[hiball3985]

Absolutely beautiful!! If anyone was thinking MSTS was dead you just gave it a whole new breath of life.

Jim

[SVRy_Steve]

I have a number of locomotives that Jon Davis made, I did the sounds for him. Several of these he didn't finish to his satisfaction, and never uploaded them, and asked me not to. I probably shouldn't show them off, so I'm not accused of being a tease :sign_thanks:

At some point, I'll probably upload some of the large terrtexes that tile together, somewhat generic. The route is my personal RR. After doing the Sumpter line, I know how much work/pressure there is, too much! Hopefully, I'll give others some good ideas. I've also thought about doing a tutorial on building the detailed terrtexes.

I'm still not really seeing a performance hitfrom using these!

Steve

[thegrindre]

I'm no route builder but I would also love to see a tutorial on the subject, Steve. No hurry, of course, just whenever you get a round-tuit.. :sign_thanks:

:good2:

[SVRy_Steve]

I've starting throwing in a few bits of scrap metal, etc., around the engine house area. Most short and logging line terminal photos I've seen are pretty cluttered with all sorts of old parts. I have a long way to go, to look that way! I'll have to add some 3d items as well, like stacks and spark arrestors.

http://earthseaimagery.com/clutter1.jpg

Poking through my photo collection, looking for appropriate junk, is now a bit of a treasure hunt!

Steve

PS, I've started trying to figure out what to say in a tutorial. I'm working with Photoshop CS-4 (upgrade to CS-5 will happen soon) and a drawing tablet, trying to figure out what will be useful, and what is specific to my tools. Much is the same in Photoshop Elements, especially the versions from 6.0 back. The newer ones tend to get away from manual control of things. I think the same has happened somewhat with PSP's newer versions as well.

[SVRy_Steve]

I needed a break from litter/clutter, and wanted to get out into the countryside (I'm just not a city person!). Down on the beach a few days ago, I saw a really neat rock cliff, and photographed a section of it about 6'x12' that I thought would scale up nicely. This was a 3 image stitched photo, to get the high quality I needed, making an image about 8600x4200 pixels, perfect for a couple large terrtex aces.

I haven't really tweaked things here, the roadbed isn't in place, and there's a lot of shifting of the terrain yet to do. I also haven't done any blending aces to go from the rock to surrounding terrain, mostly I wanted to just see how it looked.

http://earthseaimagery.com/rockface1.jpg

http://earthseaimagery.com/rockface2.jpg

I'm pretty happy with the results, again these are 4096 x 4096 pixel aces.

I've added a lot of objects to the town, and see the frame rates dropping quite a bit. I'm pretty confident that the objects and their shape files have a larger affect by far than the big terrtexes.

Steve

[SVRy_Steve]

Walter Conklin, on 25 June 2010 - 07:53 AM, said:

Steve,

Do you need additional photos for scattered junk around a yard? I might be able to help you with photos. Your yard looks very similiar to the cluttered Middletown & Unionville Railroad one.

Walter

Thanks for the offer Walter, but I've got a huge photo collection to work from, so I should have everything I need. It's mostly tedious placing them on the terrtex images that's slowing down my work flow.

Steve

[SVRy_Steve]

The canyon is starting to take on some character, certainly enhanced by Tim's new NP F-1 at the head of a mostly log train.

http://earthseaimagery.com/f-1overviewcanyon.jpg

Slow going, as this is my busy season, photographically, and I've been fighting a nasty cold for 2 weeks. Don't catch it!

Steve

[SVRy_Steve]

I stole some time early this morning and started one of the logging branches! This comes off the main line of the GC&D about a mile out of town, along the river. Crossing on a low trestle, the line quickly heads up a small side canyon on a 4.5% grade with very sharp curves. Gaining over 150', it then re-crosses the river on a high trestle, to get to the timber on the other side.

http://earthseaimagery.com/70canyonbigtrestle2.jpg

This is rugged territory, and will no doubt support a heavy amount of slash, shrubs, big stumps and young trees. We'll get to the big trees before many miles though.

http://earthseaimagery.com/70canyonbigtrestle3.jpg

Another trestle can be seen in the background, which crosses over the line up the narrow canyon, heading to another logging camp.

In case you're wondering what I was smoking when I designed that trestle, here's the original I patterned it after. This is an Albert Farrow photo of the Cowlitz, Chehalis and Cascade Ry. taken in 1955. The trestle was so shaky at the end, that they ran the engine across without crew, pulled the air, then walked across the train, rather than chance the weight of the engine as it crossed. The trestle was in use for 30 or more years, so the design was sound.

http://earthseaimagery.com/cc-ctrestle-original.jpg

Steve

[thegrindre]

THAT'S pretty cool. Steve. :thumbup3:

:thumbup3: