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[WIP/REL] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms [V 0.2]

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 11:37
by Hammo
This is something I've been planning for a while, but haven't had time to do until now. These should go great with the CityRail Set.

The stations throughout the Cityrail network are many, and varied. Those built in different periods can look substantially different. And I cannot make every one of them. Instead, I hope to mimic those found on the East Hills Line and the Cronulla Branch Line. All these were built in the 1930s, and share a common style (also similar to many other stations on the network). These platforms are easily distinguished by their black asphalt surface, and short brick station building (with wildly varying roof colours).

Image

Most stations are islands, with the only double sided platforms at the Olympic Park Station. Hence, this mod will rely on the invisible station and trackmods for the platform and building. This does cause an issue though, as the best way I can think of for completing this is to make use of two trackmods - one for the building and one for the platform. Given the restriction on the number of trackmods (Is it 4?) then that causes problems for people who have at least one custom trackmod already installed (That's anyone with the Provo map). Unless someone can think of a way around it, I may have to develop a tool to switch trackst.dats around (Unless one of plastik's tools does that? The map making tool or something like that?)

I'll continue to update here as I progress. Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated.

******

Version 0.2 is now out for "beta" testing.

This is in a very incomplete state, as you will have to add the station (in form of a track mod) to your trackst.dat file, and to another vehicle to get the mod to work. I do not have my own vehicle or eye candy to do this with at the moment, so you will have to make a copy of another vehicle and modify it yourself. I think I've included the full instructions required. I always wanted to release this with said vehicle, invisible station, sample trackst, etc, but I haven't had the time for a while. Nor will I likely have time to do much work for a while, this is why I'm releasing it in its current unfinished state, or else it may never be released. I hope to finish it one day, but I can't see that happening for at least 6 months.

This version will be as seen in any previous screenshots, platforms only. I haven't had a chance to work on the buildings for a while, but will be in any future releases. There are a number of tools you will require, all of which are listed in the readme. YOU MUST READ THE README. IT CONTAINS SOME VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Additionally,
BACKUP YOUR OBJDATA FOLDER BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANYTHING. THIS MOD COULD BE POTENTIALLY DAMAGING IF NOT INSTALLED CORRECTLY.
I will not take any responsibility for broken installs/objdata folders. You have been warned.

Further, these have not been tested for a while. If there is any problem at all (my instructions aren't working/costs are too high/low/my readme is too confusing/I've included the wrong .dats/etc) PLEASE get back to me so I can correct it.

That said, I hope you enjoy the stations. Any feedback/comments are welcome. We all learn from our mistakes and need to feed our egos =P

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 12:21
by Plastikman
that looks outstanding!

oh wait, thats a photo.


To answer your Q, it is just 3.. 3!

as i said before, maybe i overlooked something obvious in my rushed testing.

I have several other one sided stations that are coded and i dont use due to limits.


You can do it old school like the original one sided stations. the only drawback to those are that they flip when you rotate the screen...

for the island ones, you could just make a full tile platform that covers a track. then use the invisi to get the trains to stop.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 12:25
by Hammo
Plastikman wrote:for the island ones, you could just make a full tile platform that covers a track. then use the invisi to get the trains to stop.
Similar to Strongbow's Mountain Platforms? Only he has another station to stop at too.

EDIT: That's 3 per game, right? I meant the max. number allowed in trackst. I've got 4 trackmods in my trackst.dat at the moment - catenary, 3rd rail, your freight station and the platform I'm currently working on. 3 per game is easy - AFAIK there is no 3rd rail in Australia. I could be wrong though. And not to say that people can't use it elsewhere anyway.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 21:41
by adroman
Excellent! I'll be watching this very closely...

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 21:59
by Kevo00
Sounds interesting, I like my CityRail...

Shame there is no way to make a Cronulla style setup, where one platform turns two trains, in Loco!

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 22:54
by Hammo
With a single sided platform, you probably could mimic Cronulla. It would be a very long station in lomo though, if it's got to fit two eight carriage trains end to end with room for a turnout...


ok, here we go:
Image

I stupidly forgot to add the invisible station to this, so that's not a real platform there. But if you can make a platform 34 tiles end to end... you get a thumbs up from me.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 10:25
by Kevo00
Lol, insane! Of course even with waypoints it would never be able to work like the real thing.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 07 Aug 2009 03:39
by Hammo
Ok, so I've not worked on this much recently for two reasons.

#1 - I've had uni work and extra curricular work to get to.

#2 - I can't do 2D graphics, so I've made a 3D model of the station (which is very basic, though) and rendered it in Pro/Engineer. I did that ages ago. I've had problems orienting the view correctly for locomotion's isometric grid. A few days ago I happened to think of an ingenious solution to the problem, and voila, correct alignment! So I've got the first two platform sprites done now, sao I thought I'd share a screenshot of them in-game.

Image

I've not textured the sides of the platform yet. In this way, they look to be made of concrete. The platforms I'm "focusing" on are brick, but there are similar stations on the network made of concrete, so they'll stay like this, at least for now.

EDIT:

Ok, now I've done the others. Next will be the station building itself.

Image

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 07 Aug 2009 14:56
by Tracer bullet
Lookin good. Will you hqve to edit the trackst for theese?

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 07 Aug 2009 16:29
by rdrdrdrd
possibly, it depends if he did it the way the fanpage made there stations or as 1 sided stations

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 07 Aug 2009 21:35
by Hammo
Yes you will. I'll probably supply a pre- edited trackst, but any extra bridges/signals or stations you have would still need to be added.

How did the fanpage make their stations?

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 03:51
by rdrdrdrd
That station would work, I just tested one for kicks, here is a picture
Screenshot2.png
Screenshot2.png (115.64 KiB) Viewed 11862 times
here is the system I came up with

Code: Select all

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ?YXX?ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ?XXY?XXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXYYYXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXYYY
X=track
Y=junction
Z=Station
?=signal
the Firsty train will go straight, stopping at the break in the station, then if the first platform is taken up the 2nd train will go to the left and then turn towards the station to the right going into the platform,
leaving the first train would exit the main track and the second (they would be express) would either go through the first part or if it were blocked go through the opening and follow the tracks out the main track

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:07
by Hammo
Yeah, I have done it before with shorter platforms, although I put too many signals in my screeny above to work in lomo. Say for example that three trains want to enter... bottleneck. But by putting signals on both sides of the first platform and front of the second, it should work. (in fact, that looks like what you've done anyway)

Oh and by the way, they're duplicating that line at the moment anyway. I've heard that they might be making a regular platform at Cronulla now, but not sure about that. But it will be two tracks all the way from Sutherland to Cronulla, whenever that gets finished (I'm not sure, I don't catch that line anymore)

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 11:04
by C3805.
Oh mate, these just look brilliant. Will you be making new stations, like Chatswood or Ashfield or Wolli Creek as well?

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 11:30
by Hammo
we'll see. I'll get these done first - I haven't had any free time for a while - uni work is piling up. Link me a couple of good photos, and I might have a go at them when (or if!) I get the chance.

Wolli Creek is an interesting one though... I've not really seen much of platforms 3 & 4, so I'm not sure what the shelter's like there, but it's the standard asphalt platform, right? Just like 1 & 2 - which always feels like an open roofed underground station. That said, all that could be added to 1 & 2 is the walls at the edge (and could be used for any underground station really, as Town Hall, Redfern and Central are the only stations I can think of with underground islands), but I can't really see that as being much use in lomo.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 11:43
by C3805.
Yeah, Wolli Creek is standard asphalt one, but with a modern look. I found some good images here:
Platforms 1 and 2
Platforms 3 and 4

What I really meant, lawl, is the type of platforms that you see on the german forum, where you had a separate station building to go with the platform which would be built over a track, like the ones you see in Zimmlock's youtube videos. I was just wondering if you'd go so far as to make platforms like that.

Then again, take your time mate, uni is much more important.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 11:54
by Hammo
That is what I was planning, I've got the base platform done, and I was planning on making a station building to place there too. I think I've mentioned that somewhere.

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 19:44
by Harbon 1
rdrdrdrd wrote:That station would work, I just tested one for kicks, here is a picture
Screenshot2.png
here is the system I came up with
sorry its off topic but where did you get those signals from, and when are the stations going to be released?

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 22:58
by kalvingp30fan
Those are in plastiks US provo map at ami trians/

Re: [WIP] - Sydney Cityrail Platforms

Posted: 15 Sep 2009 00:06
by Hammo
The stations will be released when they're done. I've been swamped with uni work this semester, and have barely had any time to work on them.

I have converted all the platforms to a brick base, instead of concrete-looking, and I'm much happier with them now. I did make a bit of progress on the building too, but hit a snag trying to get the station building to sit on top of the platform, though I have a work-around for that. I might have some screens in a few weeks, when I've got a few more sprites for the station building.