Atomic Systems

Hi all,

I'm quite new to the scene and have been stacking up a few questions in the last weeks that maybe some of you can help me answer. So in no particular order...

1. Why haven't (to my knowledge) any developers released paintkits for their trains? I understand some developers don't want to spend ages repainting the many liveries that may be used by one particular train, but it'd be nice to have a simple set of PSDs to work with that include the AO and other details on separate layers. Otherwise in alot of repaints details and AO is lost, which is a real shame since the quality of the repaint is most often fantastic.

2. No fully functional trains yet? As a long time user of flightsim, I've seen many full systems aircraft created, yet even the 'simple' electric locos have barely more functionality than the default locos. Is this due to a difficulty in putting custom coded content into a train, or simply developers aren't working in that area for other reasons? (lack of coding skills/time/lack of information on what does what).

3. In flightsim I am able to enjoy the luxury of moving my eye point and zoom in the virtual cockpit to within milometers of my personal preferred eye view. Are these sort of extensive camera controls possible in the RW engine?

4. What's the highest resolution texture maps RW can load? I'm used to working in 4096x4096, but I know alot of games differ. And on that note what about polycount? Per model what is the highest allowed?

5. I really like the track used on the Fal and IOW lines, what would I have to do to go about replacing all existing track in RW with that? ( I know, dodgy move but I guess bulk replacement is easier than individual routes.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and those who take the time to answer. I really hope I'm able to provide the community with some high quality content in the near future!

I'll set the ball rolling with some answers.

GatwickSpotting wrote: 1. Why haven't (to my knowledge) any developers released paintkits for their trains? I understand some developers don't want to spend ages repainting the many liveries that may be used by one particular train, but it'd be nice to have a simple set of PSDs to work with that include the AO and other details on separate layers. Otherwise in alot of repaints details and AO is lost, which is a real shame since the quality of the repaint is most often fantastic.

Some have been provided, however one of them I am unable to speak about due to forum rules. I believe Simon Coop, a recently prolific freeware author has been including them as well as the source files.

GatwickSpotting wrote: 2. No fully functional trains yet? As a long time user of flightsim, I've seen many full systems aircraft created, yet even the 'simple' electric locos have barely more functionality than the default locos. Is this due to a difficulty in putting custom coded content into a train, or simply developers aren't working in that area for other reasons? (lack of coding skills/time/lack of information on what does what).

Initially this was true, but some recent models i.e the Class 156, Class 86 & 56xx have started to offer a more realistic experience in terms of functionality. Feedback has generally been good as many do want an extra degree of realism, however, there have been many complaints also, with people complaining they cannot drive them. Make of that what you will.

GatwickSpotting wrote: 3. In flightsim I am able to enjoy the luxury of moving my eye point and zoom in the virtual cockpit to within milometers of my personal preferred eye view. Are these sort of extensive camera controls possible in the RW engine?

Yes, this is possible in the cabs.

GatwickSpotting wrote: 4. What's the highest resolution texture maps RW can load? I'm used to working in 4096x4096, but I know alot of games differ. And on that note what about polycount? Per model what is the highest allowed?

Not entirely sure what the maximum is, I presume 4096 x 4096 is useable but I don't seem to recall it being used so far with developers tending to split texture maps between smaller resolution. I would imagine this is for economy reasons? As for polycount, I dpn't think there is an actual "maximum", however, someone else can answer that one. Reading regularly on forums it seems to differ between developer as to exactly what they feel the limit is but if you want an answer from Derek (RSC) he will undoubtedly say "less is more".

GatwickSpotting wrote: 5. I really like the track used on the Fal and IOW lines, what would I have to do to go about replacing all existing track in RW with that? ( I know, dodgy move but I guess bulk replacement is easier than individual routes.)

It can be done by simply modifying the .xml file for the desired route but can be a painful and lengthy process. Mike Simpson has produced a well regarded set of tools (RWTools, Donationware) which can simplify this process and provides full instructions for doing so. Bear in mind though that you are essentially replacing lower quality track with high, over the course of a large route this can have a significant impact on economy and framerates. Also bear in mind that if this is done to a default route, any update received to the core software will overwrite any changes. You can avoid this by simply making a clone of the route in question which will be left alone by Steam.

As with Flight Sims, and how they have advanced from a features and realism point of view in recent years with the likes of efforts from A2A and PMDG, that will likely happen with train sims too. It's been a slow process for flight sims, but you can already see some evidence of that trend commencing in train sims, for example, several RRMods payware locos for the sim Trainz have additional features that have been shoehorned into the sim via a bit of trickery, such as the cab doors being able to be opened on many US locomotives via assigning that door animation to the 'raise pantograph' command; this is akin to how many MSFS developers have added animated features to payware and freeware aircraft for FS by using the 'wing fold' 'tailhook' and 'extend Concorde Visor' animation calls built into FS as placeholders for other animations such as displaying ordnance on military aircraft etc. When this kind of innovation takes place, it eventually becomes expected, and that drives payware and freeware developers to push to envelope to add additional stuff, often via xml talking to the sim and making calls to systems running outside of the main simulation, so it will happen with train sims, but it might take a while because the fact is that train sims are even more of a niche than flight sims. Since Just Flight (aka Just Trains) are aware of all this for the FS market, expect them to take a lead on it.

Al

Thanks for the help guys. It'll be interesting to see who does the first fully functional train, or at least, NGX level.

Regards