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| Project Title: |
Low-Poly Wagons |
| Status: |
5 models (of ??) released |
| Start Date: |
February 2007 |
| Completion: |
Ongoing |
| Prototype: |
n/a |
| Models: |
The inspiration for this project was the marshalling yards found on the real railway. Lines and lines of wagons form a great backdrop to railway operations, but are not really possible in Trainz. Each wagon added to a scene takes up processor power, and reduces frame rates. You could make a good looking yard but it would be jerky.
Another trigger was a problem with some of my scripted wagons. The industry and Chameleon features add lines of code that also impact on performance, and it appeared that only a finite (and fairly low) number of some models could be added without PCs crashing.
While LOD (level of detail) reduction meshes can improve performance, it was intended to do something more radical, and make models for use in the background that would have minimal impact.
Two methods of reducing the processor impact of wagon models were investigated. The first involved making a scenic spline out of repeating objects, which could then be placed over a section of track. This technique would be appropriate for wagon types that have little individuality, or in other words, where all the wagons in a rake would appear identical. Modern, block-train types such as the PTA tippler were candidates and this type was chosen for tests. The drawback of this method is that a placed rake will be part of the layout and cannot be moved during a session, although you could drive another train straight through them!
The second method would be to produce models as rolling stock items, but to strip back both the mesh and the functionality to the bare essentials. This would suit wagons that are less likely to appear identical to others of their type, and also gives the Trainz user more control over their use. However, there is still a processing overhead in adding items of rolling stock, no matter how 'light' they are.
I built an ARC liveried PTA tippler as a spline, and a HTV hopper as a rolling stock item. The latter was like a 'Super-LOD' version of my original HTV model, with the polygons reduced from 2,650 to 458. Following some debate on the UKtrainz forum I decided to release the HTV as it did not take long to produce alternative textures for a set of 5 wagons. Depending on feedback, further models may be developed.
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| Releases - Main |
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| Item Name: |
BR HTV LP01 |
| Base KUID: |
92263:13101 |
| Trainz Version: |
2.4 |
| Release Date: |
27th August 2007 |
| Links: |
CDP DLS Prototype info Project info |
| Notes: |
Low poly version of HTV hopper |
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| Item Name: |
BR HTV LP02 |
| Base KUID: |
92263:13102 |
| Trainz Version: |
2.4 |
| Release Date: |
27th August 2007 |
| Links: |
CDP DLS Prototype info Project info |
| Notes: |
Low poly version of HTV hopper |
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| Item Name: |
BR HTV LP03 |
| Base KUID: |
92263:13103 |
| Trainz Version: |
2.4 |
| Release Date: |
27th August 2007 |
| Links: |
CDP DLS Prototype info Project info |
| Notes: |
Low poly version of HTV hopper |
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| Item Name: |
BR HTV LP04 |
| Base KUID: |
92263:13104 |
| Trainz Version: |
2.4 |
| Release Date: |
27th August 2007 |
| Links: |
CDP DLS Prototype info Project info |
| Notes: |
Low poly version of HTV hopper |
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| Item Name: |
BR HTV LP05 |
| Base KUID: |
92263:13105 |
| Trainz Version: |
2.4 |
| Release Date: |
27th August 2007 |
| Links: |
CDP DLS Prototype info Project info |
| Notes: |
Low poly version of HTV hopper |
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| Releases - Related and Dependencies |
| No items released yet |
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| Updates
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08/02/2007
Low-Poly Wagons |
A couple of days work produced these rakes of ARC livery PTAs as splines, seen here positioned on track. The couplings still require some work, although the ends of each spline may use an outer wagon mesh instead. |
01/07/2007
Low-Poly Wagons |
My first low-poly wagons to be released were a set of 5 HTV hoppers. These used opacity maps rather than the mesh to represent the underframe detail, and the body had a lot of the detail stripped out, with some of the features (such as the hopper side ribs) added to the texture instead. Any functions that would add to the processing overhead were removed, these including Chameleon, Couplestar and Industry compatability. In a sense, these were therefore similar to my first wagon models!
The 5 models had slight variations in weathering and colouring and, as the lower picture shows, allow a yard to be filled with wagons that appear quite individual. |
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| Key |
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| Features: |
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Industry compatible |
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Level of Detail reduction meshes |
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Chameleon (or equivalent) texture switching |
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Couplestar (or equivalent) working couplings |
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Animated parts (other than wheels and loads) |
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| Star ratings: |
These are my own personal appraisals of each model, based on the quality of the mesh and texture, the features, and the realism/accuracy of the complete model. |
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1 star. Poor. Inaccurate mesh and/or texture |
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4 stars. Almost perfect |
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2 stars. Adequate |
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5 stars. Unimprovable! |
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3 stars. Good |
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Not rated. Applies to my own models! |
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| Trainz versions: |
These indicate the lowest version of Trainz that an item will work with. For example, an item with version number 2.0 will work in any version of Trainz from 2004 onwards. Note that the version numbers are taken from the config file of the main item. The version numbers for dependencies may be different, resulting in the item having a higher requirement. |
| 0.9 | Beta |
1.4 | CE+language |
2.3 | TRS2004+SP3 |
2.8 | TC3 |
| 1.0 | Community Edition |
1.5 | Ultimate Trainz Collection |
2.4 | TRS2004+SP4 |
2.9 | 2009WBE |
| 1.1 | CE+SP1 |
2.0 | TRS2004 |
2.5 | TRS2006 |
3.0 | 2009WBE+SP1 |
| 1.2 | CE+SP2 |
2.1 | TRS2004+SP1 |
2.6 | TRS2006+SP1 |
3.1 | 2009WBE+SP2 |
| 1.3 | CE+SP3 |
2.2 | TRS2004+SP2 |
2.7 | TC1/TC2 |
3.2 | 2010EE |
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