River bed grading

[Approach_Medium]

Hi;
For years, I have been building routes in Trainz. The one thing that always got me frustrated was trying to "grade" river beds. I always ended up with my rivers flowing up and down hills. This showed up when I tried to place water in them. So I would have to re-adjust the river beds so that the water would show up. Of course adjacent sections with water must be at the same level, or it looks really stupid (steps in the water).

I just found a new method to insure that all of my rivers flow down hill.
I use invisible track where I want the river to flow, then set the gradient to a slightly (or more steeply for rapids, etc) negative number.
Then, I bring the terrain level down (or up) to the invisible track.

This works very well, but I still cannot figure out how to get the water to appear without steps. I suppose that the trick is to hide the rivers in areas where there would be steps.

Does anyone have a better idea?

Thanks

FW

 

[JCitron]

I've run into the same problem as you because as you know there are places where the water will be higher than in others in real life.

To hide the differences I either use a small dam, or piles of rocks to separate the height differences. For the space between the rocks, I've used rapids and water colored textures, which look like the water from a distance. I also put the rapids color in the river in that area as well so everything blends together.

Another method I use is to hide the river at various points by sending it under a bridge, or behind a hill as you would on a model railroad. This allows the river sections to be a distinct heights and there is no worry about the steps in the water.

John

 

[cascaderailroad]

On a DEM a whole route of constant, connected water is impossible ... it must be steps, with dams.

Look at Mezzoprezzo screenshots, and others ... they use either water splines, or only textures.

 

[bl4882]

Try these

A couple of years ago Gfisher came out with a set of water splines. They are semi-transparent, so the routine is to grade the creek or river, then texture the bed, add the spline, which gives a water effect, then apply finishing touches to the banks, etc. They are used just like road splines and are height adjustable. I've found them to be much more useful than the built in water, unless you are doing a large expanse. No need to use dams and rapids, unless you actually want them. They are on the DLS.

River Spline Rippled Water Wide ... KUID2:106916:10396:1

Waterfall small ... Kuid:10696:10397

Creek Spline White Water ... KUID:106916:10393

River Spline Muddy Water ... KUID:106916:10395

Creek Spline Rippled Water ... KUID:106916:10392

Bernie

 

[BobCass]

Here is the method I use, it is all done by texturing..Using the plateau tool in topology in surveyor, to grade the creek or river to desired height..:wave: :wave:

 

[mezzoprezzo]

When hiding the steps I tend to use the “obstruction” method, like rocks, as has already been suggested. Another one to use is a dead tree, if your river is narrow enough. This example is covering a drop of 72cm.

You can adjust the tiles so that each one has a very small drop. The step on the front water tile is just 4cm. You can see the join from downstream, but it doesn’t show at all from upstream. It would be a lot of work to do this on a long flow though, even if the results were deemed to be visually acceptable

George Fisher’s assets work really well, and totally solve the stepped join problem. They are great. The only two very minor downsides to the river water splines are that they are not animated and will not reflect the sky – only the inbuilt “real” water seems to do this.

There is no perfect solution IMHO. However, it’s good to have several workaround options. I think it makes for a much more interesting experience and provides endless variety and challenges in route building.

Cheers
Casper

 

[bl4882]

@ BobCass: That is very nice texturing.

@ mezzoprezzo: It's proverbial that the hardest effect to achieve in model railroading is water. I guess that applies to Trainz as well. One way to get a little sky into water is blend in one of the German textures you can find by doing a search for "wasser." For some reason our German brethren seem to have produced among the best environmental textures.:wave:

Bernie

 

[Approach_Medium]

Thanks for your help guys; If I recall correctly, I should have the water splines installed; just haven't used them for a while.
I like the dead tree effect. Dams would work too. Problem would be on a proto route where there is no dam. But for now, I'm working on a freehand route.

Water is one area Trainz needs improvement, but it would probably use up a lot of computer resources, and my system being almost 7yrs old is already stressed to the max when running TS 12.

FW

 

[BobCass]

bl4882: Thank you for the comment..But it is true you can achieve good things with just Textures..The main reason that I have never got into splines is because it does affect your frame rate..:wave: :wave:

 

[misterchugg]

hi mates

i'm having the spline problem at the moment as well.

is there a way to get something like digtunnel that will dig a predetermined trench where the creek or river runs in?
is there a decent texture that looks like water that can be painted onto this?

thanks ron

 

[cascaderailroad]

I lay a single track @ 2m lower than the surounding terrain, then I even out the river bed gradients to a reasonable grade, and hit the smooth spline tool to cut the riverbed.

A Quad Track will cut a wider riverbed.

 

[misterchugg]

thanks mate

wil try that tonight

cheers
ron