The light at the end of the tunnel

[mjolnir]

Friends

In other threads I wrote about the notion of using a structure as a landscape item. I've completed tests to prove that the technique works, as demonstrated by these shots:

the overview,

and the detail,

<Note: the track installed in the tunnel is installed with a fixed vertex height.>

This is also a means to get a truly vertical landscape element,

or even an overhang, and it removes the necessity of what I feel is one of the least attractive elements of TRS, the tunnel portals.

The general method I used was to take the elevations at each intersection of the grid lines of a region of a baseboard in which the terrain was the way I wanted it. I used these these elevations in a 3d modeling program to reproduce the region, and then added the landscape elements I wanted (in this case the tunnel, and the vertical overhang above the portal), and then applied a texture compatible with the surronding area.

Besides creating vertical landscape elements, tunnels without portals, and chimney rocks like this one

I also see the potential to use this method to create items like streams and drainage ditches which cannot be modeled with landscape tools even with the new 5m grid lines. This might also be a means of quickly achieving the broad sloping hillsides that get asked for from time to time.

ns

 

[jkinzel]

Impressive, I like it.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Interesting idea...Hmmmm

 

[Shortline2]

Hi,

Along these lines I see that I no longer is the single one wishing there was a utulity inside of Trainz to mark out and export a dxf file of the baseboard.

Before TS2009 came I had such a tool written by someone else, after TS2009 I lost the use of it, and has to go back to the old method like I think is done above here, manually read and write down and make on a model the height of each grid point...

I was given a positive indication by WindWalker over on the TrainzDev that it was a good idea to have such a tool, inlcuding the reading of the X,Y,Z coordinates of any structures inside the marked area. But I was also asked to write up a formal request of it, and I never got that done as I I was afraid I would not get my English writing done properly - then life took me away totally.

The idea to use models to extend the baseboards is a good one, custom make them to fit a location on a map - I done it a few times personally where I needed a narrow cut and I just read out the grid through this older program, went into gmax, imported the dxf file, did the cut there, painted it, exported it as a model into Trainz and voila, I had a nice cut.

In the future I hope Trainz it self can give me this dxf file, but for now, it don't really matter.

Anyway, thank you for this thread, it was a refreshing idea - and a good one to see when I visited this forum for a short visit.

Best Regards

Linda