Hi guys.
I started work on a free form long distance route recently and have completed about 50 kilometers of trackage, terrain, texturing and scenery using mostly default 06 items. However, after a few trips to the screenshot forum my route suddenly feels horribly inferior. Personally, I think the trackage is pretty good (not so sure about signalling), ties match each other at most of the turnouts and there's no unreasonably sharp curves or complicated slips and all that.
When it comes to terrain and texturing however, I'm extremely bad at recreating that photo-realistic look. I dislike seeing repeated texture patterns and am often at a loss as to which texture to use. Also, I can't for the hell of me figure out how to do long-distance terrain.
Take for example (a really excellent example), the Dejan-Clare Bay route in 2006. I have successfully converted the entire route into pre-Maglev era with mixed single and double trackage. Interesting thing is with the terrain. You start at 0, and reach a couple of hundred at the canyon and you don't even feel the change. The terrain tools under F1 create elevation changes that are too sharp, even under maximum scale, and do not give that "gradual" feel.
I would like to hear from the very talented (if they don't mind of course), a couple of tips to creating a realistic route without pulling out one's hair. I've tried grass on the tracks, ground partially covering the track, and the increase-by-0.2 trick. Still, it's tough. I'll put up a couple of screens in the appropriate forum some time soon. They're not bad, but pales in comparism to anything else.
Cheerio,
Nicholas.
I started work on a free form long distance route recently and have completed about 50 kilometers of trackage, terrain, texturing and scenery using mostly default 06 items. However, after a few trips to the screenshot forum my route suddenly feels horribly inferior. Personally, I think the trackage is pretty good (not so sure about signalling), ties match each other at most of the turnouts and there's no unreasonably sharp curves or complicated slips and all that.
When it comes to terrain and texturing however, I'm extremely bad at recreating that photo-realistic look. I dislike seeing repeated texture patterns and am often at a loss as to which texture to use. Also, I can't for the hell of me figure out how to do long-distance terrain.
Take for example (a really excellent example), the Dejan-Clare Bay route in 2006. I have successfully converted the entire route into pre-Maglev era with mixed single and double trackage. Interesting thing is with the terrain. You start at 0, and reach a couple of hundred at the canyon and you don't even feel the change. The terrain tools under F1 create elevation changes that are too sharp, even under maximum scale, and do not give that "gradual" feel.
I would like to hear from the very talented (if they don't mind of course), a couple of tips to creating a realistic route without pulling out one's hair. I've tried grass on the tracks, ground partially covering the track, and the increase-by-0.2 trick. Still, it's tough. I'll put up a couple of screens in the appropriate forum some time soon. They're not bad, but pales in comparism to anything else.
Cheerio,
Nicholas.
Claude