Waterville to Newbridge

Current work in progress takes the main line from Waterville to the town of Newbridge. Influenced in part by the real line from Dublin-Drogheda I have got five suburban stations and an airport so far.
And those bone-idle drivers can have some TSRs to contend with. New .ANIMATED advance, commencement and termination boards have been constructed. Pictured below (through long-lens) is commencement and term boards visible by PW Dept restricted points.

Yummy, looking good there gray, are the planes 3D? And they look like boeing to me.

They (hopefully) LOOK 3d, but they're not. That's the trick, don't waste faces and screw framerates by including unnecessary bits. They stand out because of the light they seem to reflect, an effect of using emissivecolor.
They're Boeing 737s. I know shag-all about planes, but I know enough about object building to Wiki them and get the dimensions to build them. The plane pic was google images.

WHY do I give you all these trade secrets???

Because you want him to also create something and you see a few hints will help, maybe?

That's right, Derryck. I want to encourage as many members as I can to have a go at providing material. It is that which will keep things going.
Just suppose, even if Michelle's program is frozen at v1.2.14 (which is what I use, not the latest) there are quite enough features and functionality to continue for a very long time. But ONLY if there's new routes and stuff being made. Michelle isn't responsible for the OpenBVE content. That responsibility lies with YOU and ME, in other words US! So are we fit?? Will we get off our arses, turn off the telly and get down to it??
Your call.

I am doing that. Just establishing the Worldwide object database.

I am doing that. Just establishing the Worldwide object database.

Good man yerself, Derryck! I wasn't aimin' at yez, I was tryin' to prod a few other lazy sods into action!!

Three miles more since the weekend. Another station, this time outside the urban sprawl of Waterville. This will be the limit for the commuter trains and the mainline will soon run along the coast for a bit.

Erm, that platform is a bit narrow, are you sure anyone isn't gonna fall onto the tracks when the high speed services come through?

viccylinefan

Erm, that platform is a bit narrow, are you sure anyone isn't gonna fall onto the tracks when the high speed services come through?

Feel free to examine some pics of real Irish railway stations.
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/
The highest speed anywhere on Irish railways is under 100mph. The international Dublin to Belfast route has a max line speed of 90mph. Very often, when a platform has been extended to accept longer trains, the extensions will be relatively narrow.
If you've had too much Guinness, stand on the wide bits!!

Another iconic Irish building. We've got loads of these 15th century tower houses all over the place. A lot of them are total ruins but some have been restored.
This could have been the home of the fearsome O'Flahertys. The gangstas of today had nothin' on this bunch. The O'Flahertys were REALLY scary.

Hmmm, reminda me of the castle with the French knights in Monty Python & the Holy Grail...

Very much so! Imagine O'Flaherty standin' on the top and throwing insults at the English down below. And throwing the contents of the chamber pots too!
Great big chamber pots to recycle the gallons of booze that helped to make the O'Flahertys fearsome
Anyway, we got lots of the tower houses and O'Flaherty has calmed down now, so the tourists don't get pi$$ed on any more. And sure, the tower house isn't as tall as some of the tales told by that son of the blarney, graymac

O'Flaherty? Wasn't he in Father Ted?

Wouldn't be at all surprised. The O'Flahertys I had in mind were one of the "Tribes" of Galway and did actually have a fearsome reputation. The west of Ireland was a favourite part for various people to be banished to when they were likely to upset the king or his government.
So it's hardly surprising I ended up here, then!

Actually, the O'Flahertys are an Irish royal dynasty. Here's a bit more info about some of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93_Flaithbertaigh

I'm at the seaside, seeing as how the weather is so fine!

Looking very nice, I would like to drive this section in sunny weather!

Will you be animating the waves in the sea?

Will you be animating the waves in the sea?

In a word, No!

Moving on to the next station, inland again and here's the approach with a goods loop and yard to the left.



This station is on a double curve. The round tower visible after the station is a common feature in the Irish landscape

Very nice, Gray... and why not?

and why not?

Animating is worthwhile if it is enhances a major feature of the route. I have to think of the many users with lower-end machines and I don't want to ruin it for them so I impose limits on graphic file sizes and avoid over doing the job. If I were to cross that line and exclude users with modest machines then anything would be possible. So animated crossings, semaphores and some road traffic, yes. They are prominent features. None of the rivers or even the sea are worth messing with in my route, the degree of enhancement just isn't worth the cost.

Looks amazing as always, Gray - just love the palm trees along the coast, is this the Irish Riviera?? By the way, what does the rectangular yellow/black hatched board signify? (Just past the goods loop to the left, before the bridge).

Thank you also for considering "low-end users" (I'm one of them, and proud of it!!)

Cheers,

John

The "palm trees" are a variety known as cordilines and they do grow here, more particularly in the south/west as Irish winters are usually mild.
The yellow and black striped boards are whistle boards, equivalent to the "W" sign in the UK. You should be used to them in the currently released routes. Next time you see one, toot!!

May I have a technical question - how is that double bending constructed? I mean curve radiuses...

Bear in mind the pic is a "long telephoto" shot so the curve is overemphasised. The rail through the station is at radius -1500m and reverses to r=1500m halfway through. The crossovers on the curves in this new route are on 1000m radius, ponts built using "Switch" program. The curves on the goods loop are roughly calculated first using a curve offset table from http://www.virtualrailroader.com/diverge-calc.html and then track is placed and shifted by sight with varying curved track items inserted for best appearance. Wher extreme gaps in rail are caused by curve offset I have a .freeobj track gap filler to use where it shows.
Simples!! (well, not really, but it does sometimes get easier with practise)