I noticed ModelerMJ's creation of a reference file and custom textures to automatically generate ground textures both on the TransDEM forum ( forum.transdem.de/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=105 ) and the Trainz forums and thought this might be a good way to paint all those distant mountains. I really don't want to do those by hand!
But, the textures he used didn't look too good on a desert map, so I attempted to create my own palate. Below is the result - both the satellite view and the view in surveyor. It's still not as good as I had hoped, but it's better than the solid color I had previously used to fill the terrain...
I'll still need to texture the foreground manually, but this should help with the background mountains (and it will be easier to navigate the satellite map with the additional landmarks...)
Yes, both those routes look spectacular. I was shooting for an semi-automatic process to get a base texture down quickly so it didn't look so bare, since it will take me *many* years to complete this route.
I'd be very interested in this as well on the Bodie & Benton!
1) It'll help with general ground color and texture placement over broad regions.
2) The obvious time saver for all the distant landscaping that's visible. Driving across that dry lakebed (Mono Caldera) makes for vast and long sightlines. There's a LOT of unused and very visible country to landscape with sagebrush spines. Ditto on the distant sparsely forested hills...all highly visible.
It has to be done at the start of a route. What I did was regenerate the V&T route using these textures, then merge with the old route. Merging involved taking the old route; deleteing the baseboards that didn't have anything on them, then taking the new route and deleting the baseboards that would be taken from the new map. If you are interested, I can regenerate the B&B using these textures?
I've also posted the files at http://www.carsoncarshops.com/files/cus ... xtures.zip if anyone has TrainzDEM and wants to do it by themselves. Drag and drop the textures folder into CM, and reference the texture file in TrainzDEM.
Sure! I'm fairly certain I can rebuild what I need to fairly rapidly now. Everything south of Lime Kiln is fairly flat. The mountains are a bear but I know where the problem areas are and the grades I need to use to get through the switchbacks.
I believe I have come up with a proceedure to generate a reasonable grade for the track to Mono Mill (it's in a non-existant gully on the DEM). That will also force the issue with the Sketch-Up model of the mill I did. I'll have to learn how to turn it into a legitimate asset to make the gully work properly (fit the building). Which will also force some tweeks into the model (possibly to the deck along the gully and to the angle of the conveyor in back).
OK, I'll add that to the list this weekend. I'm pretty sure I still have all the files around to recreate this route pretty quickly.
There is a Sketchup to Trainz exporter now (http://www.dhobh.net/trainz/). I haven't tried it (yet), but others seem to be having success with it.
Curtis,
Saw that "Skectch-Up to Trainz a couple weeks ago. Loaded it into Sketch-Up but it still requires configuration which I've not explored yet.
One thing I will also need to deal with will be proper skinning of the models and presumably lower res. versions for distant viewing and processor load. None of these have been explored beyond getting a general feel on the topics. More on that later in the B&B thread. If there's an older thread on the topic I'll find it. If not, I'll start a dedicated one folks can use as a reference.
On the B&B landscaping the files you generate will help tremendously! I've been using the "tape measure" triangulation method in both G-E and Trainz Surveyor from common datums to plot out areas to guide ground texturing like treelines, dune regions, lowland marches, etc. It's a very slow, painful process. Having some sort of visual reference built into the base DTM will be a game changer.
Finally got a chance to open the file. What a blurry mess and it's fantastic! This will absolutely help on locating the overall vegetation, dune, forest, roads, and you name it textures!
Most of the current roads show up which fortunately were located darned close to or on historic roads. It provides current forest cover...which fortunately has recovered to the 1880's period. There were interesting sand areas in the forested areas south of Mono those can be located!
I've updated these ground textures for use in TANE (which also fixes the warnings in TS12). The updated file is at http://www.carsoncarshops.com/files/cus ... res_v2.zip. It's trainz-build 2.9 because of the required normal maps, but I've only tested them in TS12 SP1 and TANE.
Here's a shot in TANE of some distant mountains using the fixed files:
