Help with working with tunnels

[enginewhistle]

I would like some help here. I want to use those flexible tunnels that use the digholes, but I have a hard time forming the terrain when they're an odd angle. For example, I want to use the indigo tunnel from uslw, but I have a hard time making terrain to where it looks right. Can anybody help me here?

 

[cascaderailroad]

I hate "snap to grid" tunnels, and I always disable the dighole & snap to grid function, by changing the config file height to -1 (which enables the tunnel to go straight).

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?91354-STRAIGHT-TUNNELS-PLEASE&p=1016838#post1016838

 

[enginewhistle]

I didn't understand what you said too well. Can you please explain again?

 

[Mick_Berg]

I would like some help here. I want to use those flexible tunnels that use the digholes, but I have a hard time forming the terrain when they're an odd angle. For example, I want to use the indigo tunnel from uslw, but I have a hard time making terrain to where it looks right. Can anybody help me here?

AFAIK there's no way around it, it is very difficult to do well. Andi06 has some terrain items you can use to fill the holes, and I cheat by using trees to hide the gaps!

Mick Berg.

 

[jrfolco]

I've created a series of concrete and stone portals and tunnels that work well with Dig Holes. Go to my site and open the 'My Content' page. If you see any items that you like, you can download them from the DLS.

You'll find a Tunnel and Portal tutorial showing how to install them, on the 'Tutorials' page.

Joe

 

[cascaderailroad]

Jrfolco ... the creator of the fantastic Cumberland to Connellsville route ... He's the man !

 

[jrfolco]

Jrfolco ... the creator of the fantastic Cumberland to Connellsville route ... He's the man !

Cascade

I really enjoy your posts. Sometimes they are way out in space, but most of the time, they are helpful and humorous.

Thanks, Joe

 

[bl4882]

I don't want to sound negative, but don't see how I can avoid it without sounding untruthful. Tunnels in Trainz are wildly unrealistic under any circumstances except, perhaps, straight-as-a-die track (how often does that occur in prototype in tunnel territory?), through absolutely no fault of the creators or the users, I wish to emphasize. Even if you lick the "snap to" business, the bore of the tunnel looks like it was laid out by an inebriated crew of grave diggers unless it is perfectly straight. It is almost impossible to lay out a reasonable track structure. The tunnel track itself, with the accompanying bore structure, just doesn't seem to follow the same rules as track laid on the surface. When you run a train through the tunnel the engine exhaust will seep through a hundred or so feet of dirt to the surface so you can follow it and track your train's progress by following the little tornados of smoke asphyxiating nearby surface dwellers in chase camera mode, while your train goes spelunking along. Most of the tunnel portals are forced, again through no fault of the creators, to resort to Stalinist architectural school monumental portals to cover up the rips in space-time that occur when a dig hole is placed.

My solution is a punt, or perhaps, a quick kick. I simply lay out the track in a prototypical way according to the track chart or diagram I am using, or whatever I have preplanned, then superimpose a suitable tunnel, but without connecting it to the track. I elevate the real track or lower the tunnel high or low enough to mask the tunnel track, and, voila, after setting the portals at an appropriate angle to the track there is a realistic track layout. The hillside that is within the tunnel portal itself can be worked a bit back to the rear, and then colored with an appropriate texture. I use the pure black HOG texture, HOG 69, I believe. This will not work if you are into sitting in the train in tunnels, of course.

There may be hope. TrainzItalia is ready to release their version of the Donner Pass route. This will include a raft of custom assets. Since this route features miles of tunnels and snowsheds, it is possible that many of these problems have been addressed. I am looking forward to it.

Bernie

 

[ray_whiley]

I have uploaded some splines to the DLS for hiding missing bits of the baseboard when using digholes - look for 'Ground texture spline...' (KUID 275817 ...). These splines are for earth,grass, paving, and tarmac. There are also some slabs - look, for example, for '10m slab grass', etc -these are sized to cover one 10m square hole.

Ray

 

[Vern]

As I see it the problems are twofold.

If you use the original tunnels these can only be laid to certain angles and most look unrealistic. Changing the config is all very well for your personal use, but of no benefit unless end users can access the amended item.

If you go for the dighole system, either using track with a built in tunnel wall or adding a separate spline to the portal attachment points (as in the UK tunnel system), the holes needed to open the terrain curtain through the tunnel are far too big and hard to cover up. Depending on where the tunnel mouth lies you may need to dighole two or even three terrain mesh squares which leaves a yawning gap round the outside.

I have actually abandonded WIP routes in Trainz (including a recent attempt to start the East Lancs) entirely because I have not been able to get the tunnels right. Either there are two many digholes required or lowering the terrain as far as possible over the top of the tunnel to flatten the dighole overspill, has left an unrealistic looking landscape.

What's needed is for N3V to entirely re-work how tunnels are made in the sim. This has been an ongoing request from Day 1 of Trainz CE in 2001, but seems to defy the technological capabilities of the programme, hence why we got the dighole system. What's needed is a resizeable dighole system, similar to the tunnel decals which are used in Railworks, which can be matched to the size needed just to take away the terrain curtain in the tunnel mouth and not keyed to the actual grid.

 

[jordon412]

I would like to see some sort of dig hole that will use the new features of Trainz 2010 and Trainz 12: the option of using 5 meters to make changes to terrain or the origional 10 meters. The 5 meters allow for sharper angles in the terrain. For example, if you have a piece of track that's holding onto the side of a mountain (there's a well-photographed example of this on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad), setting the terrain for 5 meters, you will get a ledge that isn't as wide as one you would get if you set the terrain to use the original 10 meters. Anyway, if someone could make some sort of dig hole that would use the 5 meter squares (the small squares inside the box with yellow lines in Surveyor), you could get the holes to be smaller, resulting in possibly of not having to make as much terrain changes like you have to do with other dig holes. I know that whenever you change the terrain of a route that was made with the terrain set for 10 meters, changing the terrain to 5 meters will result with some strange changes in the shape of the terrain. If someone could figure out a way to use a dighole that uses the 5 meter grid terrain feature in a area less than the size of a baseboard while the entire route is set to use 10 meter grid terrain which (I'm typing this while a show about the Salem 'Which' (I meam witch) Trials is in on the Television) is, so far impossible, it would be very helpful.

 

[ray_whiley]

My apologies - although the ground texture splines mentioned above are on the DLS, I see that I have not yet uploaded the slabs but will do so soon. I have found both of these types of assets useful for masking unwanted bits of digholes when laying tunnels which are not confined to basic angles.

Ray