Slow Progress

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.

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.

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.

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.