Best technique to remove ground in a tunnel? (TANE)
- Thread starter pdwood
- Start date
Use a "dighole". They are available in various sizes but you probably just need a 10x10m one (thats the minimum).
Just search the DLS for digholes and you will find loads in various sizes.
Note that some of the 10x10 snap-to-grid in a slightly different way as others do.
Just search the DLS for digholes and you will find loads in various sizes.
Note that some of the 10x10 snap-to-grid in a slightly different way as others do.
You have to manually tweak the terrain around the portal area until most of the hole is concealed. That might entail bringing adjacent terrain vertices down to the height of the tunnel roof. Judicious use of matching retaining wall sections will conceal hole overlaps at the side.
Or, as another user suggested a few months back - where you can't see right through the tunnel, save time and creative frustration and just paint the terrain visible through the portal jet black and abandon the dighole!
Or, as another user suggested a few months back - where you can't see right through the tunnel, save time and creative frustration and just paint the terrain visible through the portal jet black and abandon the dighole!
Ages ago I suggested a spline that could be stretched both ways, and adjusted for height at all four corners. Maybe this is impossible to do. But it would certainly make filling in the gaps in the terrain caused by the dighole a 'whole' :hehe: lot easier! I often resort to filling the gaps with trees.
I've made a few tunnel portals with ground attached to them but there always seems to be a gap somewhere.
Mick
I've made a few tunnel portals with ground attached to them but there always seems to be a gap somewhere.
Mick
ray_whiley
Active member
A textured plane - or more than one is needed - with careful placing. I made some, also splines, a long time ago, probably for TRS2004 and they are on the DLS. There are also some by andi06.
Ray
Ray
When you use textured planes they react differently to the lighting that the basic terrain does, so it is very difficult to match. I think this is probably the most challenging thing I've had to deal with in Surveyor!
Mick
blueodessey
Well-known member
Just like to add, I had lots of problems with Tunnels not working well in IPAD and then in TS-12 as well, however when you folks advised using Dig Holes, they worked quite well, with the exception you will see some holes on occasion, and I learned how to minimize it using Grid view, and also having to place some small shrubs, or trees.
I also think it has to do a lot with the angle you are using them in respect to the Grid Lines on the baseboard. So there are some times I have to forego using a Dig holes in certain areas of the route.
I would rather have the Dig Holes when I need them though, I guess you say it sometimes becomes a labor of Love!
I also think it has to do a lot with the angle you are using them in respect to the Grid Lines on the baseboard. So there are some times I have to forego using a Dig holes in certain areas of the route.
I would rather have the Dig Holes when I need them though, I guess you say it sometimes becomes a labor of Love!
ray_whiley
Active member
Yes, Mick, I agree about the problem with colour matching and a ground texture has to be chosen very carefully with a lot of experimentation. I have tried using the same texture, one of mine, for both the plane and the ground, then adjusting one or the other until they match reasonably well when used. But it takes time and is not for those who want instant results. The use of vegetation also helps. Like you, I have made tunnel entrances using the same technique.
Occasionally one can come across a reasonable match from available planes and textures, but again it takes time. Fortunately I'm not a quick worker anyway!
Ray
Occasionally one can come across a reasonable match from available planes and textures, but again it takes time. Fortunately I'm not a quick worker anyway!
Ray
One thing I did to make my tunnel portal blend in better, was to use dighole to get the size hole I wanted, then I got the elevations of the grid intersections at the edges of the dighole, and then got the elevations for one or two rows of intersections all around the dighole. When I constructed my portal, I constructed it so that the grid intersections forming the border of the dighole were behind the location of the portal, and the at the set of grid intersections next further away (or, I think, in one instance, the grid intersection two away from the edge of the dighole) was in front of the edge of the constructed portal.
ns
ns
Only problem with that is that you made a custom portal that would only work in the location you built it for. I don't think many Trainz users are willing to go that far!
Mick
cascaderailroad
New member
A 10m grid is good enough ... a 5m grid will only screw things up
1x1 dighole
1x1 dighole
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Mick, regarding your comments,
Yes, I did develop the technique in a custom site situation, and that particular tunnel portal is unlikely to be very useful anywhere else. But the in my opinion the techniques I developed can be used to develop a more generic portal, usable more generally just as easily. And frankly, building the custom portal was not nearly as difficult s it looks. In fact, I mean to write up a tutorial on how to do it, and while it might not be a good first project, it would be simple enough to be a third or fourth.
ns
Yes, I did develop the technique in a custom site situation, and that particular tunnel portal is unlikely to be very useful anywhere else. But the in my opinion the techniques I developed can be used to develop a more generic portal, usable more generally just as easily. And frankly, building the custom portal was not nearly as difficult s it looks. In fact, I mean to write up a tutorial on how to do it, and while it might not be a good first project, it would be simple enough to be a third or fourth.
ns
In case some drift here looking for information about constructing a good tunnel on their routes, here is a recent Twitch TV TheTrainzChannel howto tutorial on the subject:
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This is a fairly good treatment of the subject, where you dig the hole to suit the tunnel portal, and adjust the terrain and height of entrance to fit. Of course, the same observation can be made (as in previous posts) that the grid in this video is fairly aligned with the tunnel, so everything looks right in the end. This may not be the case in a more prototypical route, where geographic accuracy may prevent you from adjusting the angle of a tunnel to run parallel to the baseboard grid.
This is a fairly good treatment of the subject, where you dig the hole to suit the tunnel portal, and adjust the terrain and height of entrance to fit. Of course, the same observation can be made (as in previous posts) that the grid in this video is fairly aligned with the tunnel, so everything looks right in the end. This may not be the case in a more prototypical route, where geographic accuracy may prevent you from adjusting the angle of a tunnel to run parallel to the baseboard grid.