Really something that should have been suggested months ago when I asked for suggestions for railway props. I wasn't even going to add the rails though, as they have always been a gimmick at best, if you want to use trains you should really be using map based rails.

Sorry, I didn't really notice it being said anywhere, I only found Sprops recently and I've only started working with them recently too, I would be happy to suggest many railway props if you'd like.

Always open to suggestions for props.

Well... I know this sounds like a lot of work... BUT I have a feeling that the railways in Gmod have always been a gimmick because they haven't really been flexible enough to really become anything but a gimmick, I'm sure that if you look at my profile pictures that I am a train fan who tries to build real trains in GMod.

I think the main reason the railways have always been a gimmick, is because they have never been of any practical use to 'pro builders'.

If you look on all of the train maps on both the workshop and garrysmod.org (most of those train maps still work), what you see is maps usually have more then one track running parallel to another piece of track, what this would indicate is that there would be an ability to make corners run very close to each other even through curves and straights, points are also a factor in this as they allow trains to change from one track to another.

So I would suggest taking this from a modelling standpoint (model railways for instance) rather then a 'real life' standpoint because there would be so many points you couldn't even count them..

I guess while partially denying my first post in view of a more overall usage of tracks (the reason for this would be because while making tracks for vehicles would be good, but the curves wouldn't fit on any geometry), I would suggest making props in a similar manner to what a model railway manufacturers do, make a range of products which would span the majority of railways as a whole, categorizing them down to curves, straights, points, crossovers and misc ensuring that they will interlock with all other pieces of track.

While I openly admit that the model railway approach would be shooting myself in the foot since I do not really like the selection, I feel that making individual pieces of track and bending them to your will would be far more impractical in this case due to Gmod's and source's limitations.

So from a modelling standpoint, take hornby's brand for instance. http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6871/8x4v1.jpg what you have would be using differnt track radii, straights and points to produce a custom layout, hornby have also coded them meaningless numbers with meaningful names like "first radius" "second radius" "third radius" "Tiny Straight" "Short Straight" "Normal Straight".

Long Curves are also built to 45 degrees (22.5 would be normal), there are special curves which are half or even quarter that which are meant to intersect with points (11.25 and 5.625 degrees), which have the same curve radius as the main curves, the only difference would be that the 11.25 would be for slow trains, the 5.625 would be for trains which would go at higher speed.

The rack radii would be set according to the track separation distance (the distance from one track to the next, measured in SDK units which is set by the modeler, (I guess what I could advise on is measure them according to PHX3 trains since players still use PHX3 for their trains), the measurements would be measured from the center of the track, this would also apply to points as points would have to be tested for alignment so that they would perform the accurate separation distance.

Diamond pieces of track http://www.translationdirectory.com/images_articles/wikipedia/railroads/Railroad_crossing_at_grade_also_known_as_a_diamond.jpg would be interesting as there would have to be multiple types.

Hornby has types of this designed for both low speed and high speed points of both the left hand and the right hand nature.

The difference would be the length of the diverging route is different to the main route. the diverging route is longer then the main route, allowing for something similar to http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Flat-junction-both-tracks.svg/380px-Flat-junction-both-tracks.svg.png which shows that there are 2 diverging tracks with a crossing going over them.

Oh yeah for the record, remove the level changing sections, I don't really think they're needed for anything but gimmick building, railway modelers just bend the straights upwards (in Gmod, I feel this might need some sort of point which players can rotate the pieces using various tools).

I guess I would have to suggest would be prior to release, I would advise the devs to make a model railway layout of their choice from http://www.freetrackplans.com/Layout-Plans.php and try to replciate it in Gmod to proove that your pack set really works.

As a last thought, I would recommend that you research a bit into the different modelling brands and take a broad view into how they did it since you can't really get all of the pointers you need to make a pack of your own from one brand, but I think taking it as an example could give you a good starting point.

The Wiki is also a good source to look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_switch this wiki page will show you the different types of junctions seen in real life.

I guess most fo them you will not even see on Gmod layouts, so the most basic ones would eb the standard switch, the diamond crossing, the straight and the curve.

Maybe in the future after the initial pack release including the details above, you could expand the pack into more of the rare point types, such as slip, double slip and 3 way junctions.

I guess what the main objective for now would be to try and make a model railway track layout in Gmod using Sprops track as it has been proven to work in real life.

I admit, there will be difficulties in the set track track as naturally, you will get gaps in between rails so don't really try to hard making them match perfectly.

I hope this helps.

I think that may be a bit much.

various crossings would be nice, but multiple curves and the like seem like overkill.

I agree about the curved (elevation changing) track though.

note, I tried using both phx and sprops train wheels on map rails, it's either they are too close to allow for a central chassis or an axis to connect them, or too far apart for me to use the longest axis-joined rail wheels. I had to use a monorail, and it's a bit wonky on some turns, and gets rid of that old timey "steam train" charm.

by a bit wonky, I mean I have to slow it down on turns so it won't collide with the track itself. otherwise a high speed turn would turn the monorail into a spazzy nightmare.

引用自 Martellus：

I think that may be a bit much.

various crossings would be nice, but multiple curves and the like seem like overkill.

I agree about the curved (elevation changing) track though.

Well... It depends on the standpoint of it, from my perspective, it would do the pack to have at least 2 curves which have slightly different radii to give a feel of completeness to the curves.

I think that's one of the main reasons I never really got into 'making my own tracks' concept on garrys mod, the pack was a bit too limiting which meant that I couldn't really do anything practical with it and making my own curves would be a bit too prop-intensive.

I don't really know if it would be overkill or not, but it would be nice to have something like that.

I was expressing what my idea of a good track pack would be like, you don't have to follow it by any means.

I guess it all just comes down to the interest of the community.

引用自 <<=BenDragon81037=>>：

引用自 Martellus：

I think that may be a bit much.

various crossings would be nice, but multiple curves and the like seem like overkill.

I agree about the curved (elevation changing) track though.

Well... It depends on the standpoint of it, from my perspective, it would do the pack to have at least 2 curves which have slightly different radii to give a feel of completeness to the curves.

I think that's one of the main reasons I never really got into 'making my own tracks' concept on garrys mod, the pack was a bit too limiting which meant that I couldn't really do anything practical with it and making my own curves would be a bit too prop-intensive.

I don't really know if it would be overkill or not, but it would be nice to have something like that.

I was expressing what my idea of a good track pack would be like, you don't have to follow it by any means.

I guess it all just comes down to the interest of the community.

well after ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with monorails, I managed to make a redneck-gmod curve. and a neat mono-rail. there are no sliders that fit PHX monorails though :< and I haven't found any sliders that I could use in sprops for monorails. but both phx and sprops tracks (the ones that curve up) are useful for rocket-sled type weapons (basicaly a missle attached to a bed on rail wheels or in this case sliders, that runs down a track to gain speed and accuracy before being ejected from the bed prior to leaving the track. the nazis tried to use this for a v3 rocket in WWII, but the war in europe ended before it was completed.).

I've made an Sprop monorail before, HL1 style.

I would LOVE, to see more track props. I've been building trains since the start of Sprops. And i am a bit bored of the non-switch boring loopyloopy tracks. This, what <<=BenDragon81037=>> suggested, would be very ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome and 11/10 train builders would be very, very, very glad.

引用自 A Badass Bunny：

I would LOVE, to see more track props. I've been building trains since the start of Sprops. And i am a bit bored of the non-switch boring loopyloopy tracks. This, what <<=BenDragon81037=>> suggested, would be very ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome and 11/10 train builders would be very, very, very glad.

the phx switches are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up (they come in two parts, painful axel/easy weld-ing required,

引用自 SS Stormtrooper：

引用自 A Badass Bunny：

I would LOVE, to see more track props. I've been building trains since the start of Sprops. And i am a bit bored of the non-switch boring loopyloopy tracks. This, what <<=BenDragon81037=>> suggested, would be very ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome and 11/10 train builders would be very, very, very glad.

the phx switches are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up (they come in two parts, painful axel/easy weld-ing required,

Yeah thats why i stopped working with PHX tracks. Allthough with a decend e2 you can make it work with the 2 part switches. Not a big problem really.

May i add somthing here, firstly love the work you have done with sprops, the sprops train wheels are awesome for looks, but are completly unusable becuase of its low polly count. if you are to look at the PHX train wheels they are smooth and are able to run on track perfectly fine, but when you come to use the sprops ones, they bounce on the track due to it being 'squared off'.


i know you did this to save n the FPS but purhaps you could increase the polly count on the contact surface of the train wheels? if so i will love you for ever :3

screenie of what i mean: http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231812458

thanks in advance. =]

Most modern maps (except for PHX 1 and gm_subtransit) are equipped with PHX 2 tracks (yes, they are actually called PHX tracks) and thus, should except "sliders"

The only reaosn why I wouldn't recommend using the sliders, would be ebcause they get stuck literally everywhere, and there's nothing you can do to stop the sliders "binding" on points, since they tend to sink into point blades and such as they're physical props.

When a vehicle binds, it spells distruction to what could probabily be, the entire train derailing on a switch / point.

This is due to to the engine's limitations.

There is only one solution to the binding problem, and it is to make your own trains which uses the wheel props instead of sliders.

Yeah, there are some positive notes to using sliders, and they are:

• Reduced center of gravity, allowing you to take turns faster.
  
• More room in tunnels for higher trains.

There are many train maps out there, including:

• gm_Wireconstruct
  
• gm_Wireconstruct_rc
  
• gm_WireconstructBSM
  
• gm_Trainconstruct
  
• gm_Trainconstruct 2
  
• gm_construct_flatgradd V5
  
• gm_construct_flatgradd V6
  
• gm_construct_flatgradd V6-2
  
• gm_botmap
  
• gm_mobenix_V3
  
• gm_rockside_rails_beta
  
• gm_trainset
  
• gm_trianworld
  
• gm_trainyard_small
  
• gm_sunset_gulch
  
• sm_trains
  
• gm_railroad_V2

Just to sum up my Gmod collection of train maps.

Just keep in mind, that sldiers are not the most reliable things to use in the Gmod world, due to the physics enigne.

Hope this helps.