Making a continous suburban sprawl in Trainz??

colhad

QR Clyde/GMs
Hi folks, I have posted shots in the "Australian Screenshots" thread in the screenshot forums.

The main point of this thread is to ask how to make a continous surbuban sprawl as they are in real life. The problem with this in Trainz is FPS.

What's an effective way to make a suburban line and make it appear to be very populated right up and into the main city??
 
I expect you will get better answers but I got here first so:

Backdrops will help. Perhaps keep stuff more than a block from the tracks simple as in low poly count.

You may want to avoid grass and such away from the tracks.

I has spoken.:cool:
 
Try something like my terrace building kits. Low poly, lod and you get lots of repetition of the parts. Bob Sanders (Bobsanders) has done a number of textures butthey may not be appropiate for non UK, easy to reskin though.

Cheerio John
 
The low poly NZ Houses look good, as do many of DMDrake's 2-D buildings. These can be placed along the tracks with view blocks so you can avoid placing objects farther back.
And, yes, I'd avoid grass as much as possible, keep the roads and water as short as possible so the program doesn't have to calculate the whole length at once, things like that.

If only I could follow my own advice, rather than going wild all the time.:p

:cool: Claude
 
Try using textures to represent roads (not close ones, but ones behind buildings etc). Also dreddman's 'house' splines, there's a few on the DLS...

Efficient use of track - 16 m in straighter sections etc.

Also the least number of DIFFERENT objects used the better, so if you use a variety of 10 different buildings, five times each, that's better than the equivalent of using 50 Different buildings. If there's a good pattern / varied placement you shouldn't realise you've driven past the same pub 6 times. :)

The more 'interactive' industries, the worse the FPS - But I've found Andi06's most recent Stations are very effective, and have such great scripts too.

Also be selective with the content you use - it's no secret some content (particularly 3rd party content) is just not made as efficiently as others. This is one of the advantages of Payware, usually, it's made quite well (efficiently, good performance). Now it would cost another mortgage to make an entire route's content payware, but y'know what I mean, look for the better-made stuff to be used. :)

Edit - oh yeah and trees, splines are probably not the way to go, FPS killers. Groups are good, as is placing lots of the SAME type of tree. Each tree in a forest being different would make terrible performance, so perhaps rotating trees and tree groups to make them appear different is the go. Once again, different content can be made more cleverly than others, performance-wise.

Alex
 
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Thanks to all, these suggestions have been helpful.

I have used a lot of different buildings, but I will re-use them as I progress.
 
What alexs242081 says is spot on. In addition, watch the file size of the scenery items you use as well as trying to repeat where you can - this will reduce the time spent loading assets (caching) as you drive through the route. It also makes downloading all the dependencies less daunting should you decide to upload. :eek:

What other techniques you use depends on the locality you are representing. I'm working on a big UK urban route (mostly tramways, but with some heavy rail), so I have some experience in that respect, but what might work for a British route might not work so well in the rest of the world. Even so, the following should mostly apply (but take it with a grain of salt - I'm a detail junkie, and my new route CRAWLS on my machine!)

  • Only build what can be seen from the train or trackside locations.
  • Low poly/low detail items in the background and repeat background items more (rotating them to show another side sometimes helps).
  • Repeat scenery items where you can.
  • Use a minimum number of textures, at one scale and without rotating (if you can). I find that using small patches of suitable textures is often better than rotating.
  • Use modest line speeds.
  • Use low poly trees and repeat them where you can. Most towns have more trees than you realise, so leaving them out completely would be a shame.
  • All the advice from everyone else.
  • Traffic - do you need it, or would a handful of stationary vehicles at level crossings do as well?
  • Chunky mesh track (or at least use long versions on straights).
  • Avoid bridges and viaducts - you can see further, and therefore you'll need to build more scenery to get it to look right. If you must have viaducts, use taller buildings to obstruct the view.
  • If you need to reduce detail in an area because your frame rates are already taking a dive, consider using large, simple buildings (less polys per square meter).

Paul
 
Colin

I think it was Weevil who made some objects which were groups of suburban roofs or low detail houses. The idea was that you could place just a few of these grouped objects in the background and get "instant suburbs" without hitting the frame rate too much.

Best wishes

Deane
 
This is a big problem to me as a part of my "Real Life" runs through a heavily built up area with terraced streets and factories all over the place.Measuring roads and laying them out is tedious but I can"t entirely handle the idea of isolated houses with no roads beteween them! I like the idea of using Textures to represent roads.I guess a good compromise is to place the houses and then add the roads later? Or model a rural route...:rolleyes:
 
P.S. Have a look at "Streetz" on the DLS...KUID 13013:170018474:1

Yup, they have been used, good old trusty Dreddman.

I think I've finished my first suburb, I think I might use more houses in between major town centres. I've made extensive use of Sirgibby's NZ Low Poly houses. They very much suit Australian scenes as well.

I've use alot of dmdrake's buildings, also Kenichiro and VinnyBarb. You can easily make a realistic route using those creator's masterpieces.
 
Also the least number of DIFFERENT objects used the better, so if you use a variety of 10 different buildings, five times each, that's better than the equivalent of using 50 Different buildings. If there's a good pattern / varied placement you shouldn't realise you've driven past the same pub 6 times. :)
dmdrake, has made some nice 2D buildings that have diferent facades (fronts) per side, making it easy on frams. just plop and rotate :)

Edit - oh yeah and trees, splines are probably not the way to go, FPS killers. Groups are good, as is placing lots of the SAME type of tree. Each tree in a forest being different would make terrible performance, so perhaps rotating trees and tree groups to make them appear different is the go. Once again, different content can be made more cleverly than others, performance-wise.
Really? I've found that splines are better than individual trees, I haven't compaired them to groups sine getting FRAPS though.

peter
 
I also don"t find splines a problem. I"ve laid out a couple of small Forests using "Mixed Tree Spline" right next to the track and it doesn"t seem to have a negative impact on frame rates.
 
It depends on the spline. Specifically it depends on the repeat length and the number of polys in each repeat. Unfortunately this usually means that the ones that curve nicely (short segment length) are the ones you should use with caution.

@Lewisner - It sounds like your route is similar to mine in places. I've spent a lot of time placing terraces and factories... Have a look at my Bridgehampton route shots in the screenshots forum - most of the scenery is only one building deep, but it's hard to tell when you are between them...

Paul
 
"Paulzmay" I"ll definitely have a look at your route.The core part of my route is only 6 miles long from Sunderland to Penshaw but in that space there were 4 stations , a quarry, a rope worked incline to a paper mill and in one 3/4 mile section there 25 private sidings !:o I go green with envy when I see routes set in the Australian outback.:mad:
 
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