Backdrops - Instant Scenery

[JCitron]

Just had a thought, maybe not original. Backdrops based on your own layout, rather than someone else's photos.

The concept is that you build a far-field scene for your own layout, using the topology, vegetation and/or buildings of your choice, then take a screenshot of it from a suitable distance. From that screenshot, you can create your own texture file to re-skin an existing backdrop asset. This might be especially useful for situations as described above by Falcus.

The far-field scene could take a bit of effort to set up, but it's only a temporary mock-up to be discarded after you have your screenshots, so you could afford to go nuts with the detail. The advantage is that you have total control of what is in the scene and it would be specific to your own layout, and even specific to a certain location in your layout. You would of course need to know how to crop and resize the image and how to add a suitable alpha channel to make the sky invisible, but that's very simple.

Are there any backdrop assets with a license allowing them to be re-skinned and released under the re-skinner's kuid number? If not, perhaps some public-spirited content creator could make some for this purpose.


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This sounds interesting. I have such a place that might work for me on one of my routes. I'm sure many of the already-created backdrops could be reskinned. They are meshes - just very thin ones...

John

 

[ex-railwayman]

These are Waldhintergrund2 <kuid:147131:1021> which are curved, and can be positioned facing convex or concave side out. Both sides are textured. By overlapping and setting them at different heights and distances on an undulating landscape they can look quite convincing. I can’t remember where I got them – I can’t find them on the DLS.

This is by niffi and it's in his big demo pack, it's 37mb I found it on the Polish Trainz Team website, but, I had to use Opera to download it, Firefox wouldn't work - http://www.trainz.pl/_download/otoczenie/oto_niffidemopack.html

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[ray_whiley]

All my assets on the DLS, including my backdrops, may be reskinned by anyone as long as I am given credit for the original. This is stated in my licence as I am happy to share. If you are interested look for 'Backdrop DDD ...'

Ray (KUID 275817)

 

[Falcus]

This is by niffi and it's in his big demo pack, it's 37mb I found it on the Polish Trainz Team website, but, I had to use Opera to download it, Firefox wouldn't work - http://www.trainz.pl/_download/otoczenie/oto_niffidemopack.html

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Whenever you try to Download a CDP In Firefox and it opens to a page of gobble-d-gook, Right Click the page > Save As > "Anyname.cdp" > Save. It will save as a CDP and CM will recognize it. TPR has this issue as well.

Falcus

 

[ex-railwayman]

I've tried that Sir, it doesn't give you the option to do a 'save as'...I'll pop a screenshot up of what happens in my Firefox, from Grabash's website in Poland.

Click on full version underneath the screenie to expand it.

This is trying to 'save as' on the page.



This is trying to save as the actual cdp.



Cheerz. ex.

 

[rjhowie]

Must admit that I thought I was going to be able to skip past constantly getting backdrops into place when i discovered CorporalMajor's continued country background spline. Raising a distant slope with trees on it is one idea for me to keep in mind. Built my hopes up too quickly so will just have to get on with a slower thing!

 

[jost62]

Hi Dinorius_Redundicus,

look to my contribution #13 in this thread: There you find the link http://www.ttbwrr.com/TTBWRR-Background_Tutorial-1.htm which exactly describes what you suggest: Backdrops based on your own layout.

Your question: "Are there any backdrop assets with a license allowing them to be re-skinned and released under the re-skinner's kuid number? If not, perhaps some public-spirited content creator could make some for this purpose." can easily be answered: Click down to "My Content". There you find "Do-it-yourself-Backdrops" (200m wide and 400m wide). They are offered for free re-skinning ... Of course the above mentioned method of using own layouts for backdrops also can be applied.

Enjoy

jost62

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Right you are. I should have read the whole thread before posting "my" idea.