Where do I sign up?

[CommanderZ]

Its not the one, the Wotan's one has two smaller side-entrances and one larger portal, the Truro from the pic has only one big double-portal.

I guess most medium-sized gothic cathedrals looks pretty similiar.

[Wotan]

I found which cathedral it's modelled after:
http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/photos/img706.htm
At least, there's a lot in common between the two.

They are very similar but it is a pure coincidence. I originally modelled the cathedral based on pictures of different European ones (mostly German and French).

[Wotan]

A take at the docks

docks1.png (78.38 KiB) Viewed 4480 times

docks2.png (95.18 KiB) Viewed 4483 times

[Wotan]

The two last views

docks3.png (95.03 KiB) Viewed 4482 times

docks4.png (79.9 KiB) Viewed 4482 times

[Belgabor]

Very nice stuff!

There is one small gripe I have though, your signals.
Most graphics in the game need simply look nice, but the look of signals is (at least imho) game play central. There's two issues I have
- Even with the additional zoom levels, most people will probably play at what was formely the maxium zoom level, at least imo it give the best compromize between overview and editing. At this zoom level, your signals are hardly visible. Even more, the signal red/green state is one pixel on the screen, you have to look very carefully to discern whether it's red or green
- The only orientation of the original signals that doesn't show the sigalled color is if you look directly at the back (for trains coming from the top of the screen). On yours, this is also the case for signals for trains coming from the top left of the screen. Of course realistically the prespective shouldn't allow you to see the color, but see below.

Concluding I think that in the case of signals may be it would be better to sacrifice some realism and go for playability, maybe even enhancing the original look by showing the signal state of signals pointing completely away. I'm not sure on how to achieve this, my suggestion would be to model a "lamp" on the top of the signal that shows it's state.

But maybe I'm overestimating the usefullness of seeing the state a sigal is in, so I hope other people will voice their opinion on the matter.

[Wotan]

Very nice stuff!

There is one small gripe I have though, your signals.
Most graphics in the game need simply look nice, but the look of signals is (at least imho) game play central. There's two issues I have
- Even with the additional zoom levels, most people will probably play at what was formely the maxium zoom level, at least imo it give the best compromize between overview and editing. At this zoom level, your signals are hardly visible. Even more, the signal red/green state is one pixel on the screen, you have to look very carefully to discern whether it's red or green
- The only orientation of the original signals that doesn't show the sigalled color is if you look directly at the back (for trains coming from the top of the screen). On yours, this is also the case for signals for trains coming from the top left of the screen. Of course realistically the prespective shouldn't allow you to see the color, but see below.

Concluding I think that in the case of signals may be it would be better to sacrifice some realism and go for playability, maybe even enhancing the original look by showing the signal state of signals pointing completely away. I'm not sure on how to achieve this, my suggestion would be to model a "lamp" on the top of the signal that shows it's state.

But maybe I'm overestimating the usefullness of seeing the state a sigal is in, so I hope other people will voice their opinion on the matter.

Are these better?

semafor-standard.png (71.92 KiB) Viewed 4434 times

dagslyssignal-standard.png (57.37 KiB) Viewed 4422 times

[Dabas]

In my opinion they are better, they also could be a little bigger, when playing normal zoom they are noticeably smaller then regular 8bpp ones. I think that if they be a 1,5x bigger then they are it will be the right size. And your docks, they're really awesome, but maybe you could add a harbor crane? Something like in OpenGFX graphics?

[Belgabor]

I'll need to see them coded in game to really judge, but at a first glance they seem a lot better.
The mast still looks a bit thin, but if it's too thin I really cannot until I see them "live".

[maquinista]

This is a screenshot with the new signals:
I like it.

[maquinista]

This is a preview of the docks. I think that It is very good, and It can be coded. The water was not released and was modeled by dhm_mac.

[Wotan]

semafor-combo.png (74.14 KiB) Viewed 4142 times

semafor-entry.png (77.03 KiB) Viewed 4146 times

semafor-exit.png (67.06 KiB) Viewed 4148 times

[Wotan]

PBS semaphore signals

semafor-pbs.png (61.68 KiB) Viewed 4171 times

semafor-pbsoneway.png (62.63 KiB) Viewed 4175 times

[Wotan]

dagslyssignal-combo.png (71.97 KiB) Viewed 4132 times

dagslyssignal-entrance.png (76.14 KiB) Viewed 4132 times

dagslyssignal-exit.png (64.86 KiB) Viewed 4135 times

[Wotan]

PBS signals

dagslyssignal-pbs.png (79.52 KiB) Viewed 4147 times

dagslyssignal-pbsoneway.png (83.71 KiB) Viewed 4144 times

[Slye_Fox]

it's imposable to tell the combo and exit semaphores apart when they face away from the camara

[Roujin]

Awesome work, but... blue signals? What are those?

[maquinista]

The blue light signals can be coded. Also, if You don't like it, You can modify it with GIMP or Photoshop. You can use the brush tool in "hue" mode, save it, and use PNG codec. I will put a batch file (.BAT) with the offsets in the file, and You only will need run this batch file to write the offsets in the PNG files.

The white and yellow elements combo and exit signals can be rotated a bit in these two views. This would make them visible.

[Belgabor]

it's imposable to tell the combo and exit semaphores apart when they face away from the camara

Unfortunately that's not everything, there are a lot of other pairs (or even triples) you cannot readily tell apart, even at the presented resolution. Think about new players who need to clearly see immediately what kind of signal they've placed, even at normal zoom level.

Edit: the extra sign on the PBS signals is a very good idea, but it needs to be bigger and more visible, maybe a square sitting on a corner like Australian road signs, see sketches below. That way you could even discern it from the back by the unique form of the sign. For the one-way PBS signals, I suggest adding a red bar from the back of the signal that is visible from the front and the back (see last sketch). This, with the unique sign, should make it more readily discernable from the pre-signals.

[Wotan]

I tried re-doing the PBS signals to make them more discernible. I added a dwarf signal to the standard PBS signal (makes sense since trains also enter from the backside of the signal) and a sign on the one way signal (makes sense since trains are not allowed to enter from that direction). The dwarf signals can be hard to see on the black background but since there are few black objects ingame I think they will be visible. I don't think the route indicator display can be made much larger without looking weird.

dagslyssignal-pbs.png (83.02 KiB) Viewed 3888 times

dagslyssignal-pbsoneway.png (95.74 KiB) Viewed 3889 times

[Wotan]

Awesome work, but... blue signals? What are those?

I made the PBS semaphore signals some time after I made the standard signals. By then I had learned that semaphores are not only lighted on the front but also on the back. The red and green lights are for the front while the yellow and blue are for the back. The use of different colours makes it possible for the driver to see from which side he is viewing the signal.