Making good looking ground textures

[nekoblade]

Hello people,

I have Trainz Railway Simulator 2006, and like making maps for myself. The only thing my maps always seem to miss, is good looking ground. Every map I download has the ground made so realistic that, if you took a picture, it would just as if it was real...

Can you people give me some tips on how to make the ground and scenery look realistic? I can't seem to get the hang of it myself...

Thanks in advance!

Nekoblade

 

[scorpio48]

Hi Nekoblade,
I don't fully understand your request, but here's a few tips that might help.
You can download extra terrain from the DS.
If your ground looks square between different textures, you can 'Blend' them in by adjusting your slider bar under The Main Menu, 'OPTIONS\ TUNING SETTINGS\GROUND' Texture Passes & Detail Level, The more to the right the slider the better the detail.
If your machine isn't powerful enough for maximum movement you will have to compromise by experimentation.
Hope this is what you were looking for
Cheers
Pete

 

[nekoblade]

Hi Nekoblade,
I don't fully understand your request, but here's a few tips that might help.
You can download extra terrain from the DS.
If your ground looks square between different textures, you can 'Blend' them in by adjusting your slider bar under The Main Menu, 'OPTIONS\ TUNING SETTINGS\GROUND' Texture Passes & Detail Level, The more to the right the slider the better the detail.
If your machine isn't powerful enough for maximum movement you will have to compromise by experimentation.
Hope this is what you were looking for
Cheers
Pete

Thanks Pete! It's not entirely what I was looking for, but this is something at least ...

What I meant was this: how do the creators of maps make there terrain look so good?

 

[scorpio48]

What I meant was this: how do the creators of maps make there terrain look so good?

Hi 'N'
There are a few tricks you can use when applying textures.
Try to use non patterned textures, unless you need them (IE. A striped Lawn or ploughed field).
If you do use patterned tiles for a normal field try rotating the tiles to hide the 'Repeat Sequence'.
If its actual terrain, hill, valley building Etc; then you will need some background information before you start, Contours, Summits Etc. I use OS maps and Google Earth to gain information. Then (I'm afraid) it takes a lot of work and patients, to get it right.
Cheers
Pete.

 

[nekoblade]

Thanks Pete... I'll just have to keep trying.... Thanks anyway for the quick repleys!

 

[mawilson]

Start with a base texture. Fill an area. This reduces the chances of missing spots and having the grey and yellow base texture showing.

Pick a texture to layer over the base. Adjust the scale so it looks good. Go ahead and paint a splotch. You can always paint over it. Remember "undo" is your friend.

Get to know and love the spin button (the square brackets). Paint using quick mouse clicks. The shorter the click, the less dense the texture. Spin the texture between paint strokes. Keep the spins short as well. Vary the diameter, too.

Repeat for several layers of different textures.

Work up an area maybe 20-30 meters or so on a side. Get it so it looks good then copy the area and paint it over a larger area. Don't forget to spin it as you paint to reduce tiling.

Layer in additional textures (or repeat some you have already used) to blend in where you stamped the larger pattern.

Go back over your terrain. This time look for places to add highlights. Add darker textures in gullys and crevaces. Add some small fields of wild flowers. Add patches of dirt where the slope is a little too steep for grass, on the tops of knolls, and in some random places. Add patches of weed looking textures in various places.

Paint little shots of weeds in rockface textures.

Some randomness is okay but remember that nature is rarely random. Plants tend to grow in clusters or patches. They die out in patches as well. Plants that like sun are generally lighter than those that do well in shade. Plants with access to water are more full that those without.

Avoid hard edges and straight lines. They rarely happen without human intervention.

Watch the scale. Vary it a little while painting. Notice I said "a little." Most texture images have a scale they look good at. Too big can be unrealistic. Too small will tile no matter what you do.

Do less than you think. Better to quit too soon than to over work it.

After you add trees, add spots of slightly darker textures underneath them. You can also use the color change to set off draws and walls.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

The post above covers just about everything there is to know about texturing in Trainz.

Only points I would add are about rockface textures on rockface areas, like cliffs, rail cuttings, rocky outcrops etc..

I find these generally benefit from not rotating the texture so you get the full impact of a solid looking surface. But choose the scale wisely and have 2 or 3 similar textures at hand to help avoid a repetitious look.

If you are trying to impart the appearance of a layered or otherwise structured rockface, obviously choose the right textures and aim to get a consistent angle of the bedding planes as you work across the exposed face. To achieve that, you might need to change the orientation of the texture as you go. This compensates for distortions in the underlying map grid. It's not always possible to keep a totally constant angle on the layers as you only have 8 compass angles to work with. Sometimes just the occasional dab of layered rock at the right location along the cliff is enough to create the right look.

Oh, and for water - unless you are in very shallow water, dark, rather featureless textures work well for the underwater bits. Let the water itself be the texture. Dark textures are also good for distinguishing water from land areas on the mini-map view.

 

[Vern]

I find the dark forest texture works well underwater, but yes I would second the advice given by Mr. Wilson. In fact, it's worth creating a small one or two board route where you can keep the blends you have mixed, so whenever you start a new route you can just merge this in and have the textures ready to copy and paste.

TRS2006 has many more textures to choose from by default than TRS2004 - I can recommend the German "Gras" textures, many of these blend very well together.

The only caveat about copy and paste is that once your route starts to get quite big and detailed, there can be a considerable lag waiting for the paste function to place terrain on the ground.

 

[Tokkyu40]

I get the best results from using only a few main textures, then go back and touch up more detailed areas. Sweep the texture circle across the ground and tap the button lightly as you go to make faint layers that blend well. Some textures lay down quite subtly, while others blast out. With practice you learn which ones work well together.

Claude

 

[scorpio48]

Excellent advice from the proceeding threads, the only thing I can add is 'Experiment'.
You may come across a blend of textures that none has thought of, making it truly original.
Cheers
Pete.

 

[tads1]

It's like with most things in life,the more you do it,the better you get at it,I normally start with a base texture,then take it from there.It does help if you save your favorites in the texture drop out box,a good selection of greens always comes in handy.

 

[reddog_ut]

So maybe I'm an idiot (be nice.... ) But I can't seem to figure out how to copy and paste textures... I open the Textures tab (in TRS2006 Surveyor btw) and hit advanced, then I select the "Select Area" button. I select an area I want to copy and hit CTRL-C. But all that happens is it closes the Textures tab. I reopen in and select a new area and do a CTRL-V and nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

 

[fuzzies]

Greetings reddog_ut,

To copy/paste your selected areas, it is on the F5/Tools key.

Note: just below the Select Area is the place for selecting which items to copy/paste, turn on or off as needed. Your choices are Texture, Height, or Objects.

To use it, have your area in front of you that you wish to copy.
B key is the select area tool, make a marquis box around your desired textured area. Once you have it selected press P key and now you have the same sized marquis box, ready to paste in your desired location. Use it much like a rubber stamp and go wild. Remember to rotate it as needed.

While not as intuitive as ctrl-a, ctrl-c, ctrl-v it does work as intended

Have fun,
Lenny

 

[ZikChil]

Disappearing textures

Has anyone had trouble using the "fill grid" where after painting with a texture they disappear? Is there a way to remove textures - undo doesn't work when using the fill grid. I'm getting the feeling it's a good thing I backed up this file before I started...

Thanks for all those tips above - excellent!

 

[wreeder]

One more tip:

Download Dmdrake's texture sets from the DLS. He has sets of between 25 and 36 textures that depict the different landscape features that are designed to be used together and blend very well.

Start with one set and use a few textures together and you see how easy it is to get realistic landscapes.

William

 

[reddog_ut]

Thanks Fuzzies!

 

[fuzzies]

Greetings again reddog_ut

Glad I was able to help.

Regards,
Lenny

 

[pisaacs]

There's another thing that's quite important to creating good looking landscape and that's complementary colors. You can learn the lesson from painters, and if you look in nature there are always complements that visually enliven the scene. So if you have green grass you'll want a bit of red too, soft and not very intense like a terracotta or a dirty pink, or where appropriate, a darker stronger red. You don't want the colors to blare. Blue and orange combo is great too.

Also, if you design your own textures, you'll want to reduce the tiling effect as much as possible by being careful of how the edges of the tiles interact.

 

[wklang]

Hi Nekoblade,
.....
If your ground looks square between different textures, you can 'Blend' them in by adjusting your slider bar under The Main Menu, 'OPTIONS\ TUNING SETTINGS\GROUND' Texture Passes & Detail Level, The more to the right the slider the better the detail.
......

Does TS2010 have the texture blending option? If so, I've been unable to find it.

Wes