[Pat]

Hey Matt those buildings are looking wonderful there!!! Btw who ever does the lotting they may want to check out my texture pack as it may fit those just soo perfectly for the parking lot and drive thru

Also loving the bridge work too man wow!!!

[carlfatal]

This bridge is cool! 
Could be nice to see it crossing a river but i think it would look also nice in a town over streets or crossing a huge railyard of another line (with different pillars as they look more as they have to be grounded in water).
Definitely i missed to look in here, but from now on...
Greetz, Carl

[threestooges]

-Pat: I've pointed them to it. They're still in the process. If you feel like picking them up again, by all means give it a shot if you want. Good to see you back around here!

-Carl: I'll try to figure out how to get it to that for, as you're right, I can see it as a good rail overpass, but I'm not quite sure how to get it as an offset prop type thing like Buddybud's old overpass skins. I'll look into it though. As for now however, it'll make a decent bridge.

So, it's been too quiet here.

Here, have a bridge:



This was supposed to appear somewhere in Greenacre during OSITM, but time ran short last month. However, it's getting close to a working prototype. I think I may need to tweak the textures a bit more, and the paths need to be adjusted for TTR use (unless riding on two different lines at the same time is desired) but I think it's pretty much there.

Thoughts are appreciated.
-Matt

[noahclem]

I had a feeling this one was part of your OSITM plans    Hopefully it will find its way into Greenacre during March.

And a nice-looking bridge it is!

My only thoughts so far are doing something with that boring brown texture between the tracks on the bridge (what the train is driving over in the picture). That, the pathing, and the bump at the right end of the bridge.

[metarvo]

It's good to see our bridge makers active again.  TTR is steadily being developed, and we are now getting to see TTR bridges.  Good work, Matt!

 

[rooker1]

Other than tweaking the rail texture, it seems way too white/bright, I would only suggest trying the darken up the concrete bases too. 
Love the bridge, great work Matt.

Robin

[Jmouse]

I like the texture you used on the railings (is that the right word?), and the bridge really is coming together well. I see nothing to suggest other than the points which have already been made.

Where David leads, we all follow...

[Battlecat]

Fantastic looking bridge!

[threestooges]

Agreed about the concrete texture needing to be darkened. The bump is definitely slated for smoothing (I think the model got shifted vertically in the z direction  somehow). The boring brown bit was a wooden plank texture I was trying out but it does seem to convey the intended effect. I'll see what I can come up with.

As for the "railing" texture, Joan, I assume you mean the trusses over the tracks, those are the same textures  I used back on the CPI props. They've proven to be very versatile, but I'm not sure how well they work when stretched like that. Thoughts would be welcome if an upgrade is in order.

Hopefully I'll have some time after work tonight for that. Thanks for the feedback, it really helps.
-Matt

[threestooges]

No pictures today, but in an endeavor to keep this thread from growing too much dust in the in-progress periods I figured I'd at least drop a note. The bridge is progressing. I've sorted out the elevation issue with the first piece (still not entirely sure where that came from), and the planking between the tracks is looking better. Still trying to sort out which concrete texture is best for the pillar, but I think I'm getting closer. Also, the LODs will be fairly tightly formed to the model itself; it'll result in several more vertices to render per tile, but it'll allow the automata to be properly visible. Hopefully a "final draft" version will be ready shortly for view.
-Matt

[Jmouse]

Good to know you’re getting back in the bridge-building business, Matt. I know all too well how easy it is to lose that first burst of enthusiasm among the demands of RL and the lure of new projects.

Eventually you and Arne will have to teach me how to create my own LODs instead of letting gmax do it automatically. Arne says it’s easy, but most of the time, things he thinks are “easy” look more like advanced trigonometry to me!

[threestooges]

Creating custom LODS:
Step 1: Create shape. Box is the basic one that the BAT creates, but you can make whatever shapes you want then, after converting one to an editable mesh, you can attach all the shapes you want to it.
Step 2: Rename this new shape LOD3
Step 3: Copy the shape, and rename LOD4
Step 4: Copy again, and rename LOD5
Step 5: Make sure your model is actually in the LOD (or funny things happen) and render.

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but with the BAT, the name means everything. Whatever object bears the name LOD3, LOD4, or LOD5 will be the LOD for that zoom level.

But wait, you may say (and if not, I'm still going to assume you said it), there are 5 zoom levels and only 3 LOD's. Zooms 1 and 2 use the LOD3 and Zoom 6 uses LOD5, which is why you get the pixelation of buildings (I think). All a model is in the game is a picture pasted on the side of your LOD. If you've ever stretched a picture and noticed it gets pixelated, that's basically the same concept here.

Hope that helps.
-Matt

[Jmouse]

Thank, you Matt. It makes perfect sense if you don’t think about it.

[threestooges]

Joan: Since when have I ever made any sense?

Progress, to a fair degree of completion. This took far longer than it should've but I think it's now there.


-Matt

[RickD]

Good to hear you are making progress. I like the model and it is great to know we will have bridges when the TTR comes out.

[noahclem]

Looking great Matt 

[Jmouse]

I really like this bridge style, Matt, although the proper name for it escapes me at the moment. The texture you used is excellent, and I’m looking forward to giving it a test run.