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

[Kali]

I think he means for the shadows that you can see from your seat.

Yep. Hence "low poly", only need to make a silhouette. No stencil shadows in TSX.

[eyein12]

yep thats right.

[SMMDigital]

Some of you fellas may already know about this, but I found some nice drawings as I was looking for resources on locomotive couplers.

http://www.columbuscastings.com/locomotive_couplers.html

[PapaXpress]

So.... I broke 20k... and I haven't punched out the windows yet. I blame the handrails.

And now to show off my ignorance... What do you call this (if you say step plate thingy I will hurt you)? And it appears more often than not to be in the raised position when running in lash-ups than lowered. Whats the story here? Do engineers kick it down only when they know they will need to run back to another engine?

WhatIsThis.jpg

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

That's called a "drop step". It is dropped down to allow personel the pass between engines in a lash-up. The chains protecting the opening in the front handrails should ideally be connected to the other unit's chains, making for a safe passage. No doubt firemen/head brakemen didn't bother with drop steps or safety chains when traversing between units, they just stepped/jumped over. I don't know wether railroads/FRA/insurance still allow personel to traverse between engines this way, and they are officially abolished like the pilot mounted footboards of once.

Don't make the same mistake as Kuju did with their high-nose SD40-2's. Their rear (front actually, as N&W/SOU/NS ran their high hood units long hood forwards) are down and too long. The coupler has to extend and retract on coupling/uncoupling. With the default Kuju springy couplers dynamic braking is almost impossible.

Modern units like the ES44 have a large anti-climber over their pilots and no drop steps. Still the split handrail and safety chain, F2 switchman's view shows this quite well.

Now that were talking views, what do you and other users think of and want for views?
I wish for both cab side window and front/rear pilot/stepwell views. Riding an engine on the stepwell when switching/coupling gives a nice touch of realism, IMO.
Can more views be hacked into the engine/cabview bins or are we limited by the RSC core?

[Chacal]

I wish for both cab side window and front/rear pilot/stepwell views. Riding an engine on the stepwell when switching/coupling gives a nice touch of realism, IMO.
Can more views be hacked into the engine/cabview bins or are we limited by the RSC core?

We need two brakeman (pilot/stepwell )views. The ones already existing on some locos are good, but for some reason they restrict movement and you can't look towards the outside. This can probably be fixed in the blueprints.

The current front views are adequate, but the rear view are not: the brakeman is at the rear end of the engine, he should be at the rear end of the consist.
I would like the brakeman view as he rides the step on the last car. I don't think this can be done without a change in the game core.

Currently I use camera 3 for this, but it is usually centered on the last car's center. It would be more useful if it was centered on the last car's rear coupler.

[thecanadianrail]

That's called a "drop step". It is dropped down to allow personel the pass between engines in a lash-up. The chains protecting the opening in the front handrails should ideally be connected to the other unit's chains, making for a safe passage. No doubt firemen/head brakemen didn't bother with drop steps or safety chains when traversing between units, they just stepped/jumped over. I don't know wether railroads/FRA/insurance still allow personel to traverse between engines this way, and they are officially abolished like the pilot mounted footboards of once.

Don't make the same mistake as Kuju did with their high-nose SD40-2's. Their rear (front actually, as N&W/SOU/NS ran their high hood units long hood forwards) are down and too long. The coupler has to extend and retract on coupling/uncoupling. With the default Kuju springy couplers dynamic braking is almost impossible.

Modern units like the ES44 have a large anti-climber over their pilots and no drop steps. Still the split handrail and safety chain, F2 switchman's view shows this quite well.

Now that were talking views, what do you and other users think of and want for views?
I wish for both cab side window and front/rear pilot/stepwell views. Riding an engine on the stepwell when switching/coupling gives a nice touch of realism, IMO.
Can more views be hacked into the engine/cabview bins or are we limited by the RSC core?

you mean "drop step thingy"

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

@Chacal: yes, you can alter the restiction on "head movements" in the cabview bins, if you know a little about 4 dimensional matrices. Some experimenting will do otherwise.
"Doc" Machinist of LEP fame has even changed the angle of vision, allowing for a much wider view.

However, much mistery still shrouds the innards of our engines, things like emitters, physics etc. are not very well documented.

Perhaps Doc himself can lend us a hand here or rather shed a light or broaden our views or whatever.

[Kali]

I don't think you can hack extra alt views in unfortunately, it's just the primary & the alternate. The cameras are in some mathematical system I've not worked out yet, who designs angular offsets in metres? that doesn't mean anything!

You can add passenger views to all cars with the view from the step if you want. There's already a paxview for the caboose.

[Chacal]

You can add passenger views to all cars with the view from the step if you want. There's already a paxview for the caboose.

Interesting. I have several questions (I know I should just look into the blueprints, but I'm at work right now):

Wouldn't you need to supply interior geometry like for the caboose? Or can you point the camera at the exterior geometry for the passenger view?
Also, what happens if you have several cars with passenger views and hit "5"? Does the camera go to the first or last car? Can you browse with Ctrl-+ ?

[PapaXpress]

you mean "drop step thingy"

You have mail...

[Kali]

You can add passenger views to all cars with the view from the step if you want. There's already a paxview for the caboose.

Interesting. I have several questions (I know I should just look into the blueprints, but I'm at work right now):

Wouldn't you need to supply interior geometry like for the caboose? Or can you point the camera at the exterior geometry for the passenger view?
Also, what happens if you have several cars with passenger views and hit "5"? Does the camera go to the first or last car? Can you browse with Ctrl-+ ?

Hm, yeah, thinking about it I'm not sure how you'd set it up - maybe just adding the existing car body model as the interior view? that would be no extra work. You can switch paxviews somehow, might be the same keys as switching cabs, I can't remember.

Should be easy enough to try using the exterior as interior, anyway! not sure what would happen to couplers.

[PapaXpress]

So.... I broke 20k... and I haven't punched out the windows yet. I blame the handrails.

And was I right... Just by optimizing the hand rails and nothing more (and there will be more), I dropped to just over 16k from over 22k (after I finished the front left boarding hand rail).

If all goes well I will have everything from the anticlimber down to the rail done and locked (I will post a picture)... then I will attempt to punch out the windows (listen for screams of pain, this will be round two).

[SMMDigital]

I was surprised when I took a close-up look at the ES44 unit. The hand rails look like cubes that have been turned 45 degrees and extruded. Effective at keeping up the illusion unless you look close.

My loco ended up at around 24,000 for the external model. The only problem I anticipate is viewing it in the Asset Editor, but there are ways around it.

You haven't experienced pain yet. I just started the Painting tutorial, part 1 - Unwrapping.

[PapaXpress]

I am doing that as I go along. Since I plan to use this model for U28, 25 and 23's I broke the textures into sharable parts. The next WIP shot will show the whole lower half completely textured (except for the normal map).