skidmark22
Retired MX Mis.Test Pilot
What is the general rule for putting grass in a route while building? It seems that almost no one does it. Even Dermmy. I see grass in almost all his screenshots but when I download the route, there is none.
Grass in route building
- Thread starter skidmark22
- Start date
There's no "rule" per say, or at least I don't know of any where the route building police will come knocking on your door for putting too much grass in.
You have to keep in mind that many of the grass clumps are splines and objects, and these items eat up resources and cause stutter on slower machines.
Ideally you'd want to put grass clumps where it'll be appreciated, or seen, and use textures in the distance. It would be nice to texture everything like it is in the natural world, but as I've stated above, that would be impossible given how the program operates, and the computer hardware we have today.
Personally I use very little grass objects, and rely on good textures for the job. Let's face we're not going to be sitting on the ground watching the trains go by, but instead be sitting in the cab driving. We won't care whether the grass is long, or whether it's a bumpy texture, which is what it'll look like when you're whizzing by at 60 mph.
Now this is my personal opinion regarding using textures. All I can say is experiment and see what works for you.
Regarding Andy's grass. Perhaps there are some missing items that didn't get downloaded when you aquired the route from the DLS.
John
You have to keep in mind that many of the grass clumps are splines and objects, and these items eat up resources and cause stutter on slower machines.
Ideally you'd want to put grass clumps where it'll be appreciated, or seen, and use textures in the distance. It would be nice to texture everything like it is in the natural world, but as I've stated above, that would be impossible given how the program operates, and the computer hardware we have today.
Personally I use very little grass objects, and rely on good textures for the job. Let's face we're not going to be sitting on the ground watching the trains go by, but instead be sitting in the cab driving. We won't care whether the grass is long, or whether it's a bumpy texture, which is what it'll look like when you're whizzing by at 60 mph.
Now this is my personal opinion regarding using textures. All I can say is experiment and see what works for you.
Regarding Andy's grass. Perhaps there are some missing items that didn't get downloaded when you aquired the route from the DLS.
John
On a couple of my published routes (built in TRS2006) I used JVC splines (freeware) of varying widths and types to about 100m either side of the line. Personally I thought the results quite effective though if you're going for that kind of detail you need to break the splines up with some herbs and other plants, to avoid it all looking too uniform. I haven't got to that stage yet on my TS2010 project(s), the first check will be establishing which if the many splines still display correctly in Native mode.
errmmm... yes. Guilty as charged your honour!
Route building is all about poly count. Acceptable frame rates is governed by the number of polys your computer has to draw. A route builder has to think about where the polys are going to be allocated. The total poly count when running a route come from two places - the route and the session.
"Route Polys"' is the graphics load imposed on the system by the route.
"Session Polys" is the graphics load imposed on the system by the rolling stock.
The tricky bit is to balance the two to get a successful overall outcome.
Take two examples - my existing Clovis route and my WIP East Kentucky 3.
Clovis runs long trains (8,000 feet) composed of multiple hi-poly locos hauling a large variety of hi-poly rolling stock. Speed limit on the route is 70mph. So the graphics load imposed on the system by the session is going to be high - lots of polys moving fast. The route is long, so the AI is also keeping track of lots of trains, so more system load. Another issue on Clovis is that long trains on a flat landscape almost demand a long draw-distance, which equates to still more 'session polys'. Therefore the route polys MUST be kept low - as low as possible. So there is almost no grass. In fact there is almost no anything! The total graphics load of the route is kept as low as possible by using as few as possible assets repeated the minimum number of times - the background is almost cartoonish. Same house, same shed, same group of trees - well spaced out but repeated over and over.
EK3 on the other hand is entirely different. It is nothing but coal. The session polys will be low. Very few locomotive types, and virtually all 4-axle. Rolling stock can be reduced to about six different hoppers. Trains are short. Trains are slow - 35mph is the highest limit on the route. Traffic density is way way lower than Clovis. So very few lo-poly trains going slow = very little 'session' poly load. And in the hilly terrain, draw distance can be reduced to minimum lowering the 'session polys' still more. Therefore I can go to town on the 'route polys'. Zillions of trees and lots of grass and trackside shrubbery but still get an overall result that runs smooth as silk.
Now back to the original comment. Within reason screenshots look much better with lots of grass. So on my Clovis screenies there is what I call 'eye candy' grass placed on a small area just for the screenie. It is generally not part of the route, which in retrospect could be misleading and perhaps needs to be stated more clearly.
EK3 screenies however are all exactly what-you-see-is-what-you-get. I think there might be one EK3 screenie where there is a bit of spline grass added, but the other 99 screenshots published to date (I posted screenie #100 yesterday) are exactly from the route as it will be released...
Andy
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skidmark22
Retired MX Mis.Test Pilot
Thank you all for the info. I had a feeling that was something like that but haven't been able to find in other info on the subject. I guess everyone will avoid any routes I build because I add plenty of grass along the tracks. Both clumps and splines. It doesn't seen to effect my computer so bad and I like the realism. I guess you can tell from this videos on YouTube that I like grass.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lande22#p/a/u/0/IJwdbUnnOTw
Sorry but as of this time, I have no idea how to count polys.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lande22#p/a/u/0/IJwdbUnnOTw
Sorry but as of this time, I have no idea how to count polys.
press the print screen botton on your keyboard then open up paint and paste the screen shot into there
thank you but do you mean Ctrl+P?press the print screen botton on your keyboard then open up paint and paste the screen shot into there
Nope he's right. Near your F12 button(at least for me!) there is a button that, again for me, says PrtScn. AKA print screen. Hit this button while in game to take a screeny. After that there will be a folder in trains aptly named "ScreenShots". You then see if the shot it good enough, and use a program(or me I use HostthenPost.com) and get the code to put it in and paste it in a post. And walla! Its there.