Looking good, any updates for April?, I really do hope one day this becomes a official third party dlc for tsw because it’s amazing and we could really use new steam, specially a tank engine
Thanks for your continued interest. At the moment I have completed chassis detailing and am trying to get the UV map unwrapped and packed in Blender before final texturing in ArmorPaint. Photo shows the Blender screen with UV map on LHS and faces within the yellow areas are not yet unwrapped and packed correctly. The different colours in the background texture are just to help me sort all the faces into their basic colour before getting ArmorPaint to refine these and generate the final single texture maps. Once this is done I should be able to recombine the Chassis and Boiler meshes and reload the finished object into the editor, then onto the Cab !
I think DTG Alex should include this in the next roadmap's community spotlight TSW desperately needs more steam locomotives, I hope DTG is paying attention to this one.
Apologies for long wait for an update but I have been working on the texturing of the loco. I realised it was a mistake to leave the UV unwrapping of such a complex model and had to texture some component again before duplicating and mirroring them on the other side of the loco. This photo shows the loco in Play In editor mode - at the moment it is a static mesh as I have to make final adjustments to the skeleton and make some animations as I have had problems with using the DTG 4F animations. I'm not convinced by the bare metal on the coupling rods and buffer heads and may add a transfer layer to the buffer heads to get dirty /greasy look. The other problem is the wheel treads (bare metal) which are currently coming out almost black. Apart from refining the numbering (to be able to choose cab and buffer numbers) the next move is to start on the Cab Interior model and get rid of the see through effect in the photograph !.
Wow very well done, honestly this is a required dlc for tsw 6 if they ever invite you to the third party program or something honestly don’t know how that works but I just really really really hope this becomes a official dlc
Im going to be working on steam locos for my Talyllyn project they're pretty intimidating, could i asked you some questions i get stuck on something?
Of course I'm always happy to help although I can't guarantee I would know the answer !. Perhaps I could ask you a question : To get your route into the game did you use the "trainsim.cz" cooking mod or the Official Editor cooking ?. Your post inspired me to have another go at getting my GWR route into the game (last tried a year ago) but I couldn't get the simple timetable (one service) to simulate correctly.
Thanks for your support and continued encouragement. I don't think DTG are likely to invite me to become a third party developer as I am just a (retired) individual and family commitments often have to take priority over working on Editor projects. I try to get a couple of hours every day on the PC. If I ever get this working in the game I would be quite happy to release it as a free mod. I started on this tank engine as I thought I might be able to adapt the 0-6-0 layout of the DTG 4F loco to my model. For my GWR Steam era route I really need a 1400/4800 Class Autotrain loco (0-4-2) - perhaps that could be the next project !!
No i used the offical guidance and did trial and error to get my way through it. I do have a demo route plugin which has the bare minimum and a pdf guide i wrote if you think that would help?
Thanks very much for this pdf file. I have read through it and it looks as if it will be a great help in getting my route into the game. I hadn't realised that things like the theme were so important. Have you added this to the TSW Editor reference documents ? as I'm it would help others whom are trying to create a route..
I have followed your pdf. tutorial and was able to cook the route and get the packed file into the game DLC folder. Sadly the route is still not visible in the game. I suspect it didn't work for me because I have "modified" DTG assets in my route ("Child" versions) and it seems from other threads that this can prevent the route from loading correctly. It was worth a try and thanks again for your help. This is getting a little off topic (into the "cooking and packing" threads) so I will return to the GWR Tank loco.
Thanks Andy Gough and LouisianaSoutheastern2087 for the support and encouragement. Now working on the Cab Interior and Controls starting with the boiler backplate (walls hidden in Blender while I work on this). Photo shows In Editor version of the Backplate as Work -in -Progress with just the Clack valves fitted and some work on the floor - just testing textures at this point. As model is loco "as built" approx 1930 the clack valves are in their original position before conversion to top feed.
Thanks for the picture of the model - I assume it is 4mm (OO scale). In the past I have made a couple of static locomotive models (metal) in 2.1/2 inch gauge (17/32 to the foot). Making models in Blender is certainly easier than machining everything from steel and brass - and they don't take up any room in the house when they're finished. Although slightly off topic here is a picture of a half section model of Stephenson's Rocket :-
No clue about scale but it’s definitely a nice piece of my collection, ^^ Also very cool model you have there, (I could show off more of my models if you want)
Thanks but I'm a bit reluctant to hijack this forum for a talk about models in general and think I should stick to posts related to what I am doing in the PC editor. On that score attached is latest photo from Blender of the Cab with the Floor (at least on the Right Hand Side) and the back wheel springs (which project into the cab) completed. Because things like the wheel arches from the Exterior model intrude into the cab I imported part of the exterior model into Blender so that I could get all the parts in the right place. As before the textures are divided into the basic colours and when the mesh is complete I will import it into ArmorPaint so that I can refine the textures and end up with a single texture map for the whole thing. The strange circular feature in the centre of the Backhead is the boss for the Regulator with the projections ready to shape the Steam Fountain which all the pipes originate from.
How do you like armour paint? I'm considering getting it for texturing stuff for TSW, is it a good alt to Painter? Is it fairly easy to learn? I think I read somewhere that AP is better for non-realistic (stylized) painting, is that true?
The jury is still out on ArmorPaint. I had been using Quixel Mixer which was free but since Epic Games relaunched Quixel as Fab I think it is broken. I had used QM mainly for texturing surfaces and hadn't realised you could import a mesh and work on that directly. I'm not sure with QM how you get single maps for all the different layers. I haven't ever used Painter so can't advise. ArmorPaint uses Nodes within the material and is very similar to Blender. If you have made procedural textures in Blender you would find the process familiar . If in doubt you could try doing procedural textures in Blender first as that allows you to bake out the texture maps and you can get a sense of the basics without paying out for new software. I find ArmorPaint a bit temperamental especially when trying to apply decal layers such as the dirt streaks on the sides of my locomotive because you have to rotate and scale a box to "project" the decal onto the surface and I found this quite tricky and had to restart that bit a few times. Also I haven't really mastered the many different ways in which you can blend the layers together (Mix , multiply , darken , Lighten etc. etc.) For what it cost ( £15) compared to other software I've found it quite useful for texturing big complex meshes but it can be frustrating to use at times. Hope this helps.
Latest progress on the Cab Skeletal Mesh. Just finished the three pressure gauges but the vacuum one doesn't have pipe connections yet as the Vacuum Brake parts not done. I used Libre Cad to draw out the scales and divisions and then an image processing programme to add the numbers and text.
have you painted the guage needles onto the mesh or are you modeling them? from what ive seen looking at the blueprints for the 08 the guage needles have specific bones assigned and animations tied to the simulgraph
I have modelled them, that is they were separate objects which are now combined into the overall skeletal mesh. I will be adding bones to to them when I do the armature and will then link each bone to the relevant needle by vertex group. I won't animate the steam heating gauge (middle one) as I don't think the game can deal with steam heating or if there are nodes in Simugraph for it.
