Enough is enough

Yesterday I purchased some items in the Steam Autumn Sale and the download has totally overwritten my existing TS2014 file structure. I have lost all my assets from other suppliers (IHH, AP, Digital Traction etc), all my own assets but, worst of all, it has lost all my source files for my modelling work and, just to add insult to injury, has wiped my backup file.

I have survived many problems over the years with Train Simulator, with the game, with my computer and also, with my health, but this is the final straw. I cannot handle anymore of this so I am closing the blog.

Thanks to all who have followed my musings and goodbye.

More SVR Wagons

A few more wagons have been created for the SVR route.

Firstly a pair of Hybar Open B wagons.

 Secondly, a Gunpowder Van.

Must admit to struggling with this one. Other people seem to manage just fine, but I always have difficulty getting the textures right when bump maps are involved. They always seem to bleach out the base colour and getting the specularity level right is an art rather than a science. There is some guidance on RSDerek's blog site The Art of Railworks  but I would personally welcome some more detailed description on how to use the Kuju shaders.

Minks

Just to say that I have finished modelling the four Minks for the Severn Valley Railway and sent them off to Matt, whose route it is.

Despite having the same body/frame configuration all four wagons are different. Each has a braking system at variance with the others, plus, three are unfitted and one has the addition of vacuum brakes. Three have spoked wheels, but one has discs and the lettering reflects the change in style from 24" to 16", so it took a little longer than I expected to complete them.

Hope they look ok?

Tail Lights Update

N.B. As the original post was accidentally deleted I am repeating it here.

Re-thought the tail light concept and found a much easier way to do it.

Create a tailight at each end of the wagon and call the one at the front 1_light_revtail and the one at the rear 1_light_fwdtail and that's all you have to do. The internal programming in TS2013 does the rest!

The lights only appear when the loco lights are switched on and only the one at the rear of the consist appears, no matter which way your wagon is oriented. All you have to do is ensure the pivot for each lamp is properly oriented in line with the wagon. Simples!

October Update

Due to illness in the family a large proportion of my time has been spent on caring, so train sim stuff has suffered as a result.

I did receive a kind offer from a well known developer to provide new sounds for the departmental stock I created, which is why they are not released yet, but they will be. In return I offered to help with some assets for his own project. therefore, what little time I've had available has been spent on that work.

Here's a glimpse of what I have been upto.

The bridge to the waterworks near Hampton Loade -  the water is piped through the  supports!

Hampton Loade Station

A black "Shark" van, obviously a re-skin of my earlier versions.


Currently working on some of these. GWR Minks.

If you want to see more of Matt's route then please pop over to SteamSoundsSupreme

Tail Lights

Decided to add a little variety to my catalogue and make a wagon. My choice was a departmental rigid, to keep things simple, the ZUV Grampus.

 It was reasonably successful and, with the help of Ben Yates, I managed to re-skin it into a few variations.

 When I showed the WIP to the UKTS forum I received a request for a Shark ballast plough and, unable to resist a challenge, modeled the van in three colour vaiants.

While beta testing them, Ben asked if I could add tail lights, which I thought was a good idea, so started to use the one's provided by Dave Brindley, which are available through UKTS or you can add them even easier by using RWTools.

However, I wasn't very happy with them as you have to make a separate model just for the tail light and it has to be the right way round, so back to the drawing board.

I eventually came up with an answer that seems to work ok. I added an AddATex plane to the back of the model and called it "1_0128_light_fwdtail". This is the technique for adding tail lights to loco tenders. I then added a script which tells the consist to pass any messages along the consist to the end. So, when you switch the lights on, on the loco, it sends a message to switch on the tail light that travels along the consist until it reaches the last wagon, where it turns on the light!

So, I no longer need a special wagon just for the end of a consist and the light goes on and off at the same time as the loco lights. Result!

There are a couple of minor issues when doing this. The fwdtail must be modeled in the correct orientation and facing the right way when the wagon is attached to the loco.

Coal Tippler

While researching the coke oven I came across a number of references to coal tipplers being used to load the coal washery ready for the coal to be added to the coke oven.

Not one to resist a challenge I decided to atttempt to make one for TS2013.

I tried to solve the problem by using a transferpoint as the tippler and an animated wagon which would tilt in time with the transferpoint. At first it wouldn't wotk, but, thanks to Dave Dewhurst, the error in my blueprint was spotted and corrected and the idea came to fruition, as seen in the video.

Still obvious problems with the animation, but it seems to work ok in principle and I need to fine tune the animation.