Going in Hyper-drive - Rockport

Rockport is a phosphate yard and shipping port. I am beginning to model the area, but in only two days (totaling 5 hours of work) finished the wye and the N corner of the US 41 crossing, as well as many other touch ups around the route area. Wow.

This would be an aerial over the S Leg of the Rockport Wye.

This speedy return to the route is in part due to my interest in returning to the Miami Sub. However, I want to get this finished and out of the way. There's no deadline but I have picked up more of a feel for the route that allowed me to weigh in which areas get the most detail, where simple is effective, and which areas are just cover splines and textures. I feel if I give in one day to detail followed by one day of slappy texturing (miles away from the ROW) it is a systematic way to get the route done faster, and the detail is not compromised.

For instance, I began putting one block of grass texture at 618/US 301. That area is 1.5 miles from the S-line... Do I need to terraform the bridge? No. Do I need to detail the buildings? Not likely. That's where there's balance; getting rid of the LOD that does nothing but lag the game. Having the buildings for about .75 miles is good, when it's industrial park dense. Of course there can be exception when a skyline is separated by 1 mile of water and the track happens to be in eyeshot of the towers.

Anyway more progress should follow as the weekend approaches, but it'll be a little slower as I have a Fairchild competition for Debate.

Why I model the Palmetto Sub

Google Earth probably gave me the ultimate reason today. :)

I am working on the Palm River and Causeway Blvd. areas. Yeah, the two will be connected very soon. The interesting thing I noticed is this. In one file from 4/4/2010, there are three trains within miles of each other! You can see Q740 meeting T080 at the Rockport siding and O708 miles north. I wonder how that mess was handled.

Detail By the Mile

When working on an area, I always think, "how far should I give in this level of detail?". I'm sure you do too.

To that, there is truly no definitive answer. The density of the area is one of the largest variable factors. Also, the rule of thumb is automatically cancelled out in the presence of a spur, crossing line, or other forms of rail of equal or similar importance.

Another big variable is the presence of large river bridges. Hence, my query to self of course comes from the Palm River bridge in Tampa, FL. I am working down the Tampa Terminal/Palmetto Sub towards Gibsonton and I am laying details around the corridor. Coming to the Palm River I realize the brush needs to expand outwards, beyond what I consider reasonable for a given land area.

Texturing obviously is not the problem, as you can have various strokes, but scenery assets and splines are.

But, my guideline is as follows:

• First 50 feet on each side: FULL detail. Grass, garbage, power lines, derelict items, etc. Cars for sure, as the object itself and not the general spline. Roads get their signs and light poles and mailboxes and etc.Buildings and waterways to full detail. 
• Next 250 feet: Good Detail. Roads can get signage, light poles, etc. and the occasional detail. Foliage is a little less significant, and the splines can begin. Buildings can begin to be splined, or repeated, or whatnot, but they have to be visually appealing. If a road is a track-laid chasing corridor, I can give leeway to it. 
• Next 500 feet: OK detail. Roads there, lightpoles only. Traffic lights may either be set to work or just the simple assets (ie. Traffic Signal 02). Grass details are out of the picture, but trees that will be visible well stay. Tree assets become splines. Water is just water & texture. Nothng else. Only if it's visible I may add a boat. Buildings spline or low detail. Texture becomes less sensitive.
• Next 4,000 feet: Low detail. Just buildings if visible and tree splines. Water and texture only, no ifs, ands or buts. Roads just road, no detail on intersection. Texture becomes even less sensitive, in "blocks"
• To the edge of the board: just texture. Very low sensitivity. Only if a skyscraper or landmark is ever visible, I add it.

I use this rough guideline to help me with FPS, since it isn't like candy on my machine. Of course this leaves me to upgrade my Graphics. I hope it decisively helps people too. Keep Draw Distance 3,000 yd (9000 ft) more or less and use good weather fog, too to lower the lag as well. So maybe I won't add anything beyond US 41 in the Palm River case.

CSX T081 with UP Power

It's always fun to simulate fairly unlikely scenarios, like when UP run through power winds up on a Tampa coal turn. More often than not it's always CSX power.

Cutoff Map Update

I do expect progress to be swifter this year, unlike last year. Note unlike past mappings it's all in one and that Winter Haven's almost through. Well, painting the outer boards can be done in few sittings as well so it's not as long as you think. My current field of work is in Tampa proper, working the active yards. I still have the Port Tampa lead in the map to do but I may award it if I cannot handle doing the downtown buildings, or maybe I'll be aided for that. Bone Valley got cut a bit deeper than I wanted, so the Agricola tram is still there but the Agricola junction's all gone. I might cut it all the way back to Bradley. 

Official Cutbacks

These parts of my route have been cut off:

• Palmetto Sub south of Big Bend Rd.
• Brooksville Sub north of the junction with Clearwater Sub
• Brewster Sub from 1 mile south of Bradley
• Abandoned SCL trackage through Zephyrhills

I am considering cutting off:

• the entire Agricola Tram
• Bone Valley Sub from 1 mile east of the Bonnie Spur
• Valrico Sub 1 mile south of the Bartow Curve
• A-Line two miles east of Auburndale due to inactivity except one customer

Why? I believe these areas will not cater to the route as well as the mainline spots like Plant City, Lakeland, Tampa, and Auburndale would. I am after lines that have good traffic. The Bone Valley is considered good enough, but only if you represent it by the trackage along much of the Valrico Sub and the Bone Valley Sub up to Three Post. I originally thought of cutting IMC Fort Meade but it's surviving due to its frequency. I believe the Hardee mine never was included but the Agrico mine was in the BV DEM, but it was already eliminated. The east half of the Agricola Tram is considerably dead too, with only one customer at the end surrounded by a bunch of dead phosphate mines. Sad story for them to run out of business and cut the line significantly but I guess easier for me to model in present day. 

The cut portions are not entirely gone. Anyone who wants to do them can if they so please. But then again, the big BV cutoff is probably for the hardcore Bone Valley railfan. I believe though that I accomplished cutting off two years of work right there, that is two years of unmotivated work. 

Expansion packs would come in bundles. The Palmetto south of Big Bend Rd is being designed to combine with a future Sarasota map. Brooksville and Clearwater will hopefully bundle together. The A-line would as long as it sees an expansion towards Davenport and surely the Bone Valley fragments will be bound together as well. But I don't think I will ever get to those.

Yeoman Yard

When you are in the aid of Google Maps, the yard is a no brainer. I am laying the big 20 track yard as I type.

Route Cuts - visual

This is a visual aid for the sections I am willing to give up. This image is current to August 6, 2011 and areas in W/H and Tampa have since been textured. Of course, the Brand Ribbon happened on the LEGO end so my route progressed minimally.

Tampa/Winston/Bone Valley - Route Cuts

In the initial release of the Tampa Terminal route for Trainz, in whatever form, be it Payware, Freeware, or built-in, as the future may dictate, a considerable stretch of routing will be cut completely. I am not saying it is the end of it for any of those sections, however. They may be worked on "poco a poco" in the future as expansion packs, obviously merge-able with the current route. The main reason for these is due to low worthwhile train count and lack of interest at the moment. I feel the removal of these areas, temporary or permanent will preserve my interest (and is "necessary and proper").

• The Brooksville Sub / Clearwater Sub trackage from one full baseboard north of Interstate 4 will be reduced to a portal. One big anti-motivational thing about it is that the Clearwater Sub is only present for about one mile.
• Bone Valley trackage will be a separate phase of work. However, Valrico to Ridgewood will still be supported in the prime release, Three Post will survive the cut, and Bartow has a possibility of making the cut. All others will be ripped out and expanded in one Bone Valley file. The cut south of Edison is 1 baseboard length while the cut south of Three Post goes one board past the yard. In the most extreme case I may just get rid of 2 boards south of Winston Yard altogether if anyone is interested in taking up the areas.
• No plans are in place to truncate south of Tampa Terminal, the Port Tampa Lead, any portion of the Auburndale Sub, the east stem of the Carters Sub out of A-Dale, nor Neve. However, if I do not have support for the Downtown Tampa skyline, I will suit myself and cut work west of the Amtrak Station to another phase.

Now, if anyone is interested in taking over the cut areas, or those endangered for cutting, you guys can contact me and I will work out plans to hand you guys the DEMed areas that are cut. 

ATLS tutorial Part 2

You guys have requested and I have produced!

In case Part 1 is still news to you, here it is: