Hello. As you may or may not have noticed from some of my questions and posts, I have been working on a route and I think it's about the right time to make things a bit more official. Having a thread will also allow me to share progress on some of the more creative aspects. For my first (and hopefully not only) TSW route, I have picked the Rosentalbahn running from St. Veit an der Glan through Klagenfurt down to Weizelsdorf, which is about 30 km of track. The choice is admittedly a bit random other than the fact that I'm a huge fan of Austrian railway lines and the fact that I attempted it already in TSxx (while lacking a whole lot of technical knowledge that I have today). As this is my first real route project, I decided to start with a 7 km mid-section and want to get it fully done before starting working on any other parts and especially before making the two big stations. Though part of me wants to start laying tracks for St. Veit an der Glan now just so there is something to drive on. Here is the current route map: As for the progress, the section in question has all the tracks laid down, has all the signals and is perfectly drivable in both ways. Further work will involve making the catenary, adding a landscape material and then making scenery for all of the player-accessible areas. For now there is also one big inaccuarcy that I had to make, which is that all the derailers that are used to guard various branch lines are replaced with dwarf-signals. The reason is that we don't have Austrian derailers in TSW and I don't know how to make one. Here's some more pictures. Not much to see at the moment though. Maria Saal exit signals: Maria Saal Overview: Klagenfurt Airport branch:
I'm glad to see you're including the airport branch, even if it is a bit shorter than the one on DRA... Haven't heard of this line before, but I did have a quick browse on OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia, and it looks like a really cool choice to me!
Thanks. I think we could use the ÖBB 4024, the Taurus with IC coaches and whatever freight locomotives are capable of running in Austria like the Vectron or BR 185.5. Maybe BR 101 as well but I believe it's only running from Klagenfurt in the direction towards Villach.
Klagenfurt is in the state of Kärnten and to be more precise, the Wörthersee region in Austria. Actually a very big touristic hot spot for Austria, not far to the slovenian and italian border. A route extension to Villach along the Wörthersea could also be very exciting. Really interesting to see how this will turn out!
An extension to Villach would certainly be nice but that's another 35 km of track, which is more than my current final length, and even with this I don't think I will run out of work anytime soon . Another feasible extension is going about 33 km north to Friesach, which is a final destination for the S1 line.
In the past few days, I have been working on the catenary and it seems to be the longest task so far however as an artist, I do want to make it look somewhat right as it's one of the few options to bring detail into the track area without outright making stuff up. I'm of course doing this within the possibilities of the Vorarlberg catenary construction kit. Other than that, I was obviously doing a lot of testing on the signals as well as looking ahead and trying things that will come afterwards like these signs.
Quick update, I was once again doing some un-sexy stuff and found some flaws in my signaling setup. Most notable thing was that all of the distant signals were built as main instead of auxiliary, which caused the dispatcher to try and set red lights on them and stuff. In the end, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and the route is perfectly drivable on both tracks in both ways including correct PZB restrictions. Few days ago, I also managed to corrupt my route and had to restore it from a backup, which made me lose some of the built catenary. I think I'll just continue working on new stuff and return to the lost section towards the end.
Another update. After quite a bit of work, I have finally finished making the catenary for the starting section including re-creating the wiring setups in the switching areas of Maria Saal (so that they look as messy as the real thing ). This means that I can now move onto adding all the various signs and signals that aren't actually functional. This will also include a first bit of 3D modeling as the snow-plough signs aren't in the game yet.
Excellent work so far why not make a KkStb era time table here the only place in Austria where you can find Kaiser Franz Josef I era locos is the Eisenbahnmuseum Strasshof
Thanks. As for the steam timetable, I really wouldn't want to do it. Not only do we not have any appropriate rolling stock but the route has also changed drastically in the last 100 years.
For the last update of this year, I started working on a landscape material. The editor doesn't support material functions, which is a shame however I think I still managed to make the graph look pretty clean. Lot of it is also copy-pasted so it really didn't take as much time as you might think. Also I have a question to ask. Do you guys only want to see stuff that looks cool? Or do you want me to also talk about the various techniques that I'm using.
As someone who is Fiddeleing about with the editor (way of actually creating a route) i‘d love any and all insights into routenuilding techniques. Very excited about this project.
I think it's up to you, Tomas, but I would also be very interested in the techniques you use and how you build certain things (your gradient plotting tutorial also was very helpful). I personally treat my route thread as ask & answer one for aspects I don't know or could use some help, plus sharing some insights people who are not interested in route building should not care of. Because, well, it simply depicts what I'm working on at the moment and this is what belongs to it. In the end, all what matters is that the route gets finished, not how clean and readable the developement thread of it was, I think. BTW, Happy New Year!
Hello. Thanks for the reply and yeah, I agree that this is my castle and that I can do whatever I want in this thread. On a second though, I think it will be better to make separate threads when I want to talk about specific things (Landscape material should be a pretty cool topic) as it will be easier to find. As for finishing a route, I'm treating this more as an art project and trying to have more fun with various aspects (and see what can be done) rather than just racing to the finish line like some want to. In other words, finishing and route is secondary to actually having fun during it's development. btw. I'm Thomas but don't worry, usually only eastern people seem to get it right away .
Damn It's been a while since I made an update. Anyway, I have been working one some of the scenery in the northern section above Maria Saal. It's a middle of nowhere but at the same time, it seems like a good place to experiment.
Little update on what is admittedly a pretty small amount of progress. Basically I have finished the testing section with nearby scenery to a degree that I like (shown between the red bars) and will continue south towards the green line. I'm not making custom assets at the moment. Just throwing proxy meshes where I need them. Also I've been pretty busy lately so don't expect a whole lot of progress.
It's kind of a hard decision to make, however in the end, I want to cancel or at least indefinitely pause this project in favor of something else (which may or may not be TSW related or even a game mod). Main reasons: 1.) The project is starting to become a massive chore that just isn't fun. Most of the art challenges had already been solved and that leaves kilometers of terrain to be made "in the same way" with occasional challenges, which just isn't entertaining for a free-time project. 2.) Having an audience on a long project (even if it's an ever-praising one) creates a sense of pressure that I'm not entirely comfortable with. I feel like having something private and/or short-term just gives me a lot more freedom. 3.) There are currently specific things I want to try or explore and being stuck on something big (together with having limited free time) is really getting in the way. Here are the last screenshots that I just didn't get to publish:
A pity you want to stop now. You could have known. Matt warned about starting big. Hope you atleast did enjoy the learning and hopefully you will come back at some point to do a small rotue.
Really sweet screenshots and thanks for coming forward and being open about it, I know it's a chore at times. I'd recommend to edit the thread title to include that the project is on hiatus. I'm sure there are exciting things waiting for you Looking forward to whatever is coming next, if at all!
I'm sorry to hear that, but I hope you have fun with your new project. It's crucial to choose such endeavors wisely so that even during tough times, it doesn't feel like a burden. Maybe you'll come back to it later, or someone else will pick up the task. Best of luck moving forward!
Thanks for the encouraging replies and yeah, at least the next project should be pretty small. Well below stuff I finished previously and also completely private.
Yes, I have the same concerns about the future of my project as we talked about it before, whether it makes sense to continue and proceed with it, because this project takes so much time and effort. I can completely understand you and it's no "giving up" at all if you ask me. At some point, things just don't make sense anymore and it would be almost irresponsible to just continue because you have that aim in your head to provide a route. We have almost nothing in return for what we're doing except doing it for fun and therefore working so hard doesn’t make sense if you don't have one anymore with it. Huge respect also that you got the guts to clearly say that you won't do it further. I guess we saw many projects in the last months, which just seem to be abandoned by now as the thread has been left without any updates. I think the main problem is the endless repetition of things (making work seem endless) plus the view on what all of this is worth it or in the end even possible (I'm still waiting for the bug or missed functionality which prevents me from continuing). When DTG does a route project, they are experienced of all downsides and techniques to avoid traps. Unfortunately, they let us down and leave us alone with tips like that for months now, which is not a good situation. We invest time and effort into these projects and help and guidance equals zero a few weeks after the Editor has been released. Not happy about that and this on its own is a big reason why stopping a project seems useful. If they don't believe in the Editor, why should we do so hard then? Anyways, I'm pretty happy with what I could create so far, but just a bucket of mixed feelings everytime I look at the finish and success of my project. Yes, this is something strange. There is indeed something like a pressure to give updates, accord to a certain quality standard and get finished as soon as possible. In the last days, I often thought about if it had been a benefit if I hadn't published my project yet. On the other hand, having an audience on your project also can help motivate you to get further. And for me especially, the documentation of my project is useful for me later on even if I would stop or cancel it as well at some point. At least I can show what I wasted my time with the last months. My current life situation allows or let's says favors the work with the Editor at the moment. 2024 will not be good year for me as certain things are unevitable in my life I have to go through, so working on it kinda of distracts me from that in a certain way. If the situation would be different, I would never had the time (and will) to invest in such a huge non-profit project. I mean yes, it's fun to create, but on the same time consumes so much time and power, in the end yourself, that all the fun with barely equals the pain you have with it. You know these screenshots are really really looking good. It would be shame if you completely want to ditch all of what you did so far. I would say rest the project for a couple of weeks/months and then maybe come back into at when you did all the things which this project hinds you from at the moment. Also if you really decide to not continue this project any further, think about two options. Either A. Give to someone else who is interested or B. - a thought I also often think about - Just release it as it. As a community project, you don't need to comply to any standards DTG needs to do. You don't need a timetable or anything like that. Just giving the route (even if it is unfinished) could still provide a cool playground for the one or other by spawning trains on it or just discovering your well crafted landscape. As I do it with a lot of other personal projects completely unrelated to DTG and TSW, get yourself a big hard disk and just store the files of your plugin there. Don't delete them. You will never know if after a few years you have an interest to revive your plans.
I don't actually think his project was that big with around 30 km. In comparison to other projects started here it was comparatively small. I also think that the idea of "creating small project first" is good, but however bits itself with the nature of what we're building - a railway. A railway simply cannot be that small to work. And this is a major issue for all of us creators. On one side, yes starting with something small is favorable, but on the other it doesn't really make sense to focus only at a small piece of track. I would say focusing on a railway of about 20 to 30 km is a good way to go, but you should start with a small section of it first and then go over (That's actually what he did). But apart of that, I think the main problem lies somewhere else. It's the hassle of the amount of work to get the route in a finished state - and this even applies to small projects I would say. Creating a route, small or bigger one, is not that easy as you need to care about all of the details which make it work, burning all of your free time and nerves for it for almost nothing in exchange. And then adding to that the developer literally seems to have no interest to support us anymore.
