Surveyor question: Straight/diagonal tunnels?

S

shaneturner12

Tutorial Creator
This may seem like an odd question, but are there any UK tunnels available that can be laid in a straight or diagonal line without bending? I have had a bit of luck with the AJS tunnels, but I am after a UK one (with roof) for a 2-track part of my line.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Shane
 
shaneturner12 said:
This may seem like an odd question, but are there any UK tunnels available that can be laid in a straight or diagonal line without bending? I have had a bit of luck with the AJS tunnels, but I am after a UK one (with roof) for a 2-track part of my line.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Shane
Click to expand...

You can use any old tunnel if .................
Change the height in the tunnel config to height -1 that stops the tunnel aligning itself to the grid, need to use a dighole though as it disables that capability.

OK so now it doesn't behave like a tunnel as in follow mode you go over the top of the hill. To fix that you edit the config of the attached track or rather clone it and edit the clones config and add the line istunnel 1 to it, then change the kuid of the attached track in the tunnels config.

Handy dodge for engine sheds etc as well.
 
Did try that, but it didn't seem to make much difference. (i will try it again though, just in case I was using the wrong tool)

Also, I am using TRS2006.

Shane
 
An update - I tried the height adjustment in the config.txt, and it seems to have worked - I still don't understand why the straighten tool didn't make a difference though.

Shane
 
shaneturner12 said:
An update - I tried the height adjustment in the config.txt, and it seems to have worked - I still don't understand why the straighten tool didn't make a difference though.

Shane
Click to expand...

It won't unless the line of the tunnel lines up with the grid or is at 45 degrees to it without that tweak as it snaps to the nearest grid intersection. If like me you are trying to create a route to prototype they very rarely do.
 
Unfortunately after nearly ten years of development, splined tunnels still behave pretty much as they did in 2001 Trainz CE.

The solution for straight tunnels is to use one of the dighole type with seperate (tunnel) portals and lining, though getting these to work is an art in itself.
 
Vern said:
The solution for straight tunnels is to use one of the dighole type with seperate (tunnel) portals and lining, though getting these to work is an art in itself.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong there. It's the only thing I've found that works. I use the AJS tunnel packs and can get a perfectly straight tunnel but it's getting the portal to sit over the dighole and hiding the hole itself that give most of the work. I still do it with the grass splines which isn't always ideal.
 
pfx said:
You're not wrong there. It's the only thing I've found that works. I use the AJS tunnel packs and can get a perfectly straight tunnel but it's getting the portal to sit over the dighole and hiding the hole itself that give most of the work. I still do it with the grass splines which isn't always ideal.
Click to expand...

I get round that by using a portal less tunnel spline making my own tunnel Portal with added terrain and just drop it over the top.
 
pfx said:
Not sure I follow that one. Could you elucidate for me please?
Click to expand...

Use a tunnel spline that has no Portals at either end then make the Portals as an independent item which includes the terrain necessary to cover up the dighole and place it over the hole, adjust height. you can include a base as well if it's needed to cover the hole, just need to make sure you can match the size of the portal to the tunnel lining. It doesn't need to actually attach to the tunnel or the track.

The below screen shot is very much a WIP as firstly I'm using a borrowed wider tunnel lining as a temporary measure until I perfect the actual one, the track needs attending to as it's too light and the texturing could be a bit better, the tunnel is about 9 or 10 degrees off the grid alignment and has a slight incline in it.

Track is attached to the tunnel lining which is effectively a covered in track and the rock portal is just placed in the appropriate place. The portal is blended into the surrounding terrain
by using the same texture, one of mine as that avoids problems of getting a good match.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Last edited:
Interesting, but the average person can not make his own tunnel portals using Gmax.

You can open a tunnels config file, in Edit In Explorer, and alter the height to -10 or -20, so it no longer snaps to grid. This allows the tunnel to go straight, but disables the built in dighole feature, requiring you placing your own 1x1 Dighole manually.

But if you upload your route, another user will find your altered tunnel, reverting to original, snapping to grid, and making an "S" curve.

BNSF50 made some Tunnel Portals that are a static scenery item, that can be placed in front of a tunnel spline.
 
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Another option might be to find a suitable bridge section, that can be extended across the track to give the illusion of a tunnel mouth.

The biggest problem I had with the dighole tunnels is that you only need to go near the terrain and the portal moves up in the air and I found the undo function doesn't always correct the situation. The other issue I have had is with the lining which sometimes attaches itself incorrectly to the spline point on the portal and then kind of wraps back on itself.

All things considered, we really need a better way of making tunnels if/when there is another version release.
 
Snap to grid, non straight tunnels, is a silly built in feature that should be eliminated.

Using the "hold Shift key" you can place splines without joining. And use BNSF50 Invisatrack as a railway, just the same height as the original track.
 
Last edited:
clam1952 said:
You can use any old tunnel if .................
Change the height in the tunnel config to height -1 that stops the tunnel aligning itself to the grid, need to use a dighole though as it disables that capability.

OK so now it doesn't behave like a tunnel as in follow mode you go over the top of the hill. To fix that you edit the config of the attached track or rather clone it and edit the clones config and add the line istunnel 1 to it, then change the kuid of the attached track in the tunnels config.

Handy dodge for engine sheds etc as well.
Click to expand...

I realize this is nerco-posting, but this is EXACTLY what I'm trying to sort out in TS12. Damn tunnels are snapped to the terrain. I *WANT* the istunnel tag because I don't want magic smoke that passes through rock.... I DON'T want the damn snap-to-grid.

At first I tried the -1 height trick, but that's no good. The "istunnel" tag seems to trump the height tag. So I tried this idea, leave the tunnel alone and put the "istunnel" tag on the track.

Trouble is, now I can't get any other track to attach to the tunnel...
 
Tis another bug, change it back to istunnel 0 attach the track in surveyor then go back to content manager and change back to istunnel 1
Tedious but solves the problem.
 
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