Question about rolling stock

[reeveshd]

Hello everyone:

I have always wondered since portland terminal came out. With all the crafty repainters out that that make packs of repaints. Why not set them up like gtrax did and make it one entry in the editor, and it is somewhat random paint placement. Much easier way to get varity.

It makes me wonder if it is hard to set them up that way, or Gtrax found a way to do and made it part of their payware option and they will not release the details and no one has figured it out.

The other thing I think would be neat.... if there was a way for all of your default and downloaded rolling stock could be "grouped" under one single title in the editor and then you can just point and click all the rolling stock in a random.
I ask this because I lack any sense of my own creaitivity. I have no imangination when it comes to placing rolling stock in free roams. I really enjoy the surprise I get when I use Gtrax's random rolling stock.

Thanks

Reeves

[Kali]

Because you can't, when you're doing it with someone else's stock. Random textures need to be built into the model.

[Chacal]

No idea what you guys are talking about. What random rolling stock?

[reeveshd]

This how they are listed in the editor

GXLP_boxcar50mod random 50 foot box car paints...maybe 10 different paints, not sure
GXLP_gonmod50, random gondolas
GXLP_hicube60mod
GXLP_hopps2mod

Those came with the portland terminal.
I have no idea why or how they did, wish they would do more in tank cars, autoracks and the like. Great system.
I think I will shoot them an email and see what they think.

[reeveshd]

I just got an email from Gtrax, and they said that micheal stephan made those. I am going to email him now.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Thanks for your email! The idea of "random livery" rolling stock I think was first implemented on the 50' boxcars that Sly did for the Challenger pack. How it works is actually quite simple, it exploits the autonumber feature of Railworks. Only that now, in order to make the entire car become "randomized", one needs to make the whole car body part of the autonumber (primarydigits) node in the model. A simpler method of this can be seen on my low poly yard filler cars.

If anybody wants to model a car that works similarly, all you'd need to is...
... create a basic "core" model that contains all the parts that won't get randomized. (frame, trucks, wheels, detail parts...)
... create one single group (which can contain several objects) for all parts that will be randomized. Groupname is 1_????_primarydigits_1 -- in which case you can use only one texture, primarynumber_0.ace -- or you can try breaking up the "autonumber" parts so that they can be textured with several "primarynumbers" textures.
... export and set up the car as a fully working freight car. Add bogie BPs, couplers, weights, dimensional data, etc. You'll be able to use it like any other rail vehicle then.
... create the "numbering" (liveries) textures set, and the accompanying number list file (dcsv). This works exactly like for car numbers, only that now each "number" represents one livery.

That's really all there is to it.

Cheers,
Michael

[thecanadianrail]

Hi,

Thanks for your email! The idea of "random livery" rolling stock I think was first implemented on the 50' boxcars that Sly did for the Challenger pack. How it works is actually quite simple, it exploits the autonumber feature of Railworks. Only that now, in order to make the entire car become "randomized", one needs to make the whole car body part of the autonumber (primarydigits) node in the model. A simpler method of this can be seen on my low poly yard filler cars.

If anybody wants to model a car that works similarly, all you'd need to is...
... create a basic "core" model that contains all the parts that won't get randomized. (frame, trucks, wheels, detail parts...)
... create one single group (which can contain several objects) for all parts that will be randomized. Groupname is 1_????_primarydigits_1 -- in which case you can use only one texture, primarynumber_0.ace -- or you can try breaking up the "autonumber" parts so that they can be textured with several "primarynumbers" textures.
... export and set up the car as a fully working freight car. Add bogie BPs, couplers, weights, dimensional data, etc. You'll be able to use it like any other rail vehicle then.
... create the "numbering" (liveries) textures set, and the accompanying number list file (dcsv). This works exactly like for car numbers, only that now each "number" represents one livery.

That's really all there is to it.

Cheers,
Michael

well now you have yourself a little side project for yourself! (would be great for the GN/BN/NP higher poly stuff)