Tunnels Agan

R

rhban

Active member
I can sort of put up with the gaps at tunnel entrances, but life used to be so much simpler!
With earlier versions, I could build a double track junction where the track leaving the main line diverged in between the two main line tracks and plunged down into a tunnel. They then led under one of the main line tracks and off to pastures new. This used to take me about 20 minutes.
I've just spent nearly 2 hours and the result is a mess. To start with, it took me a while to keep my main line tracks from have almost vertical "cliffs" in them, but I finally got them fixed over retaining walls. The tunnel though - on reflection, I think I should have begun with that, because it has insisted on joining my underpass tracks with very sharp zigzag bends. There is a rather nice dummy tunnel entrance thing in DLS, which makes it not look so bad, but it is far from perfect.
I have yet to condemn an AI driver to taking a train through the tunnel of doom!
 
You`re using the high-density terrain, right? I hear that it has issues with tunnels, but this one is new to me. I have seen reports of those "cliffs", though, always in connection with the HD terrain. I rather like the way you described the situation; somewhat more humorous than complaining.
 
The tunnels have the zig-zag bend due to being locked to the grid. There's an alternative way of building tunnels by using separate dig-holes assets to punch through the ground and then using spline-tunnel assets for the walls. You then place your own tunnel track inside the tunnel and cover the hole with separate tunnel entrances. It's a bit more work but the flexibility is there to do what you want.

HD Terrain does affect tunnels but that has to do with the dig-hole assets still being 10-meters in size and not interacting and working well with the HD Terrain. Apparently, N3V is working on the whole tunnel system, something that dates back to 2000 by the way.

As far as your cliffs and missing terrain under the track, using the smooth terrain will do that as it pulls the ground down or up under the tracks. As you found, the only solution to that is to use retaining walls of some sort. This has always been the case even with the old 10-meter grid.
 
JCitron said:
The tunnels have the zig-zag bend due to being locked to the grid. There's an alternative way of building tunnels by using separate dig-holes assets to punch through the ground and then using spline-tunnel assets for the walls. You then place your own tunnel track inside the tunnel and cover the hole with separate tunnel entrances. It's a bit more work but the flexibility is there to do what you want.

HD Terrain does affect tunnels but that has to do with the dig-hole assets still being 10-meters in size and not interacting and working well with the HD Terrain. Apparently, N3V is working on the whole tunnel system, something that dates back to 2000 by the way.

As far as your cliffs and missing terrain under the track, using the smooth terrain will do that as it pulls the ground down or up under the tracks. As you found, the only solution to that is to use retaining walls of some sort. This has always been the case even with the old 10-meter grid.
Click to expand...
In the end, I scrapped the tunnel and used a bridge. Come to think of it, I imagine a real railway company would realise that that was a far cheaper option.
Is there any way of knowing whether I am using HD or not?
 
One way is to look at the grid square size. If you're using Surveyor 2 move your pointer to the top left of the Trainz screen, click on the Display Menu (the one that looks like a tiny screen) --> click on Ground. --> Click on Transparent. This shows the underlying structure of your landscape. The HD grid is very fine - for example a Track Mark is roughly 12 grid squares long. If this is an older route (created before the introduction of HD) then it will stay at low definition unless you specifically convert it. That's my experience anyway.
 
rhban said:
In the end, I scrapped the tunnel and used a bridge. Come to think of it, I imagine a real railway company would realise that that was a far cheaper option.
Is there any way of knowing whether I am using HD or not?
Click to expand...
I've done that many times as well as routing the route around a hill. You are right, a rail company will definitely find a least expensive way of doing things.
 
"Apparently, N3V is working on the whole tunnel system, something that dates back to 2000 by the way."
There's gold somewhere
:) and keep well.

Sellick
 
ess1 said:
"Apparently, N3V is working on the whole tunnel system, something that dates back to 2000 by the way."
There's gold somewhere
:) and keep well.

Sellick
Click to expand...
That might be why they haven't "found" a solution yet.
 
This would be one of my top priorities. Tired of having my pre-packaged tunnels whipping around like a rodeo snake while I try to force them into shape, so am switching to dig holes. What could go wrong? ... Hmmmm
 
johnnytrain said:
This would be one of my top priorities. Tired of having my pre-packaged tunnels whipping around like a rodeo snake while I try to force them into shape, so am switching to dig holes. What could go wrong? ... Hmmmm
Click to expand...
I agree. Separate dig-holes have their advantages but do have issues as well. There will be places where you place them and the mesh will end up chopped at an angle across multiple grid-squares on the terrain. The only solution is to cover over the holes where nothing seems to fit with sheets of grass-textured flat splines and rocks. Andi06 (RIP) made some grass sheets and I think some are built-in too. There are rock splines, some built-in too, by Clam1952 (RIP).


MasterTracklayer said:
Why cannot dig holes be non-rectangular? Bah!
Click to expand...
We wish. They're built to run with the grid. Remember we work with round pegs being squeezed into square holes here in Trainz.
 
You can use F9 to see the grid. First touch is transparent and the second is the gray grid. If the squares look small it's HD. I wish there was a way to do a transparent texture to make the grid be like a see through window by using an alpha. Then you could paint just around the tunnel opening without having to make tunnel portals with giant addons to cover the dig hole.

Jack
 
jjslll54 said:
You can use F9 to see the grid. First touch is transparent and the second is the gray grid. If the squares look small it's HD. I wish there was a way to do a transparent texture to make the grid be like a see through window by using an alpha. Then you could paint just around the tunnel opening without having to make tunnel portals with giant addons to cover the dig hole.

Jack
Click to expand...
I agree with that. And, from your description (tiny grid squares) it seems I am in HD. Perhaps that is a condition of Trans Plus.
 
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