ScaleRail v2.0

[Bananarama]

Work in progress screens of ScaleRail v2.0:

sr_v201.jpg

sr_v202.jpg

These were designed specifically with ORTS in mind and have not yet been tested in MSTS.

[OTTODAD]

Looking great, Marc !

What is their rails Offset and are their trackbeds wide enough to close the gap between them when being used with parallel US and European tracks ?

Any chance for their concrete ties version to show Pandrol clips and if they are still as highly detailed as the current ones will they still show MOIRE in switches, DTG having done nothing yet to eliminate it ?

Thanks for continuing to work on improving them !

Take care, Otto.

[geepster775]

Instead of maintaining separate collections for different ballast colors, is it possible to employ a route-specific microtex-type concept for the ballast where users can adjust the color of that one ace in order to give different color tones to specific routes?

I'd love to be able to employ concrete for mainlines, wood tie for sidings, and rusty rail for setout tracks. Also beneficial if there could be double track sections with concrete profile for one track, and wood tie profile for the other track, instead of having to place single tracks beside each other. Especially in curves, where a 1000m radius double track curve results in the outer track at 1002m and in the inner track at 998m. Its harder to lay individual 1000m curves for each profile side by side and still maintain correct track center distances.

[Snowman]

Much needed and appreciated. Hope theres no gap between tracks like in V1. An update to ScaleRoads to make the edges of the roads go into the ground would be nice as well. Great work as usual.

[eric]

In the vein of what Geepster just suggested, here are some screenshots of a few things I've been toying with on the original SR

One of the banes of my route-building existence has been ballast overrun where I've had to build a turnout from modular pieces or a nonstandard crossover:





When I was last working on the UP-Gila, I did some experimenting with the ACleanAce textures to accommodate super-elevation. The XTracks style ballast was such a visual clash that I decided to take out the ballast altogether, and leave just the ties, which is how I wound up with this:



Since I place berms under all of my track pieces, there is ballast underneath. It worked, and gave fairly decent visual results:





Pretty happy with the results so far, and it may open up a few opportunities elsewhere... Notice the siding tracks below which are absent of ballast? Something like that would be fairly easy to replicate now. Likewise for industrial tracks at a cement plant or bulk storage yard, where the ties may be visible, but they're not exactly pristine.



Another possibility is the ability for me to "ore dust" the mainlines in Packerland where the ore trains run, or even come up with a different berm shape and style for an abandoned line to include weeds in the track shape itself.

Circling round.... if there's an option to do an out of the box texture that has no ballast, I know I'm interested.

[qballbandit]

Interesting Eric, but why the straight edge in that last shot?

Marc, looks fantastic! Thank you, and good luck with your project!
Pardon my ignorance, but would this be a drop in replacement for the older SR tracks in MSTS routes that have them?

[Train-a-Mania]

Will there be a rough-track version of the rail with beaten-up ties?

[Bananarama]

What is their rails Offset and are their trackbeds wide enough to close the gap between them when being used with parallel US and European tracks ?

Any chance for their concrete ties version to show Pandrol clips and if they are still as highly detailed as the current ones will they still show MOIRE in switches, DTG having done nothing yet to eliminate it ?

The ballast shape is basically unchanged for the time being, and will depend how the switches come out.

Also beneficial if there could be double track sections with concrete profile for one track, and wood tie profile for the other track, instead of having to place single tracks beside each other. Especially in curves, where a 1000m radius double track curve results in the outer track at 1002m and in the inner track at 998m. Its harder to lay individual 1000m curves for each profile side by side and still maintain correct track center distances.

Double the work, and that's only for the 2-track sections. There's no way I'm going to burn myself out trying to that.

Since I place berms under all of my track pieces, there is ballast underneath. It worked, and gave fairly decent visual results

With exception to the rail, all textures use alpha and can be changed or removed. Pretty much the way it is now.

but would this be a drop in replacement for the older SR tracks in MSTS routes that have them?

The only requirement is to add the newer textures, as their names are different. Nothing cryptic as before:

Old: SR_Track_w1a.ace
New: SR_v2_Track_w1_Ballast.ace

...etc.

Will there be a rough-track version of the rail with beaten-up ties?

Nope. I build 'em, you paint 'em.

I can add a gravel heap running down the middle that can be hidden, but this will add to the poly count, and already the number is double what the old was (tho' the high poly LOD only includes the spikes and sides of the plates, and only extends to about 50m or so). I may be able to trim this down a bit, and the decrease won't be significant, but might allow for the extra shape.

The v2.0 project will come down to finishing turnouts and crossovers, something that wasn't done for v1. These will take several weeks to complete, as they need to be modeled in gMax which has more than a few limitations.

I've created the new profiles for 1 and 2 track shapes, but will finish the 3 and 4 types today. Other than the screen above (and a few dynamic shape conversion tests), I haven't done any other sections. In regards to ballast conflicts with overlapping track, I'm not sure how it will look until I can get a number of shapes generated. All alpha parts use the "test" switch in the models, so they should sort properly.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

[PerryPlatypus]

I'd love to be able to employ concrete for mainlines, wood tie for sidings, and rusty rail for setout tracks. Also beneficial if there could be double track sections with concrete profile for one track, and wood tie profile for the other track, instead of having to place single tracks beside each other. Especially in curves, where a 1000m radius double track curve results in the outer track at 1002m and in the inner track at 998m. Its harder to lay individual 1000m curves for each profile side by side and still maintain correct track center distances.

This is actually already possible with the current Scale Rail by using the track shapes that start with SR_XtCrv. You will see that at the end of each file there is a letter, typically A, B, D, or E (although there are a few with more than that). Essentially, the standard single track pieces are the equivalent of an XtCrv with a C at the end. From there, an XtCrv ending in B is slightly smaller radius than the standard pieces, in fact the radius is specifically designed to be just smaller enough that it lines up exactly as a parallel track. A is one step of radius smaller than B, D is one step of radius larger than the standard piece, and so forth. The XtCrv pieces are in both concrete and wood tie variations, so this allows for one to have a concrete tie main and wood tie siding with correct track center distances maintained!

[Bananarama]

Experiments with snow...

sr_v203.jpg sr_v204.jpg

[qballbandit]

Oh Marc, that partial snow is awesome!

[longiron]

Really super work. I'm looking forward to incorporating this into my route.
chris

[scfe_fan]

A suggestion, what about maybe doing 3rd rail equipped tracks?? Something I would love to see in scale rail as it hasn't really been attempted in general..


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[Bananarama]

A suggestion, what about maybe doing 3rd rail equipped tracks?? Something I would love to see in scale rail as it hasn't really been attempted in general..

The problem doing this is that for each curved 3rd rail piece, there needs to be an equivalent reversed section.

[scfe_fan]

Didn't really consider that since out here in Chicago, the subway cars are equipped with 3rd rail shoes on both sides of the car and can automatically switch between the two.


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