Gradients

[bradleybale2006]

This question might sound weird but I was wondering if there is a way to have the track flat but be able to make it have a gradient of either up or down a hill. Basically the track is just laid as if you were starting a new route in surveyor but it can have a gradient.

Is that possible in some possible way?

 

[maruffijd]

I believe there is a setting under surveyer options that allows this. It's the one called Fixed spline point height. Just UNtick it. and the splines should set to terrain height rather than stay at 0 (sea level)

 

[BuilderBob]

This question might sound weird but I was wondering if there is a way to have the track flat but be able to make it have a gradient of either up or down a hill. Basically the track is just laid as if you were starting a new route in surveyor but it can have a gradient.

Is that possible in some possible way?

You can't do that as it is laid, but you can set the gradient immediately after laying each segment. Under the Advanced settings in the track tab there is a field for gradient. Enter your required value there. Select the Apply Gradient tool, and click on the segment you just laid at a point just beyond the point where you started laying it. The far spline point will be adjusted so that the track has the required gradient. Continue laying from that for point, repeating the Apply Gradient click for each segment. Then bring the ground up to the track, and use that ground height as the basis for the surrounding ground, using the Plateau tool.

 

[bradleybale2006]

Thanks guys

 

[bradleybale2006]

I've been doing that and it works, now I was wondering is there a way to keep the track flat but make it have a gradient without moving the track? So an AI driver thinks it's going up or down a hill.

 

[cascaderailroad]

You can tell the kids that we are packing up the car, and are going to Jersey Shore ... but they will be a might disappointed when there is no seashore, nor any ocean ... as the town of Jersey Shore is in the middle of Pennsylvania

Think about it ... how can you have an uphill, or downhill grade ... If the track is flat ?

 

[SharkNose]

I've been doing that and it works, now I was wondering is there a way to keep the track flat but make it have a gradient without moving the track? So an AI driver thinks it's going up or down a hill.

It's sounds like you want to simulate a gradient without actually having one. I'm not sure that is possible in any version of Trainz.

Another thing you could do, but it might be a case of rotating your house to screw in a light bulb, is to create a displacement map that has a gentle grade from one side to the other. Then apply that to one or more blank baseboards. When you lay track on that, it will be flat, but since the terrain is slightly graded, it should produce a gradient in your "flat" track.

 

[BuilderBob]

I've been doing that and it works, now I was wondering is there a way to keep the track flat but make it have a gradient without moving the track? So an AI driver thinks it's going up or down a hill.

This is some sort of engine management. Create an invisible loco with the appropriate engine specs. Add the engine to the consist at the start of the section, and remove it at the end.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Ooooh Ooooh ... I know ... You could jack the R side of your laptop, up on a can of SPAM, and the screen would be tilted ... and it would look like you are going up a 30% grade ... but if you tilt your PC too much, all your assets will slide downhill, and end up in a big pile on the edge of your screen

 

[mjolnir]

I remember in the US model railroading mags (RMC and MR) years ago, reading of one or two people who built a flat and level layout, and by artfully changing the elevation of the surrounding terrain and by clever use of scenery created the illusion of the right of way passing through the scene being on a grade. The illusion was good enough that unless one actually placed a carpenter's level on the rails, one swore that the track rose and fell.

While I'm sure that maybe one could replicate this in Trainz, I'm not sure that the result would be worth the effort. For one thing, building grades in Trainz is much easier than it is when working with plaster and plastic. For anther thing, I'm not sure that there is enough appearance of visual space in Trainz, to successfully pull off the illusion. The effort is going to be even harder with the build in level reference points provided by the parallel top and bottom of the monitor. It will, at least in my opinion, be fairly trivial to see that the track is parallel with the top or bottom, and that the gradient is in the surrounding terrain.

ns

 

[bradleybale2006]

I mean so an AI driver would put the throttle up because you could make the track have a gradient but in actual fact it's still flat