For Newbies, Once and for all... how?

[marlonza]

Hi

I have spent all morning browsing and searching, and while there are so much to read and learn on the forums, including some folks with great tuts on specific topics, there is nothing newbies can refer to when building a track.

It took me DAYS to figure out by myself how to actually make a road/rail crossing, I still have NO idea of how industries work, or how to lay long distance of double track, or doing proper signalling. I am ok, my route is coming on ok, but it's far from accurate, I don't even know which tracks to use or what the grades should be.

The included Trainz Manual is basically a quickstart manual on how to click buttons in trainz, it is by no means a "manual".

Is there anyway, or any threads that I have missed, or any tutorials around that can provide us with the knowledge to help ourselves without having to create new threads like these, and ask questions over and over. I am almost sure the long time trainz pro's are getting tired of vague threads like "My junction wont work!:!>!>!" and "Help!!!! PROBLEM" etc

Heck, i don't even know how to apply track guage choices, or which trains to use.

I would love to get deeper into route building, really

 

[john259]

I still have NO idea of how industries work

Create a test layout with a loop including a coal mine and a power station. Make sure both have the IND green tick. Connect all the tracks at the coal mine. Make a train with coal wagons which have the IND green tick. Drive the train round the loop, going slowly through the industries. It should load coal at the mine and unload it at the power station. At some industries such as forestries you need to stop to load or unload. Many industries have separate areas for loading and unloading each product and sometimes these are on the same track. Stations are industries where the products are passengers. There are quite a few more details of course but that's the fundamentals.

or doing proper signalling

That's a tricky one because signals and signalling practice vary considerably between countries and in some countries between regions and/or railway companies. It's probably best to ask for some specific help.

what the grades should be

Don't ignore the possibility of looking up information like that for real railways, on Wikipedia and other sources.

The Trainz wikibook might be worth a look.

HTH, John

 

[big_b]

Hi

I have spent all morning browsing and searching, and while there are so much to read and learn on the forums, including some folks with great tuts on specific topics, there is nothing newbies can refer to when building a track.

It took me DAYS to figure out by myself how to actually make a road/rail crossing, I still have NO idea of how industries work, or how to lay long distance of double track, or doing proper signalling. I am ok, my route is coming on ok, but it's far from accurate, I don't even know which tracks to use or what the grades should be.

The included Trainz Manual is basically a quickstart manual on how to click buttons in trainz, it is by no means a "manual".

Is there anyway, or any threads that I have missed, or any tutorials around that can provide us with the knowledge to help ourselves without having to create new threads like these, and ask questions over and over. I am almost sure the long time trainz pro's are getting tired of vague threads like "My junction wont work!:!>!>!" and "Help!!!! PROBLEM" etc

Heck, i don't even know how to apply track guage choices, or which trains to use.

I would love to get deeper into route building, really

I've only been route building since about 2004 it's still a lot of trial & error most of the time but check this site out
http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html

Dave

 

[marlonza]

Thanks.
Ive read and memorized the 0catch tuts
I think the main problem is not knowing how to figure stuff out (to help ourselves). Ill try and google the grades thing again. Thanks for the wikibook link, I really didnt know about that :/

 

[NormP]

Marionza.

At the top of this forum Page is The "Tips & Tricks" thread that contains 31 pages that covers quite a large range of usefull info, I'm sure if you browse through it it will help you.

However if you get stuck there's plenty of Trainzer's more than willing to offer help from time to time.
Just start with a small layout,even if you Download one then study it, and try making additions to it,that is an easy way to learn.

Enjoy Trainz.

NormP.

 

[Kon1786]

heres a great link to track laying try printing and reading while working on a reute for help... http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html

 

[4ndylloyd]

Marlonza,

We all do things with a bit of trial and error and in doing so learn new skills. I am sure that it wont be long before you are building detailed routes that you are proud of. Stick at it and if you get stuck just ask. There are plenty of people here that are willing to help and sometimes you will even find users with lots of experience asking questions too !

Andy

 

[marlonza]

Hi
May I use this oppertunity then to get advice for a problem that is probably my biggest.
See screenshots(mind, they are about 800KB each):

http://vudu.za.net/trainz/marlonza_20100506_0001.jpg
http://vudu.za.net/trainz/marlonza_20100506_0000.jpg

See how the "smooth spline" and texture painting is all squarey... Even on the smallest brush, this happens. It makes it impossible for me to make textures under rails...

I know it's me, but what is it that Im not doing properly?

PS: if this should rather go into a new thread, let me know and I will do that.

 

[4ndylloyd]

Marlonza,

This is something that has existed in every version of Trainz. From 2009 onwards the 'brush' size was made smaller but you will still get the 'step effect' when painting. There are ballast splines available on the DLS which you can lay either side of your track rather than 'painting' or else try not to use contrasting colours together. Another trick is to hold down either of the square bracket keys on your keyboard ' [ ' or ' ] ' while painting which rotates the brush.

Where you have raised the ground to the underside of your track you can smooth off the 'square' edges by using the terrain up or down tool as necessary, with the sharpness set to minimum to just round of the squareness. The terrain always looks better when its 'painted' anyway and by the time you add fences and bushes etc it will all look fine

Andy

 

[NormP]

You are not doing anything wrong ,even using the smallest brush and the smallest circle the texture is usually bound by the grid square so if the track is not paralell with the grid you will get this sawtooth effect.

NormP.

 

[marlonza]

Thanks so much! *phew*
I can't wait for this workday to be over, want to make that section look pretty tonight!
You guys rock.

 

[harrdoug400]

marlonza

I had the same issues, and still do. Have used trainz since UTC. The best thing you can do is do your homework. Go out to local rail yards or rail lines and try to get a birds eye view. Take photos if necessary. Note how the track blends with the surrounding senery. Look at near by mountains or hills from the yard or rail line will give you a better perspective on how things should look. If you have time, take a walk next to a rail line
(not on the track) Look up and down it. Most of use spend alot of time on roads, cities, and suburbs. A rail line/yard is a whole other world.
As far as paint type or track type just keep experimenting until the look catches your eye. Though keep in mind that paint needs to be set down in a certain order for the right effect. Try different orders (grass,dirt,rock)(dirt,grass,rock) ect.
The photos you posted im not sure what your trying to do but i will tell you what i would do. One of two things: to smooth out the ground either lay the track then use the raise ground tool under topology to raise the ground to the track, reapply smooth spline. Or use your smooth spline tool then use the plateau tool in topology to pull up the surrounding ground. Then smooth it more using the same tool by pulling the ground out and down on either side of the track. Reapply smooth spline.
Good luck and have fun, just keep at it. There is a bit of a learning curve to it but just keep at it. Another thing that i found useful is to go on to the DLS
and download other routes, look over them for ideas and disassemble, edit or change them. Alot of them are set to specific regions, or the creaters are from different regions which can give you more ideas on how to set things up. This will also automatically increase the amount content you can choose from.(Note, if using 2009 or 2010 some content can or will come with errors, just use the route for what you need and delete it. Then delete the content with problems through the content manager)

 

[marlonza]

Thank you harrdoug, that response was very motivational to say the least.
I am now on my way to that baseboard to use your tricks to fix it.
I will admit that patience was never my strong point, I suppose in my newbieness, I should be more patient...
Thanks everyone. The community still amazes me.

 

[Tokkyu40]

Google Earth has a height measurement that tells you the altitude of the ground where your pointer is. This is only a rough guide; the height is sometimes off to the side, so gullies measure higher than the surrounding slopes, and the heights may not be exact. I has one river claim to be below the level of the bay it ran in to. But it is a good guide that can get you very close to the correct altitude and grades.

Claude

 

[marlonza]

Hey,
Since I last posted to this thread, ive managed to sort out a few things, but I am frankly still struggling bigtime with jaggedness when texturing around tracks,as the blocks are about 5 times the size of the track. I can't find any ballast splines on dls, and the one I did find (called VR) downloads at 2.0 KB/s, so im not having much luck. Funny enough thats my speed with a FCT

Anyone have a kuid or name ofr a spline for me?

 

[cascaderailroad]

When painting textures, hold down on the: [ (square bracket key) and the dirrection arrow will spin, and your texteres wil be smudged, and made smoother.

Most textures will produse an array or sawtooth pattern on every single grid. Try dodging and burning some added different textures overlaping where the sawtooth effect occurs.

You can do a one baseboard area, or smaller, and cut, copy, your own custom collage of different overlaping textures...and then paste it anywhere on your route.

You really don't need trees 1/4 mile distant from the track...like in the Smokey Mountains, very distant mountains are dark purple, increaseing in lightening shades of blues, to greens as the foreground mountains get closer to your track scene. I generally don't put trees after 50' from the track. At low angle viewing you will never see them in the distance.

 

[motorbreath]

Another thing that helps to blend the ground textures is adjusting the texture passes in the performance settings menu. This of course will depend on your computer. I keep mine maxed to the right.

 

[marlonza]

Thanks again.
Hopefully this time round ill get it skilled up, and I hope this thread helps other newbies, as I would hate them asking the same silly questions ive asked haha

Thanks motorbreath, I will check out the setting, although I don't think 2010 has that... *scratch head*

 

[Johnk]

The Trainz Resources Directory lists dozens of tutorials on every subject. If you can't find it there, it probably hasn't been written.

The TRD actually consists of 1000 plus pages of information for Trainzers. They will take you to around 15-20,000 tutorials, drawings and websites that should be of some help. The tutorials are listed in the side menu.

it's a resource often ignored by members of this forum when answering questions like yours.

Link

 

[AJ_Fox]

I have always found that using a track that includes the ballast and makes perfect curves is the easiest. See my route Altamont Commuter Express for an example.

KUID: 162187:1006

Cheers

AJ