3dtrains scalerail route upgrades?

[CSRX]

If a route has huge amounts of dynamic track or xtracks that don't fit the bill for either ScaleRail or US Tracks, the route gets scrapped in my opinion.

Also looking into it. It appears the Florida Funnel never got released with ScaleRail and scenery enhancements, just the Tallahassee Sub.

Though, both could definitely use an overhaul again, but that's just far too much for someone like me. Haha.

[Erick_Cantu]

Dynamic track isn't an issue like it was in MSTS because you can specify custom dynamic track profiles for OR. In fact, you need to do this on any route that uses ScaleRail or USTracks because OR uses dynamic track for all curves any time superelevation is checked. There are appropriate profiles floating around somewhere.

In fact, because dynamic track isn't the issue it was in MSTS, I'd argue that we don't necessarily need ScaleRail or USTracks conversions for anything. We need a set of shapes that overwrite the default rails and XTracks. I was working on track profiles for this a while back, but haven't had the time to dig into creating all the shapes - it would be quite the undertaking and I think that it would probably best be done as a community effort with me uploading the source files for the master profiles when they are complete. As an example, one person could concentrate on all tunnel sections, another could concentrate on straights, while another does curves. At the very least, I think that there should be a dedicated person doing switches and a dedicated person doing crossovers as those will be the ones needing the most effort.

If the default rails were the right width, I don't think that they would need too much attention aside from texturing. The default rails in TS20xx are very similar, but done much better so they don't look so simplistic (namely, they have better textures and are the right width). The Kuju rail is so nasty looking that I am considering prioritizing it over replacing the default locomotives since there's plenty of suitable locomotives to choose from already.

The profile that I arrived at is very simple. In fact it's more or less identical to the default profile, except the rails are the correct width and the ballast is profiled. The width of the ballast is the same. Other major differences are that the rails and ballast are mapped to the same resolution (1/2 inch per pixel) and repeat at the same interval, which is every 39 feet. This makes jointed rail textures possible, and each rail is mapped separately so that the joints can be staggered. They are also mapped in a much more logical way, and all rail-associated textures are on a single sheet (including tunnel textures and eventually the switch machines) to minimize drawcalls:

63.jpg

Here is a screen cap (originally posted at E-T) of one of the early in-sim tests:

48.jpg

On the technical side, it makes more sense to use a simpler track profile for a full replacement because there's just so many shapes to replace and the switches are going to require a lot of cutting. The fewer angles in the track profile, the better. I don't think there's much of a visible difference at most distances anyway, and it looks a whole lot better than Kuju track.

[eric]

There's a Blender script created by Doug Jones that can take a profile and crank out procedural shapes, and it's available on GitHub -- https://github.com/dajones42/dte

I'd be up for helping run some of those if someone would be willing to create a low profile switchstand. Doug already has a high profile included in his package, but a low profile is really needed to complete things.

[geepster775]

"BK ReplaceEm 2.0" is now called "Replace Text 2.2" and it is widely available

[Erick_Cantu]

There's a Blender script created by Doug Jones that can take a profile and crank out procedural shapes, and it's available on GitHub -- https://github.com/dajones42/dte

I'd be up for helping run some of those if someone would be willing to create a low profile switchstand. Doug already has a high profile included in his package, but a low profile is really needed to complete things.

I've taken a bunch of appropriate photos and measurements and left space in the map for them - I just haven't gotten to it as I have been working on other things. I think I might start work on this again once the new default freight cars are done.

[pwillard]

Provide some guidance and I will help out.