Heavy Duty High Speed Panto

Yes, I know Ive been away for far too long. It happens. The truth is that Im not really good with textures. The texture mapping is tedious and often needs to be done several times until you get a map layout which you're happy with - moving things around means moving where the images will be, so you have to change the image template as well as the UVW unwrapping. Im also not very artistic, so even with a good map, the final textures probably wont be as good as many out there (though they will be better than some Ive seen) but Im not comfortable giving my source models to someone else to texture for me.

After a while I get bored and frustrated with it, and leave it for a while, and thats when other things come along which take my time, and sometimes I dont get back to this as soon as I would like - there is also the dread of knowing that when I do start on it again, I will be faced with whatever problem caused me to put it aside in the first place.

Having said that, I do think about it a lot, and I do try to get some work done occasionally. Ive always said Im doing this for me, primarily, so unfortunately its going to have to be at my pace. You may not realise it, but I too am dying to see these models in Trainz! I have big plans for them, script-wise and that will take time itself, so the sooner the models are ready, the better.

Over the last few days, Ive been playing with the 86 Class. At first (as always happens) it took me a few hours to get familiar with the process, and with the model again. I tweaked some of the conversion I did previously (I had recently converted the 86 Class from Gmax to Max, to take advantage of the new TRS2009 features). After that, I started finishing up the external parts - pantographs and bogies. I still have about half of the bogie to texture map, and I also want to add a little more mesh to give it some more detail.

I converted my Heavy Duty Cross-Arm panto to Max and textured it. That was fairly easy since the texturing is very simple on such a small model, then I took a copy of the Tangara's light weight High Speed panto, and started converting it to the Heavy Duty version used on the 86 Class. The base is done - it hasnt changed much - and I just finished the contact assembly (photo). All thats left for it is the arm, and adjusting the piston and animation (also easy), and then a simple texture and test fitting it to the loco.

Ive set out to create a standard for Pantographs. There has always been confusion about this, and its not easy to determine exactly how high the wire should be. Briefly, the Panto base sits at 4M above the rail, the wire is 1.6M higher (at 5.6M) and the base mounts on a 2m x 2m area on the roof of the train. Using standard measurements like this seems to work well, and allows any of my pantographs to be interchanged with the others, and they all fit as they should on the train. This will make it easy to create both a cross arm, and a high speed version of the 86 Class (for example) since at times, both types have been used.


File Version: 03
Poly Count: 816

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 duplication, tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. It may also include parts which are generally counted separately, such as pantographs, interiors, or bogies. LOD modelling will be used to further reduce in-game polygons.

Trainz 2009. Decisions Decisions!

I finally managed to get myself a copy of the new version of Trainz! The focus of this version is on high quality models, and the old polygon limits that I was so worried about, are gone! That isn't to say that I can add as many as I like - Im still keeping count, but it allows me to do things like add a few poly's here and there to improve the sharpness of the texture :)

I wasn't aware, until yesterday, that Auran have dropped support for Gmax, and have released new exporters for 3DS Max. I know that you can still use Gmax, but the old exporters do not support a lot of the new features that allow you to increase the resolution (quality) of the model without decreasing the perfomance of Trainz. I have always intended for my models to be high quality, so I have been wrestling with the decision to either leave things the way they are and release the items that Im currenly working on as TRS2006 assets, or to convert them to 3DS Max and take advantage of the new exporters to make them look even better in the game.

Converting to Max would take time, as there is no direct conversion process, and every conversion tool I have tried always seems to corrupt the model in some way. Fixing the corruption is time consuming, for example, in one model that I converted recently, several vertices (just a few here and there) were out by 16mm and had to be nudged back into place - it took about 2 hours find and fix them all, and that was just a simple building.

I know a lot of you have been waiting for my models to be finished and available for Trainz, so I don't want to delay them even further by putting them through a long and tedious conversion (and repairing) process this late in the day, but at the same time, I want to take advantage of the latest features in TS2009.

I'm already using the old 3DS Max exporters in Gmax, so there was originally no advantage to using Max - I can do normal maps and specular lighting in Gmax just the same. The only real difference was not being able to render a high quality image of the model in Gmax. No big deal, and certainly not required for Trainz! Now, with the extra features of TS2009 being enabled by the way the new exporters work, it's a much bigger deal.

After thinking about it for some time, and having converted the building mentioned above, Im leaning towards conversion. The Tangara is more complex than the 86 class, and already has a lot of textures in place, as well as several areas where the mesh is very fine. It would easily be corrupted and require a lot of time to fix before I could finish it off, so I have decided to continue working on the Tangara in Gmax, and release it as a TRS2006 asset.

The 86 Class on the other hand, is close to my heart. Its sad to see these locomotives go into forced retirement, and in a way, Im trying to do my part to preserve what made them special. There are some parts of the 86 Class that I had always planned to make in 3DS Max from the start, but at the time, there didn't seem to be any reason to build the rest of it there too. The model is almost complete but the mesh is simpler and it only has a few textures applied so far, so I'm going to take the risk to convert it, and export it as a TS2009 asset.

I may release an update to the Tangara in the future, making it a native TS2009 model, but for the moment, at least I will have one item that I can finish off, while I am rebuilding the other.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

About Poly Counts

Every time I post an update to this blog, Im worried that the poly counts shown may seem excessive to the casual reader who may be aware of Auran's poly recommendations, or the poly counts of various Trainz assets, but not so familiar with the modelling process or my intentions. Ive touched on it a few times in various posts, but here, I'd like to create a post just about that, which I can refer to later.

I add the poly counts to each post so that you can see my progress, and also get a feel for the level of detail in the models, but in recent months, these counts have been creeping up, and in some cases, Ive gone over my self-imposed upper limits. It troubles me, and while I'd like to create some really nice Trainz assets, Im concerned that others reading this blog may see the counts and think that these models are too "High-Def" to run on their PC or their version of Trainz.

Here's my thinking on that...

For a diesel locomotive, Auran recommend 9000 polys for the body, 8000 for the interior, and 2000 for a bogie. There are no recommendations for electric, so lets use those numbers and add 1000 for a pantograph. That's a total of 20,000. They also recommend 12000, 8000, and 5000 respectively for a steam locomotive (a total of 25,000). That's 5000 more! Why? Well, its because with all the push rods, pistons, and cylindrically shaped boilers, its difficult to do even a basic steam loco in less polys. The lower recommendation for diesels is not because Trainz wont handle anything higher - its simply a recommendation which helps Auran to lower the minimum PC requirements for running the game. The reality is, that in the years since those recommendations were made, the power of CPU chips in current PCs has just about doubled while the price has stayed about the same.

If I were to mirror the 86 Class right now, it would come to about 23,000 polys, which is just under the recommendation for a steam loco, so the question becomes... "Why do the steam fans get to have all that extra detail?" My answer is: "They don't". There is absolutely no reason why one locomotive should be less polys than any other. If Trainz will handle 25,000 for one locomotive, it will handle it for another. Naturally, if you can build it under that, so much the better.

Having said that, the poly count expressed below each post is for a work in progress. It includes things like body, bogies, and cab mode interior detail together. In Trainz these are separate assets, as are the pantographs, and generally they are not all added together, as they are in my workspace.

By the time I split the model into separate files for body, bogie, interior, panto, levers, etc, the total count will be spread over several files, and things that a file doesn't need will be removed (ie: there will be no levers in the body file). Duplicated parts (switches etc) will become a single item, to be attached multiple times.

The 23,000 poly estimate for the mirrored 86 class includes a lot of duplication (two full cab mode interiors, with all of their associated levers and switches for example). Obviously, the duplication wont be present in the in-game asset. For example, only one cab is required - Trainz simply uses the same model at either end, and only one is ever active at any given time.

Another factor to take into account is LOD, or "Level Of Detail" modelling. I will be using LOD in all of my locomotives and trains. When an asset is set up properly for LOD, Trainz uses the high poly, high detail model only when it fills the entire screen (Zoomed in). As the train dissapears into the distance, Trainz will substitute increasingly lower detail copies as it moves further away, so with all those engines in that big yard, only the ones in the foreground will be high detail, and the rest are low poly versions. This is how it should be, and its kind of sad that more Trainz assets aren't set up this way. Obviously, in the real world, you can't see that 2cm diameter hand rail from 5km away, but you do see enough of the basic outline of the loco to recognise it's type. This is how it is with LOD modelling too.

Finally, Im building these for me. If you like them too, that's cool, but to paraphrase Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show, and with all the humour intended in that scene...

"I didn't make them for you!"

I guess you really have to see the movie.

Anyway, in conclusion, the poly counts in my working files may seem high, but this is because I want to build the best looking models that I can, and also because those work files include a lot of parts that will never be seen in-game, or be counted together. Auran's recommendations are fairly conservative, and aimed at the minimum average PC requirements, yet PCs are becoming more and more powerful, and LOD modelling will greatly reduce the poly count of distant models. All of these things combined mean that the finished product will have less of an impact on your PC performance than you might expect from simply looking at the poly counts in this blog.

Hopefully now that Ive written all that in a single referenceable post, it wont bug me as much in the future.

Oh, and when you see the models in action, you'll realise it was worth it :)

86 Class Update

Ive been busy over the past couple of weeks. I spent most of that time getting used to Gmax again and remembering how to do all of the tricky stuff. I started on the Tangara first, but will post that later so that it appears above this post.

The 86 Class is by far my favourite locomotive, and Ive been itching to get back to this. Looking at it again after so long, I noticed a lot of little problems that I didnt see before, and I have fixed most of those. I also found some short-cuts that I took earlier to save a few polys, have come back to bite me. I left a few edges disconnected, so that I wouldnt have to add a vertex to the other edge (adding polys), but now I can see some tiny annoying gaps, so Ive fixed that, even though it adds a few extra faces.

I corrected some problems with the front of the base, aligning it better, and improving the corners. These fixes saved a few polys. While I was doing that, I figured out a cheat to save even more polys, and took out around 200 or so, without affecting the look of the model. This was mostly underneath. The foot holes through the front plate, and other things were mirrored on the back of the plate. I realised that with backfacing polys being invisible, that I could remove the detail at the back, which is rarely seen, without changing how the front looks, so underneath is now just a simple flat wall, saving all the faces which made up the corners of the holes which didnt really need to be there. Unfortunately all those saved polys came back, and brought friends, when I started on the interior detail.

Previously I had a couple of Auran brake levers temporarily in place, and the brake stand from one of the models on the the Art Source CD, which is almost a perfect match, but not quite. The independent brake is mounted quite low, and on the 86 class, has a bent handle to raise it up to where the driver can reach it. The train brake handle also has a slight bend in it, and the mount to the brake stand allows it to be removed. I quickly knocked up a mount and attached it to the top of the brake stand, then tweaked the Auran levers to be more like the real thing. Im quite pleased with the result, which you can see in the enlarged picture (or check my flickr pages for the latest screen shots).

I finally found a picture of the reverser handle (I had it all along) and realised that the reverser lever was not quite right, so I made it a bit shorter and stubbier. I added the small rails around the horn and wiper controls (added those controls too) and also the drivers and observers switch panel above the side windows. All of these will operate, and the attachment points are all in place. The speedo was floating in mid air (the cyan thing on the left) so I finished it off by adding the mount, and mounting it to the wall. To save on polys, Im not going to model the cables that extend down into the dashboard from it. You can pretend that they disappear into the wall through the mount :p Finally, I added the doors and cut out the windows in them. they're set up to be animated later.

I created some industrial push buttons and mounted them on the dash. I plan to reuse these later in the Tangara too. On the 86, these control the pantographs, and there are a couple of fault ack/reset buttons in that cluster too. I also made one (slightly different) for the backwards transition button, which can almost be seen on top of the master controller between the throttle and regen handles.

One thing that Trainz doesnt do well are push buttons. You can set toggle switches up as levers, and they work fine, but there is no built-in push button function, and nothing close (like a lever is to a toggle) that will easily do the job. I have a couple of solutions in mind, and Im sure other creators have used both methods in the past. One is to make each button a lever with a very long radius and a tiny amount of movement. By placing the pivot several metres away, you wont notice the slight arc in the buttons travel, but it will be very sensitive and possibly difficult to operate. The other is to borrow a steam engine trick and make them animated, with a collision mesh to trigger the animation. This is the method Im leaning towards, as it seems a lot simpler and more reliable. It seems that all modern cabs have push buttons now, so I hope that Auran have a better solution with Trainz 2009.

File Version: 123
Poly Count: 11434

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 duplication, tools, jigs, and other pieces which may not be part of the final model. It may also include parts which are generally counted separately, such as pantographs, interiors, or bogies. LOD modelling will be used to further reduce in-game polygons.

Quick Update

Just a quick update for now. For various reasons I havnt done much on the Tangara over the last week or so. I did do a little bit of structural reorganisation, but nothing that can be seen. I have realised that to redo the door animation the way I wanted, I will have to lower the ceiling in the vestibule, so that will be the next thing to be done. Other than that, I would say that the interior is complete and just needs texturing. After the doors will come the missing exterior detail, windows, and textures.

My interest in the 86 class has been increasing recently, so I tried to set up a basic environment in Gmax for it, but I have been having trouble getting the scalebox texture to map properly. Textures are not my favourite part of Gmax, and it makes me wonder if I wont also have similar problems with the Tangara textures. No matter what I try, my crisp clear scale drawing comes out blocky and blurred. I know Im missing something.

The Auran forums are frustrating me. I make one comment, which people react to without thinking about, and all hell breaks loose. I explain what I mean (requiring a much longer post) and they go.. "oh, now I understand" but then start picking on one small point in the explanation. Then while Im trying to clarify that, Auran come along and close the thread. That is what is frustrating me the most.

So much for free speech, or valuing the diversity of others opinions. Auran just take their bat and ball and go home if they dont like where a thread is going. Ive felt the same about an earlier thread which they closed, which I did not even participate in.

Peoples reactions and Aurans childish thread closing, make me wonder if I will ever bother to post there again. For the most part, Ive tried to be helpful, and most people are friendly, but there are a few that really just dont get it.

No time for Trainz anymore

Now that I've committed myself to building the Tangara, I dont have time to actually play with Trainz or build a route anymore :( Gmax sure is a time consumer, but it will be worth it in the end.

I've cut out the doors and side windows for the drivers cabin and connected a few places that needed a surface. Most of this is being built with planes, which are one-way, meaning if you look at them from the back, you can't see them, so when you build a wall, you have to build both sides and fill the top and bottom gaps. Thats a basic example. Yes, I am using boxes where they are appropriate. The lower deck is a box with the top cut off, making it into five planes - see what I mean?

I also built a basic two-seater Tangara seat as an experiment. It turned out ok, but might be a bit small. I can scale it later.

You might have noticed that I changed the template for this page. I spent a bit of time tweaking it, and you will see a list of projects on the right. More needs to be done to finish the template, and that will happen over time. I also reorganised the forum banner, as I found that it wasn't showing up half of the time. Its now on my own web server, and seems to be working. While I was working on the new template, I also changed the name and URL of this site. The banner points to the new URL - you seem to have found it ok.

Mikkk asked me if I could do some South Coast style overhead wire, so that was added to the list. I'll start on that when I get some photos - either from Mikkk, or if I happen to be out and in the right place. I'll start on the single pole, and probably also do a double. Any others will be by request. I joined the AusTrainz mailing list and had a look at their wish list. I'll see what I can do.

I will probably do a little more work on the S Set cab soon, I'll post updates as it progresses. I should really do some more on the Train Stop, as that is the simplest of all, and would probably get me a DLS Contributor flag faster... that is if CMP will let me upload it... Im in no rush.

Current Poly count on the Tangara: About 570

Redfern Workshopz

I put a banner together to use in the forums. Its true, Im new to Trainz, and I havn't uploaded any content yet, but as they say good things are worth the wait. Im a geek, and I pick up new stuff fast. Ive only been using Gmax a few weeks, and Im progressing well. Ive read the Content Creation Guide and it makes sense and I understand the key concepts, and know what I need to do to build models that will work, and work as I have promised below.

Trainz is a great program, and if we all get together and fill it with some good content, we all win. Im concentrating on my corner of the world, and I plan to see it through, over time. The banner is to show that Im serious about that.

There is (or was) a huge group of people who were inspired enough to start building almost the whole Sydney Cityrail network. Alas one by one they seem to have found other interests, many of them (according to forum posts) frustrated by the lack of suitable Sydney or NSW content, which they needed to model our rail network. The guys from Cardiff Workshops have been a tremendous help, giving us some high quality local content, but more can be done. Hopefully as more NSW based assets are created, some of the Cityrail route creators may return and complete what they have started.

About the name
Sydney's electric suburban passenger network began in the early 1900's. As the railway grew, a large workshop sprang up at Eveleigh, in the inner city, and the existing Redfern platorm (it wasnt even a station at that stage) was relocated from where the Eveleigh workshops are now, to its present location. The original electric passenger trains, affectionately known later in life as "Red Rattlers" were built during the 20's and 30's in the Redfern Suburban Carriage Workshops, a part of the Eveleigh Workshops, located on the other side of the line, near the present Redfern Station.

Sadly the Redfern workshops were closed many years ago, and are now just derelict buildings. There are plans to redevelop the site and we may lose the heritage value of the buildings. The Eveleigh workshops across the line are still operating, though at a greatly reduced capacity. They are currently used to house and prepare the Milenium Train, and Endevour Explorers. A small section at Eveleigh houses 3801, the most well known heritage steam locomotive in NSW, which is still running tour trains from time to time (See the photo in the archive). Eveleigh is a shadow of its former self, and large sections have already been redeveloped. With the rise in price of inner city land, its only a matter of time until it is closed forever. That may happen sooner than we think as Railcorp have indicated that they will not be renewing the operators lease of 3801, when it expires next year. The future of the locomotive, and the facilities to maintain it at Eveleigh are in doubt.

All of this is just down the road from me, so when I was thinking of a name to tag my Trainz content creations with, living in Redfern, it was only natural to call it Redfern Workshopz.

Blah. I type too much, and I still didnt say half of what I was going to.

First Post!

Well here it is, the first post.

I decided to document my experience with Trainz Railroad Simulator. (or Railway Simulator for those of us outside of the United states, like me). I have the new 2006 version, though the link above points to the 2004 version, simply because their 2006 website isnt much to look at yet.

Lets go back a step. I created this blog weeks ago. It was originally going to be a place to put a few thoughts about a lot of crazy stuff that goes on around me. I had heard the phrase "Out where the busses dont run", meaning crazy or out of your mind (Im too embarrassed to admit where [Miami Vice]*cough*) and it stuck with me. I thought it was a great way to describe someone who was really "öut there" crazy.

I didnt do much with the blog, so, when looking for somewhere to put a few "progress" updates for the Trainz projects I am working on, I thought "No Busses" would be appropriate.

[Edit: Since this post, the blog name has been changed to Redfern Workshopz]

So... Lets be honest. A month or two ago, I was cruising my favourite BitTorrent sites, looking for a few of my favourite TV shows, since I refuse to be a slave to commercial TV's scheduling, and found TRS2006. I thought, hmmm this looks interesting, so I downloaded it, installed it, and took it for a spin.

I was blown away!!

First up, I must thank Natvander, Davido, and the Cardiff Workshops guys for their Wadalbavale branch line. That, above anything else was what impressed me so much about this software. They have done a ton of work in the Trainz community, and have created a lot of custom "Aussie" content and textures which makes this module really look and feel like country New South Wales. Its as close to "being there" as you're gonna get on a 17in computer monitor.

I dont play a lot of games or simulations - I have too many projects that Im constantly working on, but this one hooked me. A week later, I went out and bought it, and I have to say its not because the game's serial number is an integral part of the Download Station, but because I do buy the things I download and decide to keep. Im just tired of buying something and finding out that its not what I thought it was. Modern technology allows me to preview and make better selections. So discovering Trainz was a happy accident.

So anyway... why are you here? Its surely not to listen to me ramble. Of course, its for an update on my Trainz content... First, i'm gonna make you read some more...

So, who is this new guy, promising to deliver us a Tangara for Trainz, and why is he bothering since there are already a couple in the works?

Im a computer geek. I work in IT as a Performance Analyst. I find that I pick new things up fairly quickly - give me a technical manual for a piece of software, and I'll be running rings around it in no time. Trainz has such a manual. I love building things, whether its writing programs, or making 3D models - its like an obsession at times. I just have to add more and improve on it. At the same time, I often get distracted, or get interested in something else and leave things for a while before getting back to them, so don't hold your breath. Oooh. Shiny!

Why am I building a Tangara? Why not? I've downloaded and played with the available Sydney suburban trains and as noted by many, theres at least 2 missing - The Tangara's and the V Sets. There has been talk on the Trainz forums of building a Tangara for over a year now, and in true Cityrail fashon, it seems to be running late, so I did what any geek with a computer and an obsession would do. I started building one myself. I dont use the word obsession lightly. My wife and I have already had arguments over the amount of time I spend at my computer in Gmax or Trainz, and its only been a few weeks. We seem to have found a compromise and its been better recently.

So how far have I gotten? The answer is "Not very" - there is a steep learning curve, but its progressing. In order to satisfy all the "gimme's" out there, Im going to release it in pieces, using the Auran KUID versioning system. First you'll get your basic 4 car train, then it will be updated with passengers and other cool stuff, and then finally a real cab. Thats the plan, I may change it.

So, here it is. A bit disapointing, but if I can stop writing all of this garbage and get back into Gmax, it will get better. Enjoy: