Export of Trainz terrain and models?
- Thread starter rich0550
- Start date
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
Rich
I don't think there is anything like that. The process of building a scene is more like the reverse of what you are suggesting. People make objects in 3DSMax and other programs, then export them to a format that Trainz can read. The basic ground comes from within Trainz and can be modified by the program's shaping tools or imported from digital topology files, but not exported backwards into 3DSMax.
~ Dean
I don't think there is anything like that. The process of building a scene is more like the reverse of what you are suggesting. People make objects in 3DSMax and other programs, then export them to a format that Trainz can read. The basic ground comes from within Trainz and can be modified by the program's shaping tools or imported from digital topology files, but not exported backwards into 3DSMax.
~ Dean
Shortline2
Joined: 28th Oct. 2002
Hi,
I been begging for such a export for years... Back when TS2009 was new and building on a Auran programmer agreed it would be a useful tool to have but that is as far as it got.
Back in the good old easy and fun days of TRS2004 a Trainz member created a tool to export splines and ground into dxf, but sadly, it don't work with newer Trainz and, I lost the file so I can't even get ground out from my old Trainz anymore...
Bob, are you out there, would love that program again
So, I get by without, making custom building models to fit the ground a tiresome work with lots of in and out of Trainz to check if the model fits and so on... Takes me days where it should take hours only if I had the ground coordinates out of Trainz...
Someday I wish someone would do what TransDEM does, just the other way around, get part of the ground out...
Till then, dream time, and for now, really dream time, it's 0031 at night and bed is calling... :wave:
Best wishes
Linda
I been begging for such a export for years... Back when TS2009 was new and building on a Auran programmer agreed it would be a useful tool to have but that is as far as it got.
Back in the good old easy and fun days of TRS2004 a Trainz member created a tool to export splines and ground into dxf, but sadly, it don't work with newer Trainz and, I lost the file so I can't even get ground out from my old Trainz anymore...
Bob, are you out there, would love that program again
So, I get by without, making custom building models to fit the ground a tiresome work with lots of in and out of Trainz to check if the model fits and so on... Takes me days where it should take hours only if I had the ground coordinates out of Trainz...
Someday I wish someone would do what TransDEM does, just the other way around, get part of the ground out...
Till then, dream time, and for now, really dream time, it's 0031 at night and bed is calling... :wave:
Best wishes
Linda
Nice, well what I can say is 10 years ago making Trainz terrain pretty much opened my eyes to 3d. I have made a living at it pretty much ever since, now odddly I long for a terrain builder that will make nice roads and such with the ease of Trainz. I know which ones are out there, some are very nice like Vue. But the roads and rails and ease of Trainz is execptional, and would be a great base mesh maybe more to build from. Export to obj, would be a fantastic start, or import also from obj, and pull real world data. Well hope someday it happens. More than a game it is, hope the uses for trainz can grow.
Hi Rich,
Check out World Builder by Digital Element. www.digi-element.com
These guys used to be Animatek from Russia back in the old days. I've used their program since version 1.0 and it's currently up to 4.x. The good thing is there is no dongle required anymore; just a registration code and license file. I've used this for some advertisements back when I was in the graphics and desktop publishing industry.
The program uses splines to generate a mesh surface. By drawing the outline of the surface, the mesh fills in between the splines like a cloth over a wire frame. One the landscape is created, you can apply various attributes to it, such as erosion, direction and height of the erosion, among other parameters.
You place textures, objects, even water, based on regions that are selected on the mesh. With the textures, plants, and grass, they can be given parameters to specify which angle, height, thickness, etc., you want the plants or textures to cover. Virtually any plant, grass, or tree, even the actual landscape, can be animated with specific parameters based on wind velocity, direction, and angle. A landscape for instance, can go from a mountain to a pile of rubble, or grow from the sea. This has been used for National Geographic specials about volcanoes and islands.
There are many objects that can be placed from the libraries, and other objects can be imported in from Lightwave, 3ds Max, and other 3d modeling programs. The program also has plug-ins to work with the programs as well, so an object placed in World Builder, for example, will exist in the 3ds Max if this is the plug-in you are using. Terrains can be imported in from grayscale and from DEM files. For one scene I did for a client, I drew the grayscale tiff image in Photoshop, and then imported into World Builder for landscape surface generation. There is a road and path maker that will actually cut the road through the terrain and lift up the terrain to be part of the ROW. This is useful for what I think you might be interested in.
Yes, the rendering is slow, but this can be sped up by rendering sections, and with their unique use of z-buffer technology, object and scene renders can be locked in place while the scene is being worked on. The advantage of this method is it saves proof rendering time. When it's time for the final rendering, this can be done over a network using a render farm for animations, or as a background process for the final frames. Because of the z-buffering technology, critters can be made to walk behind grass, and grass can part as the critter walks through the grass. The latter feature is done by specifying footprints in an area. There really are a lot of features not mentioned here.
As far as ease of use goes, this program is by far the easiest to use compared to VUE and others, which have odd parameter boxes you have to edit to generate the landscapes. In VUE the only landscapes you can have, are fractal generated ones, which is annoying. At least with World Builder, you can import a base mesh from Max, or bring in grayscale and DEM files if you wish.
Here are a few still images.
http://www2.digi-element.ru/media/wbimages/digitalelement3.jpg
http://www2.digi-element.ru/media/wbimages/digitalelement7.jpg
http://www2.digi-element.ru/media/wbimages/digitalelement1.jpg
John
