More realistic looking track

[Approach_Medium]

Hi;
I have been playing around with various track and ballast to make my route as realistic as possible.
I have observed some oddities with TS (2006, 2009, 2010) that makes this task a bit tedious.

First, the ballast that comes with the track never matches the ballast around the track (which I always place), and even if you do have the right match, the track is always slightly above the terrain (if you use the smooth spline tool).

I am working on modifying my favorite track (which does not come as a no ballast version) so that it does not have ballast. This is a simple, but tedious task of modifying the alpha.tga file in Photoshop.

Once I do this, I should have a track that will lay on top of whatever ballast I choose to use on the ROW, without the delineation between track ballast and trackside ballast.
But there is one problem:
The track will always lie slightly above the ground if the smooth spline tool has been used.
To eliminate this, I am moving the track slightly lower, or the ground slightly higher, and not using the smooth spline tool.

Now one last issue: With my method, I don't have a "berm" or fill under the track, so it just lies flat on the roadbed. That's not natural either, since the ballast under the track is always built up above the surrounding ROW.
If I leave the original ballast as is, this is built-in, but again, we have that delineation between track ballast and ROW ballast.

What might work the best here, is to replace the original ballast with the same ballast you want to use on the roadbed (ROW), but that would require so many different versions of the track, if your line has varying shades of ballast.
So, for this I like the track without ballast. Perhaps I can just build up my own berm for the track, using the terrain tools. This should work pretty well if the grid is set to 5m rather than 10m.

Perhaps I'm getting a little too anal about this, but then what is Trainz for, if not to create your dream railroad.
This is just one thing that I enjoy doing with TS, and will be happy to share my work with anyone who wants it.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please tell.

Thanks

FW

 

[cascaderailroad]

Trainz "smooth spline" always places track at 0.20m above the terrain...measure each spline point height...lower each one manually...use a calculator to do the math.

On a good ol snowy weekend, when you are trapped indoors, you can do many miles of track adjustments in a short amount of time.

 

[norfolksouthern37]

or, spend some time making track and ballast work for you.

for example http://www.jointedrail.com/images/norfolksouthern37_20091113_0002.jpg

ive made my track, and made custom texture to paint with it, so that it matches. also its set up so that using the smooth feature puts it on the ground, not floating. of course if you dont use the smooth, it looks like the screenshot, and you cant really tell because the texture matches it.

here is 'smoothed' http://www.jointedrail.com/images/norfolksouthern37_20091017_0001.jpg

 

[MrScott2006]

or, spend some time making track and ballast work for you.

You can't get much better track then that. That's the best I've ever seen.:Y:

 

[cascaderailroad]

I wish there was Really High Detailed, rugged beat up track, like these, with sunk in the cinders ties, and crooked, split uneven tie ends:

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/RailroadTracksSunken.jpg

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Shenandoah_railroad_tracks.jpg

 

[Approach_Medium]

or, spend some time making track and ballast work for you.

for example http://www.jointedrail.com/images/norfolksouthern37_20091113_0002.jpg

ive made my track, and made custom texture to paint with it, so that it matches. also its set up so that using the smooth feature puts it on the ground, not floating. of course if you dont use the smooth, it looks like the screenshot, and you cant really tell because the texture matches it.

here is 'smoothed' http://www.jointedrail.com/images/norfolksouthern37_20091017_0001.jpg

Beautiful work!
Can I DL those?

 

[Approach_Medium]

I wish there was Really High Detailed, rugged beat up track, like these, with sunk in the cinders ties, and crooked, split uneven tie ends:

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/RailroadTracksSunken.jpg

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Shenandoah_railroad_tracks.jpg

That second shot looks like a good candidate for a new rail-trail

 

[Approach_Medium]

You can get much better track then that. That's the best I've ever seen.:Y:

You mean, you can't get much better track than that

 

[Approach_Medium]

Trainz "smooth spline" always places track at 0.20m above the terrain...measure each spline point height...lower each one manually...use a calculator to do the math.

On a good ol snowy weekend, when you are trapped indoors, you can do many miles of track adjustments in a short amount of time.

Any purpose to having the track 0.2m above the terrain?

 

[SantaFebuff]

fwassner,

...good drainage.

 

[Approach_Medium]

fwassner,

...good drainage.

Sorry if I was unclear about this.
I was referring to the way the track appear to float over the terrain in Trainz, not the 0.2m berm on which prototype track runs above the terrain.

FW

 

[norfolksouthern37]

Beautiful work!
Can I DL those?

soon yes. i am working on making several types and colors. they will arrive at jointedrail soon.

 

[Approach_Medium]

soon yes. i am working on making several types and colors. they will arrive at jointedrail soon.

Thanks. I'll be looking for them.

FW

 

[Approach_Medium]

I finished my work in Photoshop, removing the ballast from the track. It didn't look quite the way I had expected.
The ballast underneath didn't look nearly as good as what was originally used. Also, the ties looked odd, especially up close.

I decided to scrap the whole idea, and instead, modified only the alpha so that I get a more graduated border at the edges.
I did this by using the gradient tool in Photoshop on the alpha.
I had previously changed the ballast so that it more closely matches the ballast I was using on the ROW.

Nice thing is that when a track that I like better comes available, I can easily change it.

FW

 

[Tokkyu40]

Any purpose to having the track 0.2m above the terrain?

Something about the alpha channel. When you use the track to cross over a support like on a dock the alpha channel makes a clear space under it if it intersects the surface of the dock.
One solution is to raise the track slightly to keep it above other surfaces. Another is to make track without the alpha.

Claude