Elvas Tower: A couple of screenshots - Elvas Tower

Jump to content

  • 4 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

A couple of screenshots Rate Topic: -----

#11 User is offline   Robbie 

  • Hostler
  • Group: Status: Active Member
  • Posts: 58
  • Joined: 29-June 08
  • Gender:Male
  • Simulator:MSTS
  • Country:

Posted 25 November 2012 - 10:39 AM

I attempt to build realistic switching routes for Trainz and therefore tend to research random switching lines, such as the Brooklyn East District Terminal (http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/). Found Goose Island because I have a lot of Chicagoan friends at school and figured after railfanning a bit there this summer that there had to be some good switching lines. As it turned out Goose Island is one of only very few, but at the same time it's a pretty good one.

I'm still trying to build the modern-day variant in Trainz, as I'm hopeless with the MSTS route editor.

#12 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

  • Owner Emeritus and Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 15,307
  • Joined: 11-January 04
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:United States
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 05 December 2012 - 12:06 AM

There are some tall buildings in Chicago (most models are in 1st phase construction -- get the shape done):

Attached Image: Clipboard0016.jpg

Far left is the Daily News building, built in 1929. I'm led to understand it was one of the early examples of using "air" rights: paid the railroad for the right to build "in the air" above their property. The railroad in question is Chicago's Union Station "railroad" and whats under the Daily News is the start of the throat that leads into the platform area on the north side of the station. That's where the PRR's Panhandle route and all of the MILW Rd brought their passenger trains.

The large red-brown buildings to the right of the Daily News are owned by Butler Brothers. I looked them up... they supplied all of the inventory to the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 franchises. They also owned the one building in this scene that's had the windows put in :oldstry: .

Behind them in the center of the picture is North American Cold Storage. Dunno if they stored met,veggies, both... corpses.... Whatever it was it stayed cold.

And over on the right is the Merchandise Mart.

All of these tall buildings are still standing in Chicago and can be viewed in Google Maps. A search on 600 West Kinzie will put you quite near the N.A. Cold Storage bldg.

For gauging size, there is a short train located on the tracks in front of Butler Brothers.

I'm pretty sure this shot will represent the furthest south I'm going to go with this route. I want to include enough track here to allow for AI trains to come out of the Union Station but I don't want to try and recreate the station itself as none of the passenger train traffic moved on the MILW Rd. path I am trying to recreate with this project.


Another view, this time from the Daily News building:

Attached Image: Clipboard0017.jpg

#13 User is offline   Gman347 

  • Foreman Of Engines
  • Group: Status: First Class
  • Posts: 931
  • Joined: 18-June 11
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:

Posted 05 December 2012 - 05:16 AM

Beautiful work Dave! :bravo:

I walk past this area every day on my way to and from work. I walk thru the old Daily News Building to get to the train station. As someone familiar with the area I've go to tell you that even without any textures applied to the buildings you have captured the area really well.

Best Regards,

Paul

#14 User is offline   Noisemaker 

  • Executive Vice President
  • Group: Status: Elite Member
  • Posts: 3,354
  • Joined: 02-August 07
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:

Posted 05 December 2012 - 02:38 PM

Coming along great Dave! :bravo: I've been getting inspired from you in using the Geo Locations for my buildings as well. But curious why the resolution is so bad on mine? Some of the buildings I've downloaded have great resolution of the roofs. Which technically speaking still isn't that great I know. Is it to do with the selection size? As I've been trying to get pretty tight on things, but thinking now it maybe better to grab a large swath. But really like how you have it on your route.

#15 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

  • Owner Emeritus and Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 15,307
  • Joined: 11-January 04
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:United States
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 05 December 2012 - 03:22 PM

View PostNoisemaker, on 05 December 2012 - 02:38 PM, said:

Coming along great Dave! :bravo: I've been getting inspired from you in using the Geo Locations for my buildings as well. But curious why the resolution is so bad on mine? Some of the buildings I've downloaded have great resolution of the roofs. Which technically speaking still isn't that great I know. Is it to do with the selection size? As I've been trying to get pretty tight on things, but thinking now it maybe better to grab a large swath. But really like how you have it on your route.



First, I'm not using any images from google streetview / earth / warehouse for my textures. Second, I do make an effort to keep the art pixel to model area ratio fairly similar in whatever mix of textures I use. If the ratio in texture A is wildly different than the ratio in texture B, you'll notice. Last, by using tiling textures as much as possible I'm able to get a low art pixel to model area ratio. I really don't want to be using textures that have worse resolution than what we all have been used to seeing on 40 foot boxcars: 512x512 pixels of artwork to cover about 40x40 feet... or roughly speaking a out 1 pixel of art per square inch of model. When you change that ratio so 1 pixel of art covers more area things start to look blurry... change it more and it looks flat out pixelated.

So what are the ratios you are typically using?

#16 User is offline   Noisemaker 

  • Executive Vice President
  • Group: Status: Elite Member
  • Posts: 3,354
  • Joined: 02-August 07
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:

Posted 05 December 2012 - 07:53 PM

Surprisingly SU makes the image fairly small when I go to edit it. Even a big large factory roof appears less than 512x512 when I open it in paint. Yet some of the warehouse models have bases on them that are as clear and detailed almost like what you're using. Could they be using some other form of image as well then? I always wondered why Geo Location has the 'Set Manually' option - but maybe that's why? It's a shame then, as the views on Earth can be really great at times. But Geo Location seems to just butcher them in Sketch Up for some reason.

#17 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

  • Owner Emeritus and Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 15,307
  • Joined: 11-January 04
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:United States
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 07 December 2012 - 11:33 PM

View PostGman347, on 05 December 2012 - 05:16 AM, said:

I walk past this area every day on my way to and from work. I walk thru the old Daily News Building to get to the train station. As someone familiar with the area I've go to tell you that even without any textures applied to the buildings you have captured the area really well.


Thanks Paul! Here's another image for you, something I just added that's directly across the river from the Daily News:

Attached Image: Clipboard0021.jpg

#18 User is offline   Gman347 

  • Foreman Of Engines
  • Group: Status: First Class
  • Posts: 931
  • Joined: 18-June 11
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:

Posted 08 December 2012 - 05:43 AM

That's the Civic Tower. The Lyric Opera of Chicago performs at the Opera House in that building. :shok: The office of one of my client's is also in that building.

Thanks again for sharing the shots. :sweatingbullets: It's a lot of fun watching the route develop.

Cheers,

Paul

#19 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

  • Owner Emeritus and Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 15,307
  • Joined: 11-January 04
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:United States
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 09 December 2012 - 01:24 PM

One of the things I'm experimenting with is the use of large "sheets of glass", set to hishine, located behind 3D window frames. An example:

Attached Image: Clipboard0022.jpg

Eventually most of this building will look like the windowed section on the lift. Get down to train level (like this screenshot and the upper windows should be hishine in the sunlight... move the camera up to be able look down on the trains and the window reflection should shrink and move upwards with the camera.

I would think 1 bit alpha masks might do as well for the window cutouts (and save on the poly count too) but I've not yet tried that.



p.s. This particular building is over 500 feet tall and is just across the river about 125-150 feet off the tracks. Hard to miss.

#20 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

  • Owner Emeritus and Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 15,307
  • Joined: 11-January 04
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:United States
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 07 March 2014 - 09:01 PM

Thank you Claus... you have such a good eye for composition! I'll bet you are very good w/ a real camera too.

If you set the Display Level down 1 -- from 10 to 9 -- all of the push pins and Not Built boxes will be suppressed.

GI_W_Cooper_and_Nephews_Dtls.s. has too many polys for MSTS but will display in Open Rails (it's a bunch of pipes for transferring liquids). Not sure why GI_Halsted_at_Ancona.s does not display but it's most likely due to that missing .ace file you mentioned.

WRT the mini-route... the concern is the tsection.dat file I'm using has entries not found in the released version and given that I don't spend much effort keeping the rest of the file in sync with the published one. That should not be a problem for most people but I expect it could be a problem for someone and rather than take the blame for causing someone a real headache I'm recommending the mini-route method as the safest way to install.

I'm hoping to publish the next "alpha" in the next few days.

  • 4 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users