Train Simulator 2013 - Stirling Platforms

When I decided to take on the extension project, one caveat for phase one and two was that this would only be a simple scenery update for the areas that had track and signals already laid, under no circumstances were there any plans to build any bespoke scenery items, at least not for the initial release.

I then ran into a problem. Many of the assets included with E&G are bespoke in themselves, and when it came to Stirling station, none of the assets were suitable. Yes there are 5m and 7.5m platform lofts included, but the layout at Stirling sees the platform ends narrow to around 2m in places and this means the lofts are then unsuitable. One advantage was that the pack does include lofted platform edges, so I decided that the best course of action would be build a bespoke platform base to scale, create a small selection of fillers and ramps, and then couple these with the platform edges to complete the station.

Rather than just posting some finished screenshots, I thought it may be more useful to explain a bit more of the process involved, it may prove useful to someone in the future.

To start, I needed to work out how I would create a model to scale. There are probably various methods people have used to do this but my choice was to first take a Google Earth screenshot of the station area.

This was then resized to 1024x1024 and converted to an .ace file to be used as a texture in 3DS Max. I then had to measure the top to bottom scale of the picture and achieved this by using the ruler in Google Earth, from the top of my head that picture was around 337m in length. This meant that in 3DS Max, I could create a simple box, around 0.10m high and to the dimensions I had measured, then I could add the texture I had created to this box.

With a template to work from in 3DS Max, I could then create the platform base. This was done simply by creating long boxes, with several length segments and then bent at 25 degrees. The splines could then be manipulated to fit the base texture.

Once the platforms are done, textured and named correctly and more importantly saved for any future tweaks, the base texture can then be deleted and the platforms exported to Train Simulator 2013. The result is a very crude but effective platform model that can be placed in the correct location. Bear in mind that it is unlikely to be correct, and several trips back and forth between 3DS Max and TS2013 will be necessary in order to get the correct alignment.

The platform edges are then be added along with the fillers and ramps and you end up with a finished product that looks a little something like this.