Kansas City to St Louis

[Hurst]

I had uploaded some screen shots of this route a while back that I am working on to another thread,.. but I guess once 50 pages is reached,.. the thread is closed. I wanted to add more pictures and cant find it.

So I just wanted to give an update to my work so far. I have never seen another route done with the level of attention and detail I have given to this route. I fear once complete,.. it will probably not be playable for many with slower or older PC's. I run my system off some very fast Samsung SSD's and what you see so far takes the better part of 3 - 4 mins to load and I am barely 20% complete. So I apologize in advance for those of you who will be loading this route from mechanical HDDs.

But it will be worth it. I promise you.

For anyone interested,.. I am no expert with railroading,.. nor am I an expert with this game. I just really enjoy the creative freedom that editing this route has given me. I'm trying to recreate everything as close to how Google Earth and street view is showing me. But as such,.. I will need help once I get to about 99% with setting up the traffic signals, switching signals, gantry signals, lights, speed zones etc. I honestly do not understand how they work or how they should work. I just love trains.

Also,.. I have no idea how to create scenarios. This route will allow endless switching and long distance scenarios. I've been trying to research as much as I can about what the names of each business is. But I suspect someone with more experience would be able to do a much better job at it than me.

So with out further ado,.. I present a pre screening of Hurst's Kansas City to St Louis route,.. 20% of it anyway.











































































































































































https://i.imgur.com/WmTcdUx.jpg



















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]EDIT: 12/06/2017

For those not seeing any track.

Main track is GN tracks - http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... =22:models

Using tram trax as well,. http://golden-age-rails.com/rwscenry.html#tracks

Bridge track is primarily - Scale Rail - (SR W1 - Open Deck) https://www.3dtrains.com/products/rw/scalerail.shtml

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I have fixed some broken track segments that would have cause a derailment. I'm sure there are more,.. I will fix these as you guys or I discover them.

John (Railwander) has graciously given me FTP access to upload updates.

The latest updates for the Kansas City to St Louis route can be found here. http://digitalrailroading.net/KCtoStL/update.html

I will post more information as we progress. Read through the posts and you may find an answer to your question. If not,.. post here and I will do my best to assist.



Hurst

[GenericZack]

Ahem, Excuse me while I clean my mess.

[gtrtroger]

Very, very nice!

[ET44C4]

Unbelievable...

[JohnS]

WOW!

[NS349]

Looks like a fun route! really love the detail of how everything is placed.

[dejoh]

Exceptional. Could spend weeks operating this route. What would be the assets required for this outstanding route?

[ET44C4]

Exceptional. Could spend weeks operating this route. What would be the assets required for this outstanding route?

It looks like it will be an outstanding list, however. Nevertheless, a route like this needs as many assets as possible. It will enhance the experience for sure.

[Hurst]

Exceptional. Could spend weeks operating this route. What would be the assets required for this outstanding route?

I never really gave that much thought. Its a lot. A lot of free stuff and a good bit from routes off Steam.

I will try to get a list of what you guys will need.

I started back with Railworks back in 2009 or so. I started route building around 2012,.. just small fictional routes. I got the idea for this route after looking up a shipper on google maps that I was picking up a machine from (I'm in trucking for a living) and I noticed all of the rail yards in and around Kansas City. I was like Holy smoke! Man I would spend weeks just playing around in the KC area.

The main down side to doing a route like this is that its time consuming. I am an over the road trucker. I am an O/O,.. I typically go out on the road for 4 - 6 weeks. Then I come home and take 1 - 2 weeks off. So I try to get as much time as I can spare on this route. I take it with me on my laptop and do a little bit of editing during down time. But never really find the time to really get into it like I want.

At my current rate,.. I'm guessing this route is at least 9 months to 1 yr before I could post a downloadable version for you guys to play around with. Then get someone to help me with the track signals and get feedback from you guys as to anything I screwed up on,.. so I can fix it. A route this size,. I imagine there will be some things I missed. I'm constantly jumping from one area to the next and then go back and finish up where I was the week before.

My main goal is to provide a route that can provide a creative scenario editor as much endless creativity as I have found while making the route. Give people endless eye candy and hoping they see something new each time they pass an area and maybe just go around and explore where different lines go. Thats what I would want from a route. As a simulation game,. I want something that not only gives realism in the engines and physics of how they operate,.. but also realism within the scenery and lay out of the assets. Bridges,.. streets,.. trees,.. I want people who live or have traveled here to say wow,.. I know this street,.. I have been there. I want people to feel excited and not get bored within a few hours of playing a route.

A monumental task for me. Hopefully you guys get as much enjoyment playing it as I have in building it.

Hurst

[jpetersjr]

I have a lot of good freeware items available on my website as well, such as the 85 International semi models.

[Hurst]

I have a lot of good freeware items available on my website as well, such as the 85 International semi models.

Hurst

[jpetersjr]

Will be looking forward to seeing more progress on the route, I think it's looking great.

[imnew]

Being a route builder myself I know how much time goes into detailing a route. One word pops up when seeing your screenshots, stunning!

[Brickrail782]

Do you have any picture of downtown KC? I'm kind of thinking about making the Emporia Sub someday and I would like to see how KC looks in game.

[ex-railwayman]

Well, this looks fantastic. However, for authenticity, I would suggest you remove the British derelict diesel locomotives and road vehicles, as they would never feature in any American route, prototypical, or, fictional, however, what you have achieved so far looks absolutely brilliant. I would ask as to what your computer specifications are, your thoughts of running the game from an SSD may not be as bad as you consider, as looking at your screenshots the frame rates look fairly comparable to many other routes currently available, for the amount of scenery assets showing on the tiles, etc, 35/40 fps for out in the countryside to high teens/low 20s fps in the heavily built up areas looks about fine to me, nothing to cause any severe lag I would not have thought, one of your tiles has 2699 assets on it and the fps is between 20 and 31 depending on camera angle, nothing wrong with that at all, I have routes with 3,400 assets on one tile and the fps is about 18/20, so, you're good to go on that score, and I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of members on this forum have mid to high end computer specs anyway and something like this is no worse than some of the heavy resource layouts from DTG and other 3rd party developers, the German and Italian route builders especially, so, I wouldn't worry unduly about that.
It's entirely up to you, but, I could suggest you approach an established route builder/developer to assist you with your signalling and other important operational details, you could even release what you have done so far if you wanted to, there's plenty to play with looking at what you have constructed so far by the looks of things, and then keep adding to the route as you go along, especially, with your employment, and I think KC to St.Louis is about 250 miles isn't it, so, something like this might take a few years to complete with the massive level of detail you have spent on it so far. Anyway, it looks amazing for a first effort, well done, and carry on, Sir.

Cheerz. Steve.