New York Central Boston-Springfield Route from GTrax

[mrennie]

Hi all!

Glad you're enjoying the new route.

Just a little info on the RS-3. As it's from Diesel Workshop, we weren't able to do much in the way of modifications or enhancements and couldn't alter the loco script at all. Therefore, in particular, it's the one loco in the route DLC that doesn't have my advanced brakes.

Cheers,

Mike

[Mikeov1985]

A big thank you to the GTRAX team for another fantastic route. I am very much enjoying it.

[buzz456]

I do love the route so far, however their seems to be a glitch or error with the RS-3's? Their headlights are always shining from each end, no matter where they are placed in a consist. And if I remember correctly, you could cycle through the class light colors on the original release of the NYC RS-3 on DieselWorkshop.

This might be kind of interesting to explore. If you load this as a drive able loco then the lights work properly and yes they all work as they should in the original offering as well. I'm not sure what causes that. Every now and then I see a loco that the lights are on when it's not the drive one and is just sitting there.

[EngineerJohn]

Route itself looks really well done. Rollingstock is not top notch but is good enough. Locomotives I have several issues with.

Not just the rs3's but the PA and FA as well have all of their lights on all of the time in the scenarios. If you replace AI ones then they have no lights on.

I only tested this with the PA and rs3 but if the brakes are applied it doesn't allow you to draw any amps... It makes creeping up to a platform or just taking the edge off your speed impossible and makes train handling too difficult for me. It cuts your amps down to 0 on the move until all of the pressure has built back up for a release on both train brake and independent.

Schnauzahpowahz pointed out as well cracks in the cab of the PA that allow you to see the ground. Your crew is going to be awfully cold in the winter. Maybe these PA's were wreck rebuilds?

Having been a native New Yorker and been around ALCo shortlines my whole life the big ball of black smoke on the PA in particular is a little gimmicky... It definitely could've been done better. It looks almost cartoonish to me. I'm no stranger to being smoked out in the vestibule when passenger pulling ALCo's catch a gust of wind going the right direction when they open the throttle up but still the rs3 and the HH600 have done better.

One other thing that stood out with me is just how fast these things apply power. There are semi trucks out there begging they had the acceleration characteristics of these things. I know ALCo's historically have been said to be faster loading than other manufacturers and I'm no locomotive engineer but literally at the snap of a finger you can be maxed out on amps and RPM and flying down the tracks... Or just in the next throttle notch settled in as fast as you can blink.

I tried to add a little humor in this one.


In my opinion, buy this route for the assets, stock, and the scenery. The motive power leaves much to be desired in various ways.

[buzz456]

I was just waiting for a party pooper. Now things are complete. As far as braking I suggest you hone your skills. I ran passenger runs quite a bit and never missed a stop. Being the young lad you are you must have never been around these old ALCos. The only thing I complained about when Diesel Workshop put the first ones out was the smoke was totally unrealistic, not nearly enough of it. These things could out smoke with the best of the steamers when they were first notched up.

[buzz456]

Honest John, I have no idea what you are talking about seeing cracks in the PA cab. I just loaded it up and ran it around and I can't see anything like that. What in the heck are you talking about?

[Railfan722]

There's a very small gap between where the two panels meet on the engineer's side, you can see in the screenshot where the yellow striping of the RS3 behind is peeking through slightly. The same issue is a little more pronounced on the fireman's side, it runs much higher but is about the same width.

Up to you how much it actually matters. I spotted it out of the corner of my eye while running in 4k, but at smaller resolutions it definitely isn't as noticeable. There's a couple of holes in the rest of the model as well:


Under the engine room door affects both the PA and PB. An issue specific to the PB is a very large hole under what I presume to be the B end of the unit? If it helps for troubleshooting at all, it's the end without the fan.


Also found a couple of shading errors.

Window surrounds on engineer's and fireman's side should be smooth shaded. This issue goes all the way to the bevel at the center pillar.

This one's a twofer. The class light and numberboard surrounds presumably should be smooth shaded, and there's this odd error when rendering the numbers at an angle where there's this grey region that crops up. Having had a closer look, I think it might be down to how the numbers themselves are textured; as near as I can tell, it's a plane textured black with the TrainDecal shader, and then the numbers punch alpha holes through it. Because the sides of the numberboard box are textured the grey-black of the body rather than the white of the inside of the box, the decal renders as a different color when you look through it at another surface.

Four fixes I could suggest, although they each have some shortfalls:
1. Move the numbers further back. This might not have the intended visual appearance, and you might get z-fighting issues at a distance.
2. Paint half the sides of the box white. This wouldn't totally fix it as there's still a hard corner in there, but it would make it a much less noticeable issue.
3. Make the number textures white, and put them against a black background using a shader that renders more solidly.
4. Use a different shader entirely for the numbers. I'd caution against this, as TrainDecal is the only one that supports full 8-bit alpha transparency.

Overall the PA is a decent model, although evidently a few things were overlooked in presumably the export process from the modelling software of choice to TS. A lot of these seem to be related to things that were changed from the Unity render that was shown off a while back, like the numberboards and the PB. Luckily, with the (possible) exception of the numberboard box thing, none of these should be a terribly difficult fix; most of them should hopefully just be a right click, 'Shade Smooth', and possibly an edge split to set straight, or otherwise adding an extra few faces and giving them the right space on the UV.

[buzz456]

Now that folks is what is called constructive criticism. Thanks for sharing.

[Reddleggs]

Anyone interested in making an RS3 from Diesel workshop for Providence and Worcester? I grew up in Worcester right along the tracks and finally have the route. GTRAX has sure captured the feeling of Boston and central Mass in the 60’s. Well done.

The caboose is pretty awesome as well.

Thanks,

Redd

[Chacal]

This is the first PA ever in the game, isn't it?

[RudiJaeger]

This is the first PA ever in the game, isn't it?

AFAIK, yes, It is. I recall some threads that reference some other WIP PA's, but they never made it to the store shelves. IIRC, G-Trax has an ATSF version in the works, but I would leave that to one of their representatives to confirm it's progress. Personally, I'm thinking that they might release something (locomotive) at a later date, or at least I hope so; since the model I'm thinking of has the correct number boards for ATSF and would work well for repainting a few other roads. I remember the paintwork being top-notch as well. Strangely, I could not find a link to the site/thread where I saw it.

Edit: It might have been this thread: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/thread ... rax.34917/ ..but I can't access the referenced screenshot link because it's for logged-in members only, for which I do not apply.

[buzz456]

You are correct Rudi. It was featured on their website some time back. No longer there but supposedly it will be offered here not on Steam, but that's mostly speculation on that thread. Lot's of comments and pictures of how much smoke these old ALCo's made when first revved up.

[buzz456]

Redd,
Which model would you like to use for the caboose?

[buzz456]

I'm not real well versed on scenarios but on the subject of the RS3 and the headlight situation when you do a free roam scenario the headlights all work like they are supposed to work. One of you scenario gurus have any comments on that?

[pkz19]

[quote="Railfan722"]There's a very small gap between where the two panels meet on the engineer's side, you can see in the screenshot where the yellow striping of the RS3 behind is peeking through slightly. The same issue is a little more pronounced on the fireman's side, it runs much higher but is about the same width.

Possibly a stupid question, but I saw Diesel Workshop posted the NYC version of the RS-3 again. Would the model posted on the DW site be exactly the same as the one in the one in the route? I would like to assume so but you know what they say about assumptions. All the pictures I've seen of the RS-3 in the B&A route show the lightning stripe paint scheme, so is the cigar band version only available with the DW pack?