I have a little bit more work on it and see if I can lower the patch cont.
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53000 patches. ouch!

Nice work!

I'm curious if it's all one model or you've assembled it in an action. If it is all one model, how long does it take to find patches and align normals?

You and me both!



You had to remind me about the normals.

For the last few days I have been getting rid of splines and fixing normals. I am hoping to cut down the patch cont to a point where I can keep it as a model. With out losing the detail. But I may have to go to an action and break it up into three parts.

Here is some detail shots of the trucks.

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Fantastic model! But I really would like to know what your "finding patches, aligning normals" times are. I'm planning on upgrading my computer and I'd like to calibrate my expectations for wait times. Currently 49,392 patches takes somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes on my 10 yr. old, 1.5Ghz Athlon.

"finding patches, aligning normals" ? Not sure exactly how to test this. Can you walk me throw it?

Also do you happen to have a detail diagram or know where I mite find one of the GG1 since most of the diagrams and photos I have found on the net lack in detail. And some of the details I have done, I am guessing at.

When you add or subtract a patch in a model, A:M pauses to do this before it can save the model file or screen render it in shaded mode. During this pause, the messages "Finding Patches [file name]" and "Aligning Normals [file name]" appear in succession on the left side of the status bar (see attached screen grab). When you remove some patches from the GG1 and hit save, how long is this pause?


Sorry no. The only reference images I have for electric locomotives come from a book published in 1922, 12 years before they started building the GG1. All I can offer are low res dimensioned drawings of what looks like a precursor loco, a quill motor assembly and a pantagraph (see attached). It's unlikely that these last two changed much in 12 years.


And as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with that as long as your not working for a customer who demands museum quality. If your satisfied with the look of your design guesses, that's all that matters. 99.9% of the potential audience for movies starring your GG1 wouldn't recognize an accurate quill motor if all 16,700 lbs. (7590 kg.) of it was dropped on their foot.

I'm not sure of your plans for the GG1 but if you want some passenger cars for it to pull, I can offer a combination car which, with a bit of cut and pasting, can be converted to a full Pullman car.

That’s slow
Mine is a Pentium 4 two threads 3.60Hz and at patch cont a 49,624 it takes 17 min. But you may want to go to a fare better processor. I plan on going to something like a “I7" with 4 cores.

I managed to get it down to 49,624 so when I am ready with it I will post two sets of the model. One with a complete model and one that uses an action.

The design of the pentagram is a lot better then the one I found. I is interesting to see the designs of the prototype/test article that became the GG1.

Last year I made a super high patch terrain model, which had over 100,000, patches. To render it, my computer would take approx. 35 seconds to "think" before it started to try rendering it. Also it ran at 6fps in wireframe and something like 25 spf in shaded. I am on a 15" MacBook Pro with 2.4ghz Intel Core Duo.

really? 100,000 patches? well try this one... only 625 patches and it runs alot smoother in wireframe but watch out in shaded mode... will definitily bog down your machine

Only if your not expecting it. I just structure my time so I can hit save and do something else in the real world.


Thanks. It's nice to be able to look forward to at least a 3X improvement.

The thread I posted about it is here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...l=terrain+patch

Photoman

PS Nice model DJBREIT btw