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RealRailway (RRW) - Development and Support

Started by Swordmaster, June 14, 2013, 08:42:19 AM

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Indiana Joe

It's definitely not simple, it took me the better part of a day just to get that one texture right (and it's just a proof of concept).  The RRW project is already over halfway done--there's not going to be any changes now.

I just tried to point out the fact that more sets can be made in the future.  With Maarten's RRT Team, there will be a dozen sets of road textures soon.  We can do the same thing for rails if people pitch in.  (Heh...heh...the RRRT Team  :P)

Swordmaster

Nice work Matt! I think that's a good start for an alternative set. The only substantial advice I can give right now is to make sure you make a master texture that is separated in different layers (ballast bed, ties and rails). Secondly, work on the diagonal master simultaneously, to make sure you can easily line them up while of course using the same tie spacing as the orthogonal. If you do this well, the rest of the texture work should relatively be a piece of cake.

I can't say or do much more than this right now; work has been done behind the scenes to make a spec doc which will help modders make new sets that conform to the RRW design standard. Right now we're still in pre-alpha mode here, but I can say that over time I'll make my own master textures available, which should help out with any such effort.

Teddyrised, thanks for that well-made statement. I have to add something, though. I think ever since having decided on the base orthogonal texture, I've only spent around 20% of my time texturing. The rest is taken up by coding. I think that should give people a good idea of what the bulk of the RRW effort on my end is at this point. This is also why I've stressed the fact that everyone is free to try their own hand at a texture, by themselves or as a collaborative effort, since it's not my priority, even though I agree with the fact that variations are needed. Functionality first, as is the saying.


Cheers
Willy

Bipin

I say keep the textures as they are. I can attest to how much work you've put in them. Besides, if folks want grey ballast, they can use the older mods, nothing wrong with that.  ;) We need to switch up the colour scheme once in a while, even if it means creating something grittier, dirtier, older and more industrial.

MR.Y

May you two could work together and make one of this two textures in a way like the SAM. I think to make an transition isn't as hard, is it?

@Indiana: Nice work. Did you think about bright, new concrete sleepers?

example pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96971439@N06/9026200412/
(author: me)

regards

Tarkus

Quote from: MR.Y on July 03, 2013, 07:14:57 AM
. . . make one of this two textures in a way like the SAM. I think to make an transition isn't as hard, is it?

That's already been discussed, and as it complicates crosslinking while adding just cosmetics, it's not part of any immediate plans.  As per the project's FAQ:

Quote from: Swordmaster on June 14, 2013, 08:42:19 AM
Will you include any texture variations as additional overrides (i.e. a SAM-like approach?)
Current policy is that there will be no additional overrides until the basic network is fully compatible and flexible to the standards the developers aspire.

I'd also like to cite an interesting statistic--in the roughly 2 weeks since this thread has opened, it has surpassed the post count of the nearly 5-year-old Rail Addon Mod development thread, and is approaching 10,000 views.  Congrats to Willy on getting rail modding "on track", so to speak. :thumbsup:

-Alex

agunter999

It is better than the orriginal by far the shiny is unrealistic and sharp bends
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Earwhyckque

Quote from: teddyrised on July 03, 2013, 05:51:11 AM
Cosmetics are, well, cosmetics. One should take it as a pinch of salt :)

You are true about that. On the other hand, cosmetics can be a helpful addition to the gameplay. Personally, I would love to have the great features from this topic put in some sort of high speed rail mod. The aforementioned bright, new concrete sleepers could be an ideal visual signal for such a system :)

On the other hand, I'm quite sure I will not be the one who is going to make such a monorail replacement mod (or something like that), so I'll just watch and learn here ;)

Kuewr665

Would a mod on the scale of light rail (elevated and ground) be on the scope of this project, after enough work on the heavy rail is done?

Swordmaster

Not even released and I'm already redoing stuff ;D

It used to be this:



Now it's this:



This:



becomes:



In concrete terms, the minimum radius for the main draggable network has been nearly doubled to 38.56m. Still a tad shy of the actual curve a main line engine can take, but it's a compromise. It should alleviate most of the headaches I used to associate with the non-wide curve parts. It'll mean that some of the whacky Maxis setups will not be possible with the RRW (a full list will be included in the manual), but also that the mod will fully support the default narrow curves should users (including myself) find it necessary to include them in a setup.


Quote from: Tarkus on July 03, 2013, 10:32:02 AMI'd also like to cite an interesting statistic--in the roughly 2 weeks since this thread has opened, it has surpassed the post count of the nearly 5-year-old Rail Addon Mod development thread, and is approaching 10,000 views.  Congrats to Willy on getting rail modding "on track", so to speak. :thumbsup:

Thanks Alex! I think eggman had a role in it as well.


Quote from: Kuewr665 on July 03, 2013, 11:18:26 PM
Would a mod on the scale of light rail (elevated and ground) be on the scope of this project, after enough work on the heavy rail is done?

No. The RRW is heavy rail only. Personally I have no interest (or expertise) in modding the GLR network.


Cheers
Willy

vester


strucka

If I may just add a little remarque about a detail, that has gotten my attention.

The shadows of the balast are ''out of order''. A bit. My point is that, the balast is always made as a kind of a hill, it has slopes on either side. So what I mean is, that they should only have the shadowy part on one side of the track, whilst the other is usually even lighter, because of the light it gets more directly.
However the other thing here is how this is done. Which I have no real knowledge about and thus can't say make it so, but I do wish for someone with knowledge, to try this effect. If this can be done ( I don't know how it would look at different angles), than I believe we would hit jackpot. Because the textures right now look spectacular! And those catenaries with wires..


Well done!  &apls

rivit

Those are looking very useful Willy. You've become quite the wizard.

weixc812

Nice creation  :thumbsup:
The main flaw of the old FARR is that they take up too much space. Now we finally have more compact ones  ;D
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jdenm8

#193
Quote from: strucka on July 07, 2013, 10:36:31 PM
My point is that, the balast is always made as a kind of a hill, it has slopes on either side. So what I mean is, that they should only have the shadowy part on one side of the track, whilst the other is usually even lighter, because of the light it gets more directly.

It's not possible without either:
A. Having different textures for each rotation. That's four different textures for all except mirroring capable textures, all of which with different lighting properties. We may as well do a really detailed HD render in the BAT and get nice granular sun reflections on the ballast and bake it all into RKT4 models if we're going that route, it'll be easier than modifying the existing textures to have these properties.
B. Actually having the railbed projected off the ground a ridiculous distance (At the moment, the whole thing is slightly off the ground, probably about 3cm and with other layers on top of this in some places). I'm talking 20m or more for SC4's lighting engine to draw any kind of discernible shadow due to the angle of the sun in SC4 (I think it's around about 50°).

Both options will require significant path modification to prevent rollingstock from clipping into the railbed.


"We're making SimCity, not some dopey casual game." -Ocean Quigley

eggman121

Wow, great development is going on here. I see that Swordmaster/Willy is changing the Maxis track geometry. Well I think I will steer clear of making wires for the Maxis curves for the time being and concentrate on the wide radius curves, speaking of which I have finally completed the first one as shown.





Curves are so calculation heavy and take a lot of time to get right but I think it will be worth it. once I have a set (there will be two types) It will be much easier to mod onto the other WRCs.

Keep up the good work  :thumbsup:

-eggman121

art128

Looks fantastic Eggman.... not fantastic, AWESOME! I'm in love.

Also, Uki said packaging all the poles will take a few days, once he send them to me I'll forward them to you.
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Props & Texture Catalog

strucka

Here's another suggestion.
Is it possible to make some soundbarriers that would work like the wealth sidewalks? So if the rail wouldn't have RES or COM zoned beside it, it also wouldn't have sound barriers, otherwise it would. Maybe even (I'm just brainstorming here) have the possibility to make soundbarriers raelated to wealth and or (this one is omre essential) density. How are the possibilities here?

Aaron Graham

Great Work Swordmaster, on the improvement as well. Keep it up!!!! :D
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APSMS

Quote from: strucka on July 08, 2013, 07:50:22 AM
Here's another suggestion.
Is it possible to make some soundbarriers that would work like the wealth sidewalks? So if the rail wouldn't have RES or COM zoned beside it, it also wouldn't have sound barriers, otherwise it would. Maybe even (I'm just brainstorming here) have the possibility to make soundbarriers raelated to wealth and or (this one is omre essential) density. How are the possibilities here?

Strucka, I think that that would be a project for a T21 modder, not Willy, as his project primarily concerns rail function. It should be just as easy to modify the .dat file of eggman121's caternaries and add in some of those sound walls as a wealth dependent T21 prop.

The WRC wires look beautiful, and I am sorely tempted to use them even in my non-electrified regions (I use steam and diesel, primarily). Also, the redesigned 90o corners look pretty good, even though I think that they emphasize the ridiculousness of a curve that sharp. I am waiting for TTR as well, but if even only this could be released (redesign of STR and DTR), it would be incredible. Keep up the good work (and it's all great work, as far as I'm concerned).
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gn_leugim

it looks better and better, both textures and cantanaries  :thumbsup: