Things I've Learned

[johnwhelan]

Things I've Learned Making Routes:

I'm sure not everyone will agree with my observations, but these are things I have learned during my years of building routes. My only wish is that these will perhaps help others.

1. Don't make passenger trains "Wait for..." before loading and unloading. They may not stop at the right place and they may not load or unload. Also, it's better to UNLOAD first, then LOAD.
2. You can use as many "Baumgruppe1" tree bunches as you want and they won't significantly affect frame rates. You can even place them next to the tracks and they look good.
3. The "Fence Corregated 1942" will really slow down frame rates if you use too many in one place.
4. More than 40-50 cars in a consist will slow frame rates.
5. You can add a lot more vehicles to the region config and they will show up. I have one region with about 30 different vehicles.
6. Believe in MARKERS to direct A.I. trains! They can make or break a session.
7. BEfore saving a session, PAUSE it, and check to make sure no train is LOADING. Save only when no A.I. train is LOADING product. This will keep you from getting the "Drive to before load" error message when you load the session later.
8. About 9 A.I. consists to a route is the maximum you should run unless you have a supercomputer. More than 9 and frame rates will suffer.
9. Besides the "Baumgruppe1" trees, pick out 4-5 other trees and use on your entire route. I use the Linden's.
10. Fields of crops look better when surrounded by a barb wire fence.
11. Highways and Roads look much better with a little sandy colored dirt on each side.
12. A lot of different fences in the same area will kill frame rates.
13. Most telephone (telegraph) poles look very good along rails and roads and don't seem to significantly affect frame rates.
14. Place Relay Boxes near signals and junction switches. They look especially good near overhead signal gantrys.
15. You can make great displacements using Photoshop.
16. Water looks better with a sandy colored bottom.
17. Shorelines look better colored sandy, too, like a beach, especially if they are gradual shorlines and not steep.
18. Don't turn Cabooses around after placing them. They might cause an A.I. train to suddenly go in reverse.
19. An A.I train might pick up and deliver product perfect 100 times, and then, for no apparent reason, completely screw up. Just one of those things I guess.
20. Junction Switches just will not work sometimes for an A.I train... so you have to go and throw them yourself.
21. No matter what you do, you're going to get some "SPADs" once in a while on an A.I. session.
22. Big Yards kill frame rates.
23. SAVE YOUR ROUTE AND SESSION OFTEN!

Perhaps you could dump these in the Trainz wikibook?

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz

Thanks John

 

[Dap]

Yes, I know most crops don't have fences around them... but to me, they still look better in TRAINZ with fences around them!

Guess it depend where you are in this big country. I grew up in Iowa and now live in Texas and many a crop field is fenced in with barbwire. It does tend to keep any strays out of your crops . . . stray hippo's and the ocassional water buffalo . . .

 

[jytte]

Guess it depend where you are in this big country. I grew up in Iowa and now live in Texas and many a crop field is fenced in with barbwire. It does tend to keep any strays out of your crops . . . stray hippo's and the ocassional water buffalo . . .

I live in Texas too, and I would love to go see your stray hippo's, if you'd just tell me where you saw one last :hehe:

 

[themnax]

argh, just discouvered the help in the pull down in surveyor, says something about holding the shift key to preven splines from attempting to merge. haven't tried it to make sure it works yet. just found this looking for something else. specifically how to delete an asset not missing but which something it depends on is, and has been delete missing asseted. find supposedly takes me to where it is, but there's no visual of it there, even in transparent grid w textures turned off. that one's got me stumped.

to the plus side, listowal and ballybunion pegleg track, and the two foot/ng24/1'11/600mm track and their trains, fits and runs inside moonbase spline just fine, if anybody's as crazy as i am to do such things.


=^^=
.../\...

 

[Sita_12]

i got one...

Never have a terminus where the AI has to change ends to finda nother AI train waiing for clearance at the signal, they will fight over the control of the Points

 

[davesnow]

argh, just discouvered the help in the pull down in surveyor, says something about holding the shift key to preven splines from attempting to merge. haven't tried it to make sure it works yet.

Yes. it definitely works. Splines, Tracks, Roads, etc. Hold down the SHIFT key and two splines won't join. This way you can make fences with 90 degree corners.

 

[jytte]

Yes. it definitely works. Splines, Tracks, Roads, etc. Hold down the SHIFT key and two splines won't join. This way you can make fences with 90 degree corners.

I didn't know that one either (thanks for that tip), but I always just use "split spline" afterwords, then you have your 90° corner as well.

 

[Dap]

I didn't know that one either (thanks for that tip), but I always just use "split spline" afterwords, then you have your 90° corner as well.

Now there is one I didn't know about. Where does one find the split spline command?

 

[jytte]

right here:

 

[jytte]

Here's a (painful) lesson I learned today, as some might have seen in another thread:

Before you use a wav file for your positional sound (as in those little sound files you can place in forests etc for realism), make sure it's in MONO.