[paulytechnic]

At this point, there is very, very little that has remained unchanged since v2, so there would be little to no advantage of releasing this version as "updates-only." The full route wouldn't be much larger than an "updates-only" package, anyway. Plus, I agree that a full-working route would be less prone to problems than applying an update to an existing installation (which may or may not have been modified).

The one thing that has remained unchanged is the .TDB, and intentionally so (even to the point of leaving inaccurate/outdated track as-is), to hopefully maintain compatibility of the v2 activities. The .RDB has changed, however, since I've needed to add and move some roads, but I wouldn't imagine that would interfere with existing activities.

[paulytechnic]

Here's what I came up for the new parking lot layouts:


Old & new texture comparison (reduced in size; the new textures are actually 1024x1024):



They're still not perfect representations of actual parking lots, but they're certainly less cramped than the originals. I made it a point to keep the remaining parking spaces in-line with where they used to be, although many are backwards, but that would at least keep the existing static car objects mostly in the spaces (we'll just pretend they all backed-in). For the cars in the now-omitted spaces, they needed to be moved (and parking citation objects would be a real headache to accurately place on each windshield using RE! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Fortunately, most of these lots in the route were fairly empty, so it didn't take long to quickly fly the length of the route and move the cars into the spaces (I feel like some kind of virtual valet!)

Jeff had created several of his own parking lot objects using these same textures, but the layouts of those already seemed good enough, so I left them mapped to the original textures/layouts (especially since any changes to those would have required many more cars to be moved).

[hiball3985]

Thats a big improvement. Will something larger then a Yugo fit between the lines?

[paulytechnic]

hiball3985, on 08 March 2017 - 04:22 PM, said:

Will something larger then a Yugo fit between the lines?

As long as it's a Fiat, Mini Cooper, or Geo! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif

I actually did widen the spots a bit. Nothing crazy...I just removed one spot in each row and widened them to fill the existing space. Most cars seem to fit, except for (not surprisingly) that blue Suburban. I noticed in Shape Viewer that it seemed extraordinarily big compared to other objects and the track base, so I cheated the problem by reducing the size of it by about 95%. Now it fits between the lines, but just barely, which is about how it is in real life!

[Jovet]

paulytechnic, on 08 March 2017 - 05:26 AM, said:

Here's what I came up for the new parking lot layouts:

Excellent job! I've thought about doing the same kind of thing!

[hiball3985]

Yes, just like real life. They started making the spaces smaller when they assumed everyone was going to downsize their cars after the high oil/gas prices. Now everyone buys big SUVs and pickups and you can barely get the doors open :rotfl: I fight it on a daily basis..

[delamate]

atsf37l, on 03 March 2017 - 12:55 PM, said:

Yep. Things like an 1888 version of 3DTS/3DTrains Tehachapi Pass. Caliente, 1888:
11 Pulling into the station.jpg

WOW!

John DeLamater

[delamate]

paulytechnic, on 03 March 2017 - 07:27 AM, said:

Meanwhile, in San Diego...

I posted these shots previously (albeit with more lengthy descriptions), but since they were lost after the boards went down yesterday, here they are again...

SD_Station1.jpg
Jim brought a good point about the default parking lots (visible on the bottom corner in the above shot) having a very cramped layout. My reskin was based on that exact layout (since I wasn't sure how a layout change would affect all parking lots in the route). However, now I'm thinking some experiments with changing the parking lot layout may be be in order, although I'm concerned that some of the static cars in the lots will need to be nudged over throughout the entire route as a result. Luckily, most of the lots aren't crowded with many cars, and I may just need to take out a row or two of spaces, so we'll see how it goes.

SD_Station2.jpg


Children's Park (which was not present in the original route) with a new Civic Pond model. This was fun to build, but I had to take some artistic license with the proportions, since the tracks are too far apart and can't be changed. I also wanted to have added the additional trees & fences present in the real world, but the object count on this tile is already very high, so I decided not to risk further additions.
SD_ChildrensPark1.jpg

SD_ChildrensPark2.jpg

SD_ChildrensPark3.jpg


Petco Park; not much changed here (other than the usual terrtex treatment), except for some new cars in the parking lot.
SD_PetcoPark.jpg

Will the San Diego Trolley tracks be operational?

John DeLamater

[paulytechnic]

delamate, on 09 March 2017 - 09:22 AM, said:

Will the San Diego Trolley tracks be operational?

I've not made any changes on the San Diego trolley, so it's functionality is unchanged from that of version 2. That said, I believe what portion of the line exists in the route has been made driveable by others on their personal copies, but I've never actually tried it myself. I recall reading that it only needs a path to be added, but I could be mistaken.

[hiball3985]

paulytechnic, on 09 March 2017 - 09:37 AM, said:

I've not made any changes on the San Diego trolley, so it's functionality is unchanged from that of version 2. That said, I believe what portion of the line exists in the route has been made driveable by others on their personal copies, but I've never actually tried it myself. I recall reading that it only needs a path to be added, but I could be mistaken.

You are correct, just add a path. I use it for AI trolley traffic with a few reverse points so it shuttles back and forth from one end to the other.