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Here are a few pics of a 95 car Southern Pacific manifest winding its way down hill from Chamiso into Benson and the San Pedro Valley. I'm currently working on the Stormy and have rail laid from Mescal to Dragoon. I've just now started a little scenery and textures. The desert texure I'm using now doesn't quite capture the feel of southern AZ/ NM...at least to me it doesn't. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions for capturing the high desert look??
Looks like the major things your missing include scrub brush, rocks, perhaps the occasional tumbleweed. I'm not familiar with the area your modeling, but having played around Raton, NM to Santa Fe there is actually quite a bit of desert scenary and I can understand you not wanting it to look like the Sahara.
Living in New Mexico I can tell you that typical Southwestern scenery, especially in New Mexico, is very similar to your textures. Your textures will look fine if you add all the shrubs and bushes, which there are A LOT of.
I think byork hit it.The terrain.ace you're using needs to have scrubble, dry looking vegetation, etc. Dig up some of the screen pics being put up by Andy Miller: He's doing an excellent job with terrtex's. Look at his work, and see what he's doing, then try to emulate it with desert textures.Andre MingVisit VSC's temporary web page at: http://www.vscalecreations.comVisit VSC's Forum at: http://www.3DTrains.com
Ah, shucks...Thanks for the compliment, Andre. Desert scenery, especially in Southern Arizona, is a lot more alive than most people appreciate. Will's shot of the UP loco near Benson is a great example of that. When you get closer to Lordsburg and Deming, it thins out a bit, but there's still some variety and color. My starting point for developing terrain textures has been to do a Google image search - I usually restrict the results to large images, and have found a lot of very good examples of terrain colors and textures unique to a specific area (for me, it's northern NM and southern CO). I'm working on a tutorial to illustrate how I take a photo and turn it into a terrtex file, and what sorts of transitions are needed. Like a lot of stuff on my list, it's about 80% done This past week, though, I had the opportunity to drive from Santa Fe to Chama, and then over to the Four Corners. I took quite a few digital shots of terrain and rolling stock, and I was frankly amazed at how green the area was. It's still spring, but I didn't remember how much forest and sage covered the ground, and how many trees lined the rivers. Anyway - try the search engines for images, and use those as your starting points. Generate a 512x512 image from the best ones (especially if you find a nice shot from a high vantage point looking down). That will get you started. Add some vegetation, and you're off and running. Keep us posted, and don't feel shy about asking more questions. There's some good help around here if you're patient.Andy
Hey cool, I had started on the project from Tucson to Benson but I gave up after numerous crashes, when you do do Benson to Tucson, I can get you lots of photos, I even go to school at Cienega, which is right next to "Track 2" in Vail. Here's my webpage on the school site http://chs.vail.k12.az.us/web_design_team/William_Site/cienegacrk.htmlAnd for the ground cover, just cover it with as many mesquite trees you can, it's so thick it's hard to walk (and drive a Cherokee) in some places. this photo might help you a little. The world is a vampire, sent to drain. Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames. And what do I get for my pain? Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game. Even though I know - I suppose I’ll show All my cool and cold-like old job. Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage... ...Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved
The world is a vampire, sent to drain. Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames.