Neat! Something You Can Do With Google Earth.

[TrainMan12]

This link is from the Train-Sim screenshot forum.

http://forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=13&topic_id=80838&mesg_id=80838&page=


It shows how some of the terrain texuring done by Google Earth. Obvisouly this would require many tuch-ups and stuff, but, it's still sort of interesting. It's also apparent that this can't be done everywhere as only some areas in Google Earth are high enough resolution for this. Is there any way to import that into Trainz?

 

[titaniclover]

good lord that looks real i was reading the post and it said it was from MSTS. but here you say its from google earth. im confused but this is absolutly amazing!!!!

 

[TrainMan12]

No no no, all of that scenery and texturing was imported into MSTS FROM Google Earth by a program called Mosaic. I just wish there was a similar program for Trainz.

 

[titaniclover]

ohhh yes i wish there was a program that did that

 

[WileeCoyote]

Whoa....

Wish I had stuff that good, as for importing the textures I do not know the if that is possible, I sometimes do something the same a bit, I go to googlemaps.com and I find the location of a "real" route on Trainz 2006 and see how it matches up with the route on the game. Not so much for textures but to see how the line goes and the surrounding industry, I have lately been doing this with the Niddertalbahn route from the DLS and this guy certainly did his homework save for a turntable at each end of the line, and being that I live about 70KM from the line I might check it out someday.

WileeCoyote

 

[Tokkyu40]

Well, now you made me go and work, thank you very much. You started me thinking (always dangerous) so I decided to try and see what could be done with Trainz, and here's what I have so far...

I tried using the 1 km Basemaps and Google maps to start with. Not having very sophisticated photo software, I printed out the maps and spliced them together on a light table, used a t-square to mark off 1 km squares, then scanned them into my computer.
The resolution isn't great, but the track and major roads are clearly marked, as well as the larger buildings. With this guide, I'm starting to do the main texturing, following the image as closely as possible. It seems to work fairly well, but it would be better to work with higher resolution images in a Photo Shop or GIMP type of program, splicing them into a single image and then laying a 1 km grid over it before cutting it down and applying the basemaps.
Once the texturing is done it would be easy to do some DEM work, shifting track and touching up textures to finish the basic route.
It would be easier still to copy and paste directly to the baseboards, but this is what I've come up with so far.

Claude

 

[TrainMan12]

Nice! Too bad we don't have a program like Mosaic like MSTS does.

 

[backyard]

...TranDEM. can use Google Maps...

We so have a program, which can use most any map, for accurate route creation.

It's Here!

 

[Moojgoo]

We so have a program, which can use most any map, for accurate route creation.

It's Here!

The thing's payware. I saw it in a different thread.

 

[CoHe3d]

the real question is if its worth $28.90?

 

[knight42]

I bought it yesterday, and it's great, and the tutorials are great too. I had my town with SRTM DEM data and low-quality maps off the web in about an hour, and the (closed in 1964) railway plotted out soon after. If you have the right maps for it it saves an awful lot of work - in fact I wouldn't have managed anything close to it otherwise. Be prepared for some work, however, as the results will only be as good as the source information - I'm pretty sure I've messed up the scale of mine.

 

[nikos1]

Those MSTS screenshots look pretty good from above but not sure if htey would look as good at track level. Yes for trainz basemaps are the only freeware way to do this but it must be noted that this technique can be only used for laying out track structure and scenery and can not be used for actual texture

 

[RPearson]

The thing's payware. I saw it in a different thread.

Well I wouldn't call MOSAIC @US$30 freeware either.

Transdem is a great program for prototypical route building in Trainz. I write my own utilities for route building but if I didn't I'd own a copy.

Bob Pearson

 

[TrainMan12]

Those MSTS screenshots look pretty good from above but not sure if htey would look as good at track level. Yes for trainz basemaps are the only freeware way to do this but it must be noted that this technique can be only used for laying out track structure and scenery and can not be used for actual texture

I understand all it does is the texturing, but that's my worst favorite part anyways. You would still have to fix it up, but it does a lot of it for you. And, it's 100% realistic.

 

[caddylars]

the real question is if its worth $28.90?

In one word :YES !

Bought it some time ago, and had a lot of fun with it.

Caddylars

 

[Moojgoo]

There is another one. MicroDEM.

 

[springtransit]

Cool! That sort of thing could really help me model Pittsburgh! I have hog files, but they're not the same...

 

[TrainMan12]

If you had DEM created terrain, plus this texturing (provided that it's high-resolution), it would pretty much build the route for you. All you have to do is place the objects and track, which isn't very tough.

 

[Chris2f8]

I read an article from Mike Jenkins (modellerMJ) about the use of Google earth images and TRANSDEM from Roland Ziegler. Very interesting and handy. I was wondering if Mike is going to update his article for the use in TANE.

THanks

 

[steamboateng]

The current version of TraisDEM imports into TaNE with no issues. As I've said before, and it's worth repeating; TransDEM is the one single most useful program for Trainz route creators. It can accurately overlay properly georeferenced maps and Google Earth images directly onto terrain created for Trainz.