New website article on characters

[Company Notch]

http://www.tsinsider.com/Articles/AboutTS2/Characters.aspx

-Rick

Rick Selby
Lead Game Designer
Microsoft Train Simulator

http://yardlimits.spaces.live.com

[janda]

great, would be nice to see it also in FS 11......

brds

[Driverman2008]

That is SO cool!:eek:

Now, I'm guessing that there will be an American steam locomotive in the game. The pictured fireman is American (according to the caption).

[3Directions]

Nice figures ... what's the count for the US fireman ?

:)

[Driverman2008]

I like how the American fireman looks young (like in his 20s or 30s). That's one thing I don't like about Rail Simulator, the fact that the drivers and firemen on the steam locomotives (the Black 5s and 7Fs) look really old. I think steam locomotives are for the young guys to operate (no offense).

I like also like the European conductor's uniform. It makes him look like an airline pilot, which looks very neat and modern, I'm impressed!:)

[MatthewS]

That is really impressive!

In FSX you can define "regions" for things like seasons, population density, traffic density and so on.

In TS2 would you be adding regions for "ethnicity" too?

Say you model Western, Asian, Latin and African ethnicity regions, you could define countries in South America to have a strong Latin ethnicity but a weak Asian ethnicity. Likewise countries in Asian would have a stronger Asian ethnicity mix.

I think in FSX the scale of the region "cells" is about 1.2km sq.... therefore if people wanted to go into great detail they could define say Harlem in NYC to have a strong African ethnicity where as other parts of NYC might have a more even mix of all ethnicities.

Also can the clothes textures be customized? And I notice also that in the women shot there are some elderly ladies who are wearing high heels and business suits... I think its better if they 3d models wear clothes that are appropriate for their age group (child, adult, elderly).

Anyway... It must be great fun to work on TS2! Congrats on the people they will make the TS2 world feel less sterile and move alive :)

[261Steam]

Yeah I really like it.

Now one question that I have is will we be able to make our own figgures? like other engineers and fireman that we know? I am part of the crew for the Milwaukee Road 261 and would love to model some of our crewmembers and some of my friends that are railfans and me of course. I would Love to make it so it I could acctualy pass myself and make it look like I was railfaning by the tracks.

Just wondering

Thanks

Brandon

[B32BWH]

Haha, this is too funny, at the begining of this thread i was wondering the same thing, and now i get down to your post Brandon.

As part of the SP 2472 Steam crew, i too would like to be able to possibly model some of our crew members and friends.


jeff

[timken]

The sim will be much more real with people around. I do hope it's possible to make sets for other eras though. Say 1960, 1945, 1930, 1910 and 1880 or so. It would be great to have trainmen in traditional (US) passenger uniforms, and freight crews in stiped bib overalls.

Another thing that would be a perfect addition to realism, are front and rear brakemen that could drop off and line switches ahead of the still creeping trains. An operator hooping up orders to the engineer and conductor would also add to the sense of being there. Maybe these things will even be possible.

Steve

[BNSFfan]

Very, very, VERY cool! I sure hope some CAD and design classes are able to help me model myself! I could have Be in a car chasing my train, haha. I feel ego-tastic!

[Driverman2008]

The sim will be much more real with people around. I do hope it's possible to make sets for other eras though. Say 1960, 1945, 1930, 1910 and 1880 or so. It would be great to have trainmen in traditional (US) passenger uniforms, and freight crews in stiped bib overalls.
Steve
I don't like that style at all (with the blue pinstripe overalls, blue pinstripe baseball caps, and red bandanas around the neck).

My favorite is what the British drivers and firemen wore (blue suits, blue British caps, black ties, and black shoes). I also like what the American railroad men wear today (t-shirts with their railroad's logo, hard hats, orange suits with reflective tape, jeans, and sometimes a leather jacket over that if it gets cold).

[Portergraphic]

I would imagine you would be able to make your own characters.
Our artists are using 3DSMax for the low poly model and then they are using ZBrush for the high poly work.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/home?siteID=123112&id=129446 (Autodesk)
http://www.pixologic.com/home.php (ZBrush)

[rdamurphy]

So, um, no hidden Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas style Easter eggs?

I crack me up!

Seriously, very, very nice work! And I actually learned something from the explanation of how it was done.

Robert

[CaptainBazza]

That's one thing I don't like about Rail Simulator, the fact that the drivers and firemen on the steam locomotives (the Black 5s and 7Fs) look really old.

They were, promotion progression was by age in them days!

Have a look at US steam engineers in photos, they were all senior guys, in those days the younger gen was seen, but not heard. The youth oriented me, me, me, kultcha was still generations away.


Cheers Bazza

[Charles King]

OK I'm SOLD!!!!! This is just what I wanted to hear. MSTS 2, Get ready....I'm your No.1 fan already!!!!! :)

[Portergraphic]

Actually, I may have misspoke. Let me look into this and get back with you.
I had assumed this would be extensible, however one of the developers said that he doesn't believe we are doing this at this time.

Let me investigate and find out more.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Yukon]

We will try to expose as much of the system as we can. However, just getting the system in, performant, and stable is our primary focus so nice tools and extensibility is unlikely for this release. We totally understand the value there, and we are designing what we have so we can get there eventually. The character system is so new to this engine that we must crawl before we walk. That said, I'm getting pretty excited to see what we have so far!

The in-game high resolution characters are on the order of 4000 polys.

[Driverman2008]

We will try to expose as much of the system as we can. However, just getting the system in, performant, and stable is our primary focus so nice tools and extensibility is unlikely for this release. We totally understand the value there, and we are designing what we have so we can get there eventually. The character system is so new to this engine that we must crawl before we walk. That said, I'm getting pretty excited to see what we have so far!

The in-game high resolution characters are on the order of 4000 polys.
Do you work for/at Microsoft or Aces Studios?

[MatthewS]

We will try to expose as much of the system as we can. However, just getting the system in, performant, and stable is our primary focus so nice tools and extensibility is unlikely for this release. We totally understand the value there, and we are designing what we have so we can get there eventually. The character system is so new to this engine that we must crawl before we walk. That said, I'm getting pretty excited to see what we have so far!

The in-game high resolution characters are on the order of 4000 polys.

Good stuff!

Any thoughts on using the FSX "regions" capability to allow for "ethnicity" regions (Caucasian/Asian/Latin/African) so that the "mix" of ethnicity can be customized by 3rd parties.

[3Directions]

Actually, I may have misspoke. Let me look into this and get back with you.
I had assumed this would be extensible, however one of the developers said that he doesn't believe we are doing this at this time.

Let me investigate and find out more.

Sorry for the confusion.

We will try to expose as much of the system as we can. However, just getting the system in, performant, and stable is our primary focus so nice tools and extensibility is unlikely for this release. We totally understand the value there, and we are designing what we have so we can get there eventually. The character system is so new to this engine that we must crawl before we walk. That said, I'm getting pretty excited to see what we have so far!

The in-game high resolution characters are on the order of 4000 polys.


Hi Folks :)

Thanks for the replys , when you sort things out , confirmation , one way or the other would be cool .. and even not so nice tools are fine :D

~A~

[Yukon]

Ah, yes. I should introduce myself. I do work at ACES in the core group, and on characters among other things. Nice to meet you all!

Oh, I thought another thing I could share with you is that, being a world-wide simulation with the World of Rails functionality, we recognized early that control over ethnicity would be a critical component of our system so we are absolutely building the system with that in mind. Our baseline is to use a data-driven approach based upon a standard source such as the UN.