Keep up the excellent effort.

Thanks.

Here's just something else entirely that I'm working with just to get a little bit better with more advanced route building. 

I've created a seperate route which is semi fictional just as a practice but with the wires going to South Morang.

You've done well with the overhead bridge Justin. 

You've done well with the overhead bridge Justin. 

Thanks, It was just a bit of a muck around with a new route extracted, I might by some chance make an updated version of the route with dual lines and new Epping, Thomastown and South Morang Station sometime in the future after the release of the current route. 

Cheers, Justin.

You've done well with the overhead bridge Justin. 

Thanks, It was just a bit of a muck around with a new route extracted, I might by some chance make an updated version of the route with dual lines and new Epping, Thomastown and South Morang Station sometime in the future after the release of the current route. 

Cheers, Justin.

Any chance we could see a Spencer Street and Flinders Street so that we could run trains in a continous route, for example, start with 434M from Epping run to Flinders Street/Princess Bridge via loop and return to Epping, the change over at Epping to 319M and repeat, like real life?

Any chance we could see a Spencer Street and Flinders Street so that we could run trains in a continous route, for example, start with 434M from Epping run to Flinders Street/Princess Bridge via loop and return to Epping, the change over at Epping to 319M and repeat, like real life?

We'll see. Princes Bridge and the underground bit of the city loop is relatively straightfoward from a route building point of view. The viaduct would probably have a few technical problems, depending on how the final tile object counts pan out. There's also the issue of the number of custom 3D objects required and the modelling time for them. It's taken nearly six months just to finish the alstom comeng cars, we have to be realistic about what's actually achievable without it taking forever.

Here's a hidden section along the line in which you will be able to drive through, sometime in the hopefully not too distant future, the government will get off their backsides and deliver this extension, yes it's electrified but single line 3 car running only. 

Here's some pics of it with T's running but very early development of the section, all done by imagination. 

In terms of extending to SSS and FSS, you could use the model of Flinders Street Station from the Melbourne/Seymour Route, and derive the viaduct shape files from there as well. As its the 1980s/90s there was no Federation Square, so that should be easier to achieve. All you would probably need to build as such is the new viaduct, if you want pure authenticity.
This further extension would also enable the City Circle Line which sprouts off just prior to Parliament in the Clifton Hill loop.

I think that this would be well worth the wait - It would be fantastic to have a fully functional Epping Line to the city via loop, and also have the City Circle Line as an optional extra run, as this was a commonly used route in the 80s and 90s

In terms of extending to SSS and FSS, you could use the model of Flinders Street Station from the Melbourne/Seymour Route, and derive the viaduct shape files from there as well. As its the 1980s/90s there was no Federation Square, so that should be easier to achieve. All you would probably need to build as such is the new viaduct, if you want pure authenticity.
This further extension would also enable the City Circle Line which sprouts off just prior to Parliament in the Clifton Hill loop.

I think that this would be well worth the wait - It would be fantastic to have a fully functional Epping Line to the city via loop, and also have the City Circle Line as an optional extra run, as this was a commonly used route in the 80s and 90s

I guess it can be derived as you were saying, I wouldn't mind having Flinders St and Spencer Street in the route as well, we shall see how things pan out first as the construction towards the city, Jolimont, Princes Bridge and the loop itself. 

Melbournesparks is still finishing off the ALSTOM Comeng's where as my component of the work is done apart from testing and making sure the model is up to standards and seeing if I can spot any other prior issues. 

I think there are some other things in the pipeline as well that will probably be worked on which are most likely M>Train and Connex Alstom Comeng and Connex EDI Comeng. They will be more or less similar to the previous release back in 2002 or whenever it was.

Well just using the new shape, they will be more or less the same as the Comeng's now but just in a different livery as of those models then but with much finer detail. 

In terms of extending to SSS and FSS, you could use the model of Flinders Street Station from the Melbourne/Seymour Route, and derive the viaduct shape files from there as well. As its the 1980s/90s there was no Federation Square, so that should be easier to achieve. All you would probably need to build as such is the new viaduct, if you want pure authenticity.
This further extension would also enable the City Circle Line which sprouts off just prior to Parliament in the Clifton Hill loop.

I think that this would be well worth the wait - It would be fantastic to have a fully functional Epping Line to the city via loop, and also have the City Circle Line as an optional extra run, as this was a commonly used route in the 80s and 90s

The limitation is also a technical one within MSTS, relating to the maximum tile object count. The need to stay below the maximum tile object count means that just because it works in the VR NE route it won't nessesarily work for us, it depends on where the tile boundries end up falling and how economical I am with the number of shape files. Custom shapes can help a lot to cut down the total number of tile objects, but there is of course the time to take to model them.

Short untechnical version: It might be doable, it might not, we'll see.

Not a lot is happening at this point in time on the project, I've just only created a bluestone type wall as it is in real life pretty much for the Metropolitan Ring Road Overpass near Thomastown. 

With the Comeng's nearing Completion, we'll be ontop of this shortly. 

Are there going to be signs and lights on the platforms at each station?

Are there going to be signs and lights on the platforms at each station?

In the end, Yes. 

This route is going to take a lot longer than I thought. 

Any updates/Screenshots of either this project or Alstom Comeng?

Any updates/Screenshots of either this project or Alstom Comeng?

Not anything new really at this point in time, we've been pretty tied up with general life activities which has stopped us from continuing development. 

Alstom Comeng's are almost nearly complete and will be very soon to release, just a matter of when we get on top of it to get it out on the net for people to download. 

As for the route, not a heck of a lot either, I'm just going over it constantly in the mean time fixing crucial things that need fixing. 

Alexander will help with the remaining development after the Comeng project is complete. 

I've managed to make some alterations to the traction motor sound but unable to get it to cut out as no one seems to have sufficient knowledge or has intended to pass on some other advice. 


Cheers, Justin. 

May I ask how the route's going?

May I ask how the route's going?

The Route is going alright, Comeng's are almost finished and almost at the stage of beta release. Once the Comeng's are done then we're back onto working on the route. 

Cheers, Justin. 

May I ask how the route's going?

The Route is going alright, Comeng's are almost finished and almost at the stage of beta release. Once the Comeng's are done then we're back onto working on the route.

Cheers, Justin.

Love the detail. You guys must take a lot of time to do things with MSTS. Keep up the great work

Hasn't been an update here in a while. Here's the latest progress.

You will be able to enjoy the scenic beauty of the now replaced, but at the time brand new Epping station and workshops.

All aboard a citybound unrefurb comeng at the old street level Epping station.

Past the newly created Epping yard, replacement for the soon to be decomissioned Jolimont workshops in the city.


Keon Park

By this stage operations at the Victoria Park goods yard were winding down, and the parcels vans themselves were not long for this world. Compare with this photo from VictorianRailways.net:



An original condition comeng at Vic Park in the mid 80's...

Not much is moving in the overgrown goods yard.

There are only three tunnels in the whole suburban area aside from the city loop, and two of them are at Jolimont.

Finally here we are at a shiny new Parliament in a shiny new comeng, back in the mid 80's.

However for those of us who grew up in the 1990's, this is the view we all remember. I do miss the unrefurb comengs.

That is more or less the extent of progress to date, with work continuing on the complex city area at the moment. As usual any help with creating the many custom objects required is most appreciated.

Excellent work Justin! Love the underground pictures.

mate the route looks amazballs! the loop is perfect..!!! have you thought about using Train Simulator 2013 rather than MSTS? the flexibility & features of TS13 would be ideal for a route as detailed & accurate as yours..

I only ask as I have just started using TS13 after many years away from sims.. it is so realistic its just amazing..

keep up the good work & you're doing an amazing job.

cheers.

Hasn't been an update here in a while. Here's the latest progress.

You will be able to enjoy the scenic beauty of the now replaced, but at the time brand new Epping station and workshops.

All aboard a citybound unrefurb comeng at the old street level Epping station.

Past the newly created Epping yard, replacement for the soon to be decomissioned Jolimont workshops in the city.

Keon Park

By this stage operations at the Victoria Park goods yard were winding down, and the parcels vans themselves were not long for this world. Compare with this photo from VictorianRailways.net:

An original condition comeng at Vic Park in the mid 80's...

Not much is moving in the overgrown goods yard.

There are only three tunnels in the whole suburban area aside from the city loop, and two of them are at Jolimont.

Finally here we are at a shiny new Parliament in a shiny new comeng, back in the mid 80's.

However for those of us who grew up in the 1990's, this is the view we all remember. I do miss the unrefurb comengs.

That is more or less the extent of progress to date, with work continuing on the complex city area at the moment. As usual any help with creating the many custom objects required is most appreciated.

Not sure what i was expecting but it looks amazing so realistic

mate the route looks amazballs! the loop is perfect..!!! have you thought about using Train Simulator 2013 rather than MSTS? the flexibility & features of TS13 would be ideal for a route as detailed & accurate as yours..

I only ask as I have just started using TS13 after many years away from sims.. it is so realistic its just amazing..

keep up the good work & you're doing an amazing job.

cheers.

Unforutnately this route is built on about 10 years of MSTS experience, so it is not really possible. With openrails though you can still have a more realistic experience in older MSTS routes.

Update time.

In this route, you will be able to enjoy the sights of some iconic but now vanished buildings, such as the gas and fuel towers. Who remembers those?


Such magneficent architecture! You will also be able to enjoy platforms 15 and 16 in genuine and authentic dingyness.

Of course no Melbourne route would be complete without this view.


You will also be able to see such landmarks as the Flinders Street parceles dock and the dodgy looking pr0n shop that is never, ever open.

This is belived to be the first pr0n shop to ever feature in an Australian MSTS route.

...

Now for boring technical stuff, but might be of interest to any route builders.

The main limitation to detailed city scenery in MSTS is the maximum tile object count. From experiance I've found the maximum number of objects per tile is somewhere around 1500. More than that and it is likely to become corrupt on saving. To try and cut down on the number of seperate objects, as many things as possible have been combined in to giant custom objects. One of the ways this was done was to make some custom road sections, which have footpaths and tramway overhead poles included in the one shape. Problem is they can't be placed directly without fiddling with the tsection.dat file, something fraught with risk. Instead they inserted by laying some placeholder default road sections, noting the filenames used, then manually editing the wold files. With the way the tile boundarys ended up falling, most of the CBD, including both Flinders Street and Spencer street is one the one tile, so any savings that can be made are very important.

So it's probably about time for an update.

Track for the city loop is finally complete, so work has been progressing on Museum (now Melbourne Central) station. It's working in openrails for now, but still needs some tweaking to work in MSTS's much more ancient graphics engine.

Now that does look good,

A well done to all concerned.

Woodford

Very good!! Looking forward to this.