We shall build a locomotive not because it is easy...

[Kali]

TrainBumpSpecEnvMask - specular/environment reflectiveness in alpha
TrainBumpEnvMask - fixed specular version of the above. No reason to use this when you could use the one above.

Ambient occlusion baking doesn't result in any more draw calls, it's an overlay for the diffuse map rather than a seperate map/material ( which would be another draw call ). All it does is do shadows for you. I'm wondering if you can just import your finished model into Blender & do the baking there ( and perhaps final export, the Bigex plugin for Blender is great ).

Anyone seen any scale drawings of an E6? seems to be the one nobody draws.

[g_nash]

Ambient occlusion baking doesn't result in any more draw calls, it's an overlay for the diffuse map rather than a seperate map/material ( which would be another draw call ). All it does is do shadows for you. I'm wondering if you can just import your finished model into Blender & do the baking there ( and perhaps final export, the Bigex plugin for Blender is great ).

Or use Xnormal , which would be the better option.

Anyone seen any scale drawings of an E6? seems to be the one nobody draws.

You're joking ?

I had to pay for these originally , you get them for free ........... http://southernmodeler.info/Hundman.htm

.

[Kali]

You're joking ?

I had to pay for these originally , you get them for free ........... http://southernmodeler.info/Hundman.htm

.

In relative terms... there's E7/8 plans all over the place, take you 30s to find without any clues... a couple of us spent some hours ( admittedly getting quite badly distracted ) and didn't come up with anything. Thanks though, those are great!

[g_nash]

In relative terms... there's E7/8 plans all over the place, take you 30s to find without any clues... a couple of us spent some hours ( admittedly getting quite badly distracted ) and didn't come up with anything. Thanks though, those are great!

Some useful additional free stuff at the bottom of This Page . You doing any specific road ? I may have more stuff you won't find on the internets if you're doing something with a nice name.

[SMMDigital]

Not to reveal to much, but the tutorial locomotive is coming along. The tutorial itself, well, that's a much slower beastie!

smm_c398.JPG

Releasing the Bogies Tut Tuesday.

[PapaXpress]

I think I am a week behind you at this point. Are you still on track for releasing the first tut tomorrow? I see you added the doors, how did you do that? I was looking at how RSC does it with their engines it looks like a simple extrusion, but I have no idea how to define/select a smaller part of face.

shot.jpg

I also found out what was up with my wheels. I did not "center them in their group". When I did I found they stacked up on the first wheel in the bogie. After I re-positioned the group (for each wheel). They started working.

How did you get your wireframe so clean? It draws mine with dark gray lines and its barely visible. I can't find a setting to change it.

[SMMDigital]

The doors on RSC locomotives are extrusions. It can be done that way in 3DC by using the Inset tool. However, just like the Boolean Operations tool, Inset causes "fracture lines" that have to be trimmed afterwards, if they can be trimmed without causeing even more damage. For the doors on my loco, I used a simple cube, sized them to fit according to thr template, butted them against the hood, then deleted the back face of the door. Only difficulty I may have is when it comes time to paint the logo across all those doors. Making the frame, hood, and doors are covered in the next Tut release after "Bogies".

The Wireframe will show up better if you change your Ambient light setting in 3DC. In the Scene Heirarchy, click on the Light Bulb with Ambient beside it. Click on the "Component Properties" tab (3rd from left) then click on the colored box. Pick a brighter shade to lighten the scene. You can also brighten the Directional light sources this way. Please note that these light settings have no effect on the in-game model.

[PapaXpress]

For the doors on my loco, I used a simple cube, sized them to fit according to thr template, butted them against the hood, then deleted the back face of the door. Only difficulty I may have is when it comes time to paint the logo across all those doors. Making the frame, hood, and doors are covered in the next Tut release after "Bogies".

ugh... yes I can already feel the pain.

The Wireframe will show up better if you change your Ambient light setting in 3DC. In the Scene Heirarchy, click on the Light Bulb with Ambient beside it. Click on the "Component Properties" tab (3rd from left) then click on the colored box. Pick a brighter shade to lighten the scene. You can also brighten the Directional light sources this way. Please note that these light settings have no effect on the in-game model.

THANK YOU! I can see again!

[Chacal]

For the doors on my loco, I used a simple cube, sized them to fit according to thr template, butted them against the hood, then deleted the back face of the door. Only difficulty I may have is when it comes time to paint the logo across all those doors.

Have you tried simulating the doors with a bump map?

[PapaXpress]

I am not sure if I like the bumpmap look. The GP38 uses it and I am not completely sold on it.

What is a quick and dirty way to add a bump map (I have never don't it before) so I can try it out?

[SMMDigital]

Using a bumpmap for doors is down to personal preference. I tried it on the Slug, and I didn't like it. The lines just didn't seem crisp enough to me. However, it does make for good hinges, door handles, weld lines, and nuts/bolts.

For information on how to do Normal (bump) maps, go to GTrax sims and look in the tutorials/information section. Ian pointed me in that direction, and it's a pretty straightforward instruction on how to do the maps.

[Kali]

RSC guidelines say external "mouldings" such as protruding doors should be done seperately, rather than stitching them into the model - you can see flush doors are done by literally cutting them out of the model. Pity the inset tool doesn't work very well, that's also a handy Max tool.

[PapaXpress]

hmm. I don't need protruding doors. Is there such as a thing as an inverse-bump map?

[Kali]

Yes; make the reference height of the normal map source 50% grey, then the highest peaks would be white areas, and the lowest black.

[SMMDigital]

An update of sorts...

We have been talking about cutting out cab windows and doors using Boolean Subtraction and the Inset function. Here is what I got, cutting only 10 windows out of the cab with the Boolean Subtraction operation.

cabfracking.jpg

That makes your poly count go through the roof, and it plays hell will your paint job, and the more cut-outs you do, the worse it gets. However, with a lot of line trimming, I got it down to a manageable level...

cabfracking2.JPG

The edges that are visible cannot be trimmed. Trying to trim them gets a pop-up message saying they are not part of a face, try deleting the points instead. However, the face, although it looks like two different faces because of the lines, acts as one when selected or painted. So, you could try the Boolean or Inset for doors and windows. But I would go cautious and sparingly with it. Each cutout will have at least one disassociated line.