Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction

LAST EDITED ON May-05-04 AT 08:09 PM (EDT)

I am finally starting on a series of farmhouse designs, many of them which can double for use in older neighborhoods.Due to the complex designs, I am working on one style at a time. This first design, from the 50s, is quite common and varies depending on materials used, porch enclosure, and dormers on the roof. All feature the broad roof with the saltbox indent for the porch. The indent doesn't start at porch line. Some don't have the indent. A few are brick walls. All have a stone or brick foundation.What is different with my designs are there are no photo textures in use for the sides which is common for most structure models. Instead, a set of stock textures are used in the construction of walls, foundations and roof. Parts are used for doors, windows, and other details. This allows for a cookie cutter assembly with complete freedom of placement of parts. The results is a huge variety of constructions can be done and all will use the same set of stock textures.First test for this construction is a sample 32x32 house, this one lacking the dormer on the second story. Here is the pic below. Also, you may download the zip file from the link below to try it in your route. The house uses all stock textures from the barns upload plus one additional one included which I will update in the future for the upload. Instructions are included with the upload.Enjoy. I will be adding additional house samples as I create them.Edit, blasted hmtl default error corrected.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409981501b16861e.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409981f81cece3df.zip

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RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, helfrickc, May-05-04, 08:50 PM, (1) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, landnrailroader, May-09-04, 01:12 PM, (16) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-05-04, 09:57 PM, (2) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, brooksy, May-06-04, 01:27 AM, (3) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-06-04, 06:04 AM, (4) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, brooksy, May-06-04, 08:51 PM, (5) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-06-04, 09:06 PM, (6) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, brooksy, May-07-04, 01:40 AM, (10) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-06-04, 09:31 PM, (7) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, timken, May-06-04, 09:59 PM, (8) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-06-04, 10:22 PM, (9) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, lnghairedwizard, May-07-04, 08:51 PM, (11) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-07-04, 10:10 PM, (12) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-08-04, 07:48 PM, (14) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-08-04, 06:01 PM, (13) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, brooksy, May-09-04, 00:53 AM, (15) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-10-04, 12:36 PM, (17) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-10-04, 05:48 PM, (18) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-10-04, 10:02 PM, (19) RE: Farmhouse Megapack Under Construction, rpicardi1, May-11-04, 10:02 PM, (20)

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Another incredible effort. Maybe YOU should do MSTS2!Chris

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All of Ron's efforts are superb, and I eagerly await these - they will find a place, many places in fact on the RMD-4.As for MSTS-2 - well, if somebody was real ambitious (and ready for the nut house) and created a stable editor, with a fool proof database rebuilder, we would never need an MSTS-2, or to switch to some other flavor. But before anyone tries, they best get the name of a good shrink first.J. H. Sullivan

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Here is a completed dormer style house. The three frame window appears to be a common feature in this design for the upstairs.Download included for testing.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40999b5a67a0b521.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40999b7967ed49b1.zip

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Hi Ron
Very nice work as usual and will fit right into the NZ scene.
I've grabbed the attached versions and will be trying them out tonight.A question for you - Was/is corrugated iron used as roofing material in the US? It is probably the most popular material used in New Zealand and it would be nice to have a version done in this texture,
any chance? Cheers

Nocturnal Flightless Bird

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Just a quick reply before I head for work.Tin roofing is not used in this style farmhouse. However, it is quite common for it to be in use on the older saltbox and tall 2 story types. I will be including examples of corrugated iron, we call it sheet metal here, roofing. The modern version is on the barns of my last upload.SRV Ron

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Thanks for the reply Ron.
I look forward to the results.
Cheers

Nocturnal Flightless Bird

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Here is a sample of the iron, sheet metal, roof. In this case, it is a farmhouse in bad need of painting. This design is very common in the area, most of them being over 100 years old. I will also do one painted with a new sheet metal roof, one with tarpaper roof, and one with green roofing sheeted walls. May even do one falling apart. All such examples exist in this area. My road job allows me to find all kinds of examples of housing design. The design pictured is found all over the farming areas and older towns in Michigan.I have a photo of a farmhouse in this condition with an apex on the gable. I will put it on the upload house but not the beta as the texture would exceed the 100k limit for placing it here.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409ae01564325270.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409ae02b645b4505.zip

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Thats it, nice work Ron.
These are very typical of rural housing over here and will be welcome additions to the local scene as Winter sets in. Better than tents and open paddocks.
Cheers

Nocturnal Flightless Bird

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Here is a real old farmhouse, the one with the apex design.SRV Ron

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http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409ae6e374409211.jpg

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They look great, but I do have a question. Will it be possible to do night and snow textures with this texturing method?

Steve T.

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No, due to the way the textures are handled and because they can be used anywhere on the structure.However,For snow, I have done a seperate object of just snow using my snow texture. That object is place on top of the roof of the structure. The object is a pure snow shape that can be formed into snowdrifts, etc... for the structure in question. it wirks because it has a texture in the Snow folder with no alpha channel set, but, in the texture folder, the alpha texture is set to render the object invisable at any other season. This is what has been done on some routes to simulate deep snow in mountain passes.Because there is no photos of the structures being used as textures, a night texture won't work. However, the work around is to turn selected windows to use SolidHalfBright. Here are the results of the old farmhouse using the windows from the pic above on the old farmhouse model just uploaded in beta.I will be doing several structures this way where I can replace the poly with a real window texture. The advantage of the half bright is it looks normal in daylight, but starts showing up in the twilight and is not too bright at full night.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409af2491a02a717.jpg

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409af2621a36bda0.jpg

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LAST EDITED ON May-07-04 AT 08:52 PM (EDT)

Ron, there are 2 other advantages to using the halfbright or even bright textures for lighted areas....1. less disk space needed for object ie. no extra night texture2. most importantly, if your house is used close to the tracks...with a night texture...the walls are artificially colored dark and when illuminated by the loco headlight will not light properly. This proplem is eliminated by using the halfbright or fullbright material settings on windows, doors, etc.LHW

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LAST EDITED ON May-07-04 AT 10:16 PM (EDT)

Good point as the houses are highly detailed to be used close to the tracks.Today's project was several more variaions of the classic bi level farmhouse including one with tiled brick. I'll be adding apex and date brick to that style.Today's upload, a replacement for the plain Kujo farmhouse. There will be several variations using porches and real window textures. This one is kept simple to use existing uploaded textures.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409c413e449f1e3d.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409c415244c35f3a.zip

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409c42df48064ac5.jpg

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Here is a low poly version of the farmhouse above. I have included backlit windows for night use. The windows are already in use from one of the required set of textures uploaded. This house is suitable for distance use but will still look ok closer up.Accidently set one set to SolidHiShine. Needless to say. MSTS phoned Bill.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d719d16c29810.jpg

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d71af16f315aa.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d71c21729bf0d.zip

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Just to share some more construction pics.Just finished masking the apex from the old farmhouse to use with old farmhouses.In this example, I have used the apex, along with a tiled sand brick texture, to show the details possible using 256 ace textures. The actual apex is place on one poly and mirrored on the second. This way, I can squeeze in a lot of detail by using half of the apex. There is room for a second one on the same ace file. This makes the structures suitable for trackside use.I will make some for distance viewing, flat frame windows, as most of the houses are coming out at 1500 polys due to the window frame details. I can still do the half bright on those windows as well.Night texture is faked by just using SolidHalfBright on the window glass poly. This eliminates the need for creating a Night texture which would only work for textures made by photographing the entire side of the structure.A 1024x1024 texture takes up the memory needed for sixteen 256x256 one. I get far more flexability using the smaller textures of tilable brick, wood, stone, shingles, etc... then limiting a structure to large textures of a building side.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d583146a85b75.jpg

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d584646d44481.jpg

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409d5857472605bc.jpg

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Hi Ron
A real building boom going on here.
I like the night lighting on the windows and as that also saves disc space, is a bonus.
Just a thought - have you considered building a housing block to help with object counts?
I realise that your working on farm houses at the moment which obviously are individual homes.
I believe this is the way to go for suburban areas and could be on the basis of better detail for close up and less detail for background.
There is a set in the library which work well and I notice Hac is also working on this.
I have a vested interest in prompting this, which I hope you will excuse, as I could not hope to catch up with your skills in this area as well as route building.
Cheers

Nocturnal Flightless Bird

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I will be designing three levels of details on the farm houses as I work on them.The first detail level I have posted several examples. They are set for close viewing with details in the window frames visable and porch rails. They tend to be rather high in poly count from 1000 to 2000.Second level will have names ending with LP. Those houses still have good details in the roof and porches, but use paste on one poly windows. Poly counts are in the 150 to 300 range. They will still look good even closer up or at mid range.Third level will have the name ending in Box. They will just be textured boxes with no details in construction. They are good for distance placement only. I will still paste windows on them so that some can be set for night use. Poly count will be well under 100 on the box design.Since there is a demand for housing in general, future work in this area will be on older homes found in urban and rural towns. I have an endless resource in the area as I can look at the real estate listing, free catalog and on line, and, I travel a lot and can observe the different examples of older houses in the area, which is often located near rail lines.All construction will be based on a set of construction textures so as to allow for large number of objects to select from, and, at the same time, limit the use of resources for textures.I may consider the block design once I have assembled enough housing for one.SRV Ron

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Tonight's project in lo poly mode. 540 polys on this structure. The Miller's Farmhouse. The asking price for the farm is $139,900 which includes a 40 x 80 hip roof barn.No, I don't sell real estate. I modeled the house from from a pic in the listing.Standard textures are used. The living area windows are set for night viewing.BTW, I programmed the exception into the Norton's firewall for Train-Sim. I uploaded the pic and zip without dropping the firewall.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409ff86014d32fd9.jpg
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/409ff87a15611507.zip

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Most complex structure to date. Only 654 polys, but 13 stock textures used to create it.The door texture is scanned from an ad flyer and I may replace the brown doors with it.There are 23 structures using eight new photo quality textures of bricks, windows, doors, and real apexes.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40a03429026122cc.jpg

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Added two more polys to the old brick house. The texture came from the photo of the house that had this apex. I added the texture to the blank space on an existing one.Quite a few of the old brick farmhouses have dates of construction and sometimes, the farmer's names in the brickwork at the front apex. Dates range from 1896 to 1912 on the brick farmhouses that I have seen in the area so far.I will be busy with Durand this weekend. The farmhouse megapack should be finished shortly after for testing and upload.SRV Ron

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40a185520bf417a7.jpg

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