Google Earth Textures

[Johann193]

Hello,

I'm a newbie in creating custom content for Trainz 2007 (I'm French) and didn't find in this forum how to use Google Earth Images on an EXISTING map (I 've already started to place rails and a river and wish not to loose the work). I've only found how to use basemap for creating a new map,

Thanks a lot and sorry for my poor English

 

[OMG_internet]

I suppose you could make the rest of the map like that as a new map and then combine the two into one map. Apart from that, I'm not sure.

 

[colorado71]

For using a google earth image in Trainz, you must georectify it with Transdem or GlobalMapper. For the later, see

TUTORIAL: How to use Topo Maps in Trainz : http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=28387

 

[Johann193]

Global Mapper and TranzDEM

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I own TransDEM and manage to create a map from it but it seems that texturing didb't work. I have the map on one side and the UTM tiles on the other side. I'd like to use UTM tiles to be paste in my map, but I only have "plates" (baseboards ?) and it doesn't stick to the relief of the map. I read the tutorials you suggested me but I can't find neither the "custom_shaders.rar" file nor maps of my country (France). Perhaps I could scan it ?

I also have georeff pictures of Google Earth (georeferenced by TranZDEM) but I didn't find how to use them in my map.

Please help ! (seems I'm very newby for creating in trainz)

 

[Jerker]

G'day Johann,

The instructions supplied with TransDEM are quite comprehensive and "The Good Doctor" covers the aspect of the process which is bothering you most adequately in Tutorial 2:Google Earth & TransDEM on page 94 of the manual. You may also want to read through the TranzDEM tutorials available from the 'Trainz' menu...

...Georeferenced Google Earth images can be 'placed ' on the terrain in the identical manner as standard Topographical maps (in lieu thereof), as per the standard instructions. However, not having tried this yet, I cannot vouch for the 'accuracy' of the TransDEM Ground Texture colours (which are primarily intended for the reproduction of Topographic type maps) when used for this purpose...

...to overcome this you might try substituting the HOG Ground Textures 64 set during the Trainz Exporting stage (assuming you have these installed on your system). The HOG 64 set is a more accurate set of colours based on those generally found in 'Satellite' images. Use the 'Custom Colours Texture' option in the export dialogue box during the export process...

Jerker {}

 

[Johann193]

HOG

Hello,

Seems that I didn't explain correctly.

My problem is to have a sticky google earth image on my map which already exists. I tried to open UTM tiles in surveyor of Trainz 2007, and it appears like Plates whereas I would like to see it sticky to the relief.

I read about using HOG, MicroDEM and TransDEM, but when using TransDEM, textures are in very lowres !

For HOG (which could be right for what I want), I read that DEM file and Texture file must have the same size and I don't know how to do this in TransDEM, neither exporting tga files.

Have a nice day

I'm desesperate and hope that I musn't restart the whole job

:'(

 

[Johann193]

Work in progress

Okay I managed with HOG exporting gnd file. But I obtain very poor result, far from what I expected like in transdem :

I created this from a scratch map. Is it possible to do the same from an existing trainz route ?

I don't manage to obtain maps like the ones I saw in this forum with high resolution sticky to the relief. How could I do that, is it a limitation of hog or trainz, how to improve the resolution ?

It seems it's not possible to use an existing route to be textured with GE images. I think I'll have to restart everything. snif :'(

Thanks a lot, I've printed the tutorials you indicated me, and now I manage to manipulate datas with transdem / hog / microdem. I'm still new in global mapper and the video tutorial is quite hard to follow, I wil try to make a word doc which describes the manipulations.

P.S. : It is strange but the Minimap is in high resolution texture, but I don't manage to have the same on the main map !

 

[geophil]

Johann, please check your PMs.

In TransDEM Google Earh images will be painted onto UTM tile texture carrier objects. UTM tiles are designed to be placed into an existing route which has been created by TransDEM originally.

Therefore, your understanding of the process is correct. You do not have to start over to add Google Earth images.

geophil

 

[Jerker]

G'day Johann 193,

Your conclusions are correct! Any textures applied to a map during 'construction' will be, as you say, 'sticky' to the terrain (this is the way of HOG, irrespective of the rest of the process or the programs used to create the route). Once the map is created (finished), it is impossible to change the textures that have been thus applied, without completely recreating the map with new ones (or, at least, returning to the creation process and substituting alternative images at the HOG stage). The only way you will get GE images into an already existing map is via UTM tiles (which, as you say, remain as 'plates'). ALL routes displayed with GE images 'hugging' the Terrain have had those images applied as part of the initial creation process.

The resolution has been a sore point of mine (and most of the Trainz community, certainly the "DEM brigade") for a very long time and is limited by the 10 meter resolution of the grid, which dictates that the resolution of the applied textures is 1 pixel (of the applied image)=10 meters (1 square grid of the terrain). You will not achieve any better results until this resolution is improved (even TransDEM is affected by this limitation). The 'image' that is applied to the 'minimap' is nothing more than the identical *.tga file that is applied during the creation process, thus it is unaffected by the resoluton limitation and appears (as it should) in High Resolution (the 'minimap', afterall, is nothing more than an image).

Jerker {}

 

[Johann193]

Google Earth Tutorial

Hello,

I tried to apply one of the tutorials about GE and textures and one of them consist in creating GMAX baseboards with a 720x720 meters tiles. The problem is that the process for creating those tiles (material) in GMAX isn't described and I'm not very familiar with this. How can I do ?

Another problem is :

Is it possible to apply the relief (with transDEM for example) after using these tiles without loosing the tracks I could have laid with the google Earth textures and how ?

Thanks a lot.

Sorry I look quite a beginner.

 

[Jerker]

G'day Johann193,

The creation of the tiles in Gmax really doesn't need any tutorial or instruction. The tiles are nothing more than 'planes' centered at 0,0,0 that are (in the case under discussion) 720 meters long by 720 meters wide. These are then textured with the 'image' of your choice (as with any other Gmax object) and then exported to Trainz in the normal manner.

It would not be possible to use the GE images set upon normal 'baseboard' tiles to provide the information you need to locate the various topographic items of interest in your route on an otherwise flat map surface and to then attempt to 'overlay' the correct terrain on top of this (with TransDEM or any other described process), simply because the creation of such 'terrain' requires the writing of the different individual files that comprise the 'whole' of the route (the *.gnd file in particular). Any time a modification is made to any one of these files, they are COMPLETELY overwritten. Thus any data stored in a file (such as the *.trk file, for example), which is dependent upon a location relative to a point in space (particulary vertical space), will not be where the altered 'terrain' is. None of this takes into account the fact that all of the 'objects' placed on such a flat map may not be geographically located in the right place in the first palce (although the use of TransDEM's UTM tiles may overcome this issue)

You have to keep in mind that we deal, here, with 3 dimensions (even if one of them is somewhat "imaginary").

Jerker {}