The Surveyor camera is annoying!

[JonMyrlennBailey]

It is very hard to work near ground with sharp relief as near the base of a cliff. I have scenery placed in narrow canyons, cuts in hills where track or roads run through and near tall cliff bottoms on some parts of my layout and it is nerve-racking to try to get close-up views in those areas. I was trying to place streetlights on telephone poles along a road running near the base of a cliff. The camera will just jump up into the sky if I get too close to the bottom of the cliff. So, I had to raise the telephone pole, a spline point, high into the air using the Height tool and then position my light on the side of the pole using Move while looking almost straight down but way too high. Once the light was positioned, the pole was brought down to normal height again by Remove Gradient. The light was lowered to -1.25, which would put the light to a desired height on the pole.

One can place the camera to view the top of an object near the base of a cliff but will have to almost look straight down vertically overhead but one still can't view the top of a pole at close range at that angle. It is impossible to get a close-up horizontal view near a cliff bottom as well. The camera can't be positioned perfectly over the top of the telephone pole looking straight down or none of the tools will work to move the streetlight to attach it to the pole. The camera has to be looking down at a slight sloping angle for tools to work to move objects. This is another annoyance of Trainz. Limited ability to place objects accurately and neatly on the map over a wide variety of changing ground elevations. A close camera view is desired to inspect the neatness of how objects are placed. The world is not perfectly flat after all.

Of course, on flat open areas it is much easier to get close-up views when working in Surveyor.

 

[davesnow]

Yes, I know what you mean. It is VERY annoying. Apparently when they designed the game engine, whoever did it, programmed the camera itself to be in "collision" mode. By that I mean, the camera will react when you get too close to a cliff (or the ground) and be whisked away. Not like the game engine in games like, for instance, Far Cry where (in map mode) you can move the camera anywhere you so desire without any collision problems.

 

[wilts747]

The solution is to place the camera and then build the scenery around it, that way you can even bury cameras although textures appear white when viewed from the rear and should you then move the camera your're back to square one. Level a small area where you wish to place a camera, set the camera up and give it a trial run. Once you are happy with the results rebuild you scenery. Perhaps take a screen shot before hand as a reminder what the original looked like. Peter

 

[Shortline2]

I agree as well!

Back in TRS2004 days and before, there was a way around this problem, by using the move a object/scenery button, but alas, that went away and have never come back sadly...

Now a days I have to go around it by using the copy and past method by copying the ground and camera to a unused area and tweak it there, then copy it back and hope I match about where I wanted, or repeat it again...

I could possible also copy out the ground file, level the ground, put in camera, go out if Trainz, copy back the original ground, and move to the next point, but that is really, really horrible way to put in cameras... But, as N3V seems to think world is kinda flat in terms of Trainz, I see no chance of them ever to do anything about this for us who likes, loves, work in mountain terrains where the world is all but flat...

Linda

 

[clam1952]

Think we are getting confused here, I read it that the OP was complaining about the camera view in surveyor when placing assets, not the tracking camera, different animals but same problem, actually the tracking camera is better in TANE in that you can get closer to a bank before it takes off skywards! In TS12 I used to dig a hole place the camera and then raise the terrain back up again.

 

[davesnow]

Think we are getting confused here, I read it that the OP was complaining about the camera view in surveyor when placing assets, not the tracking camera, different animals ...

Exactly............

 

[Shortline2]

Sorry guys,

My bad, I was reading one of my pet annoyances in Trainz and went to comment on that. Red face, back traces out of here.

Linda

 

[Vern]

For once I agree with JMB! It would help if, as in MSTS or RW, there was a switch which allowed you to pass through the ground membrane and work from/see from underneath. This would also be beneficial when placing tunnels or working on underground routes.

However being realistic, I'm sure this has come up before and either there was no easy way of changing the code without breaking half a dozen other things, or deemed a low priority. Highly unlikely we will see it changed in TANE, probably not even "Next" but something that ought to be on the agenda going forward.

 

[cascaderailroad]

I never had any problem with the surveyor view ... panning trackside cameras, YES, they always look down at the railhead ... DUMB

 

[JCitron]

You mean the bouncing off the terrain as you try to get in close to position something, or ensure tracks and roads or other things aren't floating?

Yeah. This is very annoying! This has been the case since the beginning of Trainz time, so you learn to work around it and live with it since I believe this is something that will never be fixed.