KAHD Update. Nov.28.2011

Just a quick update about my King's Arm Highway Deluxe route project;
Though I've sometimes ran into a few snags and frustrations with the occasionally fussy scenario-editor, I've been still working hard on this project. Lately I've been mainly focusing on making several immersive scenarios with a good variety of trains to drive, activities, Seasons, weather & day/night conditions, and to well-explore the whole range of the King's Arm Highway.

I've another standard scenario or two I want to try and complete over the next few days. After that there's a few more areas along the route that I wanted to add in a bit more scenery. Then I think I'll soon have this route & scenarios for it ready for the Beta-Testing stage.

Screenshot from one of the new scenarios (click for larger view):

KAHD Update. Nov.23.2011

Another update here about my King's Arm Highway Deluxe project.

I've been working hard on making more new scenarios and progress is still coming along nicely. I want to make a few more scenarios over the next week or two, then it should be ready for beta-testing after that.

Working on this project has helped me to become even more familiar with the overall workings of RailWorks and the editor.

Sometimes making scenarios can be an exercise in frustration. Sometimes unexpected, even bizarre things happen with the scenarios, or it seems to do things it shouldn't do or doesn't always do what you want it to do, in which case I have to tend to rewrite portions of the scenario to work-around some of these odd problems that can crop-up.

Some of my scenarios I'm making are fairly complex, with some having a play-through duration between 1 and 2 hours (and some of the more involved scenarios may take even longer than that).
I've been trying to create immersive and fun scenarios with a variety of tasks to perform. Of course the more complex and longer in duration a scenario is, the longer it takes to program the various instructions and test properly.

The most recent scenario I just finished making, it took me around 50 hours to make it, test it and to get it working to my satisfaction. I figure, by the time I complete this overall project, between making this route and the scenarios, I will have spent around 1200+ hours of my time working on it (that's counting the 700+ hours of time I approximate that I spent making the original version & scenarios of my King's Arm Highway route, in which this Deluxe version is a much improved and expanded version of).

Despite some of the odd problems I encounter sometimes (which I try to look at as interesting "challenges" I can overcome), overall, working on this project has been another good learning experience. I feel my knowledge and skills with RailWorks and the editor has improved more because of it.

In the end, I still much enjoy making my route & scenario projects for RailWorks (if I didn't, I probably would have given up a long time ago in frustration) and it's a reward in itself to see a project that I make take shape into it's own little "work of art", a little "living, breathing virtual-world" that I can say, "Hey, I made that", and that others enjoy exploring it as well.
Cheers! :)

Here's a couple of screen-shots from one of the new scenarios (click on a screen-shot to view in a larger size):

KAHD Update. Nov.20.2011

I put together a video of my King's Arm Highway Deluxe route in action.
The various scenes are taken from some of the scenarios I made.

The video quality and FPS is a bit lower than it normally runs on my computer due to the video-capture software, the capture settings, video file conversions and plus I set it in a lower screen-resolution size than I normally use. But it should still give you an idea about what some of the route and scenarios look like. Once the video starts playing, click the "Full Screen" button on the video for better viewing.

Click on the following link to watch the video in HD format:

http://youtu.be/_pAG5RdKcZs?hd=1

Or, this link for normal (lower) quality format:

http://youtu.be/_pAG5RdKcZs

KAHD Update. Nov.19.2011

Another update here about my King's Arm Highway Deluxe route project.

I'm now up to having 10 standard-scenarios completed. The scenarios will be presented in sequential numbers preceding the name, so if a User wants to play through the scenarios in order (though they can choose to play any scenario in any order they choose), then it's a good way to be introduced to the various locations and activities involved with the KAHD route, as well the Seasons will be changing in order as well. So the earlier scenarios begin in Summer, then as the scenarios progress the seasons will go through Autumn, Winter, Spring, back to Summer and so on.

In this way I`m hoping to offer a good variety of activities, seasons (in which the trees,foliage and landscapes can change how they appear accordingly), time of day (or night), weather conditions, and of course a variety of trains to drive.

This time around, with most of the scenarios I'm trying to feature different engines and rolling-stock that's used, on a per-scenario basis, to be a certain theme (or region). So, in one scenario you may see all North-American based trains, another scenario you'll see all UK style trains, and other scenarios will be featuring German based trains. Of course as my route and scenarios are "fictional-based" and oft-times non-prototypical, I can be free to use "Artistic Freedom" and may perhaps also have some scenarios that could make use of a mix of trains and rolling-stock as well.

In the end, regardless of what trains I decide to use in the scenarios I make, I'll try my best to make them immersive, interesting, functional and fun.

Below are some screenshots from one of the new scenarios featuring a "Christmas Eve" Express Passenger Run (click on an image to view in larger size). I've been trying to making good use of some of the new TSX lighting effects on this scenario to give parts of the route a "festive Christmas" look and mood in which some areas will be lit-up in using decorative traditional Christmas green & red colors.

It's Christmas Eve at King's Market.

Carolers sing around the Christmas-Tree in the Market Square.

KAHD Update. Nov.17.2011

Here's another update about my King's Arm Highway Deluxe route project.

*  I've been mainly focusing now on making more new scenarios.
I've already completed eight standard-scenarios and am working hard to make more before release.

The scenarios will feature a good range of activities, some fairly easy where other will be more difficult.  They will also cover a good variety of trains to drive, seasons, weather and time or day (or night).

The scenarios will include clear, easy-to-understand instructions from the Dispatcher at the appropriate times.

* I've also added in a "Grain Loader" at King's Grainery,  and a "Grain Unloading Pit" at the Shipyard Area.

 Below are some screenshots from a couple of the new scenarios (click on an image to view in larger size):

A rainy-evening Express Passenger Run.

Loading-up with some grain at King's Grainery.

Unloading some container-cars at King's Container Yard.

KAHD Update. Nov.15.2011

Another update about my "King's Arm Highway Deluxe" route project;

Well, I hit a couple of snags during the last few days, but I think I have things figured out now. One problem was it seemed that any of the new lighting objects I placed on my route, to try and use some of the new TSX lighting effects, it seemed the lights would either always stay-on or always stay-off regardless of time of day or night.

So, this was a bit frustrating in trying to make scenarios in which the lighting effects weren't working as they should.

But, I've found a "work-around" of sorts by now making scenario-specific lighting which so far seems to be working. So for day-time scenarios I simply don't add the new lighting-objects, then for night-time scenarios I add in the various lighting objects along appropriate parts of the route.  Of course this can make it more time-consuming to do it this way, needing to re-add in the lighting objects for each scenario I want to use the new lighting effects on. But for now it's the only way I can figure out how to make this work properly.

 I was also having some trouble with a couple of scenarios, which actually helped me in tracking-down and fixing a problematic part of the route. It seemed that one part of the route a when Player-train would run over a certain junction area, it would sometimes "freeze" the program.  So I ripped-up sections of the track in that area, re-layed it down and it seems to have fixed that problem.

 I've added in a bit more scenery to various parts of the route, and have also made some more additions and improvements to the track network.

I've already made a few new scenarios, and aside from the problems I mentioned above that I think I have resolved, it looks like they are working well now.  So now my focus is on making up more new scenarios along with needing to add in a bit more scenery on some parts of the route. Overall progress is coming along nicely though and I may have things ready within a few weeks (I think I'll have this route ready for release a little before Christmas).

Here's a few more screen-shots to whet your whistle (click on a screen-shot to view image in a larger size):

  Driving a classic steam-engine on the "King's Coal Mover" scenario

It's a stormy rainy night on the "Shipyard Hustle" scenario

 

KAHD Update. Nov.10.2011

Seems I've been working "around the clock" sometimes on this project.
I'm hoping that if all goes well that I may yet have my King's Arm Highway Deluxe project ready in time to release just a little before Christmas.

I've got most of the additions and improvements to the route already made now, so next I will soon turn my attention to making up some new scenarios to go with it, then after that some beta-testing.

So, lots of work to do yet. But, here's a bit of info about some of the new additions and improvements I've made since my previous update on this project:

* Added in a Custom Loading Screen. I had to jump through several hoops to get this working right, figuring out a proper way to convert image files into the proper required formats, implementing it to be connected with the route, retro-making a separate route-folder under my Developer folder for this route and manually importing it all there to work properly, and had to even go in and fiddle around with XML route properties file to ensure that this worked properly and completely separate from the original King's Arm Highway route to avoid conflicts. But, it looks like I got it working as it should be now. I hope that RSC might consider with one of their future updates to make an easier way for Developers to add / import their own custom loading screen.

_______

"King's Arm Highway Deluxe" loading screen.

I decided to go with a bit of a retro-look with the style.

(click on image to view in larger size)

________

* Added in more Destinations, Sidings and some Portals along various parts of the route.

* Made more improvements to the overall signalling network.

* Added in more foliage, trees and various scenery items throughout the route.

* Added in a new functioning passenger-platform area. Did a bit more tweaking to some of the other platforms as well.

* I've made an official page for this project over at my website:
http://www.rryard.com/kings_arm_deluxe.html

Here's a few more screen-shots (click on a screen-shot to view in a larger size):

A couple of the Passenger Platforms at the King's Central area.

The King's Ridge Passenger Platform area.

Down near the King's Market area.

More foliage and trees added nearby the King's Coal Yard area.

KAHD Update. Nov.07.2011

Here's another little update about some progress I've been making on my King's Arm Highway Deluxe route project:

* Added a new Power Station.

* Added more residential housing in the King's Reach area.

* Added in more trees and foliage along various parts of the route.

* Added in more ambient sound effects in some areas.

* Added in some little "bumps" at some level-crossings to better make use of the TSX Cab-Sway effects.

* Made more overall improvements and additions to the track-infrastructure and scenery.

Here's a couple of screen-shots (click on an image to view in larger size):

A view of the new Power Station.

Some of the new houses and scenery added at the King's Reach area.

KAHD Update. Nov.03.2011

I've still been making progress on my "King's Arm Highway Deluxe" route project.

* At the King's Coal Yard area I've added in a Water Refueling Pump and a Coal Refueling Point for Steam-engines.

* Made more fixes / improvements to more of the track infrastructure.

* I found and removed more "Milk Jug" place-holder objects that were left-over after removing various assets from the route. I think I probably got all of them now (or most all of them), but if I did happen to miss a couple of hidden ones it shouldn't effect loading or running of the route.

* Added in some more lighting effects at some areas.

* Added in some more foliage in some areas.

* Testing and tweaking a few things such as the Turn-Tables, Cranes, Passenger-Platforms and Signals.

Here's a few more screen-shots (click on a screen-shot to view image in large size):

 An engine using the King's Container Yard Turn-Table.
It's a rainy stormy spring morning.

 A view from inside the cab while on the Turn-Table.
King's Container Yard off in the distance.

 A couple of engines in the new shed on a snowy winter's day.

The new Water Refueling Pump and
Coal Refueling Point at King's Coal Yard.

Picking up some passengers at King's Market Station.

Early morning dawn approaches at King's Shipping Yard.