'Remote' Control Work

Finding work as a digital modeler has definitely not been an easy task. How do you make it easier? Go west young man... and get your work in a functioning game engine! So here is a project I've worked on for a sim in hopes of fluffing my portfolio and finding remote work.

Completed and rendered with Mental Ray

The real life version of the model is actually quite an interesting piece of equipment. Without going into a lot of drawn out specifics, it is a receiver car for radio signals which allows locomotives, located mid-train, to be operated remotely from the head end. The technology was revolutionized by the Southern Railway, way back in the mid 60s. A few locomotives were designated as masters and included transmitting equipment in the nose. With the receiver cars placed mid train with locomotives connected to them, the Southern was able to utilize any locomotive they wished.

The model itself has several levels of detail with the top coming in at 8000 tris and change. The furthest LOD kicks in around 256m and is 10% of the total polycount. Getting this thing working in game has been feat in itself and requires slight of hand that rivals Houdini himself. Needless to say it has been a huge learning experience. Hopefully the next few will go a LOT easier.

In game render.