Three Rivers Region

[RickD]

I think you can see things like these on every switch, I don't think that there aren't any in Germany. Maybe you just haven't notices them
P.S. Great work on the textures, David!

Here is a picture of a common "german" switch without these switching stands:



On some switches we have them, too but they are much smaller:

[Swamper77]

Oh, I see. Is it possible to remove these?

Please don't get me wrong Jan, I don't want to depreciate your work but I have never seen something like that in Germany before so it looks very uncommon to me.

Rick,

Over at SimCityPlaza, Andreas released the German version of the NAM. For that version, I gave Andreas a set of German switches made from Royal's model that he sent me. It's only available over there. I haven't released the German version of the switches here.

-Jan

[Andreas]

Jan took the words of my mouth. The German NAM installer contains a file called "SW77-Royal_GermanSwitchStandProps.dat" which is installed into the NAM's "Plugins" folder. It will override the US switch stands and place the German ones.

[dedgren]

Wow, I should go to work all day more often...  I'm down at our courthouse in Anchorage waiting for a 3:30 hearing (I'm representing the girlfriend of a guy who she drove to the 7-11 and who came out with both a Super Big Gulp [linkie] and a bag full of the day's cash receipts).  Just another day toiling at the wheels of justice, my friends.

So, great conversation here.  The RAM Team is about halfway done with the retexture of the game trackage.  I'll probably attach a beta file this evening for everyone to play with.

   

* * *

We'll almost certainly hit 20,000 views for January sometime late tonight.  Thanks, all you 3RR Regulars^*, along with you lurkers- I note we've seen several unmask themselves lately.  Great to have you with us!

Off to court...


David

^*  A 3RR Regular is anyone who has ever posted here (or, back when, over at 3RR-ST) at least once.  No dues, no nag notices saying it's time to renew- once you've posted, you're set for life (well, here anyway).

224849

[BigSlark]

David,

I love these textures. They'll make those tight industrial situations look that much better!

Cheers,
Kevin

[girlfromverona]

I'll probably attach a beta file this evening for everyone to play with.

You rock, David! Can't wait for this one. 

[Pat]

David simply one word here to say and that is BREATHTAKING!!!!!!!! 

[dedgren]

Well, that was interesting...

Apparently the mass downloading of the NAM snuck up on us.

* * *

The RAM Team has spent the last few days retexturing pretty much every game default dual rail piece.

A chart, if you are interested, of those pieces is here [linkie].  If you spot one of your favorites among those left out, let us know.

So now available, without further fanfare, is the complete (at least as far as we know) dual rail upgrade texture set.  A few pics.





We've made ties more uniformly sized and spaced, added frogs and other touches of realism to switches and crossovers, and corrected various trackage curves (which in the original were apparently drawn by the developers at the end of a long night of too much pizza and beer).









The beta is available for you to check out here [linkie].  Install it by unzipping it in your "load last" subfolder of your Plugins folder.  All I ask is that you let us know what issues you run into using it, and post pics of anything you really like.

Thanks.


David

225358

[thundercrack83]

Three cheers to you and the RAM Team for such a magnificent undertaking, David!

The new textures look great, and the pictures you posted to show them off are even better!

Thank you for all your hard work, my friend--your undying pursuit of changing the game is so inspiring!

Dustin

[girlfromverona]

David, it's people like you who keep me playing this game. Those pictures look amazing!
Thank you SO MUCH to the entire RAM Team for the effort you all put into this latest project. 

[RickD]

Jan took the words of my mouth. The German NAM installer contains a file called "SW77-Royal_GermanSwitchStandProps.dat" which is installed into the NAM's "Plugins" folder. It will override the US switch stands and place the German ones.

I should have known that.  Thanks, guys.


The new rail textures look great! This must have been lots of work.

[Battlecat]

Simply breathtaking!  Those new textures fit the game far better than anything else I've ever seen.  I'll try out the beta when I get home tonight. 

 

[dedgren]

Heh!  What else might the RAM Team be working on?



* * *

I noted a couple of days ago that I would post a discussion of rail curves that had heretofore been in a team private topic for those who remain unconvinced not to abandon game rail curves and switches.  Here you go.

[tabular type=4][row][data]
OK, I promised that I would start out with my two cents worth on the use of wide radius STR curves versus "game" radius curves.  Here we go-

I advocate for the use of no game radius curves in the STR.  The reason for this is basic realism in the context of the simulation.  While I recognize that a perfectly-scaled recreation of the world cannot be achieved in SC4, the game rail curves are so grossly tight that they appear cartoonish.  That was my original impetus when developing the wide radius curves for game (double) trackage- it remains so for the STR, which we have the ability to get right from the start.

Let's look at some numbers.  No game radius STR curve can be in excess of 100 feet/32 meters in radius by virtue of the constraints imposed by the dimensions of a gridsquare.  As we are well aware, a gridsquare, notionally speaking, is 50x50 feet/16x16 meters.  Since the ortho end of the curve must be centered on the axis of the gridsquare, which is at 25 feet/8 meters, and the trackage must leave the next gridsquare at a 45 degree angle at the midpoint of that square, the act of drawing radial lines to the center of this curve discloses that the radius of the curve must, per the following diagram, be 100 feet/32 meters.



So, how tight is a rail curve with a radius of 100 feet/32 meters?  A look at the radius of RL rail curves in tight places is instructive.  The Siskiyou Pass line in Oregon, which is a US Standard Gauge line where the curves are deemed too tight for anything but freight trains, has a minimum curve radius of 574 feet/175 meters.  Here's a [linkie] to a discussion of that stretch of track.  This pic from that discussion is illustrative as to how tight a RL curve that actually is.



There's a table at the end of this article [linkie] that shows minimum mainline curve radii on a number of US Standard and Narrow Gauge lines.  You can see that a game rail curve radius of 100 feet/32 meters is matched only be a few Narrow Gauge lines.  One, the Unitah [sp.- actually the Uintah] is listed, at 87 feet as requiring "articulated" locomotives- that's an engine with a hinge in the middle.

I adopted 375 feet/115 meters as a reasonable compromise between the radius of an average mainline RL curve (which is likely upwards of 600 feet/180 meters) and the need to have something of reasonable compactness to fit into the constraints of a game quad- again, we're not slavishly trying to model RL in SC4, but we can choose where to draw the line when something becomes grossly out of proportion.  I do note that some have suggested an intermediate curve radius for STR- say 225 feet/70 meters, which would fit into a 5x5 gridsquare space and be a little more than twice the radius of a game curve.  I could certainly draw one of these in short order, but would prefer that we would provide this option in V.2.

Anyway, that's what's up for me as for my position on game radius rail curves versus wide radius.  I'd really like to hear the thoughts of everyone else on this topic.
[/data][/row][/tabular]

Later.


David

225771

[Haljackey]

Its... Beautiful!   

Excellent work David and RAM team, this is shaping up to be quite a mod!

Best,
-Haljackey

[metarvo]

This discussion is yet another piece of proof that 3RR is educational.  I know I learned something new here. 

Is that TTR (Triple Track Rail)?  It looks like it.  Not only that, but it's actually diagonal. 

[dedgren]

Oh, and remember that one last thing that was holding the final beta of the STR up?



Looks really simple, doesn't it?  Well, that diagonal STR across diagonal STR draggable trackage is the culmination of hundreds of lines of new code, and months worth of effort by the RAM Team.  We'll keep you posted on the beta, which should be out by the weekend.


David

225877- We passed 20,000 page views for the month of January, the fifth straight month in a row, yesterday.  As always, you folks are the greatest!

[inspecter]

Well I am back from my hiatus and I was skimming through the topic to see this


hmm he kind of looks like him .

Hooray! Triple track rail I can't wait to see which way will the 3rd track go.

EDIT:  Your way, my friend.  It'll go your way (sooner or later).  Heh, resemblance to anyone living or dead is completely intentional. -DE

[jmdude1]

that tri-rail pic is amazing. it will be impressive to see a few trains passing each other on these tracks. also, the single track work is coming along nicely. this should be a great upcoming release. great work ram team!
also, that last pic you posted in reply #6547 looks really great. your rock mod makes the valley look so realistic and the rail intersection and the hydro poles make the pic look perfect.

[threestooges]

I knew you'd get that thing figured out sooner or later David. Overrides of overrides, and there it is, the final jewel in the crown of the first phase STR project. Congratulations to you, and the others who have taken this thing so far.
-Matt

[deathtopumpkins]

Amazing stuff lately David.  Looking forward to that triple-track rail, and the next STR beta, and so on and so forth. Glad the new rail textures are out, but my same question with the diagonal upgrades still stands: Compatibility with the SFBT Rail Texture Mod. I guess I'll find out when I start my game though... 

Oh, and one last thing, do you possibly know who would be the best person to consult for terrain mod difficulties? Specifically Orange's terrain mod you linked to here and  Brian (c.p.)'s Meadowshire? I cannot seem to get the two to work together and I don't recall c.p. still being active here... I figure its something weird I did with his though. Thanks.

EDIT:  dtp, I'll get in touch with Brian (who's by here occasionally  ), and ask.  I use Columbus, and have had no problem.  Here, btw, is a pic



using Aubrac Rock and setting the MaxNormalYforCliff property to "0.0175" "0.77" (thanks, Adam (Ennedi)!) I particularly like. -DE