Some questions about TransDEM

[mrscsi]

I've been coming along quite nicely with my route.

I was wondering if there is a way to erase or delete the topo map that is now a ground texture when I'm ready to start applying new textures.

Since you're running TRS 2009, you don't have the ability to replace asset like we do in 2010. One way to do it and it is rather an oddball way, go into CMP and delete the TransDem textures, then go into your route and delete missing assets and re-save it, then you should be able to reinstall the TransDem textures as an asset and they shouldn't, with shouldn't being the important word here be in your route any longer...

At least that's what I would try

Because when you delete the TransDem textures from CMP your route is going to show having missing assets, it should still open fine, it's just not going to have any ground textures since those are the assets that we've taken out of CMP. Then if you delete missing assets in your route and re-save it, it will save the route without those assets and thus show up in CMP without the missing assets flag...

 

[geophil]

I've been coming along quite nicely with my route.

That's good to hear . I got the impression you were making a lot of progress since your recent questions on route building usually arise after the TransDEM job has been accomplished.

I was wondering if there is a way to erase or delete the topo map that is now a ground texture when I'm ready to start applying new textures.

If you paint over an existing ground texture and completely occlude the original texture, Surveyor will automatically erase it when saving the route.

However, new ground textures are usually applied with a fair amount of transparency, so complete occlusion may not happen.

The method with Content Manager as suggested by mrscsi erases the TransDEM ground textures altogether, affecting all routes in your asset data base.

Therefore I added a ground texture removal function to TransDEM (in version 2.0 I think). To use, export the route with Content Manager "open for edit" (make sure it's the only copy of this route in the editing folder), apply the texture removal function in TransDEM (in the Trainz menu) and finally commit the changes in Content Manager.

Note that ground vertices, where the TransDEM texture had been the only texture, will be painted with the Trainz default ground texture, grey with orange and dark grey grids. In the other cases transparency of the remaining ground textures will be adjusted to achieve 100% opaqueness in total.

 

[mrscsi]

That's good to hear . I got the impression you were making a lot of progress since your recent questions on route building usually arise after the TransDEM job has been accomplished.



If you paint over an existing ground texture and completely occlude the original texture, Surveyor will automatically erase it when saving the route.

However, new ground textures are usually applied with a fair amount of transparency, so complete occlusion may not happen.

The method with Content Manager as suggested by mrscsi erases the TransDEM ground textures altogether, affecting all routes in your asset data base.

Therefore I added a ground texture removal function to TransDEM (in version 2.0 I think). To use, export the route with Content Manager "open for edit" (make sure it's the only copy of this route in the editing folder), apply the texture removal function in TransDEM (in the Trainz menu) and finally commit the changes in Content Manager.

Note that ground vertices, where the TransDEM texture had been the only texture, will be painted with the Trainz default ground texture, grey with orange and dark grey grids. In the other cases transparency of the remaining ground textures will be adjusted to achieve 100% opaqueness in total.

One more little tool I hadn't discovered yet

Oh well I did say my way was a little "oddball":hehe:

 

[dricketts]

To use, export the route with Content Manager "open for edit" (make sure it's the only copy of this route in the editing folder), apply the texture removal function in TransDEM (in the Trainz menu) and finally commit the changes in Content Manager.

Can you clarify this part? "export the route with Content Manager"

Export to where or what? Do you simply mean open the route for edit so it shows up in the editing folder then use the transdem feature?

Thanks.

 

[mrscsi]

Can you clarify this part? "export the route with Content Manager"

Export to where or what? Do you simply mean open the route for edit so it shows up in the editing folder then use the transdem feature?

Thanks.

What he means is open it for edit. And MAKE SURE that it's not already open because then it will put it in a directory with a strange name and TransDem won't be able to open it to strip out the textures.

If you open it for edit, it will appear in your users/editing folder under its name. That way when you go into TransDem you can open it and point to that and it will import the information back into TransDem where you can strip the textures.

 

[dricketts]

What he means is open it for edit. And MAKE SURE that it's not already open because then it will put it in a directory with a strange name and TransDem won't be able to open it to strip out the textures.

If you open it for edit, it will appear in your users/editing folder under its name. That way when you go into TransDem you can open it and point to that and it will import the information back into TransDem where you can strip the textures.

Perfect. Thanks.

 

[dricketts]

Another question on this topic.

If the topo map/texture is removed with Transdem after additional ground textures are added, will the newly added ground textures also be removed?

Thanks.

 

[geophil]

No, they will stay.

In this function TransDEM analyses the textures assigned to each ground vertex. If it finds a TransDEM texture (or any custom KUID provided when calling the removal function) it marks this one for deletion and notes the opacity weight of all remaining textures for this vertex. It then recalculates the weight of each individual texture so that the total weight yields 100% opacity again.

In the the special case that the TransDEM (or custom) texture is the only texture for a ground vertex, it will be replaced by the Trainz default ground texture, the grey terrain with the orange 10m grid (and dark grey 5m grid for TS2009 and above).

 

[dricketts]

Thanks for the explanation.

Another discovery. I realize I can not use the fill grid tool exactly as it was intended when the transdem ground textures are still in place. Would it be correct to assume I need to change to the appropriate transdem texture in the replace asset tool from the blank grid?

This would be the only way to remove the transdem textures a few grids at a time without removing all the transdem ground textures in the entire route. Correct?

 

[geophil]

I would assume yes, I am not very familiar with said tool. Does it support multiple replacements or wild card filtering? That could save time.

 

[dricketts]

I would assume yes, I am not very familiar with said tool. Does it support multiple replacements or wild card filtering? That could save time.

With 2009 SP4 what I'm using, the "fill grid" tool simply brings up the replace asset window. The blank grid is listed as the "asset to replace" by default. Transdem textures can be dragged into the replace asset window to rplace the "grid."

If there is a way to do multiple replacements I haven't figured it out yet. That would be nice.