Another request for a good school bus

Vagabond Elf

Obviously creators don't think there's a market for this and they might be right, but I'll throw this into the ring anyway. I should note that I'm a school bus driver so I'm sure I'm pickier about this than many.

I know about the old Greenpots bus. It's proportions are just off.

I also know about the XI school bus. It's better but it's still not right.  Problems include:

--Front wheel only steer about half as far as they should. Granted, this is fixable by changing limits. But a real bus (or 5-ton truck, they're the same base chassie) can crank its front wheels over about 70 degrees.

--No passenger mirror.  This looks like a great big rear-view mirror. It's actually for keeping an eye on the passengers. It's a vital enough piece of kit that in Alberta, where I live and work, not having a pax mirror is a Major Fault and it's illegal to carry passengers until it's fixed.

 --No passenger barricades on the front seats. School buses don't usually have seat belts. The only think keeping the kids from flying through the front windshield is the back of the bench in front of them. For the very front, there's a padded barricade that does the same job.

 --No convex mirrors. Buses have SEVEN mirrors, including the passenger mirror. The others are a flat, convex, and crossover on each side. The XI bus only models the flats and the crossovers.

 --No crossing arm. This is an arm that opens up on the front of the bus. The purpose to to make the kids walk more than a metre in front of the bus if they have to cross in front of the bus after disembarking. Why? So the driver can SEE them. A 5' tall person less than a metre from the bumper disappears behind the hood.

 --Stop Sign. This should be double-sided; if you've deployed the stop sign, you're stopping traffic going both directions, not just coming from behind you, because you only do it if the kids need to cross the street.  If they stay on the same curb, you don't deploy the sign.  Also, the XI bus modeled the hing and arm the stop sign deploys on, but then rigged the sign to pivot on the wrong edge, leaving the arm behind!

 --Exhaust. This isn't modeled at all, which isn't the end of the world, except that there's a little stub of the exhaust pipe stuck on the bumper. This is in the right spot (depending on who made your bus in the real world) but it's really obvious when rendering from a rear angle that this pipe doesn't actually go through the bumper.

 --Emergency Exits. The rear door is modeled but doesn't open. The interior handle is missing. The Emergency Exit windows aren't modeled at all. Neither is the roof hatch.

 --Seats: the seats are clearly based on a transit bus, with grab handles on the backs. School buses don't have these, to discourage students from standing. Though like seatbelts this could be a regional variation.

  --Licence plate: there isn't one; though this can be fixed with a separate prop easily enough.

It's also a little weird that the maintenance steps are modeled (though not rigged) but the grab handles aren't; I'm guessing the creator didn't realize what those are. Likewise, I notice the missing hood latches but I can see why the average person wouldn't. And it would be nice if all the different lights were different material zones (I'd do Brakes, Left Turn Signal, Riight Turn Signal, Marker & Clearance, Top Ambers, Top Reds, Headlights, and Backup/Reverse). The High-Visibility Reflective Stripes, too, so that they can be set to be, well, reflective where the rest of the bus is not.  Still, reassigning polys to mat zones is something I [i]can[/i] do and I'm sure it adds a tonne of work for minial reward.

Anyway, my goal here isn't to throw Xivon under the bus. (Ba dump-dum.) I'm not trying to say "look how awful this is," but provide guidance for an improved future product. And given the lack of alternatives in the variosu stores, I don't expect it's something in huge demand.. but if you don't ask, no-one will say yes.

barbult

Nice analysis of the shortcomings you've identified. Most people wouldn't notice. You must be very knowledgable about school busses.

WendyLuvsCatz

depending on where the bus is

in Australia kids just get a normal passenger bus with school bus on the front display

Vagabond Elf

barbult said:

Nice analysis of the shortcomings you've identified. Most people wouldn't notice. You must be very knowledgable about school busses.

 

Well, as I said, it's my job.  There's probably a few thousand current and former bus drivers in any major NorAm city that would notice most of those things, especially the mirrors and the barricades.

And there doesn't seem to be a multi-quote function anymore? But in response to WendyluvsCats: fair enough; allow me to clarify that I mean a Canadian/American 72 passenger school bus.  (Which only fits 72 kids if they're little enough to be three to a bench, realistically they hold closer to 50 souls, but it's how they're described.)

3WC

I have in the past toyed with the idea of modeling a school bus, but I do not have the first hand knowledge that you do. I venture to suggest that you, @Vagabond Elf, based on your passion and knowledge, are in the best position to model a new school bus. 

Vagabond Elf

3WC said:

I have in the past toyed with the idea of modeling a school bus, but I do not have the first hand knowledge that you do. I venture to suggest that you, @Vagabond Elf, based on your passion and knowledge, are in the best position to model a new school bus. 

I was wondering when someone would come along and be a patronising expletive.

If modelling it myself was a practical option I'd just do that and say "look everyone, here's a bus with all the missing details." Sadly, there's a lot of skill and knowledge needed beyond being familiar with school buses.

If at some point in the future you decide to be helpful, and not just a gatekeeping jerk, then I suggest one of two options:

  1) If you live in Canada or the US, figure out when a nearby school releases its students. Swing by about a half-hour in advance. Find a bus driver who looks friendly and bored and asked them if you can take pictures of the bus and ask questions. Most drivers do this job (at least in Canada) because they like to be helpful.

  2) If you live elswehere in the world, I'm willing to take pictures and send them to you. Well, in September. Because right now I'm annoyed by your arrogance; and also becuse right now it's summer so I'm not near the buses...