HOG Textures in Trainz 2012

[bbreslow]

I have been using the Wewain tutorial on Microdem and Hog and have finally figured out Microdem. My question is in regard to the first step in using Hog. The tutorial says the following:

"Unzip the "textures.zip" file, that's in "presets" sub-folder of your "HOG" folder, into a new folder named "ground" and move that folder into your "C:/Program Files/Auran/TRS2004/World/Custom" folder.

How do I handle this in TRS 2012? Any help would be appreciated.

Barry

 

[clam1952]

Unzip the file and use CM's Import content and select the folder you unzipped the hog textures to. They are on the DLS by the way, just search Hog in CM.

 

[Jerker]

G'day bbreslow,

...before you get too carried away, there, Barry, I have just checked and ALL of the HOG textures are shown as being 'built-in" (using their original KUID:9 values - albeit as KUID:-9 values) in TS 2010, which means they should already be installed as "built-in" in TS 2012...

Jerker {}

 

[bbreslow]

They weren't part of the default installation Jerker, but I was able to find them on the DLS and get them installed without a problem. Now, I have a new issue. I created the GND file with Hog, but because the directory structure of TS2012 has changed so much since the tutorial was written, I am now stumped as to where the heck to put the new GND file. I created a new route in Surveyor called Hog Test, named the GND file during creation with the same name, but now can't figure out which of the user directories has the correct mapfile.gnd I need to replace. Any suggestions?

I know getting TransDem would make this process much easier, but at this point, I now need to make this work as a matter of principal. I've spent way too much time this afternoon and evening trying to figure it out.

Barry

 

[clam1952]

They weren't part of the default installation Jerker, but I was able to find them on the DLS and get them installed without a problem. Now, I have a new issue. I created the GND file with Hog, but because the directory structure of TS2012 has changed so much since the tutorial was written, I am now stumped as to where the heck to put the new GND file. I created a new route in Surveyor called Hog Test, named the GND file during creation with the same name, but now can't figure out which of the user directories has the correct mapfile.gnd I need to replace. Any suggestions?

I know getting TransDem would make this process much easier, but at this point, I now need to make this work as a matter of principal. I've spent way too much time this afternoon and evening trying to figure it out.

Barry

Name must always be mapfile.gnd in 2009 upwards it won't accept any other name. Or put another way do NOT rename the mapfile.gnd created by HOG.

Create new route in surveyor, save, open for edit in Content manager, copy the mapfile.gnd file into the open folder replacing the existing mapfile.gnd and commit, job done.

There are no user folders you can work on for routes or assets other than opening for edit in content manager as they are stored in a compressed format.

 

[bbreslow]

Thanks Malc, that worked but for some reason the environment was night when I opened the route back up, and none of the elevation or tiger data was visible. I'm thinking I messed up something during the creation of the new mapfile. Off to try again.

Barry

 

[clam1952]

Just need to change the time in the environmental settings.

 

[bbreslow]

Here's a quick update on my progress. Unless I'm missing an important step in MicroDem, I can't get the new mapfile.gnd to load when I open the route in TS 2012. I went in to CM, chose the My Content tab, right clicked on the new route. I chose Edit, Open in Explorer. Deleted the original mapfile.gnd and copied the Hog created mapfile.gnd into the folder. Right clicked on the route again in CM, chose Commit. The edit icon greyed out. Launched Trainz 2012, highlighted the route, clicked Edit Route.

When the route loads, everything is black. If I change my view to board level looking horizontal to the board I have a starry sky. I changed the environment to reset the colors and I get a cloudy sky, light blue board, but nothing else. Chose the Get Height tool for getting height of land and everything is 0. No elevation data.

I'm kinda stuck. Gonna try just elevaion data later tonight to see if I can at least get that to show up. Help

Barry

 

[clam1952]

Just to check, you don't need to do the feet to metres conversion in microdem as it is now in metres, doing the conversion leaves you with a virtually flat terrain.

Also did you edit the textures.txt file in HOG? that can cause colour problems should read.

9:21064 255,0,0
9:21065 0,0,255
9:21066 255,0,255
9:21067 0,255,255
9:21068 0,128,128
9:21069 0,0,0
9:21070 160,0,0
9:21071 90,0,0
-1:-1 255,255,255

 

[bbreslow]

Just checked the textures.txt file in the Hog directory and it reads just as yours does. Didn't do the conversion either as I had noticed it was already metric. Could my issue be with the minimum and maximum heights I enter in Hog? The tutorial said enter minimum and max but Hog has base height and maximum height. Do I enter the minimum height from the elevation histogram into the base height field in hog? I'm grasping at straws since I'm pretty sure I've followed the procedure correctly.

Barry

 

[clam1952]

Take the height from the info button on the menu bar once you have your final image in Microdem. That's the z range usually 0 to xxx m unless you have any lower than sea level bits.

 

[geophil]

When the route loads, everything is black.

Does the mini-map work? If yes, you are probably suffering from the "hardware texture compression" trap. Switch this option off in Content Manager and re-import the HOG textures. That won't solve the elevation problem, though.

 

[bbreslow]

Home from work and making yet another attempt. First thing I did was delete the Hog textures from Local using CM and imported them from the zipfile that came with Hog. Received warnings that they referenced an unsupported version of Trainz and such. Created a new mapfile using Hog and copied it into my empty route through CM. Same problem. Black to start, reset colors in environment and get sky and pale blue baseboard but no grid, no elevations, nothing.

I created a new mapfile with Hog, but this time did not bother with the Tiger data, only the elevation map. Lo and behold, when I reloaded the route, I had elevations on the map boards. I do have some smoothing to do but I gather from other forum posts this is common.

Now the challenge is to figure out what is preventing Trainz from seeing the Tiger data. It appears to me that in the new versions of MicroDem, the only way to load the Tiger data on the elevation map is to open it as vector data. Is it possible that is what's causing the issue? I'm thinking that's not it, but still grasping at straws here.

Update on where I'm now at. I added the Tiger data one option at a time and it looks like the problem is the last option, "Optional image to serve as guide for layout filtering." So, at the moment, unless I figure out why this is messing me up, I'll have to manually delete boards instead of letting Hog set it up for me. Looks like everything else is working though.

Thanks to everyone for the help and hints.

Barry

 

[Giuvkan]

Home from work and making yet another attempt. First thing I did was delete the Hog textures from Local using CM and imported them from the zipfile that came with Hog. Received warnings that they referenced an unsupported version of Trainz and such. Created a new mapfile using Hog and copied it into my empty route through CM. Same problem. Black to start, reset colors in environment and get sky and pale blue baseboard but no grid, no elevations, nothing.

I created a new mapfile with Hog, but this time did not bother with the Tiger data, only the elevation map. Lo and behold, when I reloaded the route, I had elevations on the map boards. I do have some smoothing to do but I gather from other forum posts this is common.

Now the challenge is to figure out what is preventing Trainz from seeing the Tiger data. It appears to me that in the new versions of MicroDem, the only way to load the Tiger data on the elevation map is to open it as vector data. Is it possible that is what's causing the issue? I'm thinking that's not it, but still grasping at straws here.

Update on where I'm now at. I added the Tiger data one option at a time and it looks like the problem is the last option, "Optional image to serve as guide for layout filtering." So, at the moment, unless I figure out why this is messing me up, I'll have to manually delete boards instead of letting Hog set it up for me. Looks like everything else is working though.

Thanks to everyone for the help and hints.

Barry

"
Thank you, man, I did it, how you wrote above, but I put tiger map into HOG "Optional image to server as layout texturing guide" field, now I can see even tiger map on my terain in Trainz 2012 editor.