Rail Clone needs a major update, especially to its Libraries

[DBowker3D]

All the fancy stuff that has been added lately seems to skirt around the fact that most of your libraries are old, like very old. Every other improvement pales in comparison to the fact that most of the time I simply can't or won't use RC libraries anymore. Sure, there was that project where I needed some grocery store shelves... Or one where I needed Library Bookshelves... And occasionally I use the streetlamps or some of the other items, but the stuff I really could use are all the basic streets, walks, walls, fences and such that just don't cut it anymore (and haven't for several years).

I am a busy freelancer, like busy 110% of the time, and thus have no time at all to make my own libraries and get into altering all the parameters. The fact that we can do so is great, but of the half dozen other animators I know well, I can't think of any that could take the time to get under the hood. Even if I had the time? I still probably couldn't do it anyway. I'm an artist first, engineer and architect second.

The roads: Why can't we get a simple two-lane road, like what 90% of all residential streets actually look like? A street with drains every 20 meters, regular cement sidewalks (no one has sidewalks with cobblestones guys), corners with wheelchair ramps, and streetlights all in one go.
And seriously, with all the talent you guys have, surely there is way for you to have intersections! There has to be a way to make this happen with corners, ramps and crosswalks.
Do the same for City streets with urban details and you will cover almost all situations.

Textures: Please for the love of God, make the textures extend for at least 50 meters and hold up at 3 meters camera distance. Memory for high-res maps is not an issue anymore, but low-res maps and visible tiling is! I have had to replace each and every exterior road or sidewalk map I ever used in RC. If the camera is looking down from 20 meters you see the tiles. If it's at ground-level (2 meters) then the textures don't hold up in high-res renders.
Take a look at the wall texture below: Good for Minecraft maybe, not for any real-world rendering I know of.
https://www.itoosoft.com/media/cache/library/railclone/images/ab2d2f9a-b3eb-4e2d-b9a2-4e257f6378e7/thumbnails/rcp-lib-masonry-stone_wall_2_150_cm.jpg

Pipes and Ducts: These were OK back in the day, but they don't hold up to near camera rendering and lack the details that would make them look real.

Chain-link (or any) Fences: They NEED gates. Like, matching gates that line up, and again are easily inserted. Like: A CHECKBOX that says GATE, with how wide it should be, and if it's single or double and which spline section to put it in.

Thanks for listening; I know for certain I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[Dragan]

I agree but as I understand the Itoo is a small team and creating custom libraries takes a lot of work booth for modeling/mapping as much for RC graph creation.
I`m using RC/FP profusely mostly for custom projects so I create custom RC Presets (usually fences, doors/windows). I`m about to release my custom Windows/Doors Preset library but if you have some special requests maybe I could help you.
Best Regards
Dragan

[Paul Roberts]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. We acknowledge that the libraries need updating, especially the core styles that would be useful for everyday tasks. In fact, you'll be pleased to hear that we recently took on a new member of staff dedicated to redoing the built-in RailClone libraries. You should start to see updates rolling out soon. Obviously, the library is quite large so it'll take a while to replace everything but be assured we consider it an important part of the RailClone plugin and we're working hard to improve it.

Best,

Paul

[DBowker3D]

That is indeed great to hear! The software is remains useful for sure, but will be much more so when some of the core libraries are updated to more modern images and projects.