time to produce what I've already started, but I'm hoping that by combining it all together, and adding a route that I'll have the full package and that will motivate me to work on some part of it or other. One of the problems of just working on the 3D models is that when I get stuck, or need a break from modelling, I just stop. This way I'll have other things, like the route to go on with.
So thats the plan. As soon as I have the buffer and Train Stops fixed, I'll add an update on my progress here. I also have some Tangara and 86 Class updates to write as well.
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Friday, June 03, 2011
Saturday, February 07, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 08, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, January 01, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Reorganisation
Someone once said: Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans
You will have read below that after 7 months I needed to get away from 3D modelling for a while - which I did. I started to get back into it, but a lot has been hapenning in my life recently, and on top of that, once I stopped modelling for a while, I started noticing all those other things that I had been ignoring for 7 months.
I desperately want to finish the Tangara and other Trainz related stuff that I am working on, but right now my life seems too cluttered to really get much of anything done, so I have decided to clear away the clutter by restructuring all of the various projects that I am working on - Trainz and non-Trainz related. This will make things a bit simpler for me.
Im currently reorganising my blogs so that I can move some content out of one into another, and use the first one for its original purpose. The new one can continue to accumulate all the stuff thats been going into the original one recently. This wont affect this blog, or you guys - its just something else that I have on the side. Once the blogs are reorganised, I will post links to them here, for those that may be interested.
I also run my own web server, and have around 6 computers here which are always online. A couple of them need their software updated to more recent versions, and I have been doing that over the last couple of weeks. These machines support everything that I do online in one way or another, so its important to keep them working. This is one of those things I had been ignoring.
Once that is done, I plan to set up my own Redfern Workshopz web site, as well as a couple more for other projects. Once all that is done, things should be set up a bit better, and up to date, so it wont need so much attention in the future. I really need to get those web sites online for my own sanity, as they are the key to a lot of the recent turbulence in my life.
I think about the Tangara every day - really!, and will try to get it moving again as soon as I can - I just have a lot of other things on my todo list at the moment.
I'll keep you posted.
You will have read below that after 7 months I needed to get away from 3D modelling for a while - which I did. I started to get back into it, but a lot has been hapenning in my life recently, and on top of that, once I stopped modelling for a while, I started noticing all those other things that I had been ignoring for 7 months.
I desperately want to finish the Tangara and other Trainz related stuff that I am working on, but right now my life seems too cluttered to really get much of anything done, so I have decided to clear away the clutter by restructuring all of the various projects that I am working on - Trainz and non-Trainz related. This will make things a bit simpler for me.
Im currently reorganising my blogs so that I can move some content out of one into another, and use the first one for its original purpose. The new one can continue to accumulate all the stuff thats been going into the original one recently. This wont affect this blog, or you guys - its just something else that I have on the side. Once the blogs are reorganised, I will post links to them here, for those that may be interested.
I also run my own web server, and have around 6 computers here which are always online. A couple of them need their software updated to more recent versions, and I have been doing that over the last couple of weeks. These machines support everything that I do online in one way or another, so its important to keep them working. This is one of those things I had been ignoring.
Once that is done, I plan to set up my own Redfern Workshopz web site, as well as a couple more for other projects. Once all that is done, things should be set up a bit better, and up to date, so it wont need so much attention in the future. I really need to get those web sites online for my own sanity, as they are the key to a lot of the recent turbulence in my life.
I think about the Tangara every day - really!, and will try to get it moving again as soon as I can - I just have a lot of other things on my todo list at the moment.
I'll keep you posted.
Monday, August 14, 2006
A quick one about comments
I found a couple of old comments from May that somehow did not get published, so I published them today. I dont know if Blogger sends an email to posters when comments are published or rejected (to those non-anonymous ones whose email address is known), but if it does, that would be why a couple of you might have gotten emails today.
To answer a couple of questions in those comments, yes, Im doing the T set, and the G set and also Melbourne's Tangara test train, the 4D. I think I recall answering that one before. Yes, Im also doing a trailer - in fact there will be 9 carriages all together to cover the variations of the three trains. The other models will be created once the control car model is finalised, to take advantage of it having already been textured and set up for export.
I got a couple of comments on the previous post about Central Station's 100th Birthday, but I decided not to publish one anonymous comment which contained some names and details. I was trying to make the article a little generic, and avoided naming names where possible. To Dave, I'll just say thanks for the comment, and that I try to make my own mind up on things, and often that means listening to several different versions of the same story and then deciding which one sounds more reasonable. I still havnt quite heard all the versions yet, so it may have been premature of me to give my opinion. I think the issue with the drivers may have been more clerical than availability. I dont often see Barry, as we tend to go on different days, but I will have a chat and pass on your regards when I see him next.
I havnt done a lot of work on Trainz models (either the Tangara, the 86 class, or the side project) in the last week or so. Im hoping to spend some time on it tomorrow (I have Mondays off, but I also have some errands to run). The Tangara has become a little bogged down in the texturing stage, but Im hoping to remedy that the next time I can get a few uninterupted hours on it. Ive tried a few experiments, which havnt worked as well as I would have liked, so Im planning to hit it with a bit of force this time, and just do what works in order to get it to a point where I can show a different looking screen shot than what Ive previously posted.
To answer a couple of questions in those comments, yes, Im doing the T set, and the G set and also Melbourne's Tangara test train, the 4D. I think I recall answering that one before. Yes, Im also doing a trailer - in fact there will be 9 carriages all together to cover the variations of the three trains. The other models will be created once the control car model is finalised, to take advantage of it having already been textured and set up for export.
I got a couple of comments on the previous post about Central Station's 100th Birthday, but I decided not to publish one anonymous comment which contained some names and details. I was trying to make the article a little generic, and avoided naming names where possible. To Dave, I'll just say thanks for the comment, and that I try to make my own mind up on things, and often that means listening to several different versions of the same story and then deciding which one sounds more reasonable. I still havnt quite heard all the versions yet, so it may have been premature of me to give my opinion. I think the issue with the drivers may have been more clerical than availability. I dont often see Barry, as we tend to go on different days, but I will have a chat and pass on your regards when I see him next.
I havnt done a lot of work on Trainz models (either the Tangara, the 86 class, or the side project) in the last week or so. Im hoping to spend some time on it tomorrow (I have Mondays off, but I also have some errands to run). The Tangara has become a little bogged down in the texturing stage, but Im hoping to remedy that the next time I can get a few uninterupted hours on it. Ive tried a few experiments, which havnt worked as well as I would have liked, so Im planning to hit it with a bit of force this time, and just do what works in order to get it to a point where I can show a different looking screen shot than what Ive previously posted.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
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
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Im Back!
As I mentioned last time, Ive had a break for a few weeks. This happens all the time, and for me its quite normal. I work on a project for months straight and then just have to walk away from it for a little while. In the case of the Tangara, its been just over 7 months so far, and Ive worked on it fairly constantly over that time.
The good news is that Im back! Ive been forcing myself to get back into Gmax for the last few days, and finally I managed it last night. Tonight was the second night, so I think things should get back to normal from now on.
For the moment, Im working on something else, which is still Trainz related so you will benefit from it, however I dont want to post screen shots since I am working with someone elses models, and will leave it to them to make any announcements when its released. I expect this will take a few weeks, and I will try to do a little on the Tangara and 86 Class as I go, but for the moment I want to focus on this to ensure it gets started. So far, Ive just about completed the work that Im doing to the first model, and should be able to replicate most of that to the next one, so Im at least part way there.
I'll post more soon, and some screenshots of the Tangara and 86 Class, but wanted to at least let everyone know that things are progressing again.
The good news is that Im back! Ive been forcing myself to get back into Gmax for the last few days, and finally I managed it last night. Tonight was the second night, so I think things should get back to normal from now on.
For the moment, Im working on something else, which is still Trainz related so you will benefit from it, however I dont want to post screen shots since I am working with someone elses models, and will leave it to them to make any announcements when its released. I expect this will take a few weeks, and I will try to do a little on the Tangara and 86 Class as I go, but for the moment I want to focus on this to ensure it gets started. So far, Ive just about completed the work that Im doing to the first model, and should be able to replicate most of that to the next one, so Im at least part way there.
I'll post more soon, and some screenshots of the Tangara and 86 Class, but wanted to at least let everyone know that things are progressing again.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Busy Busy Busy
Wow. Its been a busy couple of weeks, and with everything else thats been going on, I guess Ive needed a bit of a break from Gmax, but a few things have been happening on the sidelines that you might find interesting.Its not that I actually took a break, its more that so much else has been happening that I just didnt have the brain capacity left to deal with complex shapes in three dimensional space. Things seem to have calmed down a little now and hopefully I will get back into modelling soon.
First a bit of self-promotion: You may have noticed the "Atom" button towards the lower right of the page. If you have an Atom reader or use a web site which lets you add Atom feeds to your personal page, you can get headlines from this blog, and can easily see when Ive added a new article. I meant to mention that weeks ago when I created the button.
So, basically Ive just been doing other things for a while. Real life stuff, and also a bit of goofing around because we all need to unwind occasionally. For example... I discovered YouTube which is a brilliant idea, and a great time waster. You can sit and watch videos for hours. Make sure you check out the videos by Brookers. Her fresh style caught my attention well before I discovered that it had also caught the eye of the NBC network, who promptly hired her. There are a lot of other good videos too - and a ton of crap. For my personal favourite its best to go directly to their home page for the full story, and if you like the Honda Accord "Things Work" commercial, you'll find the full length version on YouTube too. (you know... the domino effect one - you'll recognise it about a minute in).
You remembered to search for a few train related keywords, right? Try Cityrail, Tangara, Zigzag, "NSW train" etc. In case I missed it, theres a cab ride across the harbour bridge too. YouTube looking more interesting now?? If you really want to be impressed try Shinkansen, Nozomi, or FastTech. Doh! Ive created another YouTube addict.
What else. Lets see... I bought MSTS on special for $12.95 and have had a bit of look at that. I needed to see it for myself to see how it is different to Trainz. Both have strengths and weaknesses, but I think I still prefer Trainz.
Work has been busy lately with a few problems that Im still fixing now (even over the weekend). At least I can log in from here and dont have to travel to the office.
I spent Saturday at HET preparing both of the Red Rattler sets for a tour at the end of the month. RailCorp still hasnt decided if they will allow the manual door F1 set to run. If they dont, the other set (W3) has automatic doors and will be our backup plan, so they both have to be ready just in case.
A lot more has been going on, but these are a few things that come to mind right now.
Once I get back into Gmax I have a few things to do. Naturally theres the Tangara and the 86 Class to finish, and a few smaller things to think about, but theres something else as well. I always save the best until last, to make it worthwhile to those who read through all this waffle, so heres what I can tell you...
Ive come to an arrangement with another Trainz content creator to do some work on a couple of his models. I dont want to say too much at this stage because when its complete it will be a welcome surprise to all NSW Trainz fanatics, and its all about the models rather than my small part, so I want the creator to get all the fuss when he finally releases them. Im only mentioning it here to let all of you know that there is something else that I will be spending my time on, so progress on the 86 and the Tangara will be a little slower than usual over the next few weeks.
Im still trying to figure out the texturing for the Tangara, but I have read a lot and looked at some textures on other models to get an idea of how everyone else does it, so its progressing, but just a little slower than I would like. I always said that the texturing would be the hard part. Between complex scripting and texturing, I'll take the scripting any time! I'll keep you up to date on the Tangara, but naturally I cant post updates on the other "secret" project. Im sure you'll appreciate it when its done. Its minor work, so hopefully it should be done within a few weeks.
Before the break, I managed to get a fair bit done on the 86 Class interior which I havnt posted here yet. Theres still more to do but most of the levers and main attachment points are in place and just need a little tweaking. The S set interior will also get some attention soon, as its been a while since I worked on that, and Im still waiting for someone to start a Japanese Trainz group :)
The photo above was taken in the far corner of the yard at Redfern Carriage Workshops a couple of weeks ago.
Hmm, extra long post - too much stuff in my head. Back to normal next week I hope.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Well, its about time!
I spent yesterday on Sydney Harbour, celebrating Australia Day. I even got a bit of a tan. Last week, I attended a friends wedding, and entertained some other friends that my wife invited over for dinner. It would have been rude of me to sit at the computer and ignore them. I have also been working late at my real job to catch up on some things that are a bit behind, and will still need to work late from time to time over the next couple of months, but hopefully the weddings and national holidays are over, for a while anyway.Over the last couple of weeks, besides all of the other things that have distracted me, I have been doing a bit of research, and finishing up the Train Stop. I uploaded it to the DLS last night, but am just waiting on some last minute formalities before I release it from the preview area so that you can download it. I was so excited that I uploaded it before I had checked it properly, and ended up having to upload it again after removing some debugging code that I had left in the script.
I also realised that I should probably ask permission to modify one of Natvander's scripts. I had not thought about it since there was nothing in the license or in the script itself that said I couldn't, so I just presumed that it was ok. Then, after had I uploaded the Train Stop, my better judgement convinced me that I should at least ask, out of courtesy. I will be delaying the release. until I get this cleared up.
Last week, I also had an idea for a really quick and small model... the NSW Track Flag. It took me just a few hours to knock it out, and script it (ok... it took about 8 hours - but that included 4 hours of tearing out my hair trying to figure out TrainzScript :) The flag was uploaded a few days ago, but I currently have an update awaiting Auran approval, so if you havnt downloaded it already, you should probably wait until mid next week. If you have, download it again once the update is available.
Recently I signed up with HET (Historic Electric Traction) - probably the first of many organisations I will be supporting. They are a group of volunteers who contract their services to Railcorp, to restore and maintain Railcorp's historic fleet of electric passenger trains. They work out of the old Redfern Workshops, which is just a few blocks from here, and I hope to go down there occasionally and help them maintain the red rattlers and other historic trains that they have there. I have a bit of an alterior motive as well - I hope to get some photographs of the buildings and particularly Traverser No 1, and model them for Trainz.
A couple of other Trainz projects have shown up on the horizon. Im very interested in the Cityrail project (recreating the Sydney Cityrail network in Trainz) and have offered to help build any models that the guys might need to support that. Naturally the Tangara is going to be a part of it, but I have my eye on a few stations and buildings around the place as well.
Next week, I plan to work on the Tangara some more. I havnt done much over the last 2 weeks, and hope to make that up next week. I spotted a few glitches that will need looking at, but nothing major. I should have the gangway finished very soon, and will probably then work on the glitches. Now that the Train Stop is out of the way, I hope to finish the buffer, and start on the catenary splines and related static bits and pieces.
Oh, and my other task for this weekend, is to set up a website for Redfern Workshopz to allow me to add a few features that cant be done on this blog. More on that, as it progresses.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year
Ok, so Ive not done much, model-wise during the holidays, but thats OK because I already said I would be taking a break.
Ive never really been into making New Year resolutions... I mean why lock yourself into something that you are only going to forget or ignore in a few weeks time. Anyway, this year isnt much different, except that I discovered the Geek-Foo Resulution Generator, for anyone who's too lazy to make thier own resolution, or like me, just doesnt bother. Here's one I selected earlier. Click the link to generate your own.
Yup.. That'll do. I'll get started on that right away.
Ive never really been into making New Year resolutions... I mean why lock yourself into something that you are only going to forget or ignore in a few weeks time. Anyway, this year isnt much different, except that I discovered the Geek-Foo Resulution Generator, for anyone who's too lazy to make thier own resolution, or like me, just doesnt bother. Here's one I selected earlier. Click the link to generate your own.
Yup.. That'll do. I'll get started on that right away.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Let there be light
Ok, so this is really a bit of a tease. I spent a few hours tonight preparing to cut out the center windows of the Tangara. It took me ages to get each of the 12 windows and panels right. I started with a line marking the first window, converted it to an editable spline, and moved the verticies around a little. Then I made the other windows in the same row, and spent ages trying to get the size of the windows (and center panels) right, and then copied them for the other three rows. In the end, its pretty close, but not perfect without accurate measurements. Visually you shouldnt notice anything too strange, and if you do, I'll keep playing with it until you dont :)Once I had the splines in (almost) the right places I extruded them to make the large redish blocks shown above. These were then subtracted from the body to form the holes. It was about then that I noticed a few problems. Making the windows had caused a few polygons in the roof to dissapear, as verticies were created and removed around them. This is due to the roof always having been a seperate piece in the past. Now that it is attached to the body, there is a definite edge between them. You wouldnt see this in the finished model, but it means extra polygons. I need to go back and hand-optimize the roof so that both it and the body are one single piece with polygons shared between them, rather than hard edges.
Once the body and roof are a single piece, I can go back and cut the windows again - Thats the tease. Ive backed up a couple of versions and im back to the seperate roof / no windows model, but I have all of my window blocks (including a few spares) so once I have fixed the mesh, cutting the windows out will be a snap, and with the polygons all in the right places, I wont have the problems that I had earlier. While Im doing this, the skirt has the same problem, though its not affected by the windows, but I may as well optimise it too (It will have to be done eventually). Overall, this will give a smoother finish and a few less polygons. The count really shoots up with the windows cut out, and thats not including the cuts needed for the interior windows (for looking out or through the carriage). Its still managable though.S Set Cab
I did some more work on the S Set Cab yesterday. I'll post an updated picture soon. Ive been a busy boy. I added a few more pieces, Drivers chair, Fire Extinguisher (both from the Auran samples) as well as the data logger and crew air-con controls, and a basic dashboard panel (just the panel so far). Im still waiting on my research to arrive before I can start working on the dash properly. The only other things to do really are the Guards seat and Drivers door, before I can start on the finer detail like the hand brake and light fittings (I also have to texture it of course).
Textures
After playing around with textures and methods of texturing, I can see why a lot of Trainz objects have multiple texture files and Im starting to see where its helpful. I'll modifiy the method I have been using to include that technique, for various parts I will still use one large file (Things like the Tangara body (outside) would be one larger file). Im discovering what works, and what doesnt, as I go.
Platforms
I did a bit more research on platforms, both how to make them for Trainz, and looking for diagrams and details of the real thing on the net. Im planning on making a trip to the ARHS Research Center on Saturday (a mere 10 minute walk - lucky me!) and spending some real money on whatever useful material I can find. I have a list already of everything from stations to locomotives, and catenary (I havnt forgotten). Someone recently offered me some material covering platforms / stations, but it was in a large file. Ive been thinking about how best to deal with it. If you're reading this, I'll reply shortly.
Xmas break
Alas, its that time of the year again when everything shuts down for a few weeks. (Can you tell Im not a Xmas fan?) While I know I will keep working on things almost right up until Xmas, I also know that I will be taking some time off to spend with friends and family, and will get back to all of this some time in the new year. My wife has been very understanding of the hours (more hours than usual) that I have been spending at the computer in recent weeks. She deserves a bit of dedicated time in return. Im a geek, so Im always at a computer, but as I said, lately, its been more hours than usual. Xmas, and a few weeks after that, will be payback time.
Thats enough for now.
Tangara poly count: Was around 1500 before I backed-out. That included my cutting blocks and other non-model pieces. The body alone was 611.
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