[SYogurt]

Hi all -

New here but I've been using MSTS since I was five and Open Rails since it released. I got out of the hobby for a long time and I'm just returning now, as a junior in college. My favorite era in railroading is the mid to late 90s, specifically Amtrak during this time. I own every payware version of the GE Genesis units - the SLI version, 3DTS, and TT. While I don't regret any of those purchases, they were designed for a different time and cannot fully take advantage of Open Rails and all it has to offer in terms of performance and realism. I have never modeled anything like this before, so this is a first try. I'm using Blender. The wireframe of this thing is a mess, weirdly shaped polygons in some places and just bad strategy for design in general. However, from the outside, it looks pretty decent (and I'd say better looking than a lot of the other models out there).

The plan is to make all three versions of the Genesis - the P32AC-DM (first), the P40DC (second), and the P42DC (third). The models will have a 3D cabview that I'll be spending quite a lot of time on to make it look right and capture the feel of the cab. So I'll share some in-progress shots, and I'd love feedback, suggestions, or comments. Keep in mind that this is a WIP - the couplers are too small, the geometry on the nose is a bit weirdly shaded due to poor design (I need to figure out how to fix this) and it's lacking some brake pipe detail, there are no textures yet (just crude materials) - but here we are:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/562078544390520845/Capture2.PNG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/562078534076596244/Capture.PNG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/562078552590123035/Capture3.PNG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/562078561331314700/Capture4.PNG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/562079291387543573/Capture5.PNG

I'm focusing on the engineer side of the cab first - right now, the left side is just mirrored. This will not be the case by the end of the project.


Kyle

[Guille592]

Check out those edges and the smoothing that they do, have you got all vertices connected? Your mesh does really do something quite strange, so watch out. ;)

[SYogurt]

Guille592, on 06 April 2019 - 06:35 AM, said:

Check out those edges and the smoothing that they do, have you got all vertices connected? Your mesh does really do something quite strange, so watch out. ;)

I've done a lot of work the past week, here's where I am now:


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/563801294926643231/Capture1.PNG

[rfranzosa]

Excellent. How long did it take you to learn blender?

[SYogurt]

rfranzosa, on 06 April 2019 - 08:04 AM, said:

Excellent. How long did it take you to learn blender?

I've dabbled here and there for a long time, maybe five or six years? I've never really sat down and "learned" correctly though. This is my first serious modelling attempt. UV unwrapping it is proving to be an absolute nightmare, because my inexperience with modelling made the geometry kind of a nightmare. I'll get it figure out soon enough. The good news is I've taken the model and put it in the sim and everything works as it should, it just needs textures and the 3D cab I'm working on.

[Guille592]

SYogurt, on 06 April 2019 - 07:34 AM, said:

I've done a lot of work the past week, here's where I am now:


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/547205500232531968/563801294926643231/Capture1.PNG

That looks way much better, congrats! Could it be possible to post a screenshot like this one but with wireframe?

[SYogurt]

Guille592, on 07 April 2019 - 01:38 AM, said:

That looks way much better, congrats! Could it be possible to post a screenshot like this one but with wireframe?

Yes, I can do that later today for you. It's not that pretty looking of a wireframe - like I said, first real modelling project. It's not as nice looking as it could be, fair warning! What I really need help with is UV unwrapping, I lack experience in this area and it's been a real pain so far. Maybe someone here could help me out?

[SYogurt]

Texturing progress. Getting somewhere!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/363696532274413569/567485679282421761/untitled.png

[Fleegle411]

Beautiful work!

[SYogurt]

Fleegle411, on 15 April 2019 - 06:43 PM, said:

Beautiful work!

Thank you! Still a long way to go texturing - but I like how it's going so I thought I'd share the progress!