Harcroft v3 - WIP Screenshots

[The Snap]

Hi guys,

Hope you all like v2.5 which I have released!
If you read the updated Harcroft route page on BRT, you will know about the extension to Wicker Junction. The map on the page will make things clearer. This line will be about 15 miles long, will only 3 stations, allowing for long sessions of high speed driving (diesel only though!)

A few screenies for Bredbury Parkway (the first station) are below:

(Please note that these screenshots are still WIP and are subject to possible change)

Cheers to the NWM Team and Eezypeazy for allowing me to use a selection of their objects. Also thanks to Barn (Milepost326) for his excellent downloadable cuttings and embankments, which I will be putting to good use!

Comments welcome...

 

[dennis63uk]

Looks really great. Love the v2.5 one as well.

 

[nath9425]

Perfect!! This route is a good one for the old diesels....

 

[westcoaster]

wow those screenie's loke excellent? love the route short but sweet comes to mind.

 

[Coxster]

Looking good Rich. Clearly a GNER station

 

[The Snap]

Well yeah, I searched long and hard through Fotopic to find out what a GNER station sign looked like! Then I realised that I had pictures of some at Donny - hence the sign in the 2nd shot.

 

[D306]

Looks really good. The track is so lifelike as well.

 

[Nick]

Rich, you seem to have forgotton to do the sleeper ends on sleepers? They seem to stop at the rail?

 

[Dennis]

Looking good. Couple of points of detail though caught my eye in the third of those screenshots and I shall make the following constructive criticisms / comments;

aren't signals normally only "caged" on electrified routes?

the blue platform lights...can't help but think they are a bit past their sell by date.

One thing that I dislike is continuous rows of identical trees parallel to the line (even though I to am guilty of that). Interspersing them with the odd 3-d tree to break up the scene will make it look a lot better and add a bit of shape; I use easytree to create a basic array of trees which I then manually optimise the shape of before using sparingly (as the number of faces involved will otherwise lead to poor frame rates).

Nice to see a big, clear running in board showing the station name; when these are properly positioned they can help identifying unfamiliar stations.

 

[The Snap]

Cheers for the comments guys. Dennis, I don't have EasyTree as the site went down before I got chance to download it...care to share?

And Nick, the sleepers don't end, they are just covered by ballast. The location I went to to get the picture of the track has ballast covering the sleepers, so that's how it’s turned out.

 

[Nick]

Ta for explaining Rich, nice one.

 

[Dennis]

EasyTree should be heading your way.

 

[DJC_158]

I have to say that those screeenies are looking awesome-

 

[eezypeazy]

One thing that I dislike is continuous rows of identical trees parallel to the line (even though I to am guilty of that).

While I agree with Dennis that trees in simulators often look a bit too "regular", I've noticed that, actually, in real life, they do tend to be quite regular!

This picture on the ECML at Stobswood in Northumberland shows that the line has bushes of approximately the same height on both sides...

Now, I assume that drivers are expected to be looking forwards most of the time, so I suspect they'll just see walls of greenery rushing past on both sides.... surely, it's only us passengers, with time to look out of carriage windows, that will see much beyond the immediate lineside....

Regards

eezypeazy

PS: Nice work, Richard....

 

[The Snap]

Cheers guys. Will check my email Dennis...

 

[mbonwick]

Looking very good! :thumbup: