Problems with scenery graphics

[bconvers9622]

Hello everyone,
recenty I've noticed something funny with my scenery items, namely trees and shrubs. When I place them, they've got this kind of odd transparent corona around them, which is invisible until there's a tree directly behind another one. It looks very strange. The trees, shrubs, and power lines basically have a sort of see-through outline that really shows up when they are placed around or in front of each other.

Any ideas?
cheers

 

[pware]

If this was in TS09, 10 or 12 (I forget which ones) I would say it was probably the old alpha channel problem. The alpha channel was how older assets handled transparency. Trees were the most obvious user of this feature as you needed to be able to see between the branches and leaves - not so much of an issue for solid walls, etc. The description of the "halo" or corona surrounding the trees perfectly fits the main symptom of this problem. Are the trees that you are using from older versions of Trainz (i.e. with low build numbers)?

My hypothesis.

 

[bconvers9622]

The trees I am using are all the JVC assets from the download station, as well as the pine trees from the Tall Trees and Boardwalks website.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Try turning up your anti-aliasing settings if you can. It might improve the rendering of blended alpha textures such as 'billboard' trees.

 

[pware]

The trees I am using are all the JVC assets from the download station, as well as the pine trees from the Tall Trees and Boardwalks website.

A quick check of the DLS revealed that the JVC trees (at least all the ones I looked at) were build number 2.0 which makes them TRS2004 (pre TS09). So I would say that they all are using the older style "alpha channel" transparency and that is the cause of your problem. I do not know about the pine trees from the 3rd party site.

To check for yourself ...

• Go into Manage Content
• If the Build version column is not showing then...
  • right mouse click on the title bar (Name, Status, Asset ID, etc)
  • In T:ANE select Insert Column
  • In T:ANE and TS12 select Build version
• Locate the JVC assets and/or pine trees (use the filter)

TS12 assets, which will not have this problem, have build numbers 3.5 to 3.7 while T:ANE assets have build number 3.9 and above.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Yes, a lot of those old dmdrake and JVC trees made the mistake of using an image of the tree on a white background. The background tends to "bleed" into the image around its edges. Later editions corrected that problem by using a dark background.

 

[bconvers9622]

Any good trees to replace these for TS10?

Cheers