Questions and Answers on the Steam Loco Tutorial

[mrennie]

I've started this thread to run alongside the other one with a tutorial on building a steam loco.

The idea is to do the Q&A here, so that the tutorial thread itself stays clean and organised (it'll be up to me to keep it that way).

The tutorial will take several months to get through, because there's a lot to explain, and it is a lot of work to do all the screenshots and text, but I hope we'll see some worthwhile results coming out of it.

[mrennie]

I'll be continuing with the tutorial soon. I'm a bit tied up at the moment with putting the finishing touches on the Consolidation.

[jpetersjr]

Sounds fine, I think today I'm going to look for some better blueprints and drawings.

[mrennie]

Sounds file, I think today I'm going to look for some better blueprints and drawings.

Seeing as how we're still at the beginning of the tutorial. if you find a suitable set of blueprints and drawings, we can use those for the tutorial. You can post them here and that way we'll be referring to the same thing, which will make it easier to follow.

[jpetersjr]

Sounds file, I think today I'm going to look for some better blueprints and drawings.

Seeing as how we're still at the beginning of the tutorial. if you find a suitable set of blueprints and drawings, we can use those for the tutorial. You can post them here and that way we'll be referring to the same thing, which will make it easier to follow.

I think I can do that, the only problem is if we're both building the same engine both would also have to be freeware, since I couldn't release mine if one was payware, or at least I don't know if I could or couldn't.

I plan to make mine in ATSF, Pennsylvania and most likely also Ann Arbor. But I can say for sure though that the default version will be ATSF.

Ten Wheeler Blueprint.jpg

Ten Wheeler 4.JPG

Ten Wheeler 1.jpg

Ten Wheeler 2.jpg

Ten Wheeler front.jpg

This one is actually a PRR, but I'll be doing it in both PRR and ATSF, ATSF being my favorite railroad.

[jpetersjr]

Also, here's another blueprint of a Baldwin Ten Wheeler 1930's era.

Baldwin Ten Wheeler blueprint.jpg

Ten Wheeler 1.jpg

Ten Wheeler 2.jpg

Ten Wheeler 3.jpg

Ten Wheeler 4.jpg

[jpetersjr]

Here's one more picture that I didn't have room to post in the last picture.

I really think this engine is the one that we should do.

Ten Wheeler 5.jpg

Ten Wheeler with tender 1.jpg

Ten Wheeler with tender 2.jpg

Ten Wheeler with tender 3.jpg

Ten Wheeler with tender 4.jpg

I plan to make my own one freeware or freeware-donationware to attract new users to the sim and build up a fan base.

[mrennie]

I think I can do that, the only problem is if we're both building the same engine both would also have to be freeware, since I couldn't release mine if one was payware, or at least I don't know if I could or couldn't.

The tutorial model won't be payware. It would take far too long if I did it to the same standard as payware, and people woild get bored waiting. So I intend to show the mechanics of creating a model, but without making a really detailed one. The idea is to show how to create things in 3DC, how to texture them, how to export them, how to set up the blueprints, how to make the sounds, animations and special effects, all for a steam locomotive. Visually, my tutorial model will be quite basic. I'll leave it to you to make better looking parts.

[mrennie]

Here's one more picture that I didn't have room to post in the last picture.

OK, we can do this Baldwin. Having all those pictures is going to help a lot!

[jpetersjr]

I think I can do that, the only problem is if we're both building the same engine both would also have to be freeware, since I couldn't release mine if one was payware, or at least I don't know if I could or couldn't.

The tutorial model won't be payware. It would take far too long if I did it to the same standard as payware, and people woild get bored waiting. So I intend to show the mechanics of creating a model, but without making a really detailed one. The idea is to show how to create things in 3DC, how to texture them, how to export them, how to set up the blueprints, how to make the sounds, animations and special effects, all for a steam locomotive. Visually, my tutorial model will be quite basic. I'll leave it to you to make better looking parts.

Sounds fine to me, also though I want to make a full 3d cab for mine as well and if possible I might try to do the rivits as well, but for a while I might leave those out though. Also I want to animate all the controls and gauges, I plan on using this for the cab interior since this actually came out of something like a Ten Wheeler.

2,8,0 Consolidation cab 1.jpg

2,8,0 Consolidation cab 2.jpg

2,8,0 Consolidation cab 3.jpg

2,8,0 Consolidation cab 4.jpg

Of course, I'm not worried about too much detail, but I do want to make the main parts look realistic enough to pass for presentable and the real thing.

I do though want to add the special sounds and textures and then call the engine default, even know it will be freeware.

Also, I want to do a special version with the physics edited enough so that it won't have too much of a problem climbing a hill and pulling a load. So that later it will be able to make it up the grades of my fiction NYC route.

[hminky]

Here is a useful utility to make photos to scale:

http://www.raildriver.com/products/cyclopedias/scale.print.php

Harold

[jpetersjr]

I've already figured out how I want my version of the engine to look when done. Old non shiny black and greasy like a coal train from the 30's. Also I plan to make the interior an all wood interior, and I plan to make the engine ATSF.

Once done I think we could release both engines to RCAP.

Also I have a C16 whistle I'm going to put on the model, about the kind of whistle most coal trains had.


Also I won't be using my original developer name for my engines, I'm going to launch a new one so later I might also make some payware, I think I'm going to name my file folder for developer name Streamliners.

[PapaXpress]

I think this is a better thread than the main Consolidation thread to ask this. You mentioned twice you would have used a larger texture for parts (2048), how many textures files are you using? I was told once that you don't want to many texture calls, so keep it a minimum. How many calls is too many?

[mrennie]

I think this is a better thread than the main Consolidation thread to ask this. You mentioned twice you would have used a larger texture for parts (2048), how many textures files are you using? I was told once that you don't want to many texture calls, so keep it a minimum. How many calls is too many?

This is a good place to ask, yes.

Let's see ... in the default engine texture folder, there are now 92 .TgPcDx files, totalling 116MB, in the CabView/Textures there are 67 such files (102MB) and in the default tender's texture folder a further 41 .TgPcDx files (34.3MB) of which 13 are for the numbers. It might sound like a lot of files, but for me it was a question of finding the right balance between squeezing lots of things into a few big files (which I did do to begin with), or having different parts with their own dedicated texture files to make it easier to manage them. I tend to give greater priority to the latter, considering how many parts there are in the model

Even with so many texture files, and indeed so many parts, I get great fps on my two upper to top range computers, even with all the graphics options on highest settings, 1920x1200 resolution and FXAA + 4 x MSAA. It even runs fairly well on my cheapo laptop (bought years ago when I was on a tight budget) provided I turn the options down. And so far, I haven't had any reports of fps problems from anyone who's run the loco. Also consider that the .GeoPcDx files are quite big - engine is 13,752KB, tender is 2,036KB and the cab view model is 4,897KB (compare that with, say, the K4s which is 2,794KB + 642KB + 2,090KB). So, what I conclude from that is that TS2013 is much, much more efficient than its predecessors and I wouldn't worry much at all about texture size. Obviously I wouldn't go overboard either and have all 92 engine textures as 2048x2048 files

Incidentally, the cab view geometry file is too big for serz.exe. It can decompile it to xml, but the resulting xml is too big for it to recompile into a .bin. I thought that was going to put paid to my rain on glass, but then I discovered how to edit the cab's .GeoPcdx file with a hex editor to change the glass material name, the one that 3DC's exporter puts in there, to something that makes the rain work That meant I didn't have to worry about a false limitation on the size of the cab model.

[PapaXpress]

Wow. With the three locomotives I am working on now, and the child models I create for superdetailing I have been trying to be frugal with my texture sizes, going as far as using 16px swatches on 256px files. I will loosen up and start using larger textures.