I almost forgot one of my best friend's, who I just enjoy and who has helped me out a lot since I first came to MSTS, and that is Kevin Arcenaux. The people, The people.'ĭang, I had to add this or I will not feel right. The Marc Nelsons, the Bob Browns, the LHW's., the Tim Baldwins, the, oh hell I like everyone. You know I am teasing you Rich.don't you? You're great buddy, you really are. But, I will run both because it basically connects to your Ohio route in a way, especially if I can get version 11. It is in my neck of the woods and a route I have been looking for for a long time. Now that I have given him another swelled head, Rich, when am I going to see version 11 of the Ohio Route, or am I going to have to get the Interstate from Marc and call that good? And you know why I say that don't you. His commitment to all things in his route, and his commitment to detail is what makes him unique in my opinion.
There are other good routes, don't get me wrong, there are other good route creators, but if I download one of Rich's routes I know I am not going to be disappointed. It is his commitment to excellence that stands him above most of the crowd, including the payware crowd. Now, Rich and I are good friends but that isn't why I like the routes he does. They are 100 percent complete before you get them. They are interesting to run, they are an activity writers joy, they have great scenery and they work. The reason Rich's routes excel, and by the way I run Ohio Route pretty much exclusively, is because of what he puts into them.
Kevin excels in activities and the rest excel in similar areas as well as engine creation. Running trains is only as good as the activity and the scenery and trackage. My goal is to create a realistic looking route as much as possible and with reasonable frame rates when it's done. So this is why you see many building pictures with but mostly without trains. They think this because they see the camera poised to take a picture when really I'm just waiting for their car to pass by. What's funny is seeing somebody slow down to avoid getting their car in my picture if I happen to be shooting a building across the street. I do get a few eyebrows raised when someone sees me taking a picture of a telephone pole or trash dumpster. One of my favorite aspects is going out with the camera and taking pictures for textures. It's very entertaining to build structures. These days, most of my time is spent in the modeling and texture programs and not in the sim. That's true so alot of detail is left off the buildings that I would like to add because ultimately a route is about the engines and rollingstock running about the route. The gotchas (as Andre Ming would say) could be too much detail and the frame rates buckle. So I spend alot of time bringing the scenery up to the same level as a decently done engine. When I view my routes, I want the detail while I'm driving the engine to be as interesting as the engine. The props and performance were so convincing that when we left the theatre we were expecting to see snow on the ground in 70 degree weather. The performers were not of the original cast, but the props were. In other terms, the scenery becomes the stage upon which the trains perform.Īn example of this would be the time I saw the stage musical Annie out in San Diego. I want to see the background look as strong as the foreground. Since I do consider myself a model railroader, my perspective on viewing a route is the same as a model railroader. That would be incorrect but I do place a very strong emphasis on scenery. Someone could conclude that the highlight of MSTS for me is the scenery then. And as a route builder, I download very few trains or have them running because I only infrequently run the sim. Why I don't include trains is typically because at the time of my picture taking, I don't have the right trains to put on the route to compliment the picture.
But when I look at most other pictures of MSTS, I see mostly trains.įrom my perspective I like both and I'm sure you do too. It occurs to me that if someone coming across my posts will see plenty of pictures of scenery, but no trains. Every once in awhile I get a hankering to talk instead of just build.