My first ‘real’ wagon for MSTS

You don’t have to e-mail me. andnbsp;But you might want to make sure you emphasize transparency creation in PaintShopPro and the detailed logistics of handling the transparency of .tga through the 3DC model creaton process. andnbsp;Especially since I believe 3DC only can handle .bmp files.

After all my earlier experimenting to find out how hierarchies, frame axis points and texturing worked, I finally started on a real model yesterday, and completed the texturing this this evening. I have built it to the scale drawings (converted to metres) as accurately as I could and I am quite pleased with the results andnbsp;
Its available for download from [img:15g6qja1]http://www.trainsimfiles.com[/img:15g6qja1]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainsimfiles.com">http://www.trainsimfiles.com</a>&lt;!– m –>
and, when I can face it, I will do it all over again, taking screenshots to use for a tutorial.

Ian,

I have added some images to the gallery ([img:2avdj73j]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilis&#46;com/gallerymsts&#46;htm)[/img:2avdj73j]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/gallerymsts.htm">http://www.amabilis.com/gallerymsts.htm</a>&lt;!– m –>)
. I don’t know if the wagon really shows up as well as it should, but there is a link to a full size view and that looks good.

Richard

Well, I think they art. And they are pretty important to me because they show that this can be done with 3DC Pro.

I see that NeutronIC has nearly finished a diesel engine. It is looking REALLY nice. And troub has nearly finished a caboose (I’ve been voyeuristically watching his development at his page: [img:1aten3pf]http&#58;//www&#46;geocities&#46;com/troub80/[/img:1aten3pf]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.geocities.com/troub80/">http://www.geocities.com/troub80/</a>&lt;!– m –>
)

I am finding all of this a lot of fun. (Now that 4.21 is out and my stress level has reduced considerably-I apologize if I have been grumpy lately).

Richard

P.S. Was I supposed to link directly to your tutorial? Or was I supposed to serve it up myself. I could link to the page at trainsimsfiles so that you get the hits.

Ian42,
Excellent model!

Why thanks. I did not class them as being works of art. I have had to make compromises to make them suitable for use in MSTS. Feel free to grab any images you want though. Maybe later, I will try to set up some more artfull compositions.

Ian M.

Hi Ian,

Looks great. Do you make your textures yourself? That is the part that I find the most difficult in all of this. The models aren’t a breeze either, but it is something that I know.

Richard

That’s probably the best way.

I am looking forward to some submissions for the gallery. If you are feeling like you have too much to do I could (with your permission) just take the images you have provided already here (and elsewhere) and reformat them for the gallery. I like everything you have made and would like to see all of them in the gallery. Of course you will receive a link back to trainsimfiles.

Richard

I cheat and use photographs, preferably of 7mm/ft scale models.

Matt,

I’m impressed. I have no ability whatsoever to create textures. I think I can manage Ian’s technique but when it comes to andquot;artandquot; I am one of those folks who’s brain isn’t connected to their hands.

Oh, and I added your model to the gallery.

Richard

Thanks for the compliment Richard <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>

I’ve mailed you info to put in your gallery should you so desire <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

3DC Pro makes it really easy even for an artistically challenged person such as myself <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Incidentally – for textures, I tend to do them all purely by hand as I don’t have OO/O models or suitable photo’s of the real ones that I can use to place on the 3D model. andnbsp;I generally gather as many variations on a loco in photo form as I can before I start and use that for the basis of the 3D model (in terms of artifacts like lights, boxes etc atleast) and then use the photos as the basis for the textures.

The hard bit is getting all of the ‘gridwork’ in such as the exhausts on the top, vents on the side and so forth – and I haven’t looked at the side of the bogies yet, which will need doing.

Matt.

I hope these aren’t dumb questions. andnbsp;:-[

Do you merge all of the objects into a single one before exporting the .s file?

For a 4-wheel locomotive or wagon, do you have one bogie with two axles, or two bogies with one axle each?

Now that I’ve managed to build a few structures, I wanted to take a crack at some rolling stock and locos.
Thanks

You can merge all of the objects (except for bogies and wheels) into a single object if you want to, but you can also just use the hierarchy panel to drag all of your other objects and/or frames underneath one frame. You can then right-click an object that is in this andquot;mainandquot; frame and export it, and everything under that frame should export.

I started using the MSTS export with the original MSTS beta version, and at that time I think you may have [i:22443f8a]had[/i:22443f8a] to merge the objects (I’m not sure, but that’s what the tutorial said, I think), so I have tended to merge all of my objects into a single object. I keep an original unmerged model in case I need to make adjustments, but then if I do make changes I have to put the whole thing together again.

In short, I think it may be a better habit to andquot;combineandquot; the model hierarchically, but it might just be a matter of preference. andnbsp;However, in order to have automatically animated bogies and wheels, they must be under a frame called Main. andnbsp;The frames for the bogies must be called Bogie1 and Bogie2, and the wheels’ frames named appropriately (as in the TECHDOC), Wheels11 and Wheels12 under Bogie1, and Wheels21 and Wheels22 under Bogie2. andnbsp;I think that’s right.

About the bogies, I can say that if you want each pair of wheels to turn appropriately with the curve of the track (which is probably what you would want), you should have two bogies (Bogie1 and Bogie2) with one axle. Otherwise, all four wheels will turn at once, which probably isn’t the desired effect unless your wheels are pretty close together.

Yep, the creation of the .tga file with the transparency in the alpha channel, and the creation of the texture and mask .bmp files for 3DC is the main subject for Part 1 of the new tutorial. Applying the textures is the subject for Part 4 of the new tutorial. I also do a lot of face reduction, and introduce the object library in Part 2, resulting in a standard wagon wheelset and a buffer being deposited in the object library for future use in models.

I also introduce a lot more accuracy into the model making, specifying dimensions and positioning numerically rather than by eye.

I have, however, kept to fairly simple shapes, cubes and cylinders, so there is still lots more to cover in future tutorials.

Ian M.

I should hopefully complete drafting my tutorial on creating a wagon this evening. If you would like to help me by beta test driving it, email me at <!– e –><a href="mailto:ian@trainsimfiles.com">ian@trainsimfiles.com</a><!– e –> and I will email it over to you. I will expect comments in return though.

Ian M.