Am I crazy for attempting this?

[clam1952]

Thanks for the comments. Don't be afraid to tear me apart on anything. I thrive on constructive criticism I do have a 'noob' question regarding track however... the track I've chosen, I cant remember what its called I'm at work but I've noticed when I reach a bridge the track on the bridge does not change to the track Im trying to connect to it. Im certain it has in the past but I think I was using Aurans Built in track before. Now Im not it doesnt seem to work on bridges. Is this a bug in the track im using or am I not doing something right? I have nice looking track until I get to a bridge and then its whatever the default texture on the bridge is?! Look (closely) at screenshot 5 on previous page.

Look in the bridge config for an entry that says useadjoiningtracktype 0 and change it to 1, if its not there add it under the line that says track in the attatched-track container

attatched-track
{  
   track_0
   {
      track                                       <kuid:xxxxx:xxxx>
      useadjoiningtracktype                 1                      

      vertices
      {

      and so on

Forgot to add route is looking very good, keep it up.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Nice going!

Good work Stuart and welcome to the time pit.

Not many members have made great early progress in such a short time.

Your route is a large undertaking for someone just starting out, but by no means the biggest we’ve seen. It certainly manageable with your obvious talents.

The only caution I would add regarding going too big is that it can be very time consuming going back over a complete route in order to apply newly found ideas on landscaping and texturing. I have a 92 board coastal and mountain Italian route that never seems to near completion for that very reason.

Keep up the excellent work!:Y:




@Dermmy

~snip~ Your life is about to get sucked into a 60hour a week commitment ~snip~

I hadn’t realised you were a part-timer Andy!

Cheers
Casper

 

[stuartluff]

Thanks for the tip Malc. Not sure why its changed as I've used the bridges before without problems but I'll have a look.

Thanks Mezzoprezzo. I saw your pics in the thread you started about scenery tips and was really impressed. Some of those actually look real hehe.

EDIT: Just looking at the config on one of the bridges and this is what I get: Not sure what I need to change on this one. Its a built in bridge?!



username "Bridge_Stone_Pole_2t"
trackoffsets -2.5,2.5
height -50
rgb 200,100,0
region "Britain"
kuid 1024
length 20
istrack 1
kind "bridge"
casts_shadows 1
type "Bridges"
username-de "Steinpfeiler_2G"
username-pl "most_belkowy_2tory"
username-fr "Pilier_pont_pierre_2v"
username-nl "Bridge_Stone_Pole_2t"
username-cz "železobetonový_most_2k"
username-es "Puente_Piedra_Pilar_2v"
username-it "Ponte_pilastro pietra_2t"
asset-filename "stonepole_2t"
username-hu "Bridge_Stone_Pole_2t"
username-ru "Мост_каменный_свая_2_пути"


kuid-table
{
}

 

[mezzoprezzo]

On my system the kuid number for this bridge description is -1:1024

Assets with a minus sign in front of the first part of the kuid indicates that they are built in and I know of no way of editing them.

I’ve just tried to connect a piece of different track to it and the bridge track remains unchanged.

However, you can always lay your preferred track over the top of the built-in track, although some tracks may cause transparency problems. A bit of experimentation usually finds a reasonable solution.

 

[stuartluff]

Thanks Mezzo. I guess I'll have to 'fudge it' Maybe I am going crazy but im certain the bridges accepted the attached track before thats why i chose them. Then I changed the track I was using. Even the old track I used before is not accepted anymore and also the tunnels?!

 

[clam1952]

Probably sort of explained in the reply to your PM, not sure if PM's are working properly though.

I'm just testing my bridgetrack theory.

OK problem solved or sort of, this will work, clone the bridge and add the following entries:

bridgetrack <kuid of track you want to use>

then

kuid-table
{
track <kuid of track you want to use>
}
Should work with tunnels as well.

 

[Dap]

Crazy? heck no. You are doing what Trainz allows us to do - have fun and be creative. You have a wonderful talent. Can't wait to see the end results.

 

[slabay]

Probably sort of explained in the reply to your PM, not sure if PM's are working properly though.

I'm just testing my bridgetrack theory.

OK problem solved or sort of, this will work, clone the bridge and add the following entries:

bridgetrack <kuid of track you want to use>

then

kuid-table
{
track <kuid of track you want to use>
}
Should work with tunnels as well.

My first time reading this thread, so here is my two cents worth:

I would stick with the "use built in track and overlay track you want" plan. Reason being is that if you do the clone thing, the bridge will be your asset, and if you ever get to the point of releasing it, anybody that tries to download your route will have a missing asset that they cannot download, since you likely will not be able to upload the cloned bridge.

Yes, you are crazy. But I think that the best route builders out here are crazy to put out the routes that they do, with all the detail that they do, with no monetary compensation, the occasional pat on the back saying "good job" and having to contend with all of the boneheads that say "well, I've been there and the oak tree in the bottom left corner of the third screenshot you posted is really an elm and should be leaning an additional 3 degrees to the left". If it wasn't for the crazy people, we wouldn't have the awesome routes that we have! Keep at it- you've got it right!

I've got to say, most of us doing prototypical route building use TransDEM to build our terrain from government/public map topographic sources. I couldn't imagine building all that by hand! You've done an amazing job! (and no, TransDEM is not available for Mac OS. I use TS10 and TransDEM on my Mac using boot camp)

 

[clam1952]

My first time reading this thread, so here is my two cents worth:

I would stick with the "use built in track and overlay track you want" plan. Reason being is that if you do the clone thing, the bridge will be your asset, and if you ever get to the point of releasing it, anybody that tries to download your route will have a missing asset that they cannot download, since you likely will not be able to upload the cloned bridge.

Good point, If the route is to be released I'd agree with you 100%, I tend to build most of my own stuff for this reason.

 

[airtime]

Hi stuart,

I use the FMA bridges that have no track attached, search under "FMA" in Trainz, and then look for "FMA COMPLETE BRIDGE ARCH", they are bridges to be used for anything you want, you can just lay your track over the top, you can even add walls and fencing to the bridge, and if you like the FMA splines, there are more FMA items on the DLS.

Hope this helps

Joe Airtime

 

[stuartluff]

Thanks for the tips guys. I had a quick look into TrandDEM and noticed it wasn't OSX friendly but it looked bait fiddly anyway so I just went ahead and carved the mountains myself Just need to paint them now lol.

@clam: I didn't think my PM went through and I seemed to be having problems guess it was all of us having problems? I'll have a nosey at my PM box and see if theres anything there. Cheers.

Back to sculpting and painting...

EDIT: Video on its way

 

[stuartluff]

I've done a little video of a tiny portion of the route. If anything looks odd its because I've not got round to fulling looking at it yet. Things like speed signs in front of signals, weird blue texture splashes etc.


The video is 10 minutes long with no sound. It is 173mb but hopefully you can forgive me for that when you see the video. I thought theres no point spending ages on a detailed route and then compressing the hell out of the video so you can't enjoy it.


Hope you like it. Let me know what you think. Once I get this route done, then I will expand it as I mentioned in my opening post. Probably have to break it up into 3 further routes and work on one at a time. lol.


Enjoy!


Oh and I hammered it down the tracks to keep the time/filesize down hehe. I hit 45 in places, tut tut.


Shame Trainz for Mac doesn't utilise the water effects just yet. I think that would make a big visual improvement. Something to do with OpenGL and DirectX rendering or something?!


http://trainz.stuartluff.co.uk/anyavalley.mov