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GWR (16 posts)
Apr-01-02, 05:35 PM (EST) "New Steam Loco progress" Hi all,I have been getting to grips with TSM v1.1 and doing a few wagons etc. I decided a few weeks ago to take the plunge and have a go at a steam loco. I have spent a few weeks on this and have learned a lot on the way about the way Tram Sim likes things. I have had some odd errors on the way. However I have nearly cracked it and here is a photo of my loco. Its a British Great Western Railway loco The Great Bear, built in 1908/09 it was the first pacific type loco in service in the UK. I still needs a few things in the textures and shape to finish it, But see what you think. One good thing is that the GWR liked to put all the pipework and valve gear inside the frames so there is less to model on the outside. I have had a problem forming tube structures (handrails steam pipes etc) that need manupulating to bend them in the right directions. I get it looking OK in TSM but when I load it into the sim it crashes, particularly when I switch to head out mode. It seems the simpler the shape the better. Sometimes when I have redone some shape that caused an error it is OK the second time. I have also had some quite simple shapes (box like things) that seem to loose whats fronnt, back, sides etc. again dedoing them seems to have fixed it. Any thought and tips particularly on forming complex pipe shapes that twist and turn.I have passion for railways both sides of the pond and I am also working on a non-cupola caboose for the Illinois Central. More of that another time.Here's to haveing more fun!Robin. Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: New Steam Loco progress Xacto Apr-02-02 1 RE: New Steam Loco progress Sleepwalker Apr-02-02 2 RE: New Steam Loco progress GWR Apr-02-02 3 RE: New Steam Loco progress GWR Apr-02-02 4 RE: New Steam Loco progress GTJD Apr-04-02 5 RE: New Steam Loco progress BigDave Apr-04-02 6

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Xacto (683 posts)
Apr-02-02, 09:48 AM (EST) 1. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" Looks great from what I can see. Take a pic of her with the light shining on her sides and she'll be even more impressive. I make all my piping from square or triangular sections, with smoothing they look round. That only works with small diameter pipes of course. For bends, I just allow enough segments in the original shape to allow for bending where needed and then I rotate sets of vertices to bend the pipe. I'm not sure why the Sim would be crashing, how many polys does the loco use? The 2-8-0 I completed is 3200 polys and I had no problems.Cliff Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Sleepwalker (116 posts)
Apr-02-02, 10:53 AM (EST) 2. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" Theres a nice article on UK Pacifics in the April 2002 issue of Back tracks if your interested Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
GWR (16 posts)
Apr-02-02, 01:57 PM (EST) 3. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" Thanks for the reply.The poly count in TSM is 4006 but the stats say its 9031 after conversion!. This has got me thinking. After an inspoection o fthe counts part by part there are a couple that have a very large count and if I build them simpler I could get the count down quite a bit. The con-rods for example are over 500 I don't quite understand why its so high. But with a little rethink I bet it could be smaller. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
GWR (16 posts)
Apr-02-02, 03:32 PM (EST) 4. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" You prompted a line of thought and investigation and I have been able to reduce the poly count to 2829 in TSM and a post conversion 6577. I had some pretty mad "simple" tube shapes that were only 6" long but with 16 sections and 16 points per section so added up to a whole hill of Polygons! Here's another photo of the work in progress. Still some stuff to do with the shape and some work on the texture to make the skin have a more "real" look. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
GTJD (178 posts)
Apr-04-02, 11:08 AM (EST) 5. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" Hi GWR! My fave Great Western loco is-suprise!-the 0-6-0 PT "Duck"!Uncle Charlie,
Hazzard & Southern Railways
Kanto-Johto System Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
BigDave (89 posts)
Apr-04-02, 01:30 PM (EST) 6. "RE: New Steam Loco progress" For Gawds sake, dont make 'er too prototypical. That engine had an axle loading of 21 tons and wasn't "a good'un"
She didn't steam well, had a power output less than that of a 'Star', and is more likely to melt the rails via slipping as she had v/low horsepower.BigDave Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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