TRS22- Ground Textures on Hills show Black Triangle Errors

[leader2302]

While updating my route in TRS22 Platinum, I noticed that black triangles have started appearing on the sides of textured hills and slopes. See the screenshot below.

These are new hills and slopes that I am adding to the route. The textures I am using on the sides of the hills and slopes are "PBR Gravel 8 with Dirt-Seasonal" or "JEA Sea Sand 01". Each hill is painted with just one texture. No overlapping or mixing of textures. As you can see, strange black triangles show up at random on the sides of the hills and slopes.

To try to remove the black triangles, I tapped the tip of each triangle with the ground height tool in surveyor classic to slightly lower the terrain. This gets rid of the black triangles temporarily. I save the route with a new name and exit surveyor. When I reopen the new route in surveyor classic, the black triangles magically reappear. It's like trying to play "wack a mole".

Does anyone know what is causing this texture error? Any solution to this?

 

[lukewc]

HI, i am not sure it is a setting in Trainz you need to change, I can't remember 100% but I think it was the "Shader quality" set that to "Basic" and see if that solves the problem. Go to Trainz settings "Performance Settings"

Lukewc

 

[RetroRails12]

Turn off the Shadows Completely

 

[leader2302]

Turn off the Shadows Completely

I hope there is another solution. Turning off shadows completely really has a negative effect on the appearance of the game.

 

[stagecoach]

Those triangles are a ground shadow, as the sun moves so will the triangle. The lower the sun, the longer the shadows. As the sun rises above the hill the shadow will vanish.

 

[RetroRails12]

I hope there is another solution. Turning off shadows completely really has a negative effect on the appearance of the game.

turning the shadows of actually makes the game Run Smoother and less Hangups as shadows Draw Lots of GPU Usage.. it also Causes Laggyness in games as well

 

[JCitron]

Smooth the side of the hills and your triangles will disappear.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

It's impossible to "smooth" a hill so that it never displays hard triangles. There will always be some angle of the sun that causes such shadows. They are the inevitable result of the ground being a grid of rectangles, and a fairly coarse grid at that.

 

[leader2302]

It's impossible to "smooth" a hill so that it never displays hard triangles. There will always be some angle of the sun that causes such shadows. They are the inevitable result of the ground being a grid of rectangles, and a fairly coarse grid at that.

That explains why I when I remove the triangles by slight taps of the terrain tool they would temporarily be gone but would latter reappear in the same spot.

Since it is caused by the grid system of Trainz is there any solution or trick to get rid of the triangles?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Since it is caused by the grid system of Trainz is there any solution or trick to get rid of the triangles?

Until Trainz moves to a fundamentally different ground system, I don’t think there is much that can be done.

With 3D scenery objects it has been possible since trainz-build 4.4 (?) to disable the ability to cast shadows. It removes the hard-edged polygon shadows leaving only a nice smooth shading effect, which I found useful on things like snow piles. Unfortunately, that same gentle shading effect doesn’t seem to apply to textures on the ground grid.

Using a smaller grid size would make the triangles smaller, so you might try that. The only other variable I can think of that might help is to reduce the shadow blackness and opacity by reducing the Sun brightness in the Environmental settings.

The thing is, this bad visual effect is not your fault. Every Trainz route, apart from those that are completely flat, will have this problem. It’s up to N3V to improve the terrain or shading system.

 

[ARhian7]

Use the Plateau tool in Topology to get rid of the triangles. Have the Sensitivity dial low at about three green dots left side and similar with the Radius dial about two or three. Then slowly move/sweep the white circle (by holding the left mouse button) over the triangle area in the direction you want the ground shaped. Release the button when done. Once you get the hang of it (does not take long), you will beable to increase the sensitivity, radius and your mouse movement to suit depending on the size you want to smooth out. You may need to do a couple of gentle sweeps till you get your desired result depending on how you want the terrain to look.

 

[JCitron]

Use the Plateau tool in Topology to get rid of the triangles. Have the Sensitivity dial low at about three green dots left side and similar with the Radius dial about two or three. Then slowly move/sweep the white circle (by holding the left mouse button) over the triangle area in the direction you want the ground shaped. Release the button when done. Once you get the hang of it (does not take long), you will beable to increase the sensitivity, radius and your mouse movement to suit depending on the size you want to smooth out. You may need to do a couple of gentle sweeps till you get your desired result depending on how you want the terrain to look.

I was going to say that and you beat me to it. I do that all the time to remove the triangle bumps on embankments. The process works pretty well for the most part.

 

[ARhian7]

Agree, the process does work pretty well for the most part. I use it majority of the time with the landscaping generally. Those triangles are pesky things.

 

[leader2302]

Use the Plateau tool in Topology to get rid of the triangles. Have the Sensitivity dial low at about three green dots left side and similar with the Radius dial about two or three. Then slowly move/sweep the white circle (by holding the left mouse button) over the triangle area in the direction you want the ground shaped. Release the button when done. Once you get the hang of it (does not take long), you will beable to increase the sensitivity, radius and your mouse movement to suit depending on the size you want to smooth out. You may need to do a couple of gentle sweeps till you get your desired result depending on how you want the terrain to look.

That fixed it !!! Triangles are now gone for good !!! Thanks so much !!

 

[ARhian7]

Excellent.