Do we need more random scenery or no?

[CSRX]

Not bad as a fill in for the Maine Medical Center.

[pwillard]

Oh Cool! You might just want to fill in the BLACK SHADOW areas with window glazing.

[eric]

Buildings are my safe space rabbit hole when I get burned out on coding and route building.

These look great.

[CSRX]

Oh Cool! You might just want to fill in the BLACK SHADOW areas with window glazing.

I'll give that a go and see what I can come up with.

[pwillard]

Something at home in mill town.

[TrainSimJack]

I appreciate this Pete, the blender files and textures will be great learning tools!

I'd be interested in how you put together the texture for that building on post #35 - It's got a very 3 dimensional look!

[pwillard]

Well, currently, it's slightly more than a cube adjusted to fit. Granted, it will get some additional touches... but here is what I mean.

Additional details can be added and then BAKED into a final texture. This way some of the extra details can be deleted but the texture now shows an image of them.

I would really recommend anyone wanting to learn 3D modeling to give *scenery* a try before trying anything else.

Screenshot 2024-08-16 185757.jpg

[Erick_Cantu]

I argue that random scenery is the greatest need in OR. I suspect a large number of routes that will never see a public release are being held back by the fact that most of the scenery assets that hold up in 2024 are from payware routes.

[CSXT Q-317]

I argue that random scenery is the greatest need in OR. I suspect a large number of routes that will never see a public release are being held back by the fact that most of the scenery assets that hold up in 2024 are from payware routes.

I would say that this is correct. Trainsimuations has THE best vegetation and structures out there right now. I'm not too hot on Blender right now but take the time when I can to attempt to learn it.

My Ohio Division has so many different structures not found anywhere. Way back I tackled train sim modeler. Making that jump to Blender for me at least is a daunting task anymore. I simply don't have enough time in the day to learn it. And with a busy schedule I simply can not take any more than a hour or two out of my day to commit to learning it. Biggest reason I stick with TSM right now.

So for right now the Ohio Division remains unreleased. I am working on a generic version built with TSM objects and that MGS Vegetation to release but that may take several more years at this rate. The Parkersburg Branch that Jerry had sent me has the tracks laid I did at least kick off a bit. But with me getting ready to go back to some schooling. That may get released as a incomplete for someone else to tackle.

[CSRX]

I argue that random scenery is the greatest need in OR. I suspect a large number of routes that will never see a public release are being held back by the fact that most of the scenery assets that hold up in 2024 are from payware routes.

I would say yes and no on being held back, but that's something to discuss later on.

Generic buildings are always a plus, and to be honest, what holds me up the most on my own route right now, is certain buildings I would like to be a little close to the real deal, like the paper mills, and some of the freight houses and old stations along the right of way, especially Crawford Notch, North Conway, etc.

[pwillard]

My commentary:

1) If I make stuff now... it's because its easy, not because it is hard. I'm an old phart now and I will take little wins over tough challenges every day of the week.
2) Blender is really only hard "in the beginning"... once you cross over the hump and you get some muscle memory... it gets to be as easy TSM and its way better, honest.
3) Right now, I suffer from lacking good textures. Unless I go out shooting buildings and such with my personal SLR camera, my pool of available textures is limited... and it shows. Everything is a subscription online now and I'm just not going to support that economy for stuff I give away for free. So... I need to spend some more time taking some pics... clearly.

Also, I'm totally willing to work on more scenery items since I find them so much easier than rolling stock (which I never seem finish as I'm too much of a rivet counter and I suck at understanding the finer tricks regarding new Open Rails features and writing good ENG and WAG files. I'm missing Plainsman here, clearly)

That being said... much track side stuff is disturbingly simple and older stuff uses very low detail mesh shapes and only 512x512 textures. I'm just going to break away from that and and assume people have better machines and graphics cards than we had in 2001.

And yeah, I push work in progress updates to the GITHUB location, so check back regularly.

Also... never look closely at the windows...

[CSRX]

Honestly, whatever you produce, I more than likely will use. Some day I will venture into blender for scenery objects. I really would like to learn it to build some basic bridges, such as the Fore River Bridge between Portland and South Portland, then there is all the oil tanks in the Sprague's Terminal I would like to tackle. Of course, I won't go too crazy, because then there would be a ton of buildings I'd do and that would completely take me away from the route building in general.

Honestly that current building you are working on, seems pretty fitting for the old brick sections of old paper mills up here in Maine.

[pwillard]

Honestly that current building you are working on, seems pretty fitting for the old brick sections of old paper mills up here in Maine.

Yeah, that was the general idea...

===

I worked as a network consultant to Scott Paper in Mobile Ala. for a week or so on-site so I have a clue how utterly complex these places get. (IE; It's like they start small and just keep adding on kind of willy-nilly until they reach "massive complex" size.) So I kind of have a place in my heart for paper mills. Some areas are totally dangerous as they have huge quantities of things like chlorine, sodium hydrosulfite, hydrogen peroxide and spooky clay slurry pits.

[pwillard]

Guesses?

Screenshot 2024-08-17 110053.jpg

[CSRX]

That kind of reminds me of how some A&W drive in food places used to be.

Also that stack looks awesome.

I agree, mill facilities are crazy how they start small and just build on top of it. I'm the same way. My first job out of highschool was at the paper mill in Jay, Maine, and then I jumped around from various mills including Rumford as a construction worker, and later a railroad employee at the same mill. It's rather neat how they are set up. There is a section where they load wood pulp into boxcars, and the "19 track" is the former coal unloading track. A bit sketchy when you have to knock handbrakes off. Haha.