[keystoneaholic]

Looking at that first picture I can't help thinking that there was a high probability that rolling stock would have got an unintentional wash in salt water from time to time.

It's sort of a West coast answer to Hoboken.

There is a thread with a photo of the City of San Francisco trainset in front of a trainshed which you have captured the look of very well.

So this is 15 years in, I guess how much longer depends on the level of detail you aspire to. The hardware gets better, as does the software, and up the bar goes......

[Genma Saotome]

keystoneaholic, on 02 November 2018 - 08:47 AM, said:

So this is 15 years in, I guess how much longer depends on the level of detail you aspire to. The hardware gets better, as does the software, and up the bar goes......

Before Wayne announced he had done "something" with a home-brew simulator (now known as Open Rails) I had concluded what I was doing was unplayable in MSTS. I started advocating for an Open Source replacement -- and continued to build things at a high level of detail. Along came whatever-it-was-called replacement that eventually was sold to Union Pacific... and then MSTS II and after that the first incarnation of what is now marketed by Dovetail -- as it became clear how each story would end all three events a big disappointment for me. Then Wayne saved the day.

From the start of the OR program I advocated being able to read and use older content -- exactly what I needed for this route. IIRC that was an acceptable proposal to all. I then started to advocate for a route editor. That wasn't an acceptable proposal. Instead the direction was charted to make OR a MSTS emulator such that all activities could be run pretty much exactly as there were in MSTS. At the time I thought that was a mistake; I still do. IMO it would have been far better to do an editor very early on, new file definitions, and then conversion programs to port MSTS routes to the new forms.

Anyway, WRT the bar climbing ever higher, IMO the one that really matters is the visual bar. As each pixel represents a smaller and smaller surface area (different screen resolutions measured at the same distance) it becomes glaring obvious that old art isn't good enough for modern graphics capabilities. Neither is what the .s file allows you to do with graphics. We can replace the first stuff... as for the second the problem isn't the file itself but what the 3dmodeling software we use allows us to do. Nobody will be happy if 3dmax is the only tool that gives us the future.

[wacampbell]

Dave, you have a good approach to the hobby in that you seem to work on what you enjoy and stick with it.

[Genma Saotome]

wacampbell, on 02 November 2018 - 10:29 AM, said:

Dave, you have a good approach to the hobby in that you seem to work on what you enjoy and stick with it.

I want what we do to become a true hobby and not just an adjunct to a commercial game that dies when the revenue stream dries up. To be a true hobby we need to be wholly independent of the commercial game cycle. We also need to be able to drag older content forward, pretty much the same way physical model railroads dragged 1940's era content into the 50's, 1950 era content into the 60's, etc. etc.

Being able to continue to use the old stuff means a hobby can continue to move forward. Eventually that old stuff will be replaced by much better content but because that is always a work-in-progress you are never entirely stuck w/ a lot of older content. You're always refreshing it.

When the OR project turned it's back on editors and marched forward on building an emulator (with success, IMO) it pretty much lost the ability to refresh content. What was done had to be done but IMO the sequence of events was wrong. It walked the project up a box canyon... and now there arn't the people to change course. And so content creators like yourself moved on to Dovetail's product line -- you could do new content and could do more. I dunno that it's fair to judge what I've done as sticking to what I enjoy as much as it is just being stubborn about sticking with what I think is the better direction -- the Open Source / non commercial game solution with volunteers contributing their time to keep up with technical changes. Keeping up w/ the technology is what allows me to work as I do.

[wacampbell]

Well you are getting good results, and it looks like you are having fun with it. I think the community will fix and patch to keep the old software running for a long time yet. Sticking with it pays off.

As everyone probably does, I too have a wish list and vision for OR. Maybe some day ... Until then its great to see the project alive and developing.

[Genma Saotome]

Might as well post a couple more....

Click on each to enlarge to full size.


A tops down look on the trainshed. The odd dark green is a bit of tertex art peeping out from the water. Gotta fix that.




Over the roof looking at the Albers Mill. That's West Oakland and the Oakland hills in the background. What I wish I could do is add another UV mapping to the arched roofs, semi-transparent, something that adds/blends in dirt and grime but is set down with a completely different scaling so it's repeating pattern is not the same as the pattern in the tar paper. Umm... in the background is missing San Francisco and missing Bay Bridge. The bridge will be done... don't know what to do about the city tho.




From the roof of Albers Mill. Railfans did get up there to take photos... they'll turn up on eBay now and then.




Another interior shot. I take screenshots mostly to examine my work. This one has convinced me I have better concrete textures now than when I made this model; It;ll be easy to swap out.

[Genma Saotome]

I expect this image won't be around for very long (an eBay auction) but it's an excellent photo of what the trainshed interior looked like back in the 1940's.

[CrisGer]

wonderful pics i bought a few ...will be great for detailing the route

thanks Dave

Chris