General North American 3rd Party News (non Dramatic Version)

Jointed Rail does some superb stuff but they aren't "perfect" - no dynamic numbering.

 

If a developer has produced a range of products to the same quality over 10 years, you've got to assume that this is where they want to position themselves in the market, and it must be working commercially for them.

Be realistic in your expectations; if the range isn't for you then learn to live without them.

Moaning isn't achieving the outcome you want.

 

Another Bozeman locomotive is a GP30, doesn't look that terrible, though the cab leaves alot to be desired.

 

Is that a reskin of the old Sherman Hill UP GP30 (A+B, this looks like A only), or improved?

 

Out tomorrow. .

 

I think it's a whole new model, iirc DTM had a hard drive failure after the old gp30 was released.

 

Pure white headlights again? Come on HIS/DTM, give that texture a proper incandescent tint, it's not that difficult and it will last you for your future cut-copy-paste-paint efforts.

 

I assume you've already done that for your own use.

 

An NP FT and a BN GP30, next on the Bozeman loco roster is both NP & BN GP9s

 

It doesn't get any better, more pure white headlights, and an engineer ready to fall out of the cab window when he could open it.
and the default Donner Pass triple head searchlight signal with the signal heads on the wrong side of the mast,
waiting for those reversed switch targets to appear, LOL.
All these errors in default models and their application have been reported many times before, and they just keep reappearing to cut costs.
HIS and QA of 'prototype fidelity' and 'realism' are incomparable incompatible.

 

IMO the BN one deserves some credit. It's actually a pretty skin--on of DTM's best, in fact. Removed a bit of edgewear here and there and it completely solid.
The NP one looks washed out, which is on-par for past releases.
The headlights are something that needs to get fixed. I don't want to hear someone say otherwise, if you look at an American headlight you can clearly see they are not bright white but more yellow

 

Better than nothing - I'm glad about the route and the lights can and will be fixed quickly (standard DTM procedure for me). Tinting the lightflare texture and adjusting RGBs in the headlight blueprints. (Same for a lot of DTG stock to be fair here.)

It looks like these are projects that have been in the pipeline for some time, being finished before the devs turn over to TSW. (I am a happy pessimist, glad to be proven wrong anytime )

 

View attachment 168050



Money well spent! The Machine Rail Pere Marquette N1 Class 4-8-2. The iconic "Van Sweringen" Berkshire.

She looks and sound good, the short run went well. Quite noisy locomotive on my external speakers, with some substantial bass. Coal firing works better than the oil fired Frisco 4-8-2.
Included boxcar and caboose have nice rolling sounds. Caboose even has markers (unlit) but a red tail light.
Caboose also has a homely interior and conductor.

 

Sort of a thought, could be intentional to combat overly dark stuff, due to how the default shaders work under default weathers.
Similar to how stainless steel is modelled light grey (e.g. Amtrak, NJT) instead of deep grey.
Actual black (Norfolk Southern, MRCE) ends up way darker than photographs. (Mostly the lack of dirt rather than reflections.)

 

Except the yellow also appears washed out. Additionally, other devs (look at SPS' SOU SD40, or SLS' NS SD40) have figured out black just fine.

 

Don't forget, the used TimeOfDay files define the tint of colours and shades, that's why using AP skies not only has a better looking sky but also more natural colours for everything.

For judging colours, it's best to do it with overcast skies at noon. (Which is also the moment you're making photographs for textures, never in direct sunlight.)

 

When you activate the air pump the valve on the front is animated. Lots of little details. I have a mid -upper system and I did notice a big frame rate hit and stuttering. Very nice and very good detail.

Comments from Machine rail regarding frame rates:
'We worked for hours upon hours modeling this locomotive to ensure the best visual experience for a TSC player. Yes, this model is complex and highly detailed, so we will work with LODs technology to ensure acceptable performance during the simulation (for example, so that a Double-Header simulation is possible without obtaining a very sharp drop in FPS).
Therefore, if you still have a computer with a very outdated graphics card and processor, you will certainly experience a drop in FPS.'
UPDATE:
I have found the cause of the low frame rates issue I have been having with this loco. It is caused when the interior lighting is turned on. The frame rates were 13-15 and severe stuttering. Frame rates increased to 35+ even using in a double header configuration while running with headlights, class lights, and number board lights on only and interior lighting off, the stuttering is eliminated and decent frame rates can be achieved.
System i7 9700K @ 4.8Ghz, 32GB RAM, RTX 3060 12GB GPU.
Has any one else had these issues?

 

So what? Have you never seen a weathered locomotive?

 

From whence is this Big Boi available, please? Ive sworn off American steam, but this is tempting, very tempting.

 

I'm going to point that right back at you.
Weathering doesn't mean coating the locomotive in glaze, it means adding dirt and other various grime, all of which is darker. If you look at literally any locomotive, you will see that the weathering darkens the locomotive. Literally look at the BN skin, genuinely a good effort. The weathering involves rust and dirt, which is what a good light weathering job should look like (there's still a little too much edgewear but IMO it is bearable unlike of the previous skins).
This is also ignored that the entire unit is washed out, not bits and pieces of it. Weathering on the unit can be seen by the dirt on the frame, but other than that no weathering is present, just a coat of glaze.

 

Forty years of watching UP locomotives makes your comment ridiculous. I have seen every color shade, various dirt grime, fading and whatever on these paint jobs. I will guarantee if I look on Rail Pics or somewhere else I can find a paint job that looks like this.

 

Mouse over the floor to see the auger.

 

A loco that spends its time in the Pacific Northwest I bet wouldn't fade as bad as a locomotive running constantly under the hot sun all day.

 

Kay then, do just that. Must be an NP unit and you must find several or it is a one off.
Happy hunting and good luck!

 

https://www.machine-rail.com/shop

 

There is weathering and weathering, weathering is a subtle art to make a model more life-like, to bring out some details and it can also be used to mask less than favourable modeling. Edge enhancement isn't equal to subtle manual touching up of the textures.

Going over the Buzz's repaints at his board, few of the RWA repaints have weathering.

 

Not sure who it was aimed at, but my point about brightness levels is best illustrated with this photo:

The reason I find it excellent is the difference between the sunlit and shadowy sides.
In other photos the reflective parts become practically orange. This is just bright but demonstrates:

In contrast, there is this sunlit day - in some shots there is some reflection, but this just ended up too pristine. The game got better at this over the years, but mostly during golden hour.

As for weathering, dust and rust are actually brighter than pitch black:

I agree that it's more than just washed out, to finish off here is a DTM loco from over a decade ago, the SD45:

I was thinking of this specific model when mentioning grey levels, this is quite bright compared to the original Donner Pass stock, reality is somewhere in between but roughly this. No more pics because enough of me

 

Schnauz runs the Berk ...

cab lights are shadow casting to properly illuminate the 3D interior, however, they tank performance
the initial 'warm start' fire mass is rather high, hence the constant popping of the safety valves

 

Honestly the texturework on the NP geep looks far better than even recent releases like the SOU GP18. It still looks mediocre compared to the quality work done by Searchlight or various reskinners but it's an improvement nonetheless. Hopefully DTM starts improving the physics and sounds beyond slotcar level soon.

 

From what I’ve seen so far I also think the weathering on the EMD FT looks superb.

 

IDK, DTM goes a bit too far with the edgewear, it looks like a diecast train that was thrown down the stairs a bit too much

 

Fair point. I personally really like it and take interest since I haven't really seen this type of weathering on this game before that portray paint scratching. Usually weathering goes as far as the loco looking a bit dirty and I haven't really seen something like this before. However like others have said lets hope the physics / controls are a bit better. I have the HIS AT&SF pack; I think DTM did a few of the locos for those? (Please correct me if I am wrong, I don't have that much direct from DTM stock) but eitherway as much as I like AT&SF I find controlling the locos of the pack to be sloppy, clunky and annoying to drive with keyboard controls which is my usual go to for driving. The sounds also blend together quite poorly.

Either way at least it looks like DTM's visuals and texturing is getting better but physics and controls are certainly the next most important thing they need to focus on.

 

Also, Livingston Depot.

 

Fresh and sun baked.

 

Complete with the requisite dents, fades, and dings. In defense of how these locomotives and rolling stock are portrayed, some licensing requires a certain condition. Clean, dirty, damaged conditions are covered in the licensing contract and they vary by company. Some distressed rolling stock and locomotives can not be done by the licensee and can be provided by 3rd party freeware artists to circumvent licensing agreements. Much in the same way reskins of different railroads are applied to a base model.

 

Wonder if the Berk will turn up on Steam at some point?

 

The problem with it, like alot of other Machine Rail locos, is that there is no "Official" route on steam to run it on. Even 3rd party routes you have to stretch yourself, or just default to Adriana County.

Makes me wish sone of the people who commission MR do locos for routes that would do great with a good steam loco.

 

The dev who make the IC route in mods.tsc has said they're planning on doing a PM route next. Doesn't help a potential steam release but it should make it so we can have community scenarios for the locomotive.

 

For the Berk, just pick a route that represents the North East, Great Lakes region of the US to get the requisite scenery and manufacturing and clone it. Make it what you want. I have been using the St. Lawrence Hallsbury Division I found at Train Sim Community (wonderful fall colors). This site is packed with TSC stuff. https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/c1-train-sim-classic. You won't be seeing many repaints of this, if any. I understand that they are extremely difficult to repaint.

 

That's probably the consequence of commissioning, fragmentation. MR's erection hall is fully booked with future commissions, but listed are only WM I-1 class 2-10-0 and RGS T-19 ng 2-8-2 (?): https://www.machine-rail.com/projects. I believe the other commissions are shelved for the moment.

For the WM we have a few Appalachian themed routes, and she already has her sister H-9 class. A WM ''Pocono" 4-8-4 and 4-6-6-4 would make for a nice roster.
The narrow gauge loco will find its place on the available RGS route.

DSGDDR took on the PPR S-1, a white elephant, instead of building on the PRR roster with a 4-6-0, 2-8-2, 4-8-2, with the familiar PRR look. Possibly amended by a 2-10-4 or even the more numerous Duplex's like T-1 and Q-2. The in development S-2 steam turbine has vanished alltogether, along with its creator.

The ATSF and UP core has been laid, but these popular railroads can also be build upon.

Plus we need a standard set of heavyweight passenger cars.

Trainz has a nice cross section of US steam locomotives, I wish for the same in TSC.

 

I'm disappointed we don't have more SP steam aside from the GS-4 and Cab Forward. Need some MT Class locos, as well as proper Daylight cars. As well as updated GS and AC class locos.

 

Well guys then do something about it.

 

Yeah, just let me pull money, time and skills out of my behind........

 

You mean like how you made the FT after you said you wanted it? Oh wait, my mistake. You borderline harassed DTM about it for the better part of three years. Maybe take your own advice some time, especially with care to kindness and chivalry.

 

I’ve always wanted more American steam as a whole for TSC… good thing we are really starting to get that with the likes of Machine Rail.

I absolutely love unique American steam streamliners and truly wished we had more of them in the game. Hard part is since hardly any of them are preserved it’s sort of hard to make it a realistic depiction with sounds and such. But at the same time it does allow a developer to take a few liberties they see fit as long as it still feels like it would’ve been true to the real thing.

 

Yes, I've long thought that sounds need only be credible, not truly accurate.

 

Suggestions to developers cost only your time in writing them. Some developers get stuck and look for ideas different to the route they are following so as to clear their head - just like artists or authors or any other talent. No suggestions - no chance (and I don't mean one of the often ridiculously lengthy lists posted in this forum).

 

i hope it comes to steam for sale id buy it...there a lot of stuff available i wish they would bring to steam store so more can buy and enjoy the content without the hassles of messing with files etc

 

It doesn't take money necessarily just time and learning new skills.