Question regarding splines

[narrowgauge]

Retro

In TS12 in the top menu bar at the left hand end, there is a button with a grid pattern on it. This will change your view into wireframe mode. Click again and it will change back.

For some reason my TS10 won't start but I know a similar button is on the menu bar, may be the other end.

Edit Got TS10 started and the button is in the same place

Peter

 

[mjolnir]

There was an important point in schweitzerdude's (SD's) investigation of splines which seemed to be overlooked. The decrease in frame rate appeared when the splines were in front of the train, as contrasted to when they were behind the train. I'd be curious to know what the difference in frame rate was with a more open spline, say a line of fence, or telephone poles and wires, on the one hand, and the orchard splines on the other.

I have to admit some ignorance of the architecture of the game, in that it's not clear to me whether there are separate rendering engines and game engines, or whether the rendering engine and game engine are different parts of the same entity. But SD's intitial results sound more like a rendering issue than a game issue. It would also be useful to have a line of non-spline buildings which obstructs about the same percentage of the view of the train as the spline does, and compare the frame rates between the row of buildings and the tree splines.

ns

 

[Retro00064]

Peter:

I know where the wireframe button is in TS2010. What Casper and I are talking about is the way the wireframe grid is shown.

Below is a screenshot of the alternate wireframe grid in TRS2004.



The grid is drawn with simple lines instead of using an alpha-mapped texture as used by the standard wireframe grid. Also, as you can see, the diagonal edges seperating the two faces/polygons that make up each grid square are also drawn. I believe it is less demanding on your computer, also.

You would toggle between the standard and alternate wireframe grids by using the Alt + W key combination. I can not seem to get the the alternate wireframe grid to show in TS2010 using that key combination, however.

Regards,

Retro.

 

[narrowgauge]

I don't remember how it looked in TRS2004 and my copy won't run. However, what you are seeing are still the original 10 metre squares with a diagonal so it will have no effect on the load. The grid, however it is drawn, still has to align with the underlying vertex points. The diagonal has no purpose. As you say, the diagonal appears to separate the 2 polygons, if that is the purpose then there should be an additional line at 90 degrees to to the first. Whatever is displayed, only the vertices can be selected

Peter

 

[Retro00064]

I recall getting better performance/frame rates in Trainz in wireframe view using the alternate wireframe grid than what I got using the regular wireframe grid. Doesn't really matter now anyway as I seem to be getting satisfactory performance with the regular wireframe grid in TS2010. I can check to see if I also get satisfactory performace in TRS2004 with the standard wireframe grid on this laptop; the laptop I used to run UTC and then TRS2004 on is even lower spec than this current one.

Regards,

Retro.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

The diagonal Alternative wireframe lines are consistent in that they are all parallel, but only on flat terrain. They change as the terrain is deformed for modelling.

The direction in which the diagonal is placed appears to depend on the height of the adjacent vertices of the 90 deg intersections of the 10m grid.

One major advantage of Alt wireframe is that it shows where the baseboard pokes up through laid splines such as roads or tracks. I find this makes it easier to tidy up around these splines.

The diagonals form a hinge along which the polygon will be moved. Being able to see the direction in which that diagonal has been placed within the 10m grid greatly assists that process. It’s a simple matter of grabbing the vertex which sits opposite the hypotenuse and lifting/lowering as required. With practice, this process (at minimum radius) can be further exploited by grabbing elsewhere in the appropriate triangle where the effect is somewhat different. It then affect adjacent grids. This is impossible to explain in text, but trial, error and practice really pays off for all sorts of topology fine tuning.

Textured terrain poking through road spline:

Not visible in normal wire frame:

Visible in Alternative Wireframe:

Alt Wireframe also shows where textures have been laid from the Surveyor Paint tools by changing the colour of the frame wires – black for textured, yellow for not yet textured. It even shows the fading between the two.

Part textured and bare baseboard:

Normal wireframe view:

Alt Wireframe showing changes in diagonals and textured/non textured areas:

I’ve seen a theory that Alternative wireframe consumes less resource because it temporarily wipes out all textures. The normal wireframe is, according to the theory, a texture in itself.


Footnote:
Something I’ve not noticed before today is that I am able to see through the normal wireframe. The revealed parts of the route are not as distinct as in Alternative, but they are faintly visible.


Cheers
Casper