Make your roads look better

[davesnow]

I will try to add a small "tip" to route makers here. I know this will probably look so very simple to a lot of veteran route makers, but I think some will appreciate my "tip" no matter how small.

Roads will look better if you add a bit of color on the shoulder. Look at this shot of a road with no shoulder color:

Now compare it to this screenshot of a road with a bit of gravel added to both sides of the road. I don't know about the rest of you, but the color looks more realistic to me.

I sincerely hope this tip isn't too elementary. Just trying to help any way I can.

 

[backyard]

...It's a good start...

8) Thanks Dave, don't expect, suggest.

Sometimes in route building, we concentrate on our strengths.

Mine, is track and signal.

And, my weakness, is scenery...I'm no artist, and after all, we are painting a picture...I can imitate, but not create from scratch.

As long as the texture used is native to the rest of the route, frame rates are not affected, as much as if you added a new texture for the program to render.

But like someone else posted in another thread...we can always take a route, and improve where we think it needs it. I do this with any route I run...sometimes.

 

[jytte]

and a great tip it is...

I for one am very grateful for any advice offered!

And you're so right, it makes a big difference. I always line my tracks with gravel to make them look nice, so why didn't I think of doing it to the roads too? Well, now I will.

Thanks


PS: by the way, those are very nice pictures! Are they from a route you created? And if so, is that one available on DLS? And if it is, what name should I be looking for?
(sorry for all these silly questions in this thread)

 

[bl4882]

The elementary things are the most important ones.

I'm going to file this idea away for future use. Thanks.

Bernie

 

[davesnow]

I for one am very grateful for any advice offered!

And you're so right, it makes a big difference. I always line my tracks with gravel to make them look nice, so why didn't I think of doing it to the roads too? Well, now I will.

Thanks


PS: by the way, those are very nice pictures! Are they from a route you created? And if so, is that one available on DLS? And if it is, what name should I be looking for?
(sorry for all these silly questions in this thread)

This screenshot is only a one-board scene I created in about 15-20 minutes to illustrate my tip. And no question is silly!

 

[shikadi]

A very good piece of advice, stuff like that makes a huge difference.

 

[jost62]

Great and simple idea = brilliant.
I tried something similar with splines that can be placed beside streets (have a look down to "my content" - "StreetBorder3Colors", but your suggestion looks even better and certainly is more performance-friendly.
Great.

 

[davesnow]

Also... when you place color around (under) your streets and roads, they'll show up in MAP VIEW.

 

[lewisner]

You should have put this in the "Tips And Tricks -Surveyor" thread.Its also a good idea when doing ploughed fields to rotate the Texture through 90 degrees so that it follows the line of the fence as it would in real life.Nice pix.

 

[jytte]

another good idea by the way...

Also... when you place color around (under) your streets and roads, they'll show up in MAP VIEW.

Actually, there's one trick that I have used, and would like to point out to others. I needed to run a river through my landscape, a very long one, and it's very difficult to see where you're going over long distances, so I keep the mini-map up as well, then paint a line (while keeping an eye on the minimap to keep the big picture of where I'm going), and then I can form my river along the painted line. Works like a charm!

 

[brownie82]

Yes very good tip there Davesnow, I Do little things like that from time to time. Also in the photos you gave looked llike a rural setting which would benifit greatly from small touches like that.

Good work,

Brownie