[Mike B]

The scenery is great! The weather though ... it's too clear. Looks like a day in fall after a rain and north wind event.

I grew up in the Bay Area in the 1950s-70s and only rarely was there more than 5-10 miles visibility and nice blue skies. In that part of the East Bay, you might have gotten a clear view of Mount Tam for a short time in the afternoon before the fog came in and after the wind came up to blow the smog away. Also, just the marine air had enough humidity and 'grunge' in it that visibility would often be limited. The only time when we got really clear air was in the fall after the occasional northeasterly wind following a good rain; then everybody would dash up to Mount Tam or Diablo and ooh and aah at the great view.

I know MSTS can't do environments that vary during the game. For compatibility, ORTS is probably similar, but is there a way to have environments change while running? Do any of the other train simulators have weather that varies during a run? Having the fog coming over the hills across the Bay and through the Gate in the afternoon, or covering the place in the early AM followed by clearing by 10AM or so, would be a great addition to this route. I know, details, and you're doing great right now.

[Genma Saotome]

I seriously doubt the software can add that finger of fog that runs thru the Golden Gate every summer afternoon, the one that hits Emeryville round 6pm. Or the cascading "fogfall" in Marin. Or the 40mph wind in the Carquinez strait. Or a winter whiteout of Tule fog in Sacramento. What's left is a really. good. day. I'll take it.

I can recalling being on Mt Diablo one winter day and seeing Mt Lassen to the NE and Mt Whitney to the SE. The bay looked like a creek compared to the vast expanse of the ocean. Was the center of about a 180 mile circle that one could see. World Class. And looking out a 7 story window in Chico to take in the whole of the Sacramento Valley, Shasta to almost Davis -- another winter day.

Experiences like that is what motivated me to greatly expand the tile count after OR expanded the view distance. What had been 1-2 tiles on either side of the ROW is now close to 50. Most of that goes into DM. It looks G R E A T. It's not right for summer, esp. in the Valley, but oh, does it look soooo nice.

P.S. I lived in Pleasanton for 2 years, attending Diablo Valley College. One sister lived in Piedmont, the other in Berkeley so I was over in the east Bay often enough. Chico after that, then mostly the south bay until the present.

[Genma Saotome]

Mike, your comment got me motivated to put in a bit more work on the old AHN bag factory... new windows, some doors too.



I'm not sure I'll ever get the track in the right place... it should loop back in towards the building, but I've already got no clearance as it bends around... wonder if they used a RH switch and then crossed back over the line....

[cnwfan]

That is looking pretty darn close to me. The track did hug the curvature of the building. It was a left hand switch access from Parker. I found a 2007 Google Earth view that really shows the street trackage. The curvature was pretty tight, as I remember the flange squeal being really loud when those 50' cars and the SW1500 came around.

http://i1036.photobucket.com/albums/a449/cgwfan/Berkeley07_Parker8th_zps75nwtkbt.jpg


Howard

[Genma Saotome]

I've got a different overhead, not as sharp as that one. What I notice is the track on Parker St is not centered... it's all in the westbound lane. That might make the difference. Unfortunately I cannot get RE to run and Goku's editor is, well, incomplete. The grade on Parker St is steep at points, I'd never relay that w/o knowing exactly what I had used before.

[Mike B]

That switch on Parker - zooming in - I don't believe I've ever seen something like that. Two switches going to opposite sides overlapped, with both sets of points inside the two frogs. That one is VERY SPECIAL work. Granted, one of them is to a spur that's gone in the picture, but most of the switch is still there. I'm not sure how to construct that one out of real rail (model or otherwise) and have it work reliably; is it even possible in the sim?

No.Don't.Do.It. You'd have to spend the next 2 years constructing it ... :shock6:

And you might want to skip that first door. With the track still out in the street there, it' not really right for loading anything. Unless of course it was there in the prototype...

[cnwfan]

I'd love to see the engineering drawings for that switch! Dave - from a simulator standpoint... close enough. You've captured the look and feel of the trackage and the buildings. Out of curiosity, what are you using for creating your buildings?




Howard

[Genma Saotome]

I use Sketchup (a lot) for all of my 3d Cad work (using version 2016 now).

Using Sketchhup there are now ~550 unique building sites on the Cal-P and another 300+ in Goose Island, almost all of which are multiple buildings. The great majority of which need the addition of windows and doors -- more difficult texture work. All of those models are created from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps so they're not just unique, the are reasonably-to-very correct for the site where they are placed, depending on available photographs.

[cnwfan]

I've used 3DCrafter for creating a few buildings in Railworks, but I end up roughing the building out in Sketchup anyways since it's far easier to create architectural models in. I'll have to give Sketchup a try for an MSTS/OR building. Any tips or tricks you'd like to pass on... especially with texturing?

Howard

[ckawahara]

With Dave's help, I too am using SU. Look at the modeling forum...there is so much info there that I find valuable.