Alright, so I this little railroad section going on here and cannot decide which ties i like better.

These,

I definitely prefer the first one.
Just one thing: the blocks of wood are exactly equal, texture wise. If you plan on doing close-ups, you might want to change the texture mode to world based instead of object based, to add some individual variation.

Yeah, it is kinda hard to get every individual material to look unique when you have over 50 ties(; And since i am using photos...ya know(;

another vote for the first one

First one's got my bid as well......

First one for me too.

Quote - "Yeah, it is kinda hard to get every individual material to look unique when you have over 50 ties(; And since i am using photos...ya know(;"

I know. When I have this kind of problems I usually mix the texture with noise, somehow. That creates variation and can be done in a way that still preserves the look of the texture itself. The exact way to do the mix depends on the specific circumstances. You can do a simple blend with a noise node driving a color map with the same colors as the texture. Or you can create a mixed material, being the mix driven by a noise function, with two materials with the exact same texture, the only difference being that one has an offset (which you can create inside or outside Vue). Or you can feed the origin of the map with noise. Etc, etc. There are many ways, you have to try and see what suits best to this particular texture and object.

But, again, most of the times, a simple "world standard" map mode (or world parametric, depends on the objects and textures) instead of "object standard" does the trick. I would start by trying this.

I vote for the second one..... ;-)

Wood used for this purpose is impregnated with a certain chemical (forgot the name) which makes it quite a bit darker than the first one. Than again the first texture is more "alive". Both look very well anyway!

I assume these tracks are not used anymore, because of the rust on top?

Cheers!

www.Charm3d.com

I as well think its the second one, the direct comparison is a little harder because the scene is rendered at a slightly different angle and lighting.

But I say the second

I also like the first one, but would darken it some. And the above aideas about variation would be a help.

model the railroad gravel! :P

Hm, If i were to use this i think i would let the ecosystems handle the railroad gravel(; A fool i may be...stupid..well thats something entirely different(;

I like the first better, depending on the scene and lighting the darkness will change anyhow, and I like to start with something clearly defined in terms of hues and contrasts.

Will it be possible to use the sections for curving railway stretches or only for straight ones?
(Come to think of it, I dont know how curving is done in real railways either)
I could find a use for these if they are made available.

First one does it for me

 The second one, the railroad ties are dark which mimics real wood ties which are oil soaked to preserve them for a longer time  by protecting them from rain etc. Don't need them rotting and derailing the 9:10 from Yuma LOL.

Ron

I think the the second one is better-- especially if you'll be rendering from a distance and you're going for photoreal.

2nd one for me cuz it looks darker and more abused by weather.

take the first one tho if you have a wild-west scene where it's dry and hot.

Strangely enough XPleet, this is exactly why i made these tracks and mats for a dry desert scene that never made it past my head:D

Paul, I've found that about five different texture maps are needed for things like railroad ties, wooden steps, bridge planks and such. You can size the texture files to be fairly small - use less RAM in the user's machine as a result.

I like the second one better - but shouldn't the ties have beveled edges or some variation in the edges so that they don't look all alike?

Dark is good. One thing I've done in a recent project is just alter the color slightly a couple of times. It only takes a little color change randomly dispersed among the ties to give the impression of variation.
What actually bothers me about these isn't the tie color but the rails. If it is a totally abandoned rail then it will be rusty all over - similar to what you have here but redder. If it's an active rail line it will have a shiny metal top surface while the sides will be duller and a little rusty similar to what you have here.  The rail car metal wheels keep the top surface burnished bright. That can be created using a mixed material and altitude.

Actually , since teaching myself modeling i have made a lighthouse,a water tower these tracks and more recently an old outhouse all of which are in my gallery. All i am using is photo referance and some creative license and my biggest issue is finding ROYALTY FREE materials in the event that i make something good enough to release to the public. I find modeling enjoyable and relaxing for me. I do not know where to get such images however. The tracks here were done with procedural materials inside Vue itself. The ties however are photos.They are beveled,it is just hard to tell with the material. I used a slight crinkle in the point value but it looked lousy so i just went with displacement the best i could instead. It is all learning for me at the moment.

Well for photographs http://creativecommons.org/ is a good source since the photographers have stated the allowed uses of the images.
For things like procedural materials I have no idea where the lines are, how much do you have to alter an existing material before it becomes your own work?

Well, I would never use someone elses procedural mats for an object to redistribute, so theres no issues there. I normally wouldnt use others pictures, but living in Malaysia it is kind of hard to get images of old hardwoods/bricks and mortar and such we use in the west.it is just different over here of course.