Dirty EWS Urchins

Last Thursday we showed you some pictures of the clean, recently converted ZCA Sea Urchins. Today it's the turn of the ones that have been in traffic for a while.

The three pictures above show the varying levels of fading, weathering and battering that have been applied to the EWS liveried ZCA Sea Urchins we have modelled for Train Simulator 2016.However, we haven't produced six different weathered models (3 levels on each of the two different under-frames) for you to have to pick and place.

Instead we've used a little bit of technical magic and created just one weathered version that will randomly choose which level of weathering will be displayed. This should mean you can place a string of wagons that look varied and have no repeating pattern of weathering with ease.

Alongside this we're well aware from pictures that some people like to leave their mark on various railway assets and engineers wagons are no exception. If you take a look at the picture at the bottom of this post you'll see a wagon that has gained a few graffiti 'tags' as well as giving a good contrast between different weathering levels compared to the wagons on either side. The graffiti is automatically and randomly applied to the weathered wagons and can range from nothing through one single 'tag' to a plethora on both sides!

Sparkling EWS Sea Urchins

A few days ago we announced our range of future expansions which we are developing for distribution via Marketplace. Naturally we didn't start working on the expansions at the time of the announcement but have had to wait until everything was in place before we could share anything.

We're starting off the sharing today with some screenshots taken by the works photographer of some freshly repainted EWS liveried ZCA Sea Urchins. Those of you who have been following our products for a while will know that we had already produced a pack of engineers 'Dutch' liveried Sea Urchins converted from VDA vans and this expansion is a development from it.

We have updated the materials used throughout the models with new shaders along with some extensive reworking of the textures and ambient occlusion maps. In addition to this this we have automated some features of the wagons to reduce clutter in the asset list, as requested in the spring survey, by randomly switching between the two different body types as wagons are placed. The wagons now also feature a variety of different load remnants which appear at random during placement.

The wagons have also been equipped with some other new features but they can wait for when we show you the pictures!

Ready for Conversion

Conversions are the main source of income for the works at the moment.

The resident ex-BR Class 08 is seen bringing 3 HEA hoppers in from the exchange sidings for conversions to MEA box wagons. In the background, newly rebuilt ZCA Sea Urchins wait to leave. Behind them, more VDA vans are stored ready for conversion to ZCAs.

Painted Urchin

The majority of time since the release of the VDA vans has been spent (other than taking a bit of a break) getting the ZCA Sea Urchin completed and ready for master shapes to be given the once over by the testers.

The model shown is just about ready for a final check before the different versions are created, all that's needed is the magic to make that tail lamp flash!

Speaking of tail lamps, this is now the fourth different model we've created and all by chance for this one. An offhand comment from one of the team following the preview of the original lamp modelled set in motion a fortunate series of events. 

The original comment was along the lines of "I hope we're going to include the BR flashing tail lamp" and received a reply of "That's what I've done". "Oh no", comes the reply, "They were bigger". Not a popular comment to make after the difficulty of finding enough references for (what's turned out to be) a mark 3 lamp!

By total chance in less than 24 hours an email arrived from the same team member that he'd got pictures and measurements of a BR lamp and everything that was needed to create the lamp in the screenshot. Now all that's needed is simulate the weight of the thing as he remarked "It was just as heavy as I remember them!"

Now, should we track down a mark 2 lamp just to complete the set ...?