New York Division-Bergen Line - Part Deux!

[ErikGorbiHamilton]

Uh Beaver "Dern" Lake is Beaver D a m n Lake to me !

Missed the perfect opportunity to use "Dam"

[cheepskate24]

How about some more inspiration

NS H81 catching the last hours of sunlight.

[JohnM1945]

Gobsmacked?

See http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gob1.htm ... (Other etymological dictionaries are available...)

Kind regards,

John M

[minerman146]

Inspired again and still working around the "dern" Lake.
Its a big lake...
If you are familiar with last weeks update - you can see the progress.

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Official Distance to Hoboken from my Westernmost QD marker.

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Telephone Poles - a good sign for areas ready to be released.

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[NStrains]

Awesome!!! Almost 60 miles of the most diverse scenery that is available for this game!

[minerman146]

Awesome!!! Almost 60 miles of the most diverse scenery that is available for this game!

You, know I never thought of that. We got city and country and all the places in between! Thanks NS!

[minerman146]

Proportion is everything. In the images below you can see I reworked this bridge. The original was vertically out of proportion.
Lets go to the pictures, exclusive to RWA, and will not be posted to Steam. (See if anyone notices)

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And some distant shots - Notice the change?

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That's it for tonight .. I got a 4 hours in on the houses around the Darn Lake and 3.5 hours in on the bridge.

[BoostedFridge]

That's it for tonight .. I got a 4 hours in on the houses around the Darn Lake and 3.5 hours in on the bridge.

I believe it! In your first shot in your earlier post from today, the amount of detail and care spent on placing the houses, trees, and roads that are hundreds of yards from the track is so very apparent. This is what separates good routes from great ones.

[NStrains]

The distant scenery around HX looks much better now!!!

[minerman146]

I have the day off today and the house to myself - which means - daytime route building!
We're still in Salisbury Mills, NY about 2.5 miles west of the station. As you can see, we have more "Big Tree" to come. We got lakes, rolling hills, high embankments, overpasses and underpasses, and fields, lush pasture and these long vistas that seem to go on forever. And, as always, I got my EL on !

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Back to work!

[Overshoe]

Those are lovely.

[Sagefuncom]

Here I've got some screenshots showcasing the Salisbury Mills and Moodna Viaduct portions of the Bergen Line, while making great use of the CN SD75I Freeware Pack 2.0 I released not too long ago, and the RRMods NSC Box Cars!

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[NStrains]

I think it's safe to say your new version of the Hackensack river bridge is gonna look way better!!!

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[minerman146]

NS - I think the New HX will be a hit.

The new section of route - you be the judge. Its tough to make a wall of trees interesting! Its also tough to lay assets down at the moment, because of the trees I'm running at 7fps when I build. Its kinda like Hoboken. In game, I am getting in the low 20s and 8-10 fps at worst between tiles.
You can see why here:

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Winter here:

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I still have more houses and track side detail to do. It will not be completed by Friday, but I am releasing what I have anyway!

[minerman146]

Status update for this the first week of May.
Tomorrows update gets another 3 hours of work and then will be released tomorrow morning. Whether its dramatic or not, is in the eye of the beholder.

We have a lot of tree scenery going on. Like everything else, its time consuming. The tree runs are interesting, as we follow the actual tree lines and even those that outline hay fields on the ground. The look from the air is very convincing. The mid to distant view from the cab is out of this world. I have never seen trees on distant mountains and hills like this. It adds to the depth of field and portrays the space in a believable way. I am running the irregular asset box out over a mile from the track to the get the affect I want. It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to do each tree run. If I misplace a pin, the trees go outside the box instead of inside, which means it needs to be run again. I suspect, for the rest of the work going forward, its really the trees that are the scenery, so they will be the focus of what we do.

FPS is starting to take a big hit. For the distant tree affect, the Moonda and a half mile to each side of the trestle has become graphically demanding. For me, the affect is very similar to Hoboken. I get anywhere from 15-22 fps in a asset box, and down to 8 or 10 when transitioning from one asset box to another. So, do expect to get some stutter and some lag for your folks on laptops and on Midline machines. The good news is I can drop the tree density to pickup FPS. Up to the Moodna I was running anywhere from 25 - 40 % of maximum density. Now I am running 22 - 29 %. I still have some more houses to do and to place 3D trees by the track. We should be fine in the FPS with those additional assets. It is very cool to have 1 mile of trees in all directions from the train, it looks very good, even without super detail.

I took a ride from MP 58 to MP 49 this morning. I made it a point to stay in the cab, and poke my view out of the window a few times to test fps. The distant mountains with the trees on them look amazing. The fact that I matched up all the pines I saw on imagery really make the forests look alive. My favorite part of the ride, was between the Woodbury and Moodna Trestles. Are you guys looking across that valley when you do your runs? I made these little peek-a-boo spots where the trees are thin next to the track so you can see it. Next time your on the run, look East through the trees to see what I am talking about. I enjoyed the trip so much, I was a little late leaving for work. Ah, it feels like Friday to me anyway.

On my commute to work, I like to think about the mornings route work and about my vision for the Bergen. Today, I was thinking about writing this post, and my ride and all this scenery. What I wanted to tell you was about motivation. This is a tremendous project, and its so close to being completed. I look back at the miles and now the years of effort. I have to say, I am pleased and gratified with the work. The Bergen isn't the way I wanted it. Its the way it needed to be reach all of you. When riding in the car, I think about people, my friends and family on the railroad, my time on it, and land, the beautiful land. Boy, did Bergen County ever get the love. I constantly comb the internet looking for references to my work, and I find them out there. Once guy was posting on YouTube, and he said something to the effect: I lived in this area my whole, the detail shows that not only does the route maker live there, but he also loves Bergen County. And he gave some examples of inside stuff that only locals would know. I'm not a local, but after goin down the old main line enough times, I started to know the place! I also studied every area I have worked on, not just looking at pictures but reading articles and stories from other people - and I put all that in. You only get to do something like this once - I wanted to make it count.

But, my vision is unfulfilled. So, close but so far away is the destination, I wonder if its just better left for another time or another person. The problem was always the motive power and rolling stock to go with the route. Then, over the years, people just made it for the route. I never asked, they just did it. That's a wonderful return for all this work. I cant ask for much more.

One last thing, the first Transim Live of the Bergen 2 years ago. Matt P gets to Garfield and says "This .... is ... Epic!" I need to hear him say that again when he sees the Moodna. Matt is the ultimate Train-Sim Enthusiast!

Update - tomorrow 9am Eastern (GMT-5)