Sorry, I had comments turned off on this post ...

My bad, I accidentally had comments turned off on this post - we'll it's fixed now! Tell us what you think of this sort of VR image in MRH ...

If you wanted to make the

If you wanted to make the model rotate on another axis, for instance to see the fan detail, does it require a great deal more images?

Chris

Yes ...

Everybody wants to rotate the model so you can see the top and bottom as well ... that's more software and a lot more money - and it starts to move out of the realm of something an ordinary contributor can do easily.

Maybe one of these days ...

Just curious. It still looks

Just curious. It still looks great!

Chris

Joe, that looks really sweet.

Joe, that looks really sweet. Did it take alot of photos to get the VR images?? I really think that this is going to be the best magazine there is. Can't wait. Who makes the SD-45? I like the used look that it has.

VR Image in in MRH

I like it as it will give everyone a chance to view the image form several different angles and look at closee as well. It's the next best thing to actually examining it. And it can show others exactly what can be doned by a skilled modeler who has the patience and ability to do things correctly.

Irv

This is a Kato SD45

This is a Kato SD45 that I bought about 10 years ago. It's been detailed using Details West and Detail Associates parts and it's been weathered to look like a typical hard-working SP/SSW loco.

This loco's been running off the miles on my HO Siskiyou Line for quite a while now ... it has the full set of working headlights - F0 gives you the nose headlights, and F1 gives you the gyralights.

If you're into SD45 models, then you know the Kato SD45 is a passible model of the SD45, but the new Athearn SD45 is a more accurate model of the SD45s as used by the SP.

These Kato units look pretty good and they're some of the best runners on the layout!

Can't see the image?

I've had some people tell me they can't see the VR image above ... this image uses Flash, and you need the latest and greatest version of Flash 9 for this to work.

Go to Adobe's site and upgrade your flash player: Get Flash Player 9

I have one SD-45 and several

I have one SD-45 and several SD40-T2's that I run on the club layout , all SP. I had been doing alot of detail work to them all prior to cleaning off the work bench and construction on the layout room. They are all stashed away in boxes now. I hope to have them all detailed for next years running of the club layout. Mine are all 20 year old Athearn BB. I think the SD-45 is close to 30 years old, I bought it from a good friend for 5 bucks. It still runs great though. I hope to finish the details someday and give them some heavy weathering. Someday!! Have seen the new Athearn stuff and it looks great but will probably never buy any. Still have alot of Steam engines to purchase.

Seems to be a bug here.

Seems to be a bug here. First  time in I saw the picture and could manipulate it (Zoom in/out, Rotate). I exited the thread and retruned, no image to view.

I closed the browser winfow and loaded up again and went to same thread, no picture to view. I do get the FP9 settings box if I right click on image location.

Flash player site sayd I have 9,0,124,0 installed,  So it is the latest and greatest

Marc Fournier

VR Image

Joe,

I loaded it the first time and it worked perfectly, but second time no image.

I tried it both logged on and logged off! Still no candy.

What browser and version?

Help me out here ... what browser and version are you using?

Same here

I'm using IE 6.0 here at work and I have the same problem.  It worked the first time but I get nothing now.  When I right-click the blank space, it does come up with the "About Adobe Flashplayer 9" option, so its obviously registering as a flash object, it just doesn't show anything.

IE7 latest download!

IE7 latest download!

It appears to be an IE caching problem

I can make it come back in IE if I clear my browser history and tell it to always load the web page new instead of doing an automatic load.

I'll need to research it more ...

Works fine in Firefox. Gotta love IE - it's the bane of all web developers. It's legendary that things don't work in IE but they work on everything else - so IE is the web developers' worst nightmare. I've even seen style sheet coding with the hacked fixes that have comments about IE and the f-word. Doesn't make web developers very happy ... fun, aye?

Okay, try it now

I think I've fixed it ... try it now and let me know if the picture's back. You may have to do a hard refresh on the browser (hold down the shift key when you click refresh).

Sheesh, never a dull moment with IE.

Yes... Now it works

Yes... Now it works everytime,  in and out.

Marc

Is there any possibility to

Is there any possibility to remove the original poast for subsequent pages. Having the original post on the beginning of every page is wastefull and I find it annoying. Specially when the original post is long and full of images.

Marc

Not in this release ...

This site is based on the open source content management application Drupal, and this annoying behavior is a result of how that software is coded at it's very core. The next version, due out some time next year, is planning to address this problem, along with many others.

For the time being, there are bigger fish to fry - like getting out a magazine. But do be aware many of the little annoyances of the way this site works will probably be addressed in the next release of Drupal.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel ...

Good enough for me. Marc

Good enough for me.

Marc

Great shots

Joe - Great pictures as usual, but I was wondering what size pictures you used for this VR shot?  I know you like from 800 x 600 but no more than 1 gig.  Just wondering what size this is for future reference.

Thanks

Steve

This was shot huge ...

This was shot huge (11 megapixel), then downsized roughly to roughly 35% of its orginal size (about 1200 x 900) and turned into the VR object flash video. The master is saved at the 1200 x 900 size, but I cropped it down and then rendered it from the master to roughly 700 x 300 so it fits nicely on the web site page.

In the magazine the pages are closer to the 1200 x 900 size, so if we do an image like this, it will probably be done larger than the 700 x 300 size. I like making the model image large enough so that you can see the details really well on the screen, and having the 1200 x 900 image to start with gives me lots of flexibility.

But most images are not done full-page in the magazine, which means 800 x 600 is fully adequate for most ordinary images that go with an article.

IE...

TOO COOL!

Joe,

Yes, it's cool, but I too was able to view it yesterday, then it went away, now today it works every time for me. Dontcha just LOVE computers at times!

My co-worker though are thinking I'm a bit nutty now, as I have fiqured out how to make the engine just spin on its axis several times with just a flick of the wrist.

Guess I better get back to more serious stuff!