Where to Download at??

[Ethan Stone V&T Man]

Where can you donwload a route about the Gilpin Rr if it is on the download station in Trainz???/ AKA Name?

[Shortline2]

Hello Ethan,

Do you talk about the 2' Gilpin Tram in Colorado?

Because if you do, there are from my understanding no other Trainz route out there but the one worked on by Mark Baldwin at http://www.gilpintram.com - and that one is not ready yet.
I had a talk with Mark earlier this year, he have had little time and energy to work on this route, but the latest version of it is imported into TS2009.

There's a lot of work yet to be done, lot of models to be made - but none seem to want to help doing all this work.

I don't speak for Mark though, just as a friend of him and with the little news I do have.

Hope this may help some?

Best wishes

Linda

[Ethan Stone V&T Man]

Thanks Shortline2 I was wondering what happened to it if I knew how to run Gmax I woulda Help you and him but i don't so thanks for the update.
Thanks

[Pencil]

Thanks for the update, Linda!
Will some of that nice looking 2009 track you were working on make it to his route?

Curtis

[Shortline2]

Hello,

Your welcome Ethan, even if I didn't bring the best of news.

Curtis, it is the plan, to bring the use of the new track system into Gilpin, but I need to relearn the things I figured out last year as I haven't worked on the tracks for months now and feel rather lost in there.
It's mainly textures that holds me back now a days, as the mesh is not hard to do.

Lately (as in this week ) I been trying to find on the big wide Internet a program I'm sure is out there that would allow me to draw on top of pictures and from there use a know size to scale the drawing as a way to help get "elevation drawings" (I think that is the correct term for drawings showing the front, left, right, back side of a structure) made for stuff I want to build.

Sort of getting back to the root that got me started with modeling on the computer in the first place about 13 years ago. Boy, I'm getting old..

About the Gilpin route, It really needs a powerful computer to run great, mine is old (about 2002) and a rework of some of my old stuff so TS2009 is a good platform to use for that.
But, it will take time, and I don't work active on this, neither do Mark as far as I know - but it is not abandon yet, just "re-experiences" stuff it been into before in its real life counterpart, slow times.

I hope to be able to afford a trip to the US next year, and I hope to gain textures and other stuff then, both for Gilpin and the Cripple Creek project.

Thanks for asking guys, it's nice to see Gilpin not forgotten.

Best wishes

Linda

[Pencil]

I've just started playing with this '09 track type. It looks quite powerful, and it's great to be able to use highly detailed track. The lod tree took a little work to understand, but it looks pretty straightforward.

To create elevation drawings, could you use one of the paint programs with layers (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, The Gimp)? I think they have perspective correction tools, so you could straighten the walls. Then, add a layer on top of the photograph, and draw your lines on the new layer. When it comes to using the drawing, add a layer between your lines and the photograph, and fill it with white. Then, you'll have black lines on a white background; you can save that to an image file and use it as a template.
It's a neat idea; I had never thought of doing that!

[zues]

Where do I get this 09 track you have made?

[Shortline2]

Hi Pencil,

It was the LOD tree part that finally killed my effort of figuring out the full effect and use of it when I stopped my work on the tracks I was working on.
I was told several time s that yes, it was possible to have random high polygon meshes showing, but was unable to find out how, and none of the Auran people actually followed up on the "it can be done" so I gave it up for later tries.
Then months flew by, and summer came, soon fall is here and I can celebrate 1 year anniversary on the start of these tracks.
Yes, It is a powerful and very great track setup I think, but it can be a little hard to fully use it's full potential with the info I have seen out there.
The basic track setup is not to hard, but I tried the full 8 (I think it was pieces of LOD setup and I lost control over the tree while tearing my hear out and screaming to the computer as my head exploded trying to see this tree form.
Drawing out on a paper helped a little, then it become so confusing I quit.

Kinda like making a drawing from a picture, I used to be good at it, now I'm really bad.

I like your idea Curtis, just not sure if I can use it for the use I had in mind. Need to think a little more, then try it out - visualize it made my head spin.

This is the image I been trying to make a drawing from", mainly the mine and the ore house.
I've struggled with the height of the ore house, the width and depth I have from a Sanborn Fire Insurance map.

Either way, that is a Cripple Creek Mine, this was a Gilpin Tram thread, and with mom and dad at visit here I notice I have more limited time to figure out stuff then I thought.

At zues, not sure who you talk too, if you mean me, it was a 3' track and it really is not for sharing yet.

Take care everybody

Linda

[Ethan Stone V&T Man]

Linda,
Can you please upgrade your Noname Mill 4 with Industry interactive where you can haul gold and silver to be prossed and haul coal to fire the Boilers .
Thanks,
Ethan

[Pencil]

Hi Linda,

With some perusing of the Trainzdev WIKI, I think I have the random meshes figured out. It's the tag 'lod-random-bias'
Only thing is, it really isn't random. It looks like with 0.5, Trainz does this: first mesh, second mesh, first mesh, second mesh, first mesh, etc. If the tag was set to 0.33, Trainz would probably do first mesh, second mesh, second mesh, first mesh, second mesh, second mesh, first mesh, etc.
For my purposes, this works fine, as I can add rail joints to every other piece of track, but it doesn't appear to be truly random.
I understand what you mean about creating the tree - it's a mess doing it through a text editor. I finally ended up using CCP to create the tags; then I could see the graphical representation of the tree, and I didn't have to worry about keeping all my braces lined up

Here's the chunk of the config file that deals with the 'random' meshes:

Code: Select all

      {
        lod-random-bias                 0.5
        
        high-detail
        {
          mesh                          "track_16_h_1"
        }
        
        low-detail
        {
          mesh                          "track_16_h_2"
        }
      }

I'll play with the picture also, and see if the idea works.....

Curtis

[zues]

Thanks Linda, I am looking forward to the track and the giplin tramway.

[Pencil]

Only thing is, it really isn't random.

OK, yes, it is random . The first couple of tracks I laid down did not appear to be random, and just alternated between the meshes, but I soon saw instances where the track was truly randomized. Sorry for the confusion!

Here's a sample of track using a random mesh for the high-detailed mesh. There are two meshes it switches between: a 16' (8 ties) section without fishplates, and a 16' (8 ties) section of track with two fishplates. Now that I know the meshes ARE randomized, I'll have to remove the fishplates, but as it is right now, it's a decent example of randomizing a segment.

track.zip

(842.56 KiB) Downloaded 1706 times

Hope it helps,
Curtis

[Shortline2]

Hi Curtis,

Wow, thank you for digging into this track thingy.

I can feel some of the old "lust" coming back, and when you have found out what you have, I think it will be easier as I now know it can be done - as you did it.
Before I was only told it could be done, but none had made it work and I had no feel for all the trial & error needed to #maybe" make it work. Now, I know it can be done - THANK YOU!! Hugs to you if you want them.

Now, to get back to it - I've just approved a aerial spline I fixed up for bendorsey on the Auran forum, took me awhile, but it has been sent to the DLS and TPR Depot.

Next in line is a mine from a drawing I finally was able to get a bigger size of, with my speed that should take about a month...

Then I have the Peggy Mine shown above that nags me and begs to be modeled...
But, I have that track too begging me, let me see who wins out...

Either way, thank to you Curtis you done away with much of the holding back in my head - rest I think I shall figure out next time I'm in the mood for track working out in the mountains.

Best wishes all

Linda