More Updates

Hi all,

Don't worry; no more useless videos from me for now! Just a quick note on the latest updates for the route. With the original Gifford area now pretty much finished, today's work was entirely on new areas. The countryside between Gifford and Humbie is just under half way done, with about 2 miles of countryside now completed. Still a few more days of work before I can start thinking about Humbie station and preview releases.

As usual, here's some pictures of the latest updates.

The far end of the completed area; mostly just fields and general countryside, but with several interesting features throughout. (Just noticed the roads on the fields on the left. These roads are only there to help in the placement of the fields, for once the decals were removed)

Looking back towards Gifford with the new updates in view

The occasional pools that lie along side the burns are now included.

A picturesque view of a burn passing underneath the railway just after Inglsfield

Another production shot of the route. Unlike with dealing with scenery near the track, where you can use the gradient to accurately maniputlate the surroundings, far into the distance , all I can use is several spot heights as well as extrapolations from contours. Since this only works for small areas, I placed roads from each height, to every other height and then used the embankment tool to take an average of the heights. After further tweeking with the smooth tool, the end result (see the first picture) is realistic and accurate hill that is not generic.

Video Time

Hi Everyone.

Just a video I tried to get uploaded for the last post but it wouldn't let me. It's Derek's Class 101 descending into Gifford station, as it appears now. Word of warning though: I'm utterly rubbish at making videos, so I hope this goes well.

Just some notes about the video.

Firstly, thanks to going over the video, I've noticed a fault with the river (namely, it jumps into the air before it disappears into the forest)

Secondly, the trees as you head into Gifford need to be reworked, or there's going to be many a virtual engineer missing eyes.

Some of you will notice billboards along the route, not befitting the time period. There's a good reason for that. I use billboards as sort of markers along the route. They'll probably still be there on alpha releases. Basically, 1 billboard in the middle of the track is just to help me with navigation and distancing. 2 on either side of the tracks denotes the point of gradient change.

A final note on the Class 101. The Class 101 did actually see service on lines near to the Gifford and Garvald railway as railtours, visiting the area. Unfortunately, by the time that particular railtour arrived at Smeaton, the line from Gifford and Macmerry, all the way to Smeaton, had been lifted. In a similar situation, a railtour woked by a Class 24 also arrived at Smeaton. In the long run, I intend to include both as scenarios, however, you will need the respective addons, to run them (Derek's Class 101, Mesh's Class 24).

Hope you enjoy the video.

Major Updates

Hi again all!

Sorry for the lack of posts of late (seems to be a bad habit of mines). I've still been keeping busy with the route tough. Now, all of the decals between Gifford and Ormiston have been created (backing up the route now takes over 2 hours, but don't worry, there will be no decals in the release!).

Necessity, being the mother of invention and all (as well as RW not being able to utilize my 8GB RAM), has forced me to start removing decals from the route: My idea was to lay the decals between 2 stations, get the track laying and basic landscaping done, then go back and go over the intricacies and remove the decals. However after around 20 decals, RW just crashes when I try to place more decals, so I've now started lifting some of the decals around Gifford. Still a WIP but it now looks a lot closer to how it will in the final release. Here's some more pictures of updates

Flaunting Derek's Class 101 at Gifford

And again, towards Edinburgh. The Class 101 did actually see use on the lines near here in railtours, although the Gifford and Garvald railway had been lifted.

The real deal - barring minor custom work, this is the finished Gifford station and area.

The finished hills and farms near Gifford

Remember those blasted pillars from the last post? Well, they're back, and making my life difficult in decal laying.