Idiots guide to converting routes from maps to Trainz
- Thread starter theedge2k
- Start date
cascaderailroad
New member
?
If you see mountains and gray baseboards with yellow gridwork...it is ready for laying of track, and stuff.
If you can not see: Red, Blue, Aqua, Black lines...then you need to download Hog textures...Guarc has them in 2004 & 2006
Importing them, and commiting them into the DLH is the key !
If you see mountains and gray baseboards with yellow gridwork...it is ready for laying of track, and stuff.
If you can not see: Red, Blue, Aqua, Black lines...then you need to download Hog textures...Guarc has them in 2004 & 2006
Importing them, and commiting them into the DLH is the key !
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The different colored lines:
Light Blue - railway
Dark Blue - rivers
Red - roads. (Careful, long very straight reds can be high voltage electricity grid)
Black - political boundaries. Not on every map.
The 'TIGER' data used to generate the lines is not particularly accurate, use it as a rough guide only. Fortunately railways often follow river valleys, so remember the river will always be in the bottom of the valley, so if the river is 50 meters up the left hand hillside, the rail will be offset to the same extent...
Not so much an 'idiot's guide', but just a description of how one particular idiot does it can be found if you scroll to the bottom of this page.
Andy
Light Blue - railway
Dark Blue - rivers
Red - roads. (Careful, long very straight reds can be high voltage electricity grid)
Black - political boundaries. Not on every map.
The 'TIGER' data used to generate the lines is not particularly accurate, use it as a rough guide only. Fortunately railways often follow river valleys, so remember the river will always be in the bottom of the valley, so if the river is 50 meters up the left hand hillside, the rail will be offset to the same extent...
Not so much an 'idiot's guide', but just a description of how one particular idiot does it can be found if you scroll to the bottom of this page.
Andy
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Match the area with pictures from Google Earth to get an idea of what it really looks like compared to the colored lines. I have been working on fishlips "MILW Tacoma to Maple Valley" line. I have found that a lot of the rail line (light blue) include some of the new and some abandon line.
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Either scrap it all and just download OPR's, or start laying track and road where the colored lines indicate.
cascaderailroad
New member
?
I DEM gives you a approximate, general idea, of where the roads, track, and rivers are to be placed. They are generally off by + / - 20' in any of 6 directions X-Y-Z. Gradients can be rediculously way off, and simply hitting the smooth spline tool is not enough. On My Horseshoe Curve route I found that generally a 1.8% grade, from Wilkes Curve to Tunnelhill, for 11 miles achived the right height results at the summit of the mountain. A DEM simplifies terrain creation by 1 million fold, but also makes gradient construction a nightmare. An ungraded DEM gradients, resembles a rollercoaster. A huge DEM may take you a year to complete, where as a flat baseboard route could take you forever to make the prototypical terrain. And hand crafting your own terrain could produce rediculously jagged, pointy, mountains only found in the Swiss Alps; in Altoona PA. lol
Also laying track on a DEM is made easier by changing your Trainsoptions file, by adding the line: -surveyorfov=35
And temporarily changing the line to: -surveyorfov=185 gives you a super-wide angle, distorted view. This wide angle view is also great for manipulating basemaps. Changing it back to any low number you wish, (I prefer @ 35) the Trainzoptions file is a handy dandy tool. Keep a log book of things you change...so you can re-edit them back to the original settings.
Lay your track only with the intended flow of traffic (EB, WB) dirrection.
The technique of laying track by using the "Hold Shift" key...is anther cool tool that you will find eternally useful !
Using G Fishers-"PRR Track Guide" will help you achive tight, proper, prototypical, track center, to track center spacing.
You get...what, you pay for !
I DEM gives you a approximate, general idea, of where the roads, track, and rivers are to be placed. They are generally off by + / - 20' in any of 6 directions X-Y-Z. Gradients can be rediculously way off, and simply hitting the smooth spline tool is not enough. On My Horseshoe Curve route I found that generally a 1.8% grade, from Wilkes Curve to Tunnelhill, for 11 miles achived the right height results at the summit of the mountain. A DEM simplifies terrain creation by 1 million fold, but also makes gradient construction a nightmare. An ungraded DEM gradients, resembles a rollercoaster. A huge DEM may take you a year to complete, where as a flat baseboard route could take you forever to make the prototypical terrain. And hand crafting your own terrain could produce rediculously jagged, pointy, mountains only found in the Swiss Alps; in Altoona PA. lol
Also laying track on a DEM is made easier by changing your Trainsoptions file, by adding the line: -surveyorfov=35
And temporarily changing the line to: -surveyorfov=185 gives you a super-wide angle, distorted view. This wide angle view is also great for manipulating basemaps. Changing it back to any low number you wish, (I prefer @ 35) the Trainzoptions file is a handy dandy tool. Keep a log book of things you change...so you can re-edit them back to the original settings.
Lay your track only with the intended flow of traffic (EB, WB) dirrection.
The technique of laying track by using the "Hold Shift" key...is anther cool tool that you will find eternally useful !
Using G Fishers-"PRR Track Guide" will help you achive tight, proper, prototypical, track center, to track center spacing.
You get...what, you pay for !
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Hot_Box_Detector
Member
Is it available ?
If you know the route you need... is it or, any part of it, available on the Auran DownLoad Station? If it is, then you could add to it or modify it, or MERGE it with other pieces that may be available to create what you're looking for. I'm talking about routes that are already populated with tracks, scenery, etc...
What you have there is a bunch of RAW baseboards created using a third party program and then imported into Trainz. If you don't see any colored lines, then, as stated above, you need to download the HOG textures.
At this point you should see the colored lines somewhere on the route.
As stated, it could take you a year or more starting from where you are. I would suggest trying a smaller route, lay some track, textures, etc... until you get the hang of it. Building from scratch is a long tedious process...
look here for some tutorials: http://www.virtualrailroader.com/basic_trainz.html
Going way back... you could look here for some tutorials : http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wewain/trainz/homepage.htm
or here, http://www.worldoftrainz.com/Pages/Tutorials.htm for Phil C's tutorials, but they are mostly for content creation.
If you know the route you need... is it or, any part of it, available on the Auran DownLoad Station? If it is, then you could add to it or modify it, or MERGE it with other pieces that may be available to create what you're looking for. I'm talking about routes that are already populated with tracks, scenery, etc...
What you have there is a bunch of RAW baseboards created using a third party program and then imported into Trainz. If you don't see any colored lines, then, as stated above, you need to download the HOG textures.
At this point you should see the colored lines somewhere on the route.
As stated, it could take you a year or more starting from where you are. I would suggest trying a smaller route, lay some track, textures, etc... until you get the hang of it. Building from scratch is a long tedious process...
look here for some tutorials: http://www.virtualrailroader.com/basic_trainz.html
Going way back... you could look here for some tutorials : http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wewain/trainz/homepage.htm
or here, http://www.worldoftrainz.com/Pages/Tutorials.htm for Phil C's tutorials, but they are mostly for content creation.
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cascaderailroad
New member
Hog Textures
You need to download the HOG Textures , and commit them...Gaurc has them in both 2004 & 2006 versions
and real cool videos, and a sign up for the Gaurc auto mailing list. R Goodell is a cool guy !
http://www.gaurc.us/index_files/software.htm
Halfway down the page is a zip file, that you save, and un-zip, and run, and import into Trainz, and commit all 72 colors, ...although you really only need about 6 of the texture colors in the 60's and 70's, the rest are un-used, and can be selectively deleted in "Open in Explorer".
If you don't have HOG Textures downloaded, imported, and commited, no colored lines will ever show up on a HOG DEM.
You need to download the HOG Textures , and commit them...Gaurc has them in both 2004 & 2006 versions
and real cool videos, and a sign up for the Gaurc auto mailing list. R Goodell is a cool guy ! http://www.gaurc.us/index_files/software.htm
Halfway down the page is a zip file, that you save, and un-zip, and run, and import into Trainz, and commit all 72 colors, ...although you really only need about 6 of the texture colors in the 60's and 70's, the rest are un-used, and can be selectively deleted in "Open in Explorer".
If you don't have HOG Textures downloaded, imported, and commited, no colored lines will ever show up on a HOG DEM.
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cascaderailroad
New member
Hog/Fishlipsatwork
Hog is a zip file, that must be opened, it contains 72 texture files that must be imported into Trainz, and commited.
Fishlipsatwork routes must be comitted also
Hog is a zip file, that must be opened, it contains 72 texture files that must be imported into Trainz, and commited.
Fishlipsatwork routes must be comitted also
cascaderailroad
New member
Whee..RTG
Ready To Go ?
If the route shows up in Trainz surveyor...you are ready to lay track...do you see Red, Blue, Green, Black colored Hog lines on the baseboard gridwork ?
Ready To Go ?
If the route shows up in Trainz surveyor...you are ready to lay track...do you see Red, Blue, Green, Black colored Hog lines on the baseboard gridwork ?
G'day theedge2k,
If you have no success downloading the HOG texture files from Gaurc, then try this link...
http://www.storage.victrainz.com.au/Jerkers_DEM_maps/HOG_Texture_set.cdphttp://www.storage.victrainz.com.au/Jerkers_DEM_maps/HOG_Texture_Set.cdp
...which provides the textures in a 'ready to use' *.cdp format that makes installing them a little easier for those not so "computer literate".
By the way, you don't need to download and install the whole HOG file, to get the TIGER lines provided with Fishlipsatwork's terrains to show, you only need the HOG Texture Set...
Jerker {}
If you have no success downloading the HOG texture files from Gaurc, then try this link...
http://www.storage.victrainz.com.au/Jerkers_DEM_maps/HOG_Texture_set.cdphttp://www.storage.victrainz.com.au/Jerkers_DEM_maps/HOG_Texture_Set.cdp
...which provides the textures in a 'ready to use' *.cdp format that makes installing them a little easier for those not so "computer literate".
By the way, you don't need to download and install the whole HOG file, to get the TIGER lines provided with Fishlipsatwork's terrains to show, you only need the HOG Texture Set...
Jerker {
}After commit the route in CMP it does not show up in TRS2006.Ok Jerker, I will go to that web site. Like i said i got the CDP and i installed Hog. but like i said above nothing is showing up in TRS2006. Ok i have downloaded the og Texture Set CDP. Now what sir?
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