3D models from Third party Sites?

[Srobertson1956]

Can 3D models from sites like Turbosquid be used in Trainz? If yes, what type of format files can be used? (There are many different formats). If models can be used, do they need to be converted into another type of file format? How would this be done? Thanks.

 

[jjslll54]

I would think you could use the FBX version of the file. You will need to make sure you have all of the textures involved and you may need to rename them according to the Trainz format and make texture dot text files to go with them. You have to be mindful of the polygon count and the the textures have to be a multiple of two in size.( 2 4 8 16 32 64 etc) If you have to change the texture size I'm not sure what it will do to the model. The trainz exporter does all of that for you so you will have a lot of work ahead of you. I haven't used the FBX version of models for importing into Trainz yet so am not fully cognizant on the procedure. Hopefully someone has tried it can can explain their experience.

Jack

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

..You have to be mindful of the polygon count...

In practice, that means you need to have meshes that comply with Trainz standards for poly-count reduction. If the model doesn't come with them, you may need to make them, probably by simplifying the high-detail mesh.

And texture maps must have dimensions that are powers of 2, not necessarily multiples of 2.

 

[johnwhelan]

Generally speaking the models are designed for static rendering. In trainz 30 fps means they need to be rendered 30 times per second so we use much lower poly counts ie much less detail or we put it in the texture. Also we keep the number of textures to a minimum to help rendering speeds.

Technically yes bit it doesn't usually work well.

Cheerio John

 

[wreeder]

The only person here that I know of that does something like this is Msgsapper. See his thread in the Freeware Announcement forum. Turbosquid has a pretty nasty license for game use and I think you would run afoul of it by sharing the finished model on the DLS or from a website.

Prohibited games uses:

• Redistributing or otherwise making TurboSquid 3D Models available to end-users.
  If you are redistributing something that includes actual 3D Model files, the 3D Model files must be incorporated into a larger creation and not in an open format that others can be downloaded. Most game engines, such as Unity and Unreal, handle this automatically. In general, to prevent your end-users from obtaining TurboSquid 3D Models, you should use proprietary formats that cannot be extracted, exported, or decompiled without reverse engineering.

 

[Srobertson1956]

Thanks to everyone for explaining to me what / will be involved. All of this is a bit beyond my technical knowledge / ability and appears to be a hobby in itself. I will stick with continuing to learn the Trainz program for now, and designing routes with the content provided, or via already created content offered by others.