Modern Freight Cars Props

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

Hello everyone,  these are my first BAT creations, a set of modern freight cars props, based on freight cars you can see in North America.  I decided to make them because  the ones that already exists are based on old designs of freight cars, (designs used from 1940's to 1970's),  or are a little bit unrealistic. So, as I couldn't find any others that fill my espectatives, I decided to make my own rail cars, based on rolling stock that can be found from southern Mexico to northern Canada. In this pic you can see a little bit of my work, some assorted cars in a railyard.

Some cars are not noticeable, in next pics I'll show you the different types of freight cars and their different paint schemes I've made. So, please, tell me what you think about my work, I 'll appreciate your comments and opinions.

[tigerbuilder 131]

I've been waiting on this since you posted that teaser pic. 

These props are really needed, I agree the existing props are not very modern looking. These are looking great, nice work. 

I am doing the same thing for the automata itself. Perhaps we can share ideas. I have a ton of graphics you could probably use. 

One thing I can think of right off hand with working these automata, is the scale. The track layouts we have sorta limit the length of cars we have that look realistic running the curves available. So I have limited the length to accommodate that as best as possible. Some of your cars seem extra long. It would be cool if we could match them with the automata. I was going to make my own props after the automata is complete, but these you're doing look pretty close. 

Cant wait to see more. 

[MushyMushy 3,618]

These look great! We really don't have a super realistic selection of rail cars right now, so this will be pretty helpful.

Now they just need some great-looking locomotive props to match!

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

I'm sure I'd second the above comments if I could see the image. It somehow doesn't show up for me.

[philforhockey51 4,220]

Yes I would be interested if I could see them

[CT14 2,486]

I can't see the picture either, but based on what you've already posted with the grainer cars, I say release early and release often! Great work.

[tigerbuilder 131]

I forget how I got it to show. I think I clicked on it...it sorta froze. Then when I loaded the thread again it showed. Don't remember exactly. Wish you guys could see this

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

Sorry about the pic, I don't know why this happened, and sorry for the late response too. I reuploaded the picture, I hope you can see this one.

[CT14 2,486]

Looking very good, did you already apply the 133% vertical scaling to models to make up for SC4 ortho viewport?

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

4 hours ago, CT14 said:

Looking very good, did you already apply the 133% vertical scaling to models to make up for SC4 ortho viewport?

No, I scaled them to 120%, because I thought they were small, but, after doing some research, looks like 133% is like the standar for scaling  so, I  will scale them again.Thank you for that info, I'm new into this so I didn't know about it.

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

On 27/8/2016 at 1:29 PM, tigerbuilder said:

I've been waiting on this since you posted that teaser pic. 

These props are really needed, I agree the existing props are not very modern looking. These are looking great, nice work. 

I am doing the same thing for the automata itself. Perhaps we can share ideas. I have a ton of graphics you could probably use. 

One thing I can think of right off hand with working these automata, is the scale. The track layouts we have sorta limit the length of cars we have that look realistic running the curves available. So I have limited the length to accommodate that as best as possible. Some of your cars seem extra long. It would be cool if we could match them with the automata. I was going to make my own props after the automata is complete, but these you're doing look pretty close. 

Cant wait to see more. 

It would be interesting to  see some of them as automata, yep, length is a problem, specially for autoracks and some 80 ft refrigerated boxcars I'm working on. I don't know a lot about automata requeriments,  so, if you could give me some info about it (specially the maximum length for rail cars) maybe I could scale the models and use them for automata.

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Much better. That looks great!

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Man those are perfect, makes all the other rail props look like toy trains!

 

As for Automata, yeah the length would be an issue, but I do think Swamper made a realistic automata mod for freight a while back.

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1572

 

[Jasoncw 11,949]

These look really nice. 

The one thing I notice is that some of the blacks in the lower right corner seem too dark to me. For comparison, the roads in the game are fresh asphalt which is pretty dark. The brighter "blacks" that you have look pretty spot on to me, for what color I would make a black train car. 

Another thing that comes to mind is the possibility of rendering multiple cars in chunks. There's the benefit of the different cars casting shadows on each other, making them look more natural than the average prop, and it would also make it easier to fill yards in the lot editor. That's just a thought though, I myself am allergic to lot editing so idk if that would be desirable or not. 

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

1 hour ago, Jasoncw said:

These look really nice. 

The one thing I notice is that some of the blacks in the lower right corner seem too dark to me.

Brand new Tank Cars like that tend to be SUPER SHINY when new. 

 

 

 

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Oh yeah those are pretty dark aren't they. It's too bad you can't make them shiny looking in gmax. 

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

I posted a picture some time ago of a grain elevator featuring some grain hopper cars, now in this pic you can see all the hopper cars I've made so far. Tell me what you think.

 

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

10 hours ago, DavidDHetzel said:

Man those are perfect, makes all the other rail props look like toy trains!

 

As for Automata, yeah the length would be an issue, but I do think Swamper made a realistic automata mod for freight a while back.

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1572

 

Thank you haha, and yes, it's a pretty good automata mod I have running on my tracks since I've been playing SC4, anyway it would be nice to see more variety on automata trains.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

@Angry Mozart I agree, if there's someway to convert all of Gizmodo's props to automata that would be a good start.

Also can I get a closer shot of the red/white Grain car?
 I photographed a couple of them in the past.

 

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

7 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

These look really nice. 

The one thing I notice is that some of the blacks in the lower right corner seem too dark to me. For comparison, the roads in the game are fresh asphalt which is pretty dark. The brighter "blacks" that you have look pretty spot on to me, for what color I would make a black train car. 

Another thing that comes to mind is the possibility of rendering multiple cars in chunks. There's the benefit of the different cars casting shadows on each other, making them look more natural than the average prop, and it would also make it easier to fill yards in the lot editor. That's just a thought though, I myself am allergic to lot editing so idk if that would be desirable or not. 

That tank car was an experiment when I  was working on the textures, but I didn't changed it because I'm too lazy and besides, it  looks like a new tank car (thank you again David). About making it in chunks that would be a good idea, for bigger lots like yards, but for the smallers ones would be complicated to acomodate them.Anyway  I will use that idea for some articulated units I have in mind, thank you.

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

@DavidDHetzel It's the closest pic SimCity let me take, but yeah, it's based on a similar car, the reporting marks are FURX

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Looks amazing, I have to ask, how did you do the texturing?

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

52 minutes ago, DavidDHetzel said:

Looks amazing, I have to ask, how did you do the texturing?

I use the BAT/Gmax tool to make the models. The hopper model was one of the very first models I did, so it has a  simple geometry (is just a set of boxes and prisms put together) as I didn't have a lot of experience with the BAT, so I textured each prism trying to make them fit with the model. This was a slow process due to the lack of knowledge and ability I had back then.  This is a closer view of the model.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

I more curious, where did you get those textures from? 

[tigerbuilder 131]

The grain cars look very nice. Well done.  You are doing very well for a beginner modeler. Trust me, it gets easier as you do all the "oh this is how to do that" experience. Please keep it up.

I am making all the different automata I can. I have over 1000 made, all not finished enough. I'm limiting them to mostly 60ft cars. The auto racks are longer, of course, but if you aren't running the new curves...it's looks kinda silly. 

As for the textures, I've used pictures from images on Google to find most side shots. Its impossible to create that kinda detail by hand, at least for me. So I perspective them and cut the car side out, which is the major part. They come out very realistic. 

[Simmer2 23,831]

They look great! Since you are making them from scratch, you should consider rendering them in HD.

Gmax allows you to do that with this little extra file...https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7430.msg238749#msg238749

Replace your scripts with these and you are good to go.

 

Simmer2/Nick

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

22 hours ago, DavidDHetzel said:

I more curious, where did you get those textures from? 

I used almost the same technique @tigerbuilder posted. Some of them I found on Internet,and some of them were extracted from Google Earth, then, they were edited a little bit to finally have a nice looking texture.

7 hours ago, Simmer2 said:

They look great! Since you are making them from scratch, you should consider rendering them in HD.

Gmax allows you to do that with this little extra file...https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7430.msg238749#msg238749

Replace your scripts with these and you are good to go.

 

Simmer2/Nick

I'll give a try and post the results here. Thank you for this information, I really appreciate it

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

Now I want to show you the 50 ft boxcars I've made so far, they are like 19-20 models. Tell me what you think.

[Simmer2 23,831]

My rail juices are flowing again.

Release the pack and watch me perform magic with them!

Simmer2/Nick

 

PS. Do it right while you still can. Make 11.25 - 22.5 - 33 - and 45 degrees variations of them all. I know it is a huge task but you will not regret it.

Once done it will be the biggest and most complete pack ever! Do not forget to include a couple of engines and possible 1 or 2 shunter engines as well.

[6StringShaman 112]

Looking great.