Ram - Initial thoughts and Draft ideas

[RebaLynnTS]

Thanks Peter, I'll keep that in mind. Even though I have had some experience with this before, I never turn away help

[Nardo69]

Dave, that S - curve is great!

If I may ask I would like to see such a smooth fractured 45 curve with a switch so that the othogonal part has two tracks in order to begin a RR station / Siding in the curve the way you can find such stations a lot in Germany if I dare ...

[north country dude]

I am having a small problem. It won't interfere with texture creation, but it will seriously impact any testing I need to do. The problem is that I found my SC4 Rush Hour CD cracked in half.  Now I'll have to find a new one somewhere,...maybe BEST BUY? Not many local places around here,...oh well. 


EDIT:  ncd- I have several (I lose them and then find them again after buying another).  I would be happy to send one to you in consideration of all your hard work for the community over the years if you still have the need.  PM me an address, and it'll be on the way. -DE

[dedgren]

Please note that we have moved the discussion concerning Rebecca's (RebaLynnTS) proposed letter to Electronic Arts (EA) concerning modification of the "game" texture .dat to this new thread [linkie].

Thank you to the folks who commented and PMd concerning the displacement of the original purpose of this thread.


David

[dedgren]

OK, I submit these wide curve and fractional angle rail ("FARR") as the first creations of the RAM Team.



They are just textures and still have things to be done (I have to do the alpha textures- that's the first big thing, then they will need to be turned into puzzle pieces), but this is a big step toward breaking the grid for rail as well as road.

I'll post further progress pics over the next few days, but I think the RAM is finally leaving the station.


David

[thundercrack83]

Hey, David!

As I stated over in 3RR, if you need a tester for the FARR, too--let me know!

Dustin

[RebaLynnTS]

I like the new rail curves a lot.

[Cosmic]

Awesome! More progress! I can't begin to describe my excitement!!!!!

[dedgren]

MMMmmmmmm!  Hand-retouched vector-graphics alpha maps.



We're getting there, folks.


David

[girlfromverona]

You're truly a legend, David! 

[superhands]

they didn't happen to come in single track too hehe
dave

[RebaLynnTS]

I really like the rail textures that Pegasus is using in his Seaport series, and was thinking of making a set of them for the RAM (with permission of-course). I have been taking a long break from SC4 custom content making, as I am working on another project right now (one I hope to get paid for).

Let me know if there is any other interest in those rail textures, and I'll get started on them shortly.

[dedgren]

First output, as usual temporarily on lots so we can take a lookie.



Lookie pretty good to me.  I have a mis-aligned tie problem in one of the mirrored tiles and they appear too dark at lower level game views, but I'm working on that.


David

[HandsOn]

This indeed looks good; much better than anything out there right now. I'm certainly no expert, but I tend to wonder if these, presumably new textures will affect other in-game textures and/or mods. I mention it because I just experienced such a problem, with an alternate rail texture mod which in turn nullifies a rural street mod texture. Can't help to be curious.. 

[threestooges]

Excellent results. You've done away with what I've always seen as a whiplash curve. From my little experience with model trains, I thank you for this little beauty. Good work.
-Matt

[TheTeaCat]

looks very good indeed


TTC

[dedgren]

Finishing up the textures for the fractional angle curve long end.



This is just one of those jobs...

Later.


David

[freedo50]

David, I don't know if you know, but Adobe Photoshop has a way of preserving the transparency of a layer. This seems like an easy way to make your alpha maps to me, it works like this:
1. You make the curved textures.
2. You make a copy of the layer and lock it's transparency.
3. You then fill it with #000000 and you (should) get instant alpha maps.

If you want to throw one of these curves my way, I'll test out the theory tomorrow, becuase I don't think you have photoshop do you?

Fred

[dragonshardz]

No he has a version of PaintShop Pro.

[bat]

That's looking really nice, David!