Elvas Tower: Surfliner 2 Retexturing - Elvas Tower

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Surfliner 2 Retexturing Giving a favorite route a new look Rate Topic: -----

#191 User is offline   Mike B 

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Posted 07 January 2017 - 08:55 AM

... tracks always changing (in real life) ...

Thread drift! Away from the truly beautiful work being done on this route and into the politics of transportation work and who's in charge (if anybody) ... addressing the ever-changing picture of what tracks are out there (especially, for now, in northern San Diego County...) and why, if you want to finish a route, you have to pick a date and get on with it (as was done here):

San Diego has been successful in recent years with getting various small pots of money for the North County portion of the line. They started with simple stuff like extending and upgrading sidings to 2 main tracks, then connecting them. The more expensive stuff is now being done, like the bridges. The REALLY expensive stuff (like doing something serious about the Sorrento Valley-Miramar grade) is still pending because it will take a lot of money. The light rail lines are under a separate agency that's part of SANDAG. The whole mess just ran into a bit of a roadblock due to failure of a local sales tax measure that would have funded the light rail extension and more Coaster work. Metrolink (Ventura-Oceanside segment, though it's actually their track only from Moorpark to LA and Fullerton to the SD county line) has been less active, arguably because it's bigger and more political. Probably the single most useful project in the Metrolink segment would be addition of run-through tracks to LA Union Station - plans exist and an EIS was prepared, but money...

There's a "LOSSAN Corridor Agency" that manages overall passenger rail planning for the whole route between San Diego and SLO. Originally, just San Diego to LA, but it expanded many years ago. Operation of the Surfliner trains is now by a Joint Powers Agency (or Agreement) between the counties and other operating and transportation planning agencies. Best collection of corridor documents seems to be at http://www.octa.net/...and-Documents/. Information about projects recent and upcoming is at (may require significant digging) the operating and funding agencies:

Metrolink
Coaster
SCAG(Southern California Association of Governments)
SANDAG(San Diego Association of Governments)
VCTC(Ventura County Transportation Commission)
SBCAG(Santa Barbara County Association of Governments)
SLOCOG(SLO Council of Governments)

Caltrans' Division of Rail has some stuff too, such as the California State Rail Plan, but it's mostly at a high level rather than project specific. Now that Joint Powers Agencies are operating all of the state-supported Amtrak routes in California, Caltrans is mainly has an overall planning and support role, such as purchasing equipment.

Finally, there's High Speed Rail. Whatever your view on whether it's a good idea, there are plans for it and the "starter segment" between San Francisco and LA is actually under construction in the San Joaquin Valley. There's nowhere near enough money to complete it any time soon, and any effect on the LOSSAN line will be a long time coming; don't worry about it. Plans are at the CAHSR web site. Several years ago, somebody started working on a Calif. HSR line from San Diego to LA, based on official preliminary plans, and posted some impressive screenshots of the first segment, then apparently went back to school and vanished. Anybody know what happened with that project or if it's even still around?

#192 User is offline   paulytechnic 

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Posted 27 January 2017 - 07:39 AM

I guess it's been a little while since my last update (had a few real-life issues to deal with, one of which was a broken video card), but I'm back to plugging-away at this project. So finally, here are a few new shots of the coastline around Del Mar...

Attached Image: DelMar1.jpg

Attached Image: DelMar2.jpg

Attached Image: DelMar3.jpg

The terrtex along this area is a real challenge, between the ocean/beach, dirt cliffs, "brushy" terrain, ROW, and the transitions in-between!

#193 User is offline   cvo2010 

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Posted 27 January 2017 - 08:21 AM

Supreme work Paul http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/thumbup3.gif.

Regards Claus

#194 User is offline   Jovet 

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Posted 27 January 2017 - 08:27 AM

View Postpaulytechnic, on 27 January 2017 - 07:39 AM, said:

The terrtex along this area is a real challenge, between the ocean/beach, dirt cliffs, "brushy" terrain, ROW, and the transitions in-between!

Yes, many of us wanna-be artists can just imagine the hard work going into this! Your results are stunning, and you have a lot to be proud of!

#195 User is offline   SP 0-6-0 

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Posted 31 January 2017 - 09:49 PM

What they said. :I-Agree: Absolutely stunning! :dance3:

Robert

#196 User is offline   Kazareh 

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Posted 01 February 2017 - 07:39 AM

I echo the others, and ahve to add what I said earlier in this project. You're taking something great, and making it even more great. Thank you for the hard work and effort!

#197 User is offline   paulytechnic 

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 10:21 AM

Thanks guys! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/happy.gif

Here are a couple of quick shots from the Sorrento Valley area. One big thing I'm learning is that adding bare dirt to the grade cuts & cliffs really helps with adding realism. I think it's particularly important on really abrupt & steep cliffs that would rarely have thick grass growing on them in real life (like in the second shot below), which has long been a pet peeve of mine with MSTS. It's a bit tricky to line-up the terrtex to the actual terrain (I use route editor to trace the general outline with the pencil tool first), but the end result is terrain that looks more solid, and less like a blanket draped over a framework.

Going up the canyon towards Miramar Road. There are four bridges in just this one shot, all of which has some bare dirt showing beneath.
Attached Image: Canyon-MiramarRd.jpg
(and, yes, I realize this isn't NCTD Sprinter territory!http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/pardon.gif)


...and just for kicks, here's one taken in OR...
Attached Image: SorrentoValley.jpg
(I just noticed I was dragging a shrub under that Coaster car, so I'm thinking a forest region tweak is in order!)

#198 User is offline   hiball3985 

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 12:05 PM

All the cuts look terrific :clapping: . I've never been a fan of forest regions on the sides of mountains where they are track side, they leave a lot to be desired, I reserve forest regions for further distances away from track..

#199 User is offline   Coonskin 

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 07:50 PM

Excellent route work! You're doing a superb job!

What resolution are your terrtex patches? 512, 1024, larger?

#200 User is offline   paulytechnic 

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 09:08 PM

View PostCoonskin, on 03 February 2017 - 07:50 PM, said:

What resolution are your terrtex patches? 512, 1024, larger?


They're 512. I briefly considered 1024, but soon realized the much larger file size across a few thousand terrtex files would really add-up fast.

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