Making of the Deltic Class 55 Locomotive
The making of Rail Simulator’s Class 55 Deltic has taken some effort from the art team, and they’re here today to talk to us. Derek Siddle, the Lead Artist for Rail Simulator, gives an insightful interview!
Question: What’s different about this 3D model that we haven’t seen in the previously discussed Black 5, HST and German DB101?
Answer: Well, from a technical perspective there weren’t any new challenges – beyond those that we’ve already faced in the other engines relating to raising the quality bar for engines in Rail Simulator. The specific challenges nearly always relate to getting the right reference material and that is particularly the case with engines, like the Deltic, that are no longer in service.
Question: How long, and how many people, has it taken to create this model?
Answer: There have been 2 artists working on this model over the period of just over 3 months. One artist created the majority of the polygon model and generated the mapping coordinates for the textures. The second artist, Anatole Branch, worked on the textures and fine polygon details following community feedback.
Question: What’s the technical spec of this model?
Answer: The Deltic 55 has around 23,000 triangles, it has 2 square 1024/1024 textures used for the bulk of the main body, a 512/512 texture for the bogies and a number of smaller textures for the transparent elements and the cabin.
Question: Considering this train is dated for the 1970s era on the Newcastle to York route, how did you manage to recreate the engine?
Answer: Fortunately there are lots of great reference photographs of this engine. However it did help having input from the Deltic Preservation Society, and in particular a guy named Stuart Page. His knowledge proved invaluable in helping create the exterior and the cabin view. The DPS also set up photo shoots for us to gather reference material at their Barrow Hill depot near Chesterfield and we’d like to thank both Stuart and the DPS for their help.
Question: Is it a challenge for you to create such a complex model?
Answer: The challenge is not the complexity; the artists always want to add more. The complicated part is gathering all the correct material to help model it. Making sure we have the right drawings with the correct scale, and enough photographs to help us understand the intricate details. Despite all this, we have recieved immense feedback from the online community as well and this has been onf great help to the development of models for Rail Simulator.
We’d also like to thank Stuart Page for the assistance in creating the Deltic model – and to find out more about what the Deltic Preservation Society are up to – check out their website here www.thedps.co.uk
Rail Simulator Team