A few MISC MSTS issues…

Hi Buzz…

Thanks again…

Boy – I have learned a great deal from this thread… Trust me – on my second model – everything will be mapped differently…
<!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

AND once again – thanks to everyone who has helped me get through my first attempt at 3D Modeling… I greatly appreciate all the time everyone took to provide guidance and help… The list of people just keeps growing…

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ALMOST THERE !!!

Regards,
Scott

All,

Hi…

I have a few issues that I have not been able to find a solution too…

1) The modeling phase of my locomotive is done… The problem is that the locomotive sits just a little bet too low… How do I notch the entire shape up by a small amount ? I seem unable to shift the shape when I have the entire locomotive selected… If I just ‘move’ the entire shape – when I export – it is still in the same location… I have tried Paul’s Shape Manager software – and every time I use it – it introduces a very noticable wobble in the wheels…

2) While applying textures I use the standard settings of 80 – 20 – 5 – 0 for most texture applications… When I apply some of my textures – it makes the part translucent in 3DC – yet when I view it in MSTS it is fine… Is there away to correct the view in 3DC ??? Not sure what I am doing wrong… <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Regards,
Scott

Hi Scott.

1.What you need to do here is to shift the main axis of the part that defines ‘main’ in your engine’s hierarchy as this defines the relative height of your entire model when sitting on the rails. Lock your Z, and X axis on the main toolcar to preevent unwanted movement and then go to your side tool bar and select the shift tool.Hold down control whilst right clicking on your ‘main’ object. This will turn the object a transparent blue and you will be able to move the object’s axis up or down by holding the right mouse button down. This should allow you to fix your problem.

2.The translucency you are seeing within 3DC is mainly to do with the rendering within the program. I usually get a little bleeding and pixel distortion around the tranlucent edges, but its nothing to really worry about. Just also be aware that with .tga files that do not have an alpha channel assigned yet that 3DC will assume that the entire texture you are applying is translucent, giving the ‘see-through’ look.

Hope this helps. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Hi Vulcan…

Will give that a go…

Man – this texture mapping stuff seems to be a bit harder, more tedious, and much slower than the actual building phase…

I have been playing with the ACE for the boiler… I am trying to find how many pixels to devote to the boiler to provide a decent weathering effect… As is is now – I am using about half of a 1024×1024 ACE – each side of the boiler mapped separately – and as soon as I introduce weather variations the image quality goes down hill fast… I still need to play with this…

Also – if anyone happens to know – Can I have both Specular and Non Specular on the same shape ? My Boiler / Smokebox was made from an extrude… I want the front smokebox area to be dull and the rear boiler part to be shiny… I don’t think I can do that – can I ??? I tried using two different shapes – but the merge between the two was not very clean…

Once again – thanks to all in the forum… Couldn’t have done this without ya ! <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Regards,
Scott

It’s looking very nice Scott…I don’t use MSTS any more but can’t you just apply a gradient fill to the boiler area something like this.

Bazza

Hi Bazza…

Nice to hear from you again…

You know what – you’re absolutely right… The Specular lighting in MSTS is marginal at best… I will probably be happier using your method…

Not sure if you use PSP9 for image files – but – am I the only one that finds the gradient tool included – very difficult to master ??? It’s fine when using the canned gradients already built for you – but – try making a custom one of your own… Gives me all kinds of trouble… Ahh well – time to dive in and master that tool.. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Regards,
Scott

Hope it works for you…maybe you could add the Specular lighting as well but it may look a bit OTT.
I use this kind of gradiant fill for all my cylindrical parts, chimneys,domes,boilers,cylinders, buffers etc..it works quite well.

It may be worth trying to get a more shiny gradiant for the boiler with a very dull gradiant for the smokebox.

I know what you mean about the Gradiant tool in PSP..it’s just trial and error with me…I find the help file somewhat lacking for this tool.

Mayby someone knows how it works? <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Bazza

Hello Scott,

For MSTS you won’t be able to have different material settings on the same object without splitting the object or facets into a different group. Also its best to have only objects with the same material settings present in a group. Even with an extruded boiler you can make the front section separate by moving points, selecting faces and then splitting them into a new group, but this is a hard option.

As Bazza suggested the way to go is to create the effect with textures, especially the use of gradients and highlighting areas of your mapped texture file to show raised areas, curves etc.

I’m not familiar with the gradient tools in PSP 9 as I still use 7.1. In 7.1 to make a gradeint you select your background, foreground colours and the click the fly out tab to select the style of gradient fill, but I guess this has now changed with PSP9. I’ve never really liked the gradient tool in any Paint Shop Pro version as the Photoshop gradient fill tool is far more versatile and has better control over the effects. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

I really like the model. Excellent work ! <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

to get the most number of colours in your texture (important for gradients or weathering) use a .bmp rather than a .tga for those bits, and make sure you select the correct options when converting it to an ace. Put translucent bits, and transparent bits into their own texture files.

MSTS will still turn the gradient into stripes, so add a little noise after creating the gradient, and then blur it, and it does not look so bad in MSTS.

My advice is to look at other peoples texture files to see how they’ve done it <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

As Ian say, keep transparencies and translucencies in separate files.

MSTS uses only 16 bit colors so you may see odd effects in the sim – the model will look better in the shape viewer, though there is a low quality menu option that will duplicate MSTS.

In a way, black locos are sometimes the simplest to ‘weather’ as everything is just shades of grey.
Also, never actually use black, use a dark grey as the base color.

Hi All,

Thanks for the great tips and taking the time to respond…

This may save me hours of trial and error…

<!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Regards,
Scott

FYI…

Just a WIP shot… <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Lovely stuff Scott.

I think you were partly responsible for getting me to look at some US stuff – watching ‘The Great Locomotive chase’ (1950’s Disney) yesterday may have tipped me over to starting a model…

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the complement… Actually – without all your great tools and friendly support – this would never have happend… Greatly appreciated – sir…

These small US steam engines are addicting… I was really interested in the much bigger US stuff – but Andre Mings ‘North Arkansas’ and some screen shots by Tim Muir – got me interested… These older – smaller engines seem to have much more character…

It took me a bit to get the hang of this texture mapping… Hated it when I started – but – now I am getting the hang of it and I can see the results of my work… Kinda hit my stride with it…

While this model seems to be coming along – I am really afraid I kinda blew it – as far as LOD’s are concerned… I read through some of the tutorials and there seems to be sonme rules your need to follow to have them work… Here is what I gathered…

1) A part should only be mapped to one ACE…

2) Parts should be grouped in the model hiarchey – as to what ACE the fall on…

3) You should not mix Specular and Transparency on the same ACE…

Am I MISSING any ???

This model violates some of the above rules – so I do not think LOD’s will work…

Anyways – just another progress picture…

Thanks to all…
Regards,
Scott

Really nice work Scott. I think black loco’s are the hardest to map but your doing a fine job with this one.
I find it takes me as long, if not longer, trying to get the artworok to look right as it did to build the model.

Sorry can’t help with the LOD’s

Bazza