Locomotive Textures

@ Dom107
Thanks, yes I’ll be adding some dirt and grime but as yet haven’t decided how best to do this, I could just add it to tha base textures but then it’s always there.
I thought maybe I could add the dirt texture as an alpha texture applied to some additional faces positioned around the loco as required.
Then in Blitz I can adjust the transparency/alpha of this dirt texture as the journey progresses, so the loco starts the run all nice and clean but ends up looking a bit worse for ware, just another of my crazy ideas ideas. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

@ wacampbell
Thanks for the feedback…yes I’m ‘ that other Bazza’, not the uktrainsim Bazza. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Whilst I agree with your comments re the highlights not moving as they should within a real world situatuion, in game this isn’t quite as noticable as you may think.
There are certain situations where this doesn’t work to well, ie a night scene where the loco moves past station lights etc.
However, for normal daylight running where there is only the one light source (the sun/sky) it works very well indeed.

My main aim here was to create a railway environment that looked realistic in game, used the minimum amout of system resources, no lightmaps, no 3D lights, no shadow casting systems etc.

Using 3D lighting just doesn’t seem to be able to create this effect as well within a game environment.
If your game/train sim uses a shadow casting feature this can help but it’s usually a BIG drain on system resources. <!– s:( –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!– s:( –>
The alternative would be to use shaders…another complex subject. <!– s:( –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!– s:( –>
The only other way would be to use cube maps but to get these to look effective they need to be generated in ‘ real time’ within the game environment, another big drain on system resources. <!– s:( –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!– s:( –>

As it is, I think what I am producing, is still visually, far better than anything, any of the train sims can come up with.

However I see no reason why this why these techniques shouldn’t work just as well within a train sim.
Hense the reason for this post, I thought someone may like to give it a try and see what they can come up with.
Who knows, I may be tempted to purchase a license. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>
But what a load of messing around to get a model fron 3DC to the train sim, all I need to do is to export from 3DC as a .x file, then run the Blitz file to see how it looks, around 20 secs total. <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>

This isn’t really texture baking although I would agree it has similarities, in the first pic, at the top of this post, look at the shadow, cast by the footplate onto the top of the driving wheels.
You couldn’t bake this onto the texture because as the wheel turned so would the baked shadow.

Anyway here’s a WIP in game shot of Prestwick Hall getting up quite a head of steam along my moorland terrain section.
Although you could say that this is a still image, it was taken from a trackside camera that pans with the loco as it passes by, it looks great in game. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

[img:1kdxjl3e]http&#58;//img408&#46;imageshack&#46;us/img408/1363/newhall3nd3&#46;jpg[/img:1kdxjl3e]

I had this idea that you should be able to create a texture set for a locomotive that looked reasonable WITHOUT any 3D point or directional lighting affecting the textures, just using ambient light.

So I’ve re-worked the textures for my hall loco to see what I could come up with.
This is how it looks at the moment, it’s still WIP, but I’m really pleased with the results so far.

This is a screenshot from Blitz with just ambient light turned on, there are no lightmaps or anythng else affecting the textures.
The model was exported from 3DC using the .x file format and dropped into a new terrain scene I’m working on.

ALL the shadows/shading and highlights you see on the loco are created with the textures.
I see no reason why this technique shouldn’t work just as well when exporting to any of the train sims.
It’s the shadows and highlights on the textures that give the effect, NOT the 3D lighting.

The textures for this loco comprise of quite a few seperate texture files but it they could just as easily have been created onto a single texture file at say 1024×1024.

Any comments/ideas are most welcome, using this technique certainly seems to improve the appearence of the model.

[img:1rntq55v]http&#58;//img75&#46;imageshack&#46;us/img75/2662/newhall2ee3&#46;jpg[/img:1rntq55v]

Hello Captain,

The technique you described is known as texture baking ( or baked-on textures ). The problem with baked-on textures is that they look good in still photos, but ‘in-game’ the ruse becomes visible in that the hilights don’t move around as you shift your point of view. I think in your project, the shadows under the boiler will work out OK, but the specular hilite near the top of the boiler will be stationary.

PS , its a great looking model – nicely done!

Hello,

The model looks great.
To make it more realistic are you going to add some dirt, for example around the chimney?

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]Originally posted by wacampbell:
Hello Captain,
[/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

(Different Bazza <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –> )