BVE Cornwall: Current WIP

OK, so this thread has migrated over here now
I'm not going to post the previous 30-odd images for the moment, not least because I can't leave off tinkering. For the mean time, I'm going to start off with the current progress on an 81xx tank locomotive:

Since the last image (Posted in the narrow gauge/ steam thread) this has seen another 20-odd hours worth of work. Most of the major boiler and tankwork bits have been built, along with a funnel, safety valve cover and smokebox front. I'm using a mixture of manual cylinders, cylinder commands and complete manual vertex work on this, along with a lot of custom normals.
Not entirely happy with the number on the front at the minute, I'm having problems getting the proportions to look right

I have a nasty suspicion that when I'm finished with this, I'll probably be trumping most of the available OpenBVE stock for sheer complexity- I haven't even thought about the detailing parts yet. (Need a whole load of stuff on the bufferbeam, steps on the tanks, boiler pipework, sanding gear, and that's only on the half I've built!)

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

leezer3 wrote:OK, so this thread has migrated over here now

I have a nasty suspicion that when I'm finished with this, I'll probably be trumping most of the available OpenBVE stock for sheer complexity- I haven't even thought about the detailing parts yet. (Need a whole load of stuff on the bufferbeam, steps on the tanks, boiler pipework, sanding gear, and that's only on the half I've built!)

Don't forget the complexity of 'animated' steam gauges and controls, and the 'plugin development' that would be needed to do a realistic
'steam' control model - Although somone may have done a steam engine for BVE4, I wasn;t sure the plugin use had been ported over
to the new cross platform API for such...

This looks like an awesome job, I am just worried about my graphic card.

Chris,

Looks absolutely fantastic so far, am looking forward to this very much indeed! I am hoping to turn my attention to something in the way of Narrow Guage once West Horton trams is somewhat nearer completion.

Kindest Regards

Tom

So, another four days worth of work, and we're looking a little more like a proper loco:


This represents ~15 hours more work- The basic cab meshes have been built, BR logos added to the tank sides (These are an overlay transparency, rather than integrated into the tank side texture, which I mostly did for ease of reskinning), and some more work has been done to add details to the front bufferbeam.
I've also changed the number to use a dirtier white which looks much better

I will also point out (Unncessarily I would hope!) that this is *not* narrow gauge, the way the thread in question was going was just appropriate for an image

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

It looks very promising! The difference between BVE and MSTS seems to be fading!

The difference between BVE and MSTS seems to be fading!

Holy mother of Mary! I hope not!!! BVE is a darn sight better than MSTS, at least what I've seen of it. That's a great bit of building there, Chris! Masterful!

Holy words, Gray, holy words...

Looks like a real work of art. Very impressive

graymac wrote:

The difference between BVE and MSTS seems to be fading!

Holy mother of Mary! I hope not!!! BVE is a darn sight better than MSTS, at least what I've seen of it. That's a great bit of building there, Chris! Masterful!

Let me make myself clear. I did not mean the quality of the work, but mainly the way the simulator is working. BVE started as a pure cab driver, while MSTS started as a route builder through one can drive. Now I notice that more and more externals are being built for BVE (which I welcome!) So, to my opinion, the simulators are growing towards each other. Nothing being said about the quality....

The biggest difference is that you PAY for msts. BVE at its best is unbeatable. There is probably a wider variation of quality across BVE, not every offering is a Michaelangelo. All the same the best of BVE is better than msts by a good margin. And paid-for content does create certain expectations, so it should be theoretically better, though it ain't necessarily so!

The best of MSTS is perhaps a slight better than the best of BVE if you ask me...!

And FANTASTIC WORK Chris! I love GWR loco's alot so I am looking forward to this!

A couple more weeks, and I've built the rear bunker's basic structure, and added the bars on the rear cab windows:

Getting there, I'm just considering the best way to add the lip to the bunker sides at the moment.
When I've completed the basic structure, I'm going to move on to building and animating the chassis.

When that's done, it needs the detailing parts adding (Small boiler pipework, steps & lamp brackets on the tanks, bufferbeam and bunker, sanding gear and some other small bits and bobs)

Getting to the insanely complex stage now

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

Top class work Chris. Just like I remember those locos when I was a little boy in short trousers, watching the trains in Gloucestershire!!

So, this is a couple of wheelsets and some cab steps added:

Obviously very incomplete, missing the suspension and most of the underside pipework and stuff at the moment, but looking better by the day. I hate to think how many hours have gone into this now

Most of this is completely 3D construction, no transparencies on those steps
Looks so much better when viewing from a distance.

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

My dear, are those monsters of a flange inteded to be so big?

Quork wrote:My dear, are those monsters of a flange inteded to be so big?

That's a slight problem, caused by the fact that I'm forced to use transparencies for spoked wheels.
This basically means the tyre and wheel inners needs to be a tad smaller than the actual wheel face, and the effect is exacerbated when viewing from this angle. May be a little oversize, but there's only a centimeter or so in it. Building exactly to scale results in being able to see through the edge of the transparencies.

Before you ask too-
The wheels are intended to impact the running plate. These fit through slots on the real thing, but it'd end up being completely impractical to build them here. When the vaccum ejectors and the brake gear get added, it'll hide a lot more of these imperfections.

Cheers

Chris Lees

htto://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

Yeah that was obvious to me, the plates. When it comes to the flanges however, have you ever considered leaving them out completely?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Radsatz-mit-Gleitlager-Einfachschaken-und-Bremse-an-Verbandswagen-A4.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Selbstentladewagen-Fccs6450-Radsatz.jpg
http://www.bahnbilder.de/1024/wismar-bf-radsatz-el-lok-br-405642.jpg

You don't see exactly much of the flange, and that image is taken on height of the shaft, a seldom perspective, even in the sim. Modelling the conic shape of the wheel might even have more effect than the flange. You know what I mean? Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_oscillation please.

So, a little while since the last screenshot, mostly because valve gear is a pig to build properly
(Remember, I said this was going to be a framerate killer.....)


Totally being built in 3D. Wheel flanges have been tweaked a little, but IMHO when I'm building to this level of detail little things like this matter!

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

Hi Chris, I have to say the locomotive works totally stunning! What are the plans for animations?

Derryck wrote:Hi Chris, I have to say the locomotive works totally stunning! What are the plans for animations?

Unless the current maintainers of OpenBVE decide to implement the mooted Odometer animation function, this will end up using a ~30 frame animation for the valve gear. (Need to see how many frames I need for relative smoothness at slow speed)
Building the basic 3D model is what takes up the time, animation is just a little movement and rotation of these parts.

Still haven't built any of the detailing parts, and I suspect this is now vying with the tube stock for the most complex BVE object ever built

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

LOL, could be, true. How is it on your fps?

Is it possible we may need to devise a "performance index" rating system to indicate to end-users what level of hardware they would need to allow the work to be run in a satisfactory way?
After all, for the most demanding items it is frustrating for someone with a simpler PC to download an item and not have it work properly (or at all!).

Seee this thread to comment:

https://bveworldwide.forumotion.com/t568-performance-index-indication-needed#6867

Honest answer-
Not sure yet. I would basically say you'll need a dual-core PC with dedicated graphics. The decision to build almost entirely of verticies/ faces rather than using transparencies will help considerably (There will probably be a total of about 30 transparencies on the model, mostly on the wheels), but in essence if you can run other trains with complex externals/ internals (LU stock, 150 etc) then you'll be fine.
CPU power is more important than GPU power where OpenBVE is concerned.

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

So, this updates a small video-

Nicely spinning pushrods on one side. Side #2 is easy as pie compared to this, it just starts 180 degrees further round the cycle
Haven't yet done the cylinder chest pistons, but again these are pretty easy as they only shift in one frame of motion!

Sounds & performance are currently the OS_ATS default steam loco, this isn't an area I'm any good in.

Cheers

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk