DAR Hantsport

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

After a year and a half of being away from the Dominion Atlantic route Google finally uploaded most of the missing satellite shots. After posting the NYC-ACN route, I went back to work on the DAR route. Have about three more mile completed including Hantsport... a small town with two of the biggest customers on the line, Fundy Gypsum and Minas Basin Pulp and Power.

Things get hopping in Hantsport starting with the arrival of the Extra 8132 South, one of three gypsum trains.

0925 Extra 8132 South arrives at Hantsport with 22 loads of gypsum.



0936 After putting their van on the west end of the empties and dropping the loads off in the yard, the gypsum crew will run around the yard and back on to the cut of empties. The crew will change engines but return as extra 8132 North.



0943 The Fundy Gypsum 44 tonner takes the first cut of loads to the dumper.



0949 Train 24 arrives in Hantsport after working it's way north from Kentville.



0959 Train 1 arrives from Halifax.



1002 As Train 1 departs for Yarmouth Extra 8132 North departs with 22 empties for Windsor.



1009 8137 has a chance to do some local work starting with some switching at Minas Basin Pulp and Power.



1033 As 8137 runs around the cars it lifted from Minas Basin, Fundy Gypsum brings the first cut of cars back to the yard. A little more local work and the crew of Train 24 will be ready to head to Windsor.



Paul

[briantrainman]

Awesome! Looking forward to getting the line up and running on my computer. What program do you use to create assetts for MSTS? Some of the specific buildings, such as the Cornwallis Inn, are fantastic.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Brian,

Other then the usual research things like Google I draw pretty much everything in a program called TS Modeler. It's not 100% bug free but it's not so bad. I make some textures in Corel Draw, things like signs or new textures.

The Cornwallis Inn turned out well, took four or five days to draw and I was fortunate enough to find a set of drawings while doing a Google search before I began the project.

Paul

[stem]

Superb! Am reloading MSTS on my new W7 64 bit machine. Wish me luck.

[stem]

Got MSTS loaded and I'm a bit surprised but I have *zero* problems so far. What a difference though between this and my previous machine. I was only able to get maybe 10 FPS on an older Dell XPS system that was specifically a gamer's machine back in the day. On my new Lenovo 701ds I'm getting 60 FPS!!

I have tried the Open Rails and while it defintely is in-development-ware, it runs so smooth and renders much better than MSTS. AND... it runs the routes in 1920 x 1200 wide screen mode which I am completely loving. Think I'll run Open Rails as much as possible, especially for doing screen shots.

Now I'm going to move my whole MSTS folder over from the old machine to the new machine and try again. Then I'll be ready for the new BETA.

Yippee!

[stem]

Interestingly enough when I copied ALL my Routes and Consists into the MSTS folder and ran the MSTS sim again, the FPS dropped to an unbelievably jerky 12 FPS max from 60 on the new install!

OK then.. run Open Rails! I'm still maintaining 35 FPS with Open Rails and the smoothness and rendering is spectacular compared to MSTS. I'm in seventh heaven. Finally got a workable MSTS sim back!

I've never run the PC version of Trainz, but does anyone know if Trainz can look this good?

Let have that demo.. I'm gonna tear it up!!

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Wow, 35 fps is great! I'm still getting around the same as you were getting before.

Jim "Highball 3985" has been tinkering with tree on the route and has been changing the ace file to DXT1 files in AceIt and it's pretty much doubled his fps. Must give this a try.

Paul

[stem]

Beatiful job on Hantsport Paul. The gypsum loading docks are awesome. Makes me want to add a ship now!!

Layout is perfect from end to end... no hitches and it runs superbly on Open Rails.

Next I'll get the boxcars loaded on you created and run the BETA 7 and do a Gypsum run in from Dimrock's or Mantua.

[stem]

Oh rats. My copy of ConBuilder from the days when it was free will not work on Windows 7 64 bit. Had to cough up a little coin.

Amazingly, Shape Viewer from 2008 installed without a hitch. Paul Gauson is a code guru.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Make sure you either download a fresh copy of the CP boxcars or replace the WAG and SD files I sent the other day or you'll not be able to get around that sharp curve at the end of Minas Basin!

Going to start the highway and railway underpasses at Falmouth tomorrow, have scenery to the south side of the Highway 1 crossing south of Falmouth.

Paul

[engineeral]

Interestingly enough when I copied ALL my Routes and Consists into the MSTS folder and ran the MSTS sim again, the FPS dropped to an unbelievably jerky 12 FPS max from 60 on the new install!

OK then.. run Open Rails! I'm still maintaining 35 FPS with Open Rails and the smoothness and rendering is spectacular compared to MSTS. I'm in seventh heaven. Finally got a workable MSTS sim back!

I've never run the PC version of Trainz, but does anyone know if Trainz can look this good?

Here are some pictures from the TRAINZ forums of currently available scenery and rolling stock. Most built-in or free to download:

[stem]

Looking pretty simiiar I'd say. Each one has their own pallette but the rendering is more or less equal it appears.

Question for Paul:

I have enabled dynamic shadows now and it's quite cool to see the shadows moving and interplaying with other objects.

One thing I did notice now that I'm noticing shadows, is that buildings may have a shadow side but don't throw shadows themselves. Even more interesting, that I never noticed before, is that buildings don't block objects on the shadow side from throwing their own shadow like in this screen shot:

Some objects like the cars throw shadows but the trailers and trucks do not:

And some static objects that throw shadows don't throw shadows when moving:

Even some train cars don't throw shadows for some reason:

Have you noticed this and if so, is there a particular attribute missing on turned off? Is there also a difference between static objects and moving objects?

Thanks Paul,

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

I haven't used shadows on structures since the FJ&G route years ago, they look nice but suck the life out of your frame rate... when your frame rate already suck, that can make running on a route a little unpleasant.

You, or maybe I can go through the route in Route Editor, select each building, go to Properties, and check the box for rectangular shadows... unless the object is round I guess.

I see there is another flaw in OR compared to MSTS... OR isn't reading any transfers. Transfers are used for parking lots, farm fields, and when you have to cut a hole in the terrain and "back fill", like around the turntable where the structure needs to be below the terrain. Hadn't noticed that before.

What beta version are you using Steve, the shots from Kentville look pretty old.

Paul

[stem]

I'll agree with the transfers. Saw that on the DAR (turntable) and other routes like Kicking House Pass and Rogers Pass (tunnel entrances).

I've got the BETA 7 loaded as I am playing with the Hantsport facilities.

I'm going to try to route editor then. Thought it might have been an option for shadows. I'll do it to Kentville and then test the frame rate on OR. I've also been playing with the textures modes on a lot of shapes too. I love the SW1200s and S-3s in low shine. Makes me think that another "normal" layer of dirt and grime could be laid over top of the high shine textures to make it look even more realistic. For freight cars could even add a "grafitti" layer too.

By the way, did you ever know John Fowlis and do you know why he's vanished from the MSTS community?

[stem]

I'm having painful memories of why I've never done anything more than just dabble with "Route Editor". Crash crash crash crash. You have the patience of Job. This is driving me crazy (all over again).

I am in the process of putting dynamic shadows in the Kentville area. Some tree line and individual trees can also be shadowed but when they're in a red line box, do you click on the green box to get the properties of the forest in the box?

Is there anyway to assign the properties of one object to every other object on the whole route? Example - telephone poles.

Here's Kentville with shadows now. I'm still running 35 FPS on Open Rails. Looks gorgeous.