It's been a while... a bunch of [probably simple] questions

[tirediron]

Hi folks... it's been a while since I've been active in Trainz; in fact really not since the very first iterations of the game. I've recently purchased 2019, and have gotten back into it, and there have been some amazing changes. I'm not sure what the etiquette is here, so if I'm doing it wrong, please let me know. I have several random questions that I'm hoping folks can help me with. In no special order:

1. Silver/Gold tickets. If I purchase a silver/gold ticket does that mean that as part of that, I can download the premium/paid content at no additional cost? Most of it seems to say, "Included in silver/gold tickets", and if that's the case, it makes the cost of the ticket an absolute bargain.

2. Adjusting the height of objects: Is there a way to set an exact height for a given object that will place it on the visible surface? I was trying to place fire hydrants on a sidewalk and because of the various textures, etc, the default position is slightly above the sidewalk. If I use the 'Adjust Object Height' tool, it seems to only allow me to have the object almost totally buried, which isn't ideal.

3. I'm looking for a good track-laying tutorial; there are a million YouTube videos, and I've looked at a lot of them, and each one has bits and pieces that help; are there any that are considered 'Go to' for T2019?

4. I'm having an issue with the placement/direction of locomotives in Surveyor. I set up them up as I want them, in the correct direction and with steam locomotives' tenders correctly oriented etc, it's fine: http://www.johnsphotography.ca/hold/Temp3/Trainz_Loco_Direction_Corret.jpg

But when I re-open Surveyor, things are all messed up. Locos are pointing the wrong way (Note the pair of SD90s foreground and the NKP Berkshire at the coaling tower). I assume this relates to the red and green arrows (Yellow circle), but I can't for the life of me figure out how to resolve this: http://www.johnsphotography.ca/hold/Temp3/Trainz_Loco_Direction_As_opened.jpg

Thanks in advance for any assistance, and if there's a forum--appropriate way to do this, please let me know.



Edit: Images aren't permitted? Hopefully the links show up

 

[jordon412]

Hi folks... it's been a while since I've been active in Trainz; in fact really not since the very first iterations of the game. I've recently purchased 2019, and have gotten back into it, and there have been some amazing changes. I'm not sure what the etiquette is here, so if I'm doing it wrong, please let me know. I have several random questions that I'm hoping folks can help me with. In no special order:

1. Silver/Gold tickets. If I purchase a silver/gold ticket does that mean that as part of that, I can download the premium/paid content at no additional cost? Most of it seems to say, "Included in silver/gold tickets", and if that's the case, it makes the cost of the ticket an absolute bargain.

2. Adjusting the height of objects: Is there a way to set an exact height for a given object that will place it on the visible surface? I was trying to place fire hydrants on a sidewalk and because of the various textures, etc, the default position is slightly above the sidewalk. If I use the 'Adjust Object Height' tool, it seems to only allow me to have the object almost totally buried, which isn't ideal.

3. I'm looking for a good track-laying tutorial; there are a million YouTube videos, and I've looked at a lot of them, and each one has bits and pieces that help; are there any that are considered 'Go to' for T2019?

4. I'm having an issue with the placement/direction of locomotives in Surveyor. I set up them up as I want them, in the correct direction and with steam locomotives' tenders correctly oriented etc, it's fine: http://www.johnsphotography.ca/hold/Temp3/Trainz_Loco_Direction_Corret.jpg

But when I re-open Surveyor, things are all messed up. Locos are pointing the wrong way (Note the pair of SD90s foreground and the NKP Berkshire at the coaling tower). I assume this relates to the red and green arrows (Yellow circle), but I can't for the life of me figure out how to resolve this: http://www.johnsphotography.ca/hold/Temp3/Trainz_Loco_Direction_As_opened.jpg

Thanks in advance for any assistance, and if there's a forum--appropriate way to do this, please let me know.



Edit: Images aren't permitted? Hopefully the links show up

I can't answer all your questions, but I can answer a few:
2. Holding the Shift key while raising or lowering an object will raise or lower the object by .05 meters instead of by 1 meter. Holding the Control key while raising or lowering an object will raise or lower the object by .1 meters instead of 1 meter.

3. I use olegkhim's crossovers, yard ladders, and switches to make my switches. These are fixed pieces of track that require invisible track connected at three points to make the switch activate. This is the type of track used on all Eastern European routes, and they also use Russian Gauge, so they're slightly wider than standard gauge. I connect the three points with invisible track, like I would do in Trainz 12, then delete the switch, then replace the invisible track with procedural track (spline-type track that makes animated points, frogs and checkrails at junctions. These are only available in TANE and Trainz 2019, with PBR textures supported in Trainz 2019 and onward). I also use frogpipe's switch templates to make other sized switches. Look up olegkhim and frogpipe on the Download Station (DLS). There are also switch templates made by _mutton_ and natvander on the DLS.

4. This is a known problem with the recent release of TRS19 SP4. It is being worked on by N3V.

As for images, use the Print Screen key to take a screenshot, then upload it to the Trainz Gallery. From there, you can insert the picture on the Forums.

 

[pware]

Welcome back.

My understandings on your questions are:-

1. Silver/Gold tickets. If I purchase a silver/gold ticket does that mean that as part of that, I can download the premium/paid content at no additional cost? Most of it seems to say, "Included in silver/gold tickets", and if that's the case, it makes the cost of the ticket an absolute bargain.

Since you already gave TRS19 you won't need to get the Gold which includes a subscription to Trainz Plus (next level up from TRS19) in the subscription price. Silver would be the best option for those who already have TRS19. From my understanding you get immediate access to all new DLC items (non Gold/Silver members have to wait) and 10% off all items including those already on sale (there are some free items but I don't know how many), plus other benefits - see Subscriptions for more details.

2. Adjusting the height of objects: Is there a way to set an exact height for a given object that will place it on the visible surface? I was trying to place fire hydrants on a sidewalk and because of the various textures, etc, the default position is slightly above the sidewalk. If I use the 'Adjust Object Height' tool, it seems to only allow me to have the object almost totally buried, which isn't ideal.

Height adjustment modifiers are the Ctrl and Shift keys when raising or lowering assets - holding down the Ctrl key with the tool makes adjustments in steps of 10cm (0.1m).

3. I'm looking for a good track-laying tutorial; there are a million YouTube videos, and I've looked at a lot of them, and each one has bits and pieces that help; are there any that are considered 'Go to' for T2019?

Can't help you there. I have my own tried and true practices as do others. The best one-stop source of information on a whole range of Trainz matters is the Trainz Wiki at https://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/HowTo

4. I'm having an issue with the placement/direction of locomotives in Surveyor. I set up them up as I want them, in the correct direction and with steam locomotives' tenders correctly oriented etc, it's fine:

This is a known issue although I have not experienced it myself. There is a bug fix on its way - the latest newsletter from N3V indicated that it will be released QUOTE "We'll have a new update in the coming weeks for TRS19 to fix a range of issues including crashes when using the new Monterey OS (Mac users) and derailments at session start."

Edit: Images aren't permitted? Hopefully the links show up

Images can be posted using free image hosting services. I use PostImages but there are others. You can also post them in the Trainz Gallery.

 

[tirediron]

Outstanding folks, thank-you very much for the detailed replies; that solves my immediate questions; I'll doubtless have a ton more.

Image test:



Edit: Hmmm... apparently something about images hosted on my website that the forum doesn't like. Oh well....

Edit2: I'm not allowed to post attachments... huh. Weird.

 

[1611mac]

Just as info... I use images posted to my site all the time. I just make sure they low res (72 dpi) and not too large (1200 ppi wide max). I also use "ImageOptim" to optimize all pics posted to website. Just upload the pic to your site and use the proper url and it should work. No need to use image hosting if you have your own website.

 

[tirediron]

Thanks - for some reason, now the images are showing up, even though I'm still not allowed to post attachments...

 

[JCitron]

Thanks - for some reason, now the images are showing up, even though I'm still not allowed to post attachments...

Welcome back!

It depends upon the size of the images. Try something small first and see if that works. I think the max is about 1.5MB.

If you use an outside source, you need to copy the share-links for forums. [image/---path here---[/image] (The stuff in the [ ] is in caps, but I'm using the lower case so not to confuse the forums).

I noticed you have Platinum edition. With this comes the Universal Driver-Surveyor interface, or UDS for short. This will allow you to switch between Driver and Surveyor, or vice versa in real time. There is no need to stop, go to the menu and switch to the session to drive. This is a bit quirky, but it works great in development when you need to check signals, track marks, and setups. Keep in mind that some things changed in Driver may not appear in Surveyor. To ensure that the changes are made, save route and do not save session when saving, unless you have no choice. Using my example above, I don't save anything in Driver and return back to Surveyor since I used Driver only for testing.

There is one thing to mention here. Both Surveyor and Driver work in a paused mode when using this and you need to un-pause to activate some assets such as some signals, crossings, etc., so don't panic if you don't see traffic moving and don't hear sounds in Surveyor.

In general, there's a host of things that have remained the same, yet at the same time there's a whole new set of goodies such as procedural switches and track, meaning we have real points that move and frogs on the junctions without resorting to fixed-track junctions. There's also elevation settings for super-elevation, and track condition. This is a bit awkward to use, but it's doable. The upcoming Surveyor 2.0, will have some more automation for this among other things. I recommend you read the post about it by Tony Hilliam in the Surveyor forum. With TRS2019, we also have Turf-FX, meaning procedural grass and objects, that can be used in place of splines. The grass is really nice, but it's easy to go overboard with that. We now have layers, which can be both a blessing and a curse, but they're great for locking items when placing others nearby such as items on a loading dock.

Content Manager may look a bit overwhelming, but in reality it's pretty easy to use. The good news is you can setup new windows and sort data a bit more easily. I do recommend adding all the columns by right-clicking on a column and checking a box next to a category. You need to repeat this to add the columns. You can then resize and arrange these however you want. By adding the different columns, you'll find it much easier to sort and find content.

Anyway, poke around, break things (not really!), and come back with more questions.

 

[tirediron]

Welcome back!...

I noticed you have Platinum edition. With this comes the Universal Driver-Surveyor interface, or UDS for short. This will allow you to switch between Driver and Surveyor, or vice versa in real time. There is no need to stop, go to the menu and switch to the session to drive. This is a bit quirky, but it works great in development when you need to check signals, track marks, and setups. Keep in mind that some things changed in Driver may not appear in Surveyor. To ensure that the changes are made, save route and do not save session when saving, unless you have no choice. Using my example above, I don't save anything in Driver and return back to Surveyor since I used Driver only for testing.

There is one thing to mention here. Both Surveyor and Driver work in a paused mode when using this and you need to un-pause to activate some assets such as some signals, crossings, etc., so don't panic if you don't see traffic moving and don't hear sounds in Surveyor.

In general, there's a host of things that have remained the same, yet at the same time there's a whole new set of goodies such as procedural switches and track, meaning we have real points that move and frogs on the junctions without resorting to fixed-track junctions. There's also elevation settings for super-elevation, and track condition. This is a bit awkward to use, but it's doable. The upcoming Surveyor 2.0, will have some more automation for this among other things. I recommend you read the post about it by Tony Hilliam in the Surveyor forum. With TRS2019, we also have Turf-FX, meaning procedural grass and objects, that can be used in place of splines. The grass is really nice, but it's easy to go overboard with that. We now have layers, which can be both a blessing and a curse, but they're great for locking items when placing others nearby such as items on a loading dock.

Content Manager may look a bit overwhelming, but in reality it's pretty easy to use. The good news is you can setup new windows and sort data a bit more easily. I do recommend adding all the columns by right-clicking on a column and checking a box next to a category. You need to repeat this to add the columns. You can then resize and arrange these however you want. By adding the different columns, you'll find it much easier to sort and find content.

Anyway, poke around, break things (not really!), and come back with more questions.

Great information, thanks very much. I was totally unaware of the UDS feature, will have to scratch on that this evening!