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Railroad crossings and other traffic props

Started by jondor, May 31, 2011, 02:21:55 AM

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jondor

#20
Quote from: Aaron Graham on June 06, 2011, 03:43:01 AM
The gate need to be longer, it need to cover both lanes that are going in the same direction. Keep it up, you doing great. :thumbsup:

That's only the shortest of three gates, the other two will cover 2 and 3 lanes respectively.  :)

EDIT: Wish me luck: to animate all 3 gates is going to take 28 frames times 4 rotations and 3 zooms.  That's 1008 frames.  And no way to automate the process (I know the BAB exists, but it's unsuitable for these props.) :'(
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j-dub

That will take hours, I hope I am wrong with an over estimate. Definitely going to need more to pray that will be okay, especially to finally have international workings.

txrailcat74

These look awesome &apls. Just what I've been wanting. I look forward to their release, Jondor. Keep up the great work.

jondor

#23
Finished 28 frames of one gate at one zoom and rotation, just 980 frames to go.  ::)

But here's a teaser for you:

At zoom 5

And at zoom 6, albeit a little less pixelated than it will be in game:


The gifs are 62 frames, made up of 16 of the gate lowering, 12 of the gate flashing (repeated twice), 16 raising (same frames in reverse) and 6 more of the gate upright just so it pauses a bit.  The 16 lowering takes the most time to make because the alpha map changes with each frame.  The other 12 are easier, I can just copy the 16th alpha with one click.

I think they're also running a little faster than they will in game, I'll check on the framerate next time I have an animated teaser for you.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

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jondor

#26
All the frames of the 1-lane gate have been built and assembled and it has ATC and AVP files!  (For the lowering animation anyway.)  As soon as I get the other animations built, the static models and ATC and AVP files built for the flashers and exemplars made I can finally get it in game for the first time. :)  (Still lots of work ahead, but it's not near as tedious.)

Hopefully I'll have pics sometime this week.

EDIT: I've run into some snags addressing z-fighting issues with the gantries and flashers, so I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board a bit on this project.  But, on the plus side I discovered something very interesting that may change animated prop making completely, stay tuned.  ;)
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.

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jondor

I had to go in a bit of a different direction with this project.  ATC animations (for the flashers at least) weren't working the way I wanted.  But, I poked around and made an interesting discovery: Simply by swapping out the TGI of an ATC file for the TGI of an animated S3D (with all the other necessary properties in place), you can place an animated S3D as a prop!

And because the game has actual triangles to work with, there are no z-fighting issues.  However, this method does not work with isometric BAT models (RKT1 models), only True3D (RKT0 and possibly RKT3 models), so making them has much more in common with automata modelling than BATing.

But enough talking, here's a little gift. :)
http://www.youtube.com/v/Kj2ZrmzJqdc?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
Now to get back to work on the gates.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

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Aaron Graham

I think you need to fix the scal of the model. I could be wrong. &mmm
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jondor

#32
Quote from: Aaron Graham on June 14, 2011, 02:51:16 AM
I think you need to fix the scal of the model. I could be wrong. &mmm

Thankfully with these props that would be a lot easier, but at the same time while they are a little over scaled, they are no worse than the traffic lights.  Pretty much all transit props end up being a bit over scaled.



I may bring the height of the gantry down a bit once I get the gates going, if I can mount the flashers lower on the gate pole.  The flashers and crossbuck however are almost the exact same size as on the maxis gates and that's about what I'm shooting for.

Also: You might notice that the traffic lights in that image are a little different, those were my testbed for the S3D animated props, and yes I do plan to write up a tutorial.  ;)

Edit:

More progress to report:

The gates aren't yet animated, but I can finally see them set against the gantries.  Those gantries will definitely be shrinking by a couple meters and the flashers and crossbucks moving down as well.  It's getting there, though.  :thumbsup:
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.

j-dub

#33
I was going to say, the way they are styled, they almost looked like the default Maxis ones, except remastered for HD. In this situation though, I am liking these railroad crossing lights more though.

I say, don't redo the scale, because that would make no sense having the rail light clearance lesser then the signal pole. Not saying you should, but its just I have actually seen them put traffic signals on those rail poles, next to the rail lights, and in reality, if they have the traffic lights with the turn arrows under the green straight lights hanging on that rail pole, hypothetically only about scaling terms; if you imagine those Maxis lights were to have the yellow and green left turn arrows attached underneath as well, then mounted to those rail poles, that height is pretty much standard. You want the semi trucks to at least have 6 inches under the traffic signal with the arrows, otherwise too low of a height is too tight.

I also am just going to add in a certain rail simulator, they have this type of rail signal model styled and again, all because the slightest detail changes of shape, width size, angle, signal/gate position. With that, not that I would, but others would probably not mind the version without the gate so it reflects their area; versus others are use to seeing the version with the gate later.

jondor

#34
Quote from: j-dub on June 14, 2011, 10:16:43 PM
I was going to say, the way they are styled, they almost looked like the default Maxis ones, except remastered for HD. In this situation though, I am liking these railroad crossing lights more though. I say, don't redo the scale, because that would make no sense having the rail light clearance smaller then the signal pole. Not saying you should, but its just I have actually seen them put traffic signals on those rail poles, next to the rail lights, and in reality, if they have the traffic lights with the turn arrows under the green hanging on that rail pole, that height is pretty much standard.

Getting the scale right is going to be tricky.  I'm going to focus on animating the gate first, then fix the scale.  I do kind of think the gantry needs to be just a little shorter, but not much.

Edit: Speaking of animating the gates:
http://www.youtube.com/v/mVeA8xgvdTk?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
How's that for progress?  Copy/pasting vertices is a bit tedious, but not nearly as much as copying, pasting and cutting animation frames for each zoom and rotation.

I also lowered the gantry height by a meter; I was going to do 1.5 meters but I think it looks balanced as is now.
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.


jdenm8

That looks awesome! All that's missing is the bell sound  :thumbsup:


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noahclem

Great progress, that video is beautiful!  &apls Keep up the great work jondor!  :thumbsup:

TJ1

AWESOME JONDOR!!!!!!!!!!!! They look AMAZING!!!!!!!!

jondor

More progress, I finished the gates last night and just updated the gantry to match the narrow one this evening.

Much better than those old non-animated wig-wags.
http://www.youtube.com/v/WGg226ArKjY?hl=en
All new animated railroad crossing props for networks of all sizes! (Phase 1 complete)--> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13209

Mostly writing pony stories on FimFiction.net, but Cities: Skylines is my new best friend.  Anything and everything I made for SimCity 4 is fair game for use and distribution.