[Genma Saotome]

Quote

Love the route, I live in Dixon and would love to be able to run the line that I watch and listen to every day and night.

Thanks,
Randy

Perhaps the most intimidating thing a person can say to a route builder begins with "I live..." because you know you can never live up to their experience of reality.

This thread is, of course, no exception... I havn't done much w/ Dixon yet; The track is in but not all the roadbed... no town to speak of as yet so all I've got to show you is a few trees and some weeds and such. Hope it's not too disappointing.


An aerial from the south end of town, looking SSW (I need to do some tertex art to remove that dry grass around the orchard) and a low shot of a different orchard looking NW:





and a couple of staged shots at the creek on the north side of town, two looking SW, one SE (the trestle is custom built to SP Common Standards):








I have not been able to get an isolated photo of a California Sycamore and so I've been using an image of a London Plane tree I took in Davis... pretty strong sunshine up there on top and no autumn or winter images for either. Nor have I been able to get an isolated shot of those junk poplar trees you always see along creeks and so I'd say the trees in the scene look ok but not the way I'd like to have it.

I'm reasonably satisfied with the Walnut Orchard; I'd like to have a good winter image to use and certainly a crop of wild mustard is called for in winter as well, neither of which do I have images.

I recently worked in very distant DM so in the first shot there is a glimpse of Mt Diablo off in the distance. And the extra view distance w/ OR necessitated working in more farmland tertex Fortunately that's easy w/ Mosaic but I'm really pushing the limits of that program with the extra tiles. I'm not sure yet if 4km on either side of the tracks is enough or not but I think it might be. Anyway, Dixon is midway between top and bottom.

[Mike B]

So you got me looking ... Platenus racemosa, California sycamore ...

Las Pilitas Nursery has some photos, such as: http://www.laspilita...racemosa-3.jpg. They'll sell you some trees, too (I don't recommend unless you live on a lot of land near a creek ... big, messy tree that needs water ... and has greedy, surface roots).

Here's their species page: http://www.laspilita...atanus-racemosa

Isolated tree (doesn't look very sycamorish to me though) from iStock (you have to buy these to get clear detail): http://www.istockpho...re-tree-6054137

Assorted pictures, mostly details but a couple of full trees: http://calphotos.ber...atanus+racemosa

Google photos (probably not all the real California tree): https://www.google.c...rd=ssl&tbm=isch

Not many full-tree pictures but some good details: http://davesgarden.c...howimage/131000

Couple of good ones here - winter and summer: http://panoramavista.org/sycamore.html

And if you want me to, I can take some pictures of the ones in a lawn strip along a street a few blocks away, and upload or email. Being winter, they're bare, but I can try to frame it so you see the whole tree.

-Mike B

PS: the ones you have aren't bad. They don't really look a lot different at a little distance from the standard American sycamore or London plane tree (not pollarded). Unless somebody is looking carefully, they won't know the difference.

[Mike B]

PPS: I'm really impressed with your grass. Most routes I have seen just use painted textures, which work OK in the distance but not right alongside the tracks. Must be a bear to plant all those tiny trees...

-mb

[Mike B]

Took a walk around my 'burb near Sacramento. The ones in the planting strip were hard to get an angle on. But got several shots along nearby creeks. Here's one that was more or less in the open (yes, shooting against the sun but you can get the idea):
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg

When in more typical surroundings along a creek, with willows and whatever, things can get a little more crooked:
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg

Need an alder? Some mistletoe?
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg

And finally, do you have some Valley Oaks?
https://onedrive.liv...int=photo%2cjpg

Also, this is a test to see if links to OneDrive work the way they should...

Cheers!

-Mike B

[Genma Saotome]

randycarnley, on 01 January 2015 - 03:16 PM, said:

Besides your route is set at a much earlier time period, so a lot has changed and Dixon has really grow over the last couple years. The numerous acres of sunflower and tomato fields are being replaced by almond and walnut orchards. Soon the entire area will look like Winters.

I used a USGS map from 1953 to plant them in about the right place:


I imagine there's a whole lot more money to be made with nuts these days than tomatoes. I went to school in Chico, learned from guys who worked the orchards in the summer that Almond is pronounced Aehmend. Foolishly I asked why and was told come harvest time they shake the L out of the trees.

I like sunflowers... fields of them are nice. But but orchards have their qualities too. Looking like Winters won't be so bad.

randycarnley, on 01 January 2015 - 03:16 PM, said:

If you need any assistance in researching or photos, just let me know. I commute daily between Dixon and Travis AFB traveling almost exclusively along the "back roads".

Randy

Oh, there is ALWAYS a need for large, cleared background shots of well lit trees and of course those that naturally clump and are found in high, dense underbrush at their feet are darn near impossible to find in suitable conditions. Ya gotta trim away all of the background pixels -- hard enough with blue sky, very, very difficult w/ other trees in the background.

So if you see a "good tree", shoot it. If I can't use it I'll bet somebody else can.

[alkomv]

Genma Saotome, on 01 January 2015 - 12:28 PM, said:

and certainly a crop of wild mustard is called for in winter as well, neither of which do I have images.

does that plant have snow on it in winter or would just plain be ok. i could knock up a 3d and render you diff and alpha if you want.

[Genma Saotome]

No snow here except occasionally on the highest hills and then very slight... think Naples/Sicily/Crete for comparable weather: hot, dry summers, cool rainy winters.

This appearance is what I'd like to put into the route. Many opther examples if you google California mustard.

As for the plant itself, it's very spindly as you can see, like tall grass, which makes it hard to get an image that can be cleaned up AND create a shape file using that texture that works and the left and right ends.

I see wild mustard every winter here... have taken numerous photos. Those images that I can clean up don't work well as a texture... those images that will work well as a texture can't be cleaned up... there is always something in there that should not be... or it's just a solid mass of plant from side to side which means you need to hide those edges somehow.

And, FWIW, a very close relative to our wild mustard is the Rape plant, a major crop on both sides of the western border of the U.S. and Canada. The seeds are pressed for oil and sold as Canola oil (no doubt that calling it Rape Oil would be incredibly bad for sales). Those fields are the same beautiful yellow.

[alkomv]

i found a reference pic > nice yellow flowers will take a hour or so when I can this weekend, and if you can point me where you found that walnut tree I'll give you a couple without leaves as well.

:pardon:

[Genma Saotome]

Craig (ckawahara) has been good enough to spend more than a few hours doing models for the Cal-P. His most recent contributions are for Dixon... Grainger's Warehouse and Cal Alfalfa. They share a single spur on the west side of the main (the town is on the east side).

Here are a couple of preliminary images (some textures havn't become .aces yet).

Click on any image to enlarge to full size.

Overview shot:



The brakie's view of Grainger's Warehouse facility as he steps across the rails:


Bales of Alfalfa being collected: