Populating Large Forests

[Rougespear7mm]

Hey all,

I'm considering the task of foresting my route. It's a large route (125 miles) and I'm wondering how to "tree" the thing without destroying my frame rates? I'll be using probably a max of 4 types of trees. Would it be best to "copy and paste" individual groups of trees, or use splines? How far should I go from the track before I transfer to a texture to represent the forest?

Thanks a lot all!

 

[BobCass]

Hi: I personnly like to plant individual trees and the reason is, splines have a tendency to bother the frame rate too much..However, I must admit my fingers and muscles hurt..Pick on the ones that uses a big spread, that way you cover more area and use less polys..



Bob Cass

 

[transitguard]

after you populate a small area, you can use the copy/paste function if you are in TRS2006.

 

[lander]

You can do the copy/paste function in 09 also.

 

[BobCass]

Hi: When you copy/paste, I understand why you do that is to cut down on time..But personally I do it individually because the fact it does the contour of the ground and gives you different tree heights..


Bob Cass

 

[Rougespear7mm]

May I please ask how I would go about "copying and pasting"? I can't seem to find any relevant buttons...

 

[JCitron]

May I please ask how I would go about "copying and pasting"? I can't seem to find any relevant buttons...

It's under the wrench icon on the rightside menus. The lower part has the copy square, and paste square.

There are buttons below to select what you want to copy: Terrain, texures, and objects. You can add or subtract these from your selection so if you only want to copy objects, but not textures or terrain features, just highlight the object button (turns greenish color).

The selection area works by simply selecting the are you want to copy. This is a square/rectangle area only, and can't select round areas. If you select something that is round, you'll get that within a square or rectangle area.

Once you've selected what you want, choose your location and press paste. This will place your objects, textures, etc. in the area. These paste areas, like the selections are only at right angles.

Hope this helps. I come from eastern New England with lots of green coverage, and this saved me a ton of copying when I was planting trees. I will still place individual trees when I want small areas because I like to adjust the height, etc.

John

 

[Isegrinns]

Hi!

I also use the copy & paste function. Have to make up 110 large baseboards with autumn foliage....
The height-problem can be fixed by moving the trees a little, then they are automatically at the right height.
A hint: you can rotate the section which you paste, for diversity.

 

[Jayturf]

I copy past my forests and forest base textures for my whole route. I then go along the tracks and add/delete the trees to make it more realistic looking. It all depends how far out you go with the trees before changing over to a tree coloured texture. On my current route There is one section where the tracks switchback a large open grassy slope and there are periodic trees here and there...and because of this there are long sight lines and the need for placing trees as far as 1-2 baseboards away is needed. Another part of my route sees trains snaking up a narrow river valley and for this spot I only tree to the nearest ridge...after that I change to a texture. To change to a texture you almost need a view break such as a ridge or hill. I'll try and get some pics up tonight.

 

[davesnow]

I mainly use five tree types in all my routes:

Linden_2_10m_low-res
Linden_2_15m_low-res
Linden_2_20m_low-res
Javor2_16
Murchison7

Occasionally I use these because they look really good, even close up:

Oak 1
Oak 2
Oak20
Oak25

These are good, too, for populating hills. They come in groups of about 6-7 trees I think:

Baumgruppe (several types)

I use these extensively with no noticeable drop in frame rates, even in areas with hundreds of trees.

I usually copy and paste for large areas, but also place individual trees when needed along river banks, in house yards, etc.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Don't overdo a route with zillions of trees !

In Surveyor options: "Randomly Rotate Assets" will make your trees all look somewhat different, and will avoid that repiticious array of trees all facing the same dirrection. You can go in and raise, or lower, each individual tree on the area that you will be using as a cut & paste template. Trees near the tracks can be individually placed, and sometimes look best when sunk in the ground, so they appear as short bushes and schwubbery.
Far away from tracks trees are totally unnecessary. Use just a handfull, and limit the number of genus of trees to @6-10 to prevent PC lag. Some routes have just a very, very, few trees, only near the track, and barren textures in the distance have a look like that of a faded Smokey Mountains look, smoggy.

Keep grass to an absolute minimum, or place temporary grass just for screenshots...then when you are done, delete them, one by one, buy hand.

Framerates can easily suffer from a multitude of high poly things, or a conglomeration of hundereds of trees, cars, loco's...etc...

I have found that trees in Pa resemble 10m "Gum" trees. By placing 45m towering redwoods and scotch pines, it quickly looks highly unprototypical for Pa.

"Dub", "English Elm", in the 10m size, are two pretty good looking trees.

 

[American_Connections]

Right on!

Keep grass to an absolute minimum,...quote]You are so right! Before my PC crash, my best layout got where it crash, or work so slow it was boring because I put too many grasses on it! Never do that again!

 

[American_Connections]

Draw distance

Another thing to think about is just how far are you going to see things. A hill in the distance will look as if the forest rolls on over it. and just on the other side of same hill can be another view as a praire for another area on the same layout.