Donner Pass Texture Improvement Pack

[TheRailfan98]

All I can really say at this point is don't use them if you don't like them (I don't mean that in a mean way). This huge difference between classic and 3D weather is ticking me off as I wish I realized it sooner to prevent this. The only reason I don't like or use 3D weather much is it has minimal to no atmospheric fog and overall just makes things look less realistic in my opinion (except for distant textures which are nice). That was my fault for not thinking to try 3D weather as well. I don't think I'm going to tweak the textures of these for 3D weather because it would involve having to redo them all, and the current textures took a while as it is. I'd like to apologize if this pack dissapoints you and from now on I will remember to test all my texture improvements in both classic and 3D weather to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[buzz456]

I certainly understand your frustration since I have spent a lot of time trying to pick colors. Interesting if I'm going to use 3D I almost always use the cloudy one. There was a huge post over on UKTS about modifying the 3D cloudy texture so that you could really see distant objects yet still got the haze and fog. There are about a zillion settings in there that one can play with to get it to look different ways. Then on top of that we always have the how new is it or how faded is it. Anyway I feel your pain and think it's still a beautiful job.

[TheRailfan98]

Thank you buzz, I've been messing around with 3D weather a bit more and I'm starting not to mind it as much. I'll keep messng with it and see how it goes. My Pepsi can Dash 8 improvement doesn't look drastically different in classic and 3D environments so I'll just have to be more careful with each repaint I do so this doesn't happen again. Just gotta learn the hard way sometimes.

[buzz456]

I have no idea why but gray seems to be particularly sensitive to these differences. As you know I did that L&N pack as well as messing with a Seaboard and a CSX gray and all of them had comments from beta people about them being too light or too dark. One of each on the Seaboard one.

[Ericmopar]

As usual there is a massive difference between the old 'clear' and the 3D clear.

Screenshot_Marias Pass_48.41381--114.33026_11-02-06.jpg

Screenshot_Marias Pass_48.41381--114.33023_11-00-33.jpg

The darker one being the old sky condition.

As someone that grew up near a major repair and paint facility in Oakland (not there anymore), the colors on the engines in most screen shots are within normal variations.
On a freshly painted S.P. unit the grey was more of a medium grey. The others are just so filthy...
I thought the scarlet on the ends was a bit bright, but it depends so much on the lighting as others have already said.
In the normal weather conditions they look really good.
I don't think they need to be completely redone, a properly selected weathering job would probably do it by darkening them some.
Something like Mikes weathering on Larry's Plate B and C boxcars.
I think Mike said the weathering is a "transparent" layer on the original skin?

[TheRailfan98]

As usual there is a massive difference between the old 'clear' and the 3D clear.

Screenshot_Marias Pass_48.41381--114.33026_11-02-06.jpg

Screenshot_Marias Pass_48.41381--114.33023_11-00-33.jpg

The darker one being the old sky condition.

As someone that grew up near a major repair and paint facility in Oakland (not there anymore), the colors on the engines in most screen shots are within normal variations.
On a freshly painted S.P. unit the grey was more of a light to medium grey. The others are just so filthy...
I thought the scarlet on the ends was a bit bright, but it depends so much on the lighting as others have already said.
In the normal weather conditions they look really good.
I don't think they need to be completely redone, a properly selected weathering job would probably do it by darkening them some.
Something like Mikes weathering on Larry's Plate B and C boxcars.
I think Mike said the weathering is a "transparent" layer on the original skin?

You're definitely right about the weathering. I will most likely give them a nice weathering job once I can get the hang of it and release as a separate pack (The base pack is already huge and Bob had to upload it himself so I'd rather release a separate, smaller weathered pack). I'm at least glad that people are still enjoying them for the most part

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

How typical, isn't it always the weather people everywhere complain about?
I too didn't realise it has so much influence on the game's rendering of colour.

I am grateful for these repaints, please be assured of that. Like others said, SP locomotives come in many shades of gray. Yours looks pretty new and fresh out of the paint booth.
A little weathering in a future release would be nice, not so much for the dirt per se, but rather to bring out the detail of the underbody and running gear.

[gtrtroger]

Back on topic...

If you're going into the pre-Davis Yard, will you consider fixing the main crossovers to the Valley Sub at MP 106.4, and the trackage east of the diesel shop?

[Ericmopar]

Back on topic...

If you're going into the pre-Davis Yard, will you consider fixing the main crossovers to the Valley Sub at MP 106.4, and the trackage east of the diesel shop?

Errr... Are you talking about my Donner Redo?
We're talking about loco reskins for Donner here.

I you are talking about my Donner Pass Redo, I'm not making any major changes to the track. Reason is that many Workshop scenarios would get broke.
The Workshop scenarios are much more likely to have cars on RIP tracks etc in game.

[gtrtroger]

Sorry.... yes,I meant this for your upgrade thread...not this loco thread.
Ok, I'll add this correction to my clone.