Working on some new pics for the website, here goes.



Brown ties are courtesy of Marc Nelson's Scalerail.

By the cement plant. See the new details?



See the sheen on Dick's engines. Yeah, nice!! Looks very realistic in the sim.

Curved switch. I love these things!



What you see are a combination of my own buildings converted from MSTS and a bit of detail from RS's default clutter. You can't get enough clutter, ya know?

Revisiting a familiar scene.



This is the wonder of RS. You can put together a beautiful realistic scene without much effort at all. Now I got to give credit where credit is due. Much of this scene is Marc's brown ties Scalerail and RSDL's default pine trees, etc.

More to come!

Excellent Rich - the ROW really gives that extra impact. This was the thing about MSTS that was always so frustrating - trains running on impeccably smooth green baize billiard tables.

Good on the 3DTrains products as well

Rod

Thanks Rod!

And just like that, a little twist of the wrist and Marc's Scaleroads, the route takes an even better turn towards realism. The dirt roads are SWEEEEEETTT!



This btw, is down on the southside of the railyard at Colton. The building to the left is the large parts warehouse which supplies the freight repair shop and building just north of here.

And here is a nice picture, 2 lane road intersection using Marc's freeware Scaleroads (imagine what the hi-res version will do!). The flora in the roads you see will be removed. I save that operation until last in route building.

And one more, but this is of the lumberyard with RSDL's light fixtures in place.

Absolutely stunning Rich, scalerail really enhances the look, those concrete cajon tracks just didnt do the route justice.

Thanks Nikos, and I agreed! I was spoiled on Marc's first Scalerail set we had in the R&C before I had to take it out. Much more enjoyable driving an engine and seeing the Scalerail track ahead of the train too. The Scaleroads are much much better too. I have to do some terrain adjusting to the route before I can get pictures to show how well Marc's track look. Right now most of it is buried halfway underground like the pics above show. Won't take very long to do.

That last looks about right Rich, with a bit of gravel and dirt thrown on for good measure

Rod

I call this, Around The Bend.

All I can say is "WOW!!!!!!" I can see some brilliant video footage there.

Hay Marc, I like the cracks in the paved road. Nice detail

Dick

Thanks! Goofy Rich is using the low-detail roads though - we'll have to wait until he posts some better images.

Cheers!
Marc

Okay, here's a pic using the hi-res roads. This is the Food Stuffin' Plant in Colton. The branchline pulls past here and behind us, empties into a large foundry. Be sure to bring plenty of coil cars.



Be sure to click to enlarge the picture.

A little further back up the road now. Marc's ScaleRoad package comes with street signs too. Saving me some time from importing my own. Sorry about the pic being a little smaller but dawg gone if Marc didn't include some roadkill! Just kidding.

And here's one more with Marc's ScaleRoads hi-res version. Back in the distance is Food Stuffin' and in the foreground is Marc's pride and joy, the dirt road.

A new pic of the repair shed with Marc's Scalerail track in place.

The level of attention to details and textures is top notch and in addition with Marc's ScaleRail and Rural Landscapes, your route looks absolutely stunning.
In the beginning, i was very sceptical about RS, but now I'm very sure, with the ongoing support from RS, that there is great potential in the sim.

By the way, have I missed Marc's ScaleRoads hi-res version or isn't it yet available?

Regards
Klaus

Not yet available, but will be soon. I have to finish off a few items before it's ready for prime time.

Cheers!
Marc

Thanks Klaus! Marc's Da Man!!

Rich,
Somehow I missed this thread when you started it, but I have to say that like your other works of art this one blows me away. The amazing details that you put in place that makes the fiction become real has surfaced once again. The best part of your work is taking that leasurely ride down the right of way and discovering the little gems that you sneek in so well creating a feeling of realism, what everyday life is about. Its the house with the garbage cans on the side, the brushed over little used right of way or the car abandon in the front yard that speaks the most.

Looks killer, I may have to re-install RS... Again!

G,day Rich,
These pics are getting better and better, I am drooling all over my desk as I look at them. Well done to you, Marc and of course Dick. This is going to be one fantastic route and can't wait.

Denis
Down under

Thanks guys, much appreciate the feedback, always a lift when folks take notice.

@Kevin - One thing too I have noticed with RS that it's fairly easy to create a 360 panoramic view and see detail from the top to the bottom of the pictures. Typically before I would chop out the bottom half of a picture because the ground typically lacked much detail. With RS I find most of the pictures have detail, if even just the flora, which adds life to the picture. And lastly, with RS, it's easy to place detail and much of it to the point that any part of the route becomes a picture.

@J.S. - That's what happened to me. I tried RS when it first came out and I didn't care for it. The editing part, the running part was fine for me, but working with the editor was not. Here's what got me. Working with the track. For starters, it was like a sea of green with no idea where to get my bearings from. With both of these routes I used Mosaic to make my marker file by holding up my trackplan to the screen and then plunking down marker points. I can see through the paper just barely enough to see what I'm doing. And the other thing was how to do parallel track. I don't mean double track or triple track, that was easy to figure, but track which would be a greater distance apart but running parallel to each other. Last July it just seem to all click and now I lay track pretty rapidly. Once I saw that I could do those two things and that I had also a better understaning of how to 'think' with spline track I was hooked because everything else came easily enough too. And really, I learned RS without asking hardly any questions and mostly without documentation. But I admit too that I've only scratched the surface of RS as most of my early days with it is importing my library.

@Denis - Marc's contributions have stepped up the quality of the route tremendously. If you guys haven't messed with Dick's engines yet, they are amazing. When you see the metal sheen of the engines, they just look so realistic and add an immersion to the experience like you are there!

New pic an intersection scene. I'm breaking in a new monitor, this one is nice! Anyway, a pleasant intersection scene along the mainline.

I am pretty certain I recognise where that is Rich, but it sure looks a whole lot different - excellent work

Rod

Thanks Rod, it's the little details that makes routes authentic looking. This is right before the bushes that parallel the track just after you come out of the tunnel from the Colton section. This town doesn't actually have a name because there's no stops in it.

Now this is how a route is suppose to look. Route builders take notice. Learn from the Great One.

Rich you know how hard I am to impress. I must say my friend, I AM Impressed!

Rich. What is just round the corner of the road in the distance? I'm sure I left my Mustang there

Thanks Curtis and Dick. Curtis, I know you are hard to please and if given the chance you'd make it look even better. Soon enough, you'll have your chance. Dick, that road does go someplace but I can't think where off of the top of my head. Probably homes is on that road.

Rich

How is the new route coming along? Haven't heard much about it recently. I am really looking forward to this route with all the pictures and maps. Looks like a switching route which are alway a favorite of mine. Keep up the great work on these!

DJ, I keep the route updates done in a different thread http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15910 I'll post something more recent today in that thread.

I have a couple of very large pics. I'm gonna make you guys jealous but last week I got a 28" widescreen monitor and it's awesome! Surprisingly it wasn't that expensive. And I did shrink these pics down a bit that I'm about to show from their actual resolution. You'll need to click to enlarge but I don't know if they'll fit on your monitor. Here goes...



This first pic is an area I covered before but in widescreen mode (I think it was 1440x1024) it just looked so cool to see it like that so I took the pic. Mostly I was curious for the fps which oddly enough, was the same as if I was running it in a smaller resolution. I cropped the image to keep the file size down but on a large monitor, it's something to see. BTW, the UP engine next to the Repair Barn was moving down the tracks at the time the picture was taken. I would have caught it sooner but wouldn't you know my mouse slid off (pesky thing a mouse) and I lost the opportunity (and no, I wasn't about to ask the guys to back the train up just for the picture!).



This is from the Westin area. We're just north of the Westin Yard by a few feet where the track continues to regions beyond the scope of the route. The second track is a spur to deliver coal to the Watts plant. In both pics you can see adding Marc's ScaleRail is worth the wait but in the second pic, there you have a good combination of ScaleRail and ScaleRoads (hi-res version) combined.

I've been tinkering with the skys in RS (personal use), and the results aren't half bad. Using an older version of Rich's route, below are a couple of comparison shots of the pics Rich posted above:

Click to enlarge...



A few more that turned out pretty good...









Cheers!
Marc

Impressive. You can almost smell the fesh air and feel the breeze on your face!!!!

Dick

where can I download the Track from I like em looks sweet.

the tracks? They come with the route.

Hoping someone can tell me where I can Download the Tracks in this Route.I would like too have those Tracks in the.Route I have for Rail Sim Thank You.

These aren't available for download. As Rich mentioned, the tracks will be part of the route.

Cheers!
Marc

Marc,

Those are your Scalerail track pieces, correct? I apologize for the question, it stems from a severe case of jet lag.

Nonetheless, the reason that I ask is the frogs on the switches have rails that go through them instead of a gap on each leg/ I'm not counting rivets, per se, just trying to help.

Either way, both Rich and yourself have me thinking hard about the possibilities of RS. Keep up the good work guys, you always seem to compliment each other nicely with the way you present your product.

P.S. Hey Rich, since Sniper may have already bailed on RS, does that make you the king of Train Simulators as far as route creation. Or does sniper have some PO&N v1000 for RS that I do not know about?

Hi Clinton!

Keep thinking hard Clinton, I've enjoyed my time with RS. Yes they are Scale Rail pieces but these are special order made for my routes.

Jim was the king of MSTS route building? Since when! I'm not sure what happened to Jim. I think I heard something about he didn't have an internet connection no more or something like that. I figure someday he'll be back.



Rich

I've been working on seasonal textures for the Colton & Northern, here's a first pic

And some Autumn pics:

Very good work Rich.

Here is a measure of my woeful ignorance of the structure of RS - presumably the seasonal textures will also now show up in Rascal & Cottonwood?

Rod

Hi Rod,

Should... I can't think of why they wouldn't, reckon I should go have a look now that you mention it.

Rich

I've the feeling, the goodies will soon delivered .
(Just seen the latest news at Railsimulator.com).

Regards
Klaus

Ugh! Awfully nice of them to do that, but just released? Oh oh. I better work fast!! I'm not done with it yet!

Thanks for the heads up!

Rich

I've been working with the skydome aspect of RS and while I have a chance, I thought I would post the progress shots. There are basically 3 skies. See below their effect.


This first one I call Wispy. The sky reminds me of a windy day. Bright blue skies, fluffy clouds, almost autumn like?



This second one I call Thick. The sky is less bluey but the cloud cover is more consistent.



This third one I call Storm. Very overcasted and it's gonna rain or snow any moment.



More pics to come!

Rich

Rich. how are we going to choose which sky to use ?? Through the editor??
Dave

Hi Dave,

Each scenario already has its sky chosen for it. If you create your own scenarios then you can choose whichever sky is appropriate.

I should mention that these last changes you see in the Colton & Northern also effect the Rascal & Cottonwood. So the sky is changed and the seasonal textures are now functional too (for the R&C I mean). The roads will stay the same. In that regard I also plan to put out a patch for the R&C so those with the new skies won't have to edit the scenarios to the new skies. All that will be explained at release time.

Rich