Gmax Locomotive Interior Tutorial

Open the main locomotive body's mesh. Save the file as Locomotive Tutorial Interior.max or another suitable name. Once you have the mesh saved and using the "Select and Move" tool select the interior attachment point called a.cabfront and record the location of this point. This information will tell us how much we need to move the interior mesh. If you are using the locomotive tutorials mesh then the dimensions will be X = 0.0 Y -4.0 and Z = 2.5. Therefore we will need to move the interior 4m along the Y axis and 2.5m along the Z axis but first we need to use the link tool to link everything together. The easiest and quickest way to do this is to use the "Select by Name" tool or you can call up the same tool by pressing the "H" key. Once you have the "Select Objects" window open click on the "All" button towards the bottom of the window and then scroll up to the top of the list and while holding down the "Control" key click on the a.cabfront which should deselect it and then click on the "Select" button to close the window and select the objects. Click on the "Select and Link" button and place the cursor over the mesh. When it changes shape left click and drag the mouse over the a.cabfront attachment point. This will link all the objects in the scene to the a.cabfront. Alternatively you can again press the "H" key when you have the "Select and Link" tool selected and select the parent object from the list which in this case is a.cabfront.

Now that we have the mesh in the correct location we can begin optimizing the mesh for an interior. Firstly select all the attachment points and delete them. Although we need attachment points for the levers etc it is much better to create new ones rather than renaming and moving the old ones. Once you have removed the attachment points we can begin removing any objects that cannot be seen from inside the cab. Select and delete the following items;

All FillerTubes
Front Support
FuelTank
Both AirRecievers
RearSupport
UnderBody

Once you have deleted the unnecessary objects then we can start removing some polygons from the various objects. Before you begin removing any polygons from an object make sure you convert to editable mesh first. When finished you should have a result similar to figure 5. If you created the other sets of handrails do not delete them. There are other polygons that could be removed such as the rear sides of the handrail posts but for this tutorial I will leave them in place. So far we have gone from a model with 2263 or more polygons to a model with around 1500 polygons however this will rise when we start to add the interior items. The only point to remember when optimizing a mesh for an interior is can it be seen from inside the cab. If you are unsure then leave it in place until you have the mesh working in TRS2004 and you can see for yourself whether it can be removed.

Chapter 2

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