Mono-Rail Transport System

#41 Video files at the current stage of development are at the following link:
[video files removed for final release]

#42 We are now in the throws of completing the mono-rail, you can see more of the development screenshots, By clicking on this link. This will be the last update on the forums. Please visit our blog for more information as and when ready.

#43 Julian,
The monorail is really cool looking. It makes you want to create world where they are used to go everywhere. Very neat and well modeled.

#44 Thanks Frank.

It has taken a bit of a back burner in recent months and many versions to get it where it is now, using the pathshape resource and modifications to get it working as it should but is still not 100% right, so we're working on it and hope to have it functional in our game, but will not discount releasing it as a pack further down the line. (No pun intended there). We can get about 5 players inside, and they can move around.

#45 Julian, thanks for the invite. I am really interested in this as a kit! Looks Great!

#46 @Welias - thanks ... once our game is released and has run for a while, we'll release some assets as kits to the community (subject to publishing agreements of course) - but if we don't get a publishing deal then we'll self publish and release some great packs with also some of the stuff we've not even used.

#47 Ok.. looking for numbers... how many of you would be interested in the monorail starter kit? It's complete, with some bugs, but I'm sure we could work these out for the next update.

Watch the YouTube video here - for some reason I couldnt embed it in the page.

Click on the video, and select Watch in HD for a better resolution. Camera jerkiness is down to the players camera. I'll get around to doing another video soon.

#48 I'm interested

#49 Yes, from day one, you had me.

#50 @Edward - great to see you on board the good ship ye ole faithful Edward :)

#51 I'm interested.

#52 I'm interested.

#53 I'm interested :-).

#54 OK, interest is flowing nicely. I'll start preparing this for a pack with instructions etc as there are quite a few animation sequences that need to be written down, there are also engine modifications to be made so I'll need to post these on a forum thread setup for the Monorail for TGE/A owners. Quite a bit of time, money and the use of modified resources to aid the development of this monorail kit who I will mention in the pack documentation, so if I get back what I've put in financially, this will mean that I'll develop more content packs that require 3-4 people to develop it and enhance this pack further with a tool that will aid the setup of a monorail configuration in the game. There are about 8 different car modification sets, which I will need to go through and will no doubt include some of these as legacy art in case there is a need for them in your game, each with different collision attributes, as we were limited by 9 stock collision points without further engine modifications. There are various mounting points in the pack which have not been used, but could be used for snap in tech later on in a future release of the pack. So for now, this pack is not for the novice, so I will do my best to document as much as possible and provide support as much as I can, but combined with the support of the community that buys this pack we can make it a really good pack and resource for the Torque Games Engine, something that will bring more creative genius to the games engine that will only enhance on what is already available.

A bit of history behind the monorail kit... I first came up with the idea, really just out of the blue and wanted it so that it was not like any other monorail that I've seen where it runs on a path or track on the ground, instead I sketched out a monorail with a clamp, an arch and the track above, so the car was hanging there. Maxim and I quickly came up with a prototype and I must admit that I may have driven Maxim Lyulyukin mad with all the modifications I wanted - so appreciated his patience. The next bit was working out how to get this thing working in the game. It was tough, with limited money, and using resources that were buggy at the time, it would have really dented my pocket to get this totally working from scratch. So I must credit Anton Bursch for his initial effort to get this pack working with the available resources, unfortunately it didnt work out. Not due to his skills as they were top notch, more down to various elements stopping the pack from working, mainly time and money. So I put the monorail to bed, left it there for a year or so and then ressurected it again in the hope that resources/engine updates were enough to get this pack working without taking out a second mortgage. It's far from perfect, but we'll get there. So this starter pack will be for the Intermediate to Advanced artist/developer. If you are a novice then by all means go for it, and try and get some help in the forums. Once I've finished documenting it, and sorting out all the components into directories - I'll release this pack, hopefully in the next few weeks. Have a baby due soon, so I'll be keen to get this out before, rather than after.

Some initial credits; Thanks go to Maxim Lyulyukin (famous for his Robots shown on GG) for his work on the Monorail when we first started in 2007, Anton Bursch for the initial attempt at implementing this into TGE, and Ashley Leach in 2008 for starting from scratch and implementing the monorail into TGEA 1.7.x (I'll need to test it on 1.8) and provide a downgrade path to TGE1.5.2. And not forgetting the aid of Ramen-Sama's Platforms you can ride on resource as a base-line for the development of this pack.

Oh and Happy New Year :)

#55 I don't know if I've shown this before, so quickly created a video. Car and Station animations. You could have a few closed stations in your game, or use the animations for cut scenes.

YouTube Video here - Anyone else having problems embedding YouTube videos into GG pages?

Also, anyone know of a good texturer who wants to jump on the credit list. Need some nice TGEA textures for the kit.

#56 I'm very interested, particularly in a TGE 1.5.2 version. Could this be re-worked as a subway system with multiple stations located throughout a city? Would it be relatively easy to swap out the artwork with our own cars/station? Fantastic concept and pack. I loved your initial video and all the follow up work..can't wait to take a look.

#57 @Jake - there's no reason why you couldn't implement the track pieces into a tunnel system. In fact I may include one with the pack as an example. The collision on the car works well with the platforms players can ride on so if you can duplicate it for your own model then yes, I see no reason why you can't swap it out, but I'll provide documentation on all of the car configurations in the pack. Glad you like the initial video. It would be good to see this in a large scenario, unfortunately the track curves are at a 30 degree angle so you'd need a few to get a round circle and takes quite a bit of tweaking to get everything following the paths. For an advanced programmer or people swapping code to make the pack work better would be awesome. Stay tuned, I'll try and get this pack out the door sometime in Feb.

#58 Excellent, can't wait...

#59 All being well. This pack should be ready in the first or second week or Feb :)

#60 update on the Monorail in my latest blog here