3 Track Cajon Project

[BoostedFridge]

Tomcat, you are doing an absolutely fantastic job with this scenery. The 'distant' terrain paint blending is some of the best I've seen in this sim! It is even more impressive considering the base game textures used.

Are you placing those scrub_medium_01 (or whichever they are) bushes using asset blocks, or individually near the tracks?

[BNSFdude]

If you need a time table for Cajon for exact speed limits, let me know.

[Tomcat]

Thanks folks!

Tomcat, you are doing an absolutely fantastic job with this scenery. The 'distant' terrain paint blending is some of the best I've seen in this sim! It is even more impressive considering the base game textures used.

Are you placing those scrub_medium_01 (or whichever they are) bushes using asset blocks, or individually near the tracks?

Thanks Boosted. The bushes were placed with irregular asset blocks. I think there may be only 2 places on the route that I placed individual scrub assets and that, if I remember correctly, was to cover up some terrain gaps where the tracks and a road were very close together and at different heights and I could not get the terrain even with one without messing up the other. One of the benefits of using asset blocks is that a block will usually be visible from a further distance than a single asset for whatever reason. I did start out using single assets near the tracks but it became annoying to see the assets pop into existence along the track while the exact same asset in a block was visible much further away. Most vegetation has been placed with asset blocks except for 50 to 100 meters from the tracks where I used 3D trees that were placed individually as I was looking down at Google Earth overlay so I could put trees where they are in the real world. This kind of works well in a route like Cajon where there are not a million trees but there are a couple areas where I did not want to go all 3D near the tracks because it would have been too much of a drain on my laptop. My solution was to place an irregular block down with 2D trees and then just outline the perimeter with 3D trees so that the 3Dness would outweigh the 2Dness of the look if you know what I mean. I'll attach a quick screenshot below as an example;


This is Just East of the Colton-Palmdale cutoff wye between the tracks and the I10 freeway. I think it gives a bushy, unkempt, natural appearance while treating the graphics card a bit easier than if it were all 3D.

CutoffRancho01.jpg

If you need a time table for Cajon for exact speed limits, let me know.

Thanks for the offer BNSFdude. I have a fairly recent info. for the California Division & Los Angeles Division so I'm good for now.

[minerman146]

Tomcat - take a Sherman Hill embankment and shrink it using the resize tool (or change its proportions by double clicking it and changing the x,y and/or z axis of the object) then you can fill in the gap!

You use the irregular asset too the same way I do for the same reason! You do such a better job of articulating how than I do!

[Tomcat]

Tomcat - take a Sherman Hill embankment and shrink it using the resize tool (or change its proportions by double clicking it and changing the x,y and/or z axis of the object) then you can fill in the gap!

You use the irregular asset too the same way I do for the same reason! You do such a better job of articulating how than I do!

You know after all this time and after all the assets I have resized it never occurred to me to shrink the embankment! D'oh!
Thank you Minerman146, sometimes I should take my brain off cruise control and pay attention to the road.

[Tomcat]

It's looking like I'll have a beta ready sometime in September. I spent last night and this morning laying in the rest of the BNSF Mojave subdivision up to the state route 14 (Aerospace Highway) overpass. This will be as far as I take the route at this end and not an inch further. For points further than the best advice I can give is to pick up Tehachapi Pass by Marc Nelson which even in a beta stage is the definitive statement on that stretch of railroad which I could not compete with and only suffer in the comparison.

Scenery will be near a state of completion from San Bernardino through Daggett/Yermo and West Colton through the Colton-Palmdale cutoff up to a couple of miles before Phelan. At a later date I may complete the U.P tracks to Palmdale and then up to Mojave but fair warning, that's a hike and a half and I have not definitively decided to do that at this point. BNSF Mojave sub will have hit or miss scenery, count on mostly miss. I will concentrate on this subs scenery after the beta is out there in the world at large.

Track from West Colton/San Bernardino through to Yermo is complete as is signaling, or I should say I think it's complete. This is one of the things I'll be counting on you folks to check me on - I will almost certainly miss things here and there, most likely crossovers and signals but I will be going over google earth with a fine tooth comb in the coming 2 months checking for any anomalies with the realization that I may be the biggest anomaly in the mix! (That's a joke folks).

I will also be going over the payware/freeware requirements but if you have the items I mentioned in the very first post you are in excellent shape.

I will still be posting screenshots as I go along in this final pre-alpha-beta phase as I am constantly finding little areas to redo and touch up.

So when will it be done/finalized/finito/in the bag/cooked and served? You ask. My best guess is that it's a year out depending on... well, on things.



The fine print:

Terms and conditions may apply, void where prohibited, acts of God not covered.

[gtrtroger]

Got my popcorn....
Got my chair....

...ready for the show.

[ErikGorbiHamilton]

this popped up this morning (2:15 AM PST)

Cajon Pass Modernized

This wouldn't happen to be yours would it?

[Tomcat]

Nope, not mine. I suppose it will be much more popuar since it will be on the workshop, but that doesn't concern me at all. My effort is aimed at this site alone.

In anycase, my feeling is the more the merrier. Thanks for the heads up.

[BKRR605]

Now we are gonna have two modernized Cajon Pass's but I think I am going to pick tomcats over the other one because he is great at route building!

[ErikGorbiHamilton]

Nope, not mine. I suppose it will be much more popuar since it will be on the workshop, but that doesn't concern me at all. My effort is aimed at this site alone.

In anycase, my feeling is the more the merrier. Thanks for the heads up.

No Problem! Always on the lookout for things.

[Tomcat]

Now we are gonna have two modernized Cajon Pass's but I think I am going to pick tomcats over the other one because he is great at route building!

Thank you for the vote of confidence... and in the mean time, why limit yourself to one, if you have the DLC for it, grab it, and see what you think. If you have the original Cajon Pass and liked it then you are probably going to like this as well. I grabbed it after ErikGorbiHamilton enlightened me and it's not bad at all. It will give you sort of a hands on preview of what mine will be like in terms of the track work between San Bernardino and Martinez. It's the old Cajon with more and that's usually not a bad thing unless we are talking about more pounds after Thanksgiving dinner.

[BKRR605]

Now we are gonna have two modernized Cajon Pass's but I think I am going to pick tomcats over the other one because he is great at route building!

Thank you for the vote of confidence... and in the mean time, why limit yourself to one, if you have the DLC for it, grab it, and see what you think. If you have the original Cajon Pass and liked it then you are probably going to like this as well. I grabbed it after ErikGorbiHamilton enlightened me and it's not bad at all. It will give you sort of a hands on preview of what mine will be like in terms of the track work between San Bernardino and Martinez. It's the old Cajon with more and that's usually not a bad thing unless we are talking about more pounds after Thanksgiving dinner.

I just subscribed to the workshop one, its pretty good.

[Tomcat]

A preview of what most of the BNSF Mojave Sub will look like. Rocket Site Road grade crossing meets 20 Mule Team Road just before CP Silt. Not much to look at but you can cruise along at 70/55 mph over much of it.

RocketSiteRoad01.jpg

[Boss1]

Looks good to me!