What is the best way to get Slugs out of the garden?

[SMMDigital]

Ahhh, thank you Ian-san! I have taken my first step into a larger world!

One last question. Do I need to make a normal map for each different part I wish to make? Say I want to simulate a hood door on the side of a locomotive, and a set of rivets on top. Do I make a separate normal map for each? Or can I create a normal map out of the main texture an make a door on the wrap that makes the side of the locomotive and rivets on the wrap that makes the top?

[eyein12]

seperate maps.

[SMMDigital]

It's frustrating, but it's frickin' funny!

http://youtu.be/TkoCehbJLgs

I've got the blueprints made out, using a lot of the values from the RSC GP9. Other than the collision problem, the thing isn't tracking around curves (one end of the unit sticks over the edge of the rails), and I can't put a driver on the unit. But all in all, i'm pretty happy with being able to get the slug in the game only two hours after starting the blue-printing process. Much more work to be done though.

[NDORFN]

Haha good vid

[eyein12]

HAHA success full entry into the atmosphere and a nice soft landing. amazingly nothing broke!

your collision boxes, lengths, and pivots need to be adjusted, thats why your model went orbital! Best advice make your collision length 2 meters less than your model length. and bogie pivots need to 100% match your pivots values in canvas. i.e x value: the distance from center of object to center of bogie 1 and bogie 2; y-value: is the center of your bogie to the ground (usually around 0.5-0.7 at most). putting a person on the unit is easy. just create a child object and fill in the developer and product and geometry sections with your dummy asset. use a dummy geometry to represent the position of your dude in asset editor. once you export out you open up your .bin with rw_tools and replace all 3 sections with one of RSC's peeps. and viola!

[SMMDigital]

Yeah, you could almost see the dust when the loco hit the ground! It would be really cool if you could actually get parts to fly off after the collision.

All values for pivots and measurements are in Meters, right? How precise do you have to be with this, as 3DC can go out to four decimals behind the prime.

I'm thinking there might be something going on with the file geometry. I read an old post over at UKTS about a guy who experienced the same problems I have. It turned out he had a wheel position in the bogie blueprint that was to far out in front of the locomotive and it was creating an invisible "bumper". I know for one that i've got the locomotive backwards in the export from 3DC, so I need to adjust that as it may be screwing with the bogie pivots. Funny thing is that I can couple two slugs together with no problem, but when any other type of loco gets near it, it goes orbital.

As for the driver, i'm not sure that it's going to be capable of putting one on the slug, simply because there is no cab, therefore no interior controls as called for in the blueprints. Just to see if it could be done, I copied over the Cabview from the RSC GP9 and aliased all of the settings in the blueprint to the loco blueprint. After that, i could put a driver icon on the loco. I figured that I would be able to click on the loco and drive from outside, or go "inside" of a mismatched cab. But after all this, when I clicked on the loco in the game, I got an SBHH every time. I'm hoping to be able to "drive" the slug from the outside, like a remote unit, so that it's at least providing tractive power in an MU consist. But if all else fails, i'll make it into a simple wagon and just trail it behind the powered unit.

Thanks for the tips on the normal maps. It turns out that I already had the plug in, as I had the DDX mod plugin already in photoshop. I made a few rivets and door handles with it for this loco, but plan to use it a lot more in the future.

[eyein12]

i wasnt sure if u meant driver icon or driver people assets? neway read below n u"llbe able to add n icon and drive it. you can add a person to anything as a child object in your loco blueprint. theres a bug. always addchild blueprints from the top in that section, otherwise the exporter puts everything at 0 for its location.

Make sure to reset xform on every part in canvas. that will take care of the falling from the sky issue.

SBHH error everytime you click on the loco, you are missing a simulation.bin file that your locomotive blueprint references to. otherwise you cant drive it.

must have:
loco blueprint
diesel simulation blueprint
bogie blueprints
coupler blueprints
cabview blueprint
cab occlusion blueprints

first 2 are absoluetly needed

[SMMDigital]

Progress... of sorts. I went back and made changes to 3DC file, turning the engine around so the front and back are faceing the right directions. I also made some minute adjustments to the wheels, and did some recalculations for the front and rear pivot points, and shortened the collision box by two meters (I didn't know when I started this project that I needed a degree in mechanical engineering and drafting!). For future reference, the general front and back pivot points in blueprints are not bogie pivots. They govern the couplers and how far apart the locos are placed when coupling.

I've added couplers aliased to the GP9, along with their pivot data, as well as the engine simulation scripts and control data. Now, the unit tracks the curvres properly, and I can couple the unit to other locomotives and cars in the World Editor without repulsion. I can also couple to locomotives and cars in the game. But, when I try to move the slug, I get the SoBHH. Better than launching them into the sky, but still not where it needs to be. Back to the forge!

[eyein12]

Progress... of sorts. I went back and made changes to 3DC file, turning the engine around so the front and back are faceing the right directions. I also made some minute adjustments to the wheels, and did some recalculations for the front and rear pivot points, and shortened the collision box by two meters (I didn't know when I started this project that I needed a degree in mechanical engineering and drafting!). For future reference, the general front and back pivot points in blueprints are not bogie pivots. They govern the couplers and how far apart the locos are placed when coupling.

I've added couplers aliased to the GP9, along with their pivot data, as well as the engine simulation scripts and control data. Now, the unit tracks the curvres properly, and I can couple the unit to other locomotives and cars in the World Editor without repulsion. I can also couple to locomotives and cars in the game. But, when I try to move the slug, I get the SoBHH. Better than launching them into the sky, but still not where it needs to be. Back to the forge!

and you have your lua script too? make sure thats aliased as well. a simulation, a .lua, need to be aliased. maybe that will help. you can use any engines simulation, and lua files

[SMMDigital]

I was aliasing the files in the GP9 Simulation and Engine folders, but i've decided to make my own in the Asset Editor, pluging in the values from the GP9. Same results, it will just keep the end user from having to copy over files from a DLC they may or may not have.

I did see at UKTS that you had asked a question concerning why the locomotive will not show up in the Asset Editor. Their answer was that it won't unless it was hooked to a simulation file. How did that work out?

[eyein12]

I was aliasing the files in the GP9 Simulation and Engine folders, but i've decided to make my own in the Asset Editor, pluging in the values from the GP9. Same results, it will just keep the end user from having to copy over files from a DLC they may or may not have.

I did see at UKTS that you had asked a question concerning why the locomotive will not show up in the Asset Editor. Their answer was that it won't unless it was hooked to a simulation file. How did that work out?

I think what happened was parts of the loco showed up and parts didnt. thats because when i split up my LOD parts 1 exceeded 20,000 polys which wont show up in asset editor. I fixed that right away. had nothing to do with simulation file. in fact asset editor doesnt care if there is one or not. the game does though. make sure you got a lua script too. doesnt have to say much. just copy rsc's

[SMMDigital]

It is ALIVE! Everything works - coupling, sounds, - the whole nine yards. The only thing you can't do is drive it, which is normal for a slug anyway. I redid the Simulation file from scratch instead of trying to adapt one from another locomotive, plugged in the values from the GP9 and F7, and it came out on the first try.

The next time you see it will be on your favorite Norfolk Southern route!

[PapaXpress]

I can't wait!

[Shortliner]

I can't wait!

I can't wait either!

[ex-railwayman]

Re: What is the best way to get Slugs out of the garden?

A 12 bore......

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.