Help with Surveyor.

headshot119

New member
Right i'm quite new to the game ive had it maybe two months. I've had a little look at Surveyor but don't realy know how to make good looking realistic routes. I was wondering if you could give me suggestions of where to start. Ive read and understand the signaling manual. I've also followed the surveyor tutorial in it's manual. Where should I go from here.

I realy want to learn how to make realistic terrain. Thanks in advance.:):):)
 
The best way to make realistic terrain is using external geo data, a so-called DEM (Digital Elevation Model). There is nothing more realistic than Mother Nature herself. There a a small number of tools available which transfer the data in the DEM to a Trainz route. Apart from a procedure involving an intermediate height map, these tools bypass Surveyor.

You can add topographic maps to locate railways, roads and watercourses if you want to build a prototypical route.

geophil
 
Manually shaping realistic terrain in Surveyor can become quite a challenge. That's why people have been looking for alternative approaches.

geophil
 
It may seem overwhelming at first, but what it takes is practice. Try not to work on more than 2 or three boards at a time. I would suggest just 1 - 2 boards for the beginner.
 
Hello headshot,

Like anything else that you are new at, practice, practice, practice. When I first started, there weren't a lot of beautiful routes like there are today. I used Model Railroader magazine for ideas. You could download a few nice routes that catch your eye and study them. As far as texturing goes, it depends on how good of an artist you are. This is where the practicing blending textures comes in. My suggestion is get a magazine such as Model Railroader and try duplicating one of the layouts. It will give you good practice on laying track, placing buildings, etc. Good luck and have fun.

Jack
 
You can do it by using one of the Built In routes (or Downloading one) deleting all of the track and building your own Route onto the Terrain.
 
Where to buy

I just bought TRS2006 at Circuit City for $20. Careful, I saw them on line for much more. Download took 3+ hours, and I have cable, then did not work.
Tom
 
Well I started a route which is currentley one baseboard. The bit iv'e worked on is the Haddington freight yard. This is fictional by the way. Id like some constructive critism. Thanks in advance.


The first version
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o215/headshot320/haddingtonyard.jpg

The second version
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o215/headshot320/haddingtonyardnew.jpg

The third version. Just a couple of things to finish.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o215/headshot320/haddingtonyard3.jpg
 
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is it juat me looking at tyhe computer funny in your 2nd pic that siding and mainline look curvy?? also check your main line there eams to be an indent on track 2.
 
Thanks for that. Yeh There was a level crossing wherre the indents where originally i messed with the terrain to make it fit and forgot to fix it .thanks.
 
What I did to learn the ropes was to do something similar to what you've done, and then just start expanding it, one section at a time. Continue the track a bit further, then think about where a main line or something would fit into it. Use the displacement tool on Surveyor and place the Mountain or Valley displacements on your layout and use that as a starting point. It's great fun, I spend more time in Surveyor than Driver. :)
 
Here's another shot from my fictional route. This picture shows Haddington goods yard and Haddington viallage. Ive decided to make this route a small branchline set in wales. The passenger line will use class 153 arriva liveries. The goods line will use Class 66 freightliner. When the line is finished there will be three stations. And a portal at one end. The aim of the session is to balance running The line. When the freight trains enter the portal they will be unloaded and reapear in 5 minutes. You then have to take them back to the haddington yard sort them and return them. While your doing this you must run a regular passenger service.

well here's another pic.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o215/headshot320/haddingtonvillage.jpg
 
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Headshot - welcome to Trainz...

When I first started with Trainz and Surveyor, I downloaded a bunch of routes to get ideas about how to do things and then started imitating and experimenting with the different techniques for texturing, landscape building, etc.

Now, 67 miles later and counting, my route is getting better and better. As I've continued with pretty much the same route I started with, I've improved my techniques and added or removed things as I've gone along. I actually did start over a couple of times, but I incorporated whole sections that I liked from my previous versions of the route.

First of all be observant! Don't be afraid to look at real life places and try to imitate them even if your route is fictional. I've incorporated track layouts, road placements, etc. because I like the way they look in real life and I've found a way to fit them into a scene. Look at maps, photographs of different areas, and get some ideas about track and building placements, etc. These maybe not be your particular route, but use them for ideas anyway. One of the things that helps here is to take an area that has a highway or road, and turn that into a railroad instead.

Second, of the many things that helps, one is setting standards on how you want things to look. I strive for non-floating roads and tracks. This is one of my peeves, and I spend a great amount of time fixing these two nigglers. The other thing I try for is keeping the textures simple, but varied. I use about 3 or 4 different grass textures, 2 or 3 ballast textures, and a few sand, dirt and gravel. I find that this not only makes things simple when texturing, it also helps with Trainz not dropping textures later on should you wish to import a route from someone else.

Third, try to be consistent with a set theme for your route. My route is about a former textile mill-town to ocean route with additional branches and now an expanded "northern" main. By sticking to a theme, I've been able to find station names (towns and cities), that I like when looking at maps, and to choose particular building styles and types for my different towns. This is easier when working with real life routes, but when working with a fictional route, we tend to put coal mines next to big cities. By keeping a consistent theme, it is easier to spread things out some, and use some artistic license to make it all work.

Anyway, as you can see I'm a big fan of Surveyor. My route, which started as a single baseboard about three years ago, is now more than 67 miles long. This route includes some incorporated layouts from from a few route-builders as well as a recently added DEM map of an area that fit my theme perfectly.

Good luck on your route, and please post progress pictures for us to see.

John
 
Now you're getting somewhere. Use the "straighten" tool to get the kinks out of your track.

What you need to get the hang of is varying the ground texture. Just painting it with a single texture will give you a billiard-table look and you will get "pattern-repeats" which look awful. This requires a lot of patience rather than skill.

Did you know that you can drag down textures to use as favourites in the texture flyout?. Pull down four or five varied grass patterns. Set the scale and radius dials to their smallest, and put down a single shot of texture. Use the rotate tool to turn that texture through 90 degrees and give it another shot. Do this again for a third shot then change the texture. This technique is mind-blowingly slow but it can add relief to the landscape as effectively as raising the landscape.

It is also possibe to import other layouts into your own work. From these, you can copy whole areas of good-looking scenery and paste them into your own project then delete the imported work.
 
also important about texturing.
make the texture look like it should be there. with direction you can change its direction of pattern.
example lets say you do a cliff. ppick a texture that resmbles a cliff and put it on. but you know from real life that the texture of the cliff follows the conture of the landscape. simply move the dirction marker until the texture pattern is vertical.
also only use the direction tool with a big radius that way it looks more interesting. use a small radius for detailed areas. for that you dont need the direction.
hope this helps.
 
As Titaniclover said, rotation of the textures is important. Hold down one of the bracket keys ([) to rotate. If you want a realistic route, the best thing you can do is study a route that you like or that has similar features that you are trying to create.
 
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