Having been messing around with the editor over the last few months I decided I was going to have a go at actually doing something. Remembering that GARL has a low scenery density (and quality), as the route was intended to be seen from the driver's POV, pretty much exclusively, I thought it would be a good place to start. My plan is to; • Add more scenery areas around the line, and expand upon the depth of them. • Add more detail into areas where it • Add "proper" roads where the textures of them currently are. • Mimic real life* *I will put this out here, however. Things won't be 100% accurate, either due to limitations caused by the editor, my skill with it, or the lack of assets I have available. For example, some buildings will be somewhat out of place, as will some roads. However my aim is to keep it mostly realistic. I started at the Glasgow-end of Paisley. I'll be replacing these roads, which are just dead ends in game: With what they actually are: Gallowhill Road, Paisley (WIP - the floating fences and hedges show you that) Whilst this isn't 100% like reality, is better than what it looked like originally, and that's the intention: to make the route enjoyable, and to make it look good. I'll provide updates as this project goes on, however as it's my first attempt I'll be taking my time, and hopefully one day it will be available to all on the workshop
Moving towards Paisley Gilmour street I did some work on one of the areas immediately next to the station. This is what it looks like on the original GARL: And this is how it looks now: Using the assets available (I have both GARL and Fife Circle line enabled) I have tried to mimic the shapes, styles and environment as much as possible. The house visible to the near side of the car park (with multiple chimneys) is multiple of the same asset stuck together. And has a small back garden/outdoor area represented; The majority of the roads in this area have also been redone so they aren't just textures, meaning traffic will now go past on them. There are also static cars at the church, and some in the part opposite. It's not entirely visible in the image above, however there are vehicles behind the garage to the right. At the car park, the existing 2D trees have (mostly) been replaced with 3D ones, and some bushes have been added. The advertisement takes the place of a real one. The final change since the original post is that the 'White Cart Water' - the river running alongside this area, towards the airport - no longer has a massive gap in the middle of it. Originally, it looked like this: Now it looks like this: That's the end of this update. I'll keep them coming as I work on the route, and Eventually it might look half decent All images shown are Work in Progress.
It has been a *long* time but we are back folks! Reviving this project; just for fun, I've cracked on with work around the Inverclyde Line section at Paisley St. James and the adjacent flyover. Paisley St. James St James' station is arguably one of the worst areas in the route - there are a lot of otherwise in-use areas left as simple grass - presumably because of the Airport Link - and it's main Landmark; the St. Mirren Park football ground (boooo) is completely AWOL. The station itself is fine, although even the trees next to it make it look poor. Before: After: Before: After: While I've had to make some approximations for the sake of the Air Link not existing in reality, the trees along the station give it a bit more of a realistic feel; more like itself and less like an MSTS station.
Roads The GARL route only includes a handful of "real" roads; the rest are an image on the route's ground tiles. Using the Fife Circle Line (mainly), I've added in real, functional roads; reflective of their real-life counterparts. Additionally, fences have been placed where needed, as businesses line most of the streets here. Before: After: Before: After:
Additionally, I've moved to extend the roads network; now connecting from Gilmour Street to St. James; and pacing the way for a lot more building. (This inst visible, entirely.)
Reflection Paisley in general isn't an entirely nice place; and this part is no different. A lot of commerce and derelict offices - as far in as the main station and town centre - define the place. I want to, as closely as I can, reflect that. Even though I replaced derelict offices for more "clean" ones (two posts up) - despite those buildings being run-down in reality, I feel it closer represents the buildings. In this case below, it was blatantly wrong. This is a small, abandoned (seemingly) convenience store, with overgrowth and a Portacabin Hire company (which I have, yes, put in) around it; not houses with a garden. Just an example of how bad GARL is for accuracy (in the real places.)
Reflecting an area isn't just about it's character, it's about what's actually there. The area has a lot of warehouses and service industries; as well as numerous yards and the likes; not particularly well-organised ones, at that. I've attempted to show that here, too.
(This one isn't a direct comparison; I forgot to take a screenshot from this position in the Original Version.) That's all I have for now. I recognise that Glasgow Airport Rail Link is nobody's favourite DLC and I doubt it's one of the highly owned ones. But, it's a project for my own enjoyment and, even if it doesn't exactly save the route, I'll hope at least it makes it better for those who do own it, as well as myself. My plans are: 1. Paisley Overhaul (ongoing) 2. Hillington West Overhaul 3. Hillington East Overhaul 4. Cardonald Overhaul 5. Glasgow Airport Upgrades 6. Shields Road Depot & Dumbreck Station 7. Glasgow South Overhaul & Pollockshields East 8. Glasgow City Centre Overhaul 9. Some new scenarios I am considering the following (small) extensions; nothing too major; Inverclyde Line to Bishopton - Paisley St James -> Bishopton - 4.15 miles (6.679km) Pretty much a straight line from St. James to Bishopton; adjacent to the M8 Motorway, with Aircraft flying above from the Airport. Relatively simple to create, outwith Bishopton itself. Cathcart Circle Line to Pollockshields East - Glasgow Central -> Pollockshields East - >1.5 Miles (2.4km) Leaning into WCML North a tiny bit, adding the small section of the Cathcart Circle Line to Pollockshields East - and the adjacent Glasgow Southwestern Line, allows for a little bit more room to play with. Paisley Canal Line to Dumbreck - Shields Junction -> Dumbreck - ~0.56 Miles (0.9km) This one should be here already; it's right next to Shields Depot. If it isn't... Yikes. If it is, then it's just adding detail like everywhere else, if it isn't, then it's an inconvenience. This one will happen, because it gives me a bit more room and shouldn't need much, if any, trackwork. Paisley Canal Line - Dumbreck -> Paisley Canal - 5 Miles, 30 Chains Adding an additional five stations, this is very much a "maybe..." Paisley Canal isn't far from Gilmour Street and I should be able to roughly find my way there from the existing route; and likewise Crookston and Mosspark to the other existing stations towards Glasgow. This would build on Dumbreck and give a new, short, nice enough commuter route to the add-on. Ayrshire Coast Line to Johnstone (1) - Paisley Gilmour Street -> Johnstone - 3.5 Miles (5.6km) One of two options for the Ayrshire Coast Line; this would allow 380 Scenarios to start a bit further out on their way into Paisley and Glasgow. Ayrshire Coast Line to Elderslie - Paisley Gilmour Street -> Elderslie W. H. Malcolm - 2.5 Miles (4km) The alternative would be to go up to the W. H. Malcolm site in Elderslie - about a Mile short of Johnstone. This would give some freight services a position to start. Deanside - Cardonald -> Deanside Intermodal - 1.5 Miles (give or take) My final idea is to add the Deanside Intermodal site, which branches off just to the north of Cardonald. Whilst not greatly useful for scenarios, as there isn't anywhere for freight to go, it would be helpful for AI or having to dispatch a rescue locomotive, something like that. Conclusion, for now... GARL doesn't have to be a boring, short nothingness. It can be something more. That's what this aims to do. GARL has potential - it's on the "main" section of both the Inverclyde and Ayrshire Coast Lines, it has the beginnings of the Paisley Canal Line and it's got a unique concept - a fictional planned route that never came to be - which grants me a little bit of artistic license. Whilst I don't in any way commit to these extensions, I want to make GARL feel, at least to me, like one of those "nice little route's that you find here and there. I also would like to add a couple of custom objects if I can figure out how - namely the St. Mirren Park and Ibrox Stadiums - as both are distinctly visible from the line. Of course, if I add Bishopton (or any other of those listed above), I'll need to make assets for those. But, let's focus on what we have for now. Until next time! Hopefully not two years later!
I want to properly lay out what this remaster will, hopefully, entail; expanding upon the above post. I am not using the Google Maps API - I'm not buying at, at least not now, as I don't currently need it. If I move on to the extensions, I might. This is my current "project outline": - Scenery Upgrades As you've already seen, in-depth, high-quality, detailed scenery is the priority here; with a focus on realism. I am not promising 100% accuracy; there will be corners cut, especially in the road network thanks to the lack of the maps overlay. But, as you can see above, it already looks better. - A new experience While the GARL route in it's current scope is... not exactly interesting... the small extensions to Dumbreck and possibly Pollockshields East allow for "finish Service A, start service B" scenarios. The branch to Burnside allows for Freight and "rescue this train!" scenarios and the two extensions westward would allow for extended passenger services. The Inverclyde Line is my local line - which is half of the reason I bought the GARL route originally, the other being the 380 - and I would love to see a bit more of it - even if that is "just" those 4 or so miles to Bishopton. I would like to do all of what I mentioned previously, but that will take a long time. This is a project of passion, after all. - Enhancement Adding AI and more stock to the route is something I would like to do, to. Currently, my TSC ScotRail Collection is comprised of Edinburgh - Glasgow (170), Fife Circle (170, 158, 68) and, of course, GARL (380). If a sale comes up, I may buy the AP 314 or the Glasgow - Dunblane Line; giving me more options. For the sake of more usability, though, the base route will stick with Fife Circle Line and GARL - largely because Fife Circle Line is a common route in many people's collections. I am putting consideration into WCML North, for Glasgow-Area assets; but that will be something to consider when I actually get to Glasgow. I also own the Class 303 and 101 (SPT), so those could possibly go towards a heritage scenario. I'm all ears for feedback/ideas. - So, where am I now? Currently, the focus is on the GA <-> Paisley flyover and the St. James area; which is one of the worst areas as it's right at the edge of the scenery area. After that, I'll move into Central Paisley and spend (a lot of) time there; possibly moving up to Paisley Canal (extension or not; it's hardly that far from PGS), before moving west towards Glasgow. I may jump back and forth now and again just so I don't feel 'stuck' in one place; but there will be a general focus, one bit at a time, as outlined in the post above. I will need to learn the trackwork side of the editor a bit more before I get to the extension side of things; but that will be a long time from now anyway. For now, though, the focus is Paisley. I may move to weekly updates from here on in. I'll have some screenshots later TLDR: - Focus moving from East to West; with scenery enhancement and expansion across the board. - Opening up the scope of scenarios as much as possible - Focus on improving the experience, not just visuals.
Update #2: Paisley Gilmour Street Saying as the Gilmour St. And St. James areas are closely connected; it only seems fair I give both a bit of attention. I've already done a part of the Gilmour Street Area (see Post #2), and this is in the same spot; on the other side of the station. First up was getting rid of the route's bland and unrealistic scenery and replacing it with relatively close representations. (This is a Kwikfit, which is a business I don't associate with Tenament flats!)
In reality a 'Free Church of Scotland' branch, this is a fictionalised version of it; still capturing that smaller, old feel their buildings can often have. Looking directly out from Gilmour Street, the scenery no longer ends within a stone's throw.
An overview of the site: You'll notice the original area of work to the right; with the flats entirely replaced. Now, I do wonder... What is that spire to the left..?
That would be Paisley Abbey; a large, erm, Abbey, in the middle of Paisley. Surrounded by grass and trees, it's one of the town's finer spots; with the Town Hall and White Cart Water adjacent to it. I've had to extend the water to this side of the map as, despite the terrain being set up, the route doesn't have any water tiles there. This is what I did first, so the adjacent scenery is missing here. Now, my personal favourite image, out of the whole lot: Hopefully, I can continue to make this quality of stuff. Also, the tracks to Paisley Canal cross the water just up from here; so I'll look into adding that for scenery's sake. That's all for now, and probably for a few days.
Looks good, Any plan to revamp the Track and Overheads, The old method of String that follows the centre of track is a bit dated and would be good to see the newer zigzaging OHLE.
Currently not on my list as I'm not too familiar with the OLE system, but, when the scenery side is near the end, I'll look into it. As for track, possibly, as I feel that GARL's does look quite weird. Glasgow will be a pain, though.
Very helpful of Thomson to have used a GoogleMaps overlay as a decal Small hint, if I may: do not place a lot of the same trees next to each other, use some variation in height and type, otherwise it can result in visible repetetive patterns. Just dragging them a bit downward in between can do magic. Also, if you don't plan to publish it on Workshop, you might want to consider using the VulcanProductions foliage.
I quite like the look of VP's Roads Pack, especially for areas like Paisley with a lot of curves and junctions, right next to the station. Still leaning towards Workshop, but I may experiment a bit with the VP Stuff at some point to see if I like it. As for the trees; Once I'm 'done' with an area, say, Paisley St. James, I'll run through it and play around with the trees, cars, and other props. For now, getting through it without wasting too much time in a single area beyond what I am already. On a general note, I didn't quite expect a GARL project to gather even this much interest. Hopefully, it won't disappoint
A small bit of work on the otherside of the St James Viaduct area. Before: After: I've also started a bit of work on the roads around the M8 and the Airport; I had a look at the Airport area but it's actually not terrible - and because of the lack of any runway assets (that I can see, certainly), the map tile will stay for now anyway - so no urgency to move down there. Not much detailing in yet, just wanted to get buildings in place and hopefully be able to have the entire section complete soon-ish. Next Up: St. James Playing Fields & the Shortroods Area. There's plenty of 'markers' for where things should be; The M8 Junction, the Map Tiles, and the White Cart Water. Also, hoping to get a bit more in this area:
Just a note on this comment (the GARL Update looks great so far btw, I only bought it as a requirement never played it, but will give this a go when it releases that's for sure). Anyway the Google Maps api is not something you will ever spend money on, this is a common misconception, yes you do need to set up a payment option with a valid bank card, but you will never ever get charged for the tiny limited usage within TSC. The payment system is designed to charge web developers who integrate the map api into their websites, the more hits that web page gets the more Google charge the api key holder, as you can imagine the bigger websites will be looking at 10's of thousands of hits per day thus will get charged by Google accordingly. The absolutely miniscule amount of data drawn upon for usage in the TSC Editor is not and never can be enough to trigger a payment, you will never reach or exceed the free use amount, to give you an example, the whole of the Just Trains mapping dev team on all their released and WIP routes over the last few years (since the payment requirement was introduced) have never been charged a single penny because even their heavy usage still falls way way below the charging threshold, I had this information directly (and publicly) from one of the lead mappers for JT. Just to set you at ease .
Even DTG never had to pay a penny for using GoogleMaps API, as the amount of data needed for a route is inconsiderably small.
I think Reef already explained it perfectly. Google just want the credit card as a requirement if usage and traffic do come into a level where charging makes sense. If that does not happen, you will not be charged for anything. I've been working with the Overlay for more than a half year now and the free credit of a Google Cloud account isn't altered by a single penny in any of the 1.500 requests of mine to the Google Maps API yet. Important to say and to add what Reef said, is that Google wants an upgrade of the initial account when the test period of 90 days has been exceeded, which happened to me in January and the Overlay didn't want to spawn for new tiles anymore. I was insecure if Google wants me to upgrade to something like a paid account with regular fees, but I just did it and found out that even this upgrade is rather of a bureaucratic form and to divide the testers from regular users a bit better. I wasn't charged thereafter either. If anyone wants more information about how to get a Google Maps API (and even though its meant for the TSW PC Editor but the process for obtaining the Google Maps API key is the same), you can visit this post of mine. Only the last step probably will be different to do in the TSC Editor. The post offers an english version at the bottom.
After a long hiatus, I have some free-time so picked this back up. Now I have what I need to really go for this and do it properly. 1. Google Maps API I've finally figured it out! No more guessing where things go, and a lot more getting down to building. 2. Restart While I'm pretty proud of what I'd done so far, I think it's best to restart while there isn't much done, and move forward. 3. New DLC I've also gone and got Suburban Glasgow NW in Rivet's store closure sale, so I'll be using that. I think I'll be sticking to GARL, SGNW, Fife Circle and, if I need to, WCMLS. I'll hopefully have some work to show in the coming days. All screenshots above can be disregarded.
Having a bit of free time (and having remembered about the project, thanks rigsby#3981) i've reinstalled TSC and picked up where I left off. For now, i'm abandoning the Paisley Canal side. I'm not deleting anything but i'm not actively going to work on it. I'm also taking a new strategy. Rather than worrying about the map overlay being off by a few metres, i'll just run with it, with currently empty areas done by the map (as the park below is) and then transitioning between that and the route's alignment at lineside areas. It does mean this route will not be fully accurate, but ultimately there's nothing I can do, but it will still capture the spirit of the route and the scenery itself. That being said, the area I've worked on today is more visible from the PCL than GARL, and that is Barshaw Park. Located in Paisley, the Park is on the other side of the hill (centre) from the GARL Line, and behind the camera is Hawkhead station on the PCL. It's a fairly large park, with the Lake (centre), playpark (near left) and gardens (right, not made yet), as well as the golf course on the hill behind it. I've treated this as if it's next to the track, so it's fairly high detail. This is so I don't have to 'upgrade' it if I do make the PCL, and also because it's a bit of a POI for exploring in free cam - something I'll try and do as much of as I can. I've also decided to use people as much as possible to 'populate' the route, and will look into doing so at stations and the airport. *What's that over there?* Barshaw Park has it's own model railway which runs around the area on the other side of the lake above. Unfortunately i can't recreate it due to the tight curves, but that doesn't mean I can't do something. With lack of any appropriate tracks or locomotives for those tracks, 68000 Union of South Africa, from Fife Circle, subs in with an LMS Brake Van from... somewhere... behind it. It is set up as a station and I might use it as a spawn point for a Railfan scenario, but otherwise it's just a small reference to the real thing.
Also, over at Paisley St. James, I've added the Murrayfield Stadium asset (Fife Circle) at St. Mirren Park. It's scaled down (to St. M. Pk's size) but is still a bit larger. I've got no chance at modelling a stadium so it'll likely stay, but it's better than nothing.
Your picking this back up too, I love this, I wish I could do the same on PC. I have Transport Fever 2 and other titles like Cityskylines. I still have the original PS1 copy of SimCity 200. So again I wish I had more time to get into this with you. I love it but look at the knowledge and skill to do what you do. Way (Edit) beyond my skill sets mate. You got something going on mate. Loving your work. Keep it up, do what makes you happy not what others think. You should be Proud I’m telling you that for free TSLP✌.
The eastern fringes progressing nicely as i move to the surroundings of the park: A little hint at the little Easter Eggs I'll be trying to sneak in
Wow nice thou Glasgow airport rail link dosent exist in real life, still nice work! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Route /Loco Suggestions Route - Cp Portugal Northern Line (linha Do Norte) | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Tgv Reseau Duplex | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Budapest Metro M3 Line | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Central Coast & Newcastle Line | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Class 88 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Warsaw Metro M1 Line | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Amtrak Alc-42 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - London Underground Northern Line | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Schnellfahrstrecke Bern - Rothrist | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Class 442 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - London Underground Jubilee Line | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Bahnstrecke Wuppertal - Dusseldorf | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Marc Camden Line | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Ns Dm90 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Mml: London St Pancras - Bedford | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Et420 Plus | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Ringbahn Berlin Circle | Dovetail Games Forums Route - London Underground District Line For Tsw5 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Chiltern Mainline | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Class 99 For Tsw5 | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Dart Commuter | Dovetail Games Forums Loco - Tpe Class 397 'civity' | Dovetail Games Forums Route - Wien S Bahn: Wien Hauptbahnhof - Wiener Neustadt | Dovetail Games Forums
