Do you know how to do 3d modelling? I have used Blender before. If a group of digital modelers were to collaborate on a project ie route it certainly would go a way to making a new route.
And more to the point, where to host them? UKTS, though it seems to be lingering, is going. Trainsim dot com is not the site it was, plagued by advertising (even with a blocker) a forum with a few regulars and certainly where some sims are concerned a moderation policy that just locks threads they don’t like the look of. Anyway whinge aside, much initially will depend on what can be done with the assets in the existing routes. Something US or Canada based out in the woods is going to be mainly trees with the odd shack or outbuilding in a yard plus various town or city buildings. However an urban passenger route will be more problematic as no doubt just as in TSC, stations etc. will be built as one solid asset. So we need a good selection of core type structures for such locations plus bridges and tunnel portals etc.
An existing game modding site like Nexus or ModDB, as I have repeatedly advocated. It is the obvious and logical solution.
I think Nexus is probably okay but I know some of the ETS2 and ATS truck sim mod sites are a bit tricky with popups before you get the link (even with a suppressing manager installed) or misleading download links that can take you to malware. And general game modding sites are no real substitute for a well organised and catalogued site dealing specifically with train sim assets, like UKTS (used to be). In an ideal world, if this takes off, maybe DTG can look at something similar to the N3V Download Station for Trainz which, for all my criticism of Trainz as a driving sim, works superbly when it comes to hosting assets and linking dependencies to routes or items of rolling stock etc. Inevitably that might require some sort of subscription to get a decent download speed (cue howls of protest) but I tend to take the DLS for a one or three month period to grab what I need if I'm on a route building (or reinstall!) binge then make do with the free limited speed and bandwidth the rest of the time.
Well the thing is we are not looking for mods per se but perhaps individual assets. Going to take a lot of searching and just as has happened with TSC these will be scattered all over the place. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea and will have to see how things work in practice but a central repository with a dependency search system, like the DLS, is potentially more user friendly. I’m guessing it will be possible to bundle third party assets not part of official DLC within your own route file which will help. Just there’s a lot of unknowns about this at present.
I'll be modelling for sure, infact I've already started on a couple of things! I think Train Sim Community is a good option, it's already where I go for my TSW mods. I imagine an asset tab will appear after the editor is realised. I'm also at somepoint in the future considering putting together a small community asset pack of bits and pieces. So far I'm thinking some generic clutter Items that would be the most useful for a broader ranges of uses. If anyone has any must have requests feel free to share them!
I'm building 3Ds at a pace that I last reached over 8 years ago . For the storage, a lot will depend on the size of the files produced by UE4 (terrain, textures for the terrain, trees, basic stuff). Then the cooked 3Ds, sounds, extras....
Really all that's required is for creators to provide links to required assets, which they usually do in TSC. If the community settled on one site for hosting mods assets wouldn't be "scattered all over the place" as they are in TSC. I would not consider a subscription fee a price worth paying for automatic lists of required dependencies.
I tried some a while back for a TSC route. Just a question to get people talking. Maybe an Australian route? I will need to model buildings and do it slowly.
3D modeling is something I enjoyed but haven't done in a long time, Id love to get back into it and eventually do it professionally as well as learn unreal to do things with routes, however I think I should only start off with some relatively basic looking buildings. Am definitely interested to see what kind of custom stuff comes out
