Converting a 3DCANVAS project to Blender

[pwillard]

Well, at this stage, it DOES run in ORTS with many tweaks left to do. To bake it, I need to "understand" baking better than I do now. I know I can create better shadows and definition of details but it remains a mystery to be solved after I finish the 3D part and do up a better WAG than the current complete SWAG at what one should look like.

For the curious, this is a 48' ACFX Tank car of the 1980s. of which I have found minimal details so some parts of it are conjecture and pure fiction. I plan to do a couple of different car numbers.

This is my second attempt at creating something for the SIM in Blender versus 3D Canvas which can rot in abandon-land now.

[EldoradoRailroad]

To bake it, I need to "understand" baking better than I do now. I know I can create better shadows and definition of details but it remains a mystery to be solved after I finish the 3D part and do up a better WAG than the current complete SWAG at what one should look like.

....3D Canvas which can rot in abandon-land now.

I do not know how you have UV mapped this model. If any shortcuts were taken to minimize texture size etc, AO will not be a pleasant task! What I find that works for me (hopefully your model has a non overlapping UV mapping) is to create the AO on a blank texture. You can do this multiple times until the desired results are achieved. I usually AO a few parts at a time, and indeed you may need a version of your model which is not ready for export into Open Rails, but a version that serves the AO creation very well. After you have finished the AO rendering you can always recombine the model for export to Open Rails.

Before you get ahead of yourself here, the purpose of rendering AO for various parts is to save the resultant texture for EACH part you render. You can thus layer those AO renderings in your paint program with your original non AO texture(s) to your liking/taste.

Have fun!
Steve

PS: Amabilis...such promise, such disappointment. At times I felt the most effort was given to creating "Error 99" conditions!

[pwillard]

I'm kind of hoping that this thread is an inspiration to others to just give it a try. I'm having to relearn pretty much everything I knew about making this stuff and I basically stopped around the year 2010 when I pretty much put a lot of this stuff aside except for maybe one or two items in canvas. Most projects remained unfinished except for the high-pressure RAIX car.

Once you are over the initial hurdle of learning Blender it becomes easier even if you only understand about 5% of its functionality.

Before you get ahead of yourself here, the purpose of rendering AO for various parts is to save the resultant texture for EACH part you render. You can thus layer those AO renderings in your paint program with your original non AO texture(s) to your liking/taste.

That's the way I understand it. Actually putting the technique to good use... well, like all things blender... you stumble around like a drunk on a bender until BAM! It just works and becomes part of your routine.

The mapping is also my "first try" and and this point it may be wrong but I'm willing to accept my mistakes and maybe learn better on a future model. The main textures are currently 2048x2048 and truck textures are 512x512 (a collaboration, not my trucks). Here's a sample... the main tank is continuous, not broken up, seam at the ends and bottom. The body was pretty much the only thing "manually" unwrapped.

For smaller items, I'm hardly worried about pixel to centimeter scaling, for the big or obvious stuff, I am. I am concerned about warping to some extent



For nit pickers... no... this car does not carry hazmat 1282! That's a placeholder.

[quote]PS: Amabilis...such promise, such disappointment. At times I felt the most effort was given to creating "Error 99" conditions! [quote]

I always felt that I was one of the more supportive customers of Amabilis. I found that versions after 7.120 to be horribly broken if not software-wise, it broke my workflow significantly. The later versions ended up seeming like unfinished experiments. So yes, I became bitter with time.

[ebnertra000]

For nit pickers... no... this car does not carry hazmat 1282! That's a placeholder.

Good, I was wondering what you were going to do with all that Pyridine...

It is good to see someone showing what can be done. I've been using Gmax for years, but if I have to switch, I'd probably go the Blender route. Looks like some powerful stuff once you figure out what to do. That tank car certainly looks great

[MsSheare]

This will be great I found some Simplot tank cars that look close to this. This will be a good model to use to create them and it fits the time frame I was looking for 1970 to 1980.

[pwillard]

This specific 48' ACF model, with the odd-numbered side railing supports, seems to only show up in cars from a similar number range so it might be a bit too specific for more wide-spread use. I'm considering maybe doing one with even spaced side railing support to make it more generic.

At the moment, my more black textures show up a bit too DARK using the ACE files so I need to fix that... but here is an in-Sim glamour shot.test.JPG

I'm also noticing that my wheels are wee bit too far into the rail.

[conductorchris]

I would welcome a more generic version as I too am thinking of how I can reskin this.
Christopher

[MsSheare]

I would welcome a more generic version as I too am thinking of how I can reskin this.
Christopher

agree and this is a really well-done model and will work well to fill in the years missing.

[pwillard]

Update: Nearly all the underbody and piping is done, which are the last bits that need to be modeled.

[rdayt]

Nice work.
If you were to backdate it about 50 years it would be perfect.
Does it glow in the dark?

Randy