johnwhelan
Well-known member
First I create mainly UK based content and these thoughts apply mainly to this content.
I started by re-skinning the work of others but later went on to create my own meshes, first in GMAX and later in Blender. There has always been a trade off between detail and performance in trainz and with a background in both hardware and software I’ve tended towards performance friendly content.
The first wagon content I made everything was included in the mesh.
However Jack Barber noticed that if the under-frames were identical you could put different tops on them to produce detailed models that ran well together. The penalty in Trainz for repetition was much lower than having to render from scratch. The “BR Standard 9ft Wagon Chassis” was the first of these. He was bribed to create three GWR based under-frames for me. The libraries contain a variety of buffers, axle boxes, bakes one and two sided. They are very good even though they were first created in 2016.
Ed, Edh6, was kind enough in 2017 to create a set of under-frames that had a wider range of sizes than Jack’s did. These included innovations such as dumb buffer options and a fifteen foot wagon base which meant earlier wagons could now be produced. He has created updated versions over time.
Also in 2017 I’d picked up a Dell refurbished laptop that had an HD series 4000 integrated GPU. The 3D score is 344, well below the recommended minimum for TANE at the time. 10,000 3D score is normally accepted as a reasonable GPU score. However it did support all the instructions needed so I wondered if it could be persuaded to run Trainz. The result was the 17_5 series of content. Basically the same low poly under-frame on all wagons. The late Chris {Nawlins} was kind enough to work with me to build Middleton for laptops layout. The big problem was finding or creating a low poly loco. Eventually I created the G15 Steam tram using an engine spec from an 0-6-0 tank engine. There is a version with the correct engine spec for those interested. It’s much less powerful than the first one. Chris built an interesting session that shows fly shunting in action. Some small diesel locos are just about low poly enough to run on lower end machine.
In TRS2004 I noticed when one of my wagons was added to a layout the game crashed. The problem was that scripts could read and write to the same memory. I never did find out which the other scripted asset was but took the view even though I was a professional programmer it was safer not to write scripts but to reuse other mainstream scripts. The standard for UK couplings included Blue Star and ACS. Eventually Kessica was kind enough to write the JAG system scripts for rolling stock but unfortunately there was never one written for a loco. The scripting system has improved over time but I’m not sure I fully trust it.
Reskins have become a problem over time. In TANE if you reference a library with the base kuid it will use the latest version. In TS12 it will use the version in the config.txt file. So using an asset with version 3.5 or higher is desirable. Unfortunately hundreds of reskins of my work exist with lower build numbers. N3V have both tighten up their error checking and relaxed it. So content built for TS12 and TANE can have errors in TS19 but warnings in TS22. Some of my assets have 8 or 9 versions as errors come to light and are corrected but I have no control over the reskins. However for your own use you can clone one of my updated wagons then copy in the texture file from the reskin.
Note that scenery objects have a lower machine impact than rolling stock. So I created some scenery wagons that are track attached or “track object” to fill sidings.
So what does this all mean.
First if you have an RTX 5090 don’t worry about anything.
Second try to stay with the same under-frame to squeeze the most out of your hardware. Note that often the same texture file is used in different versions. So the scenery wagons for example can be cloned and a different texture slid into place. If you want a different company or PO design start clone one of my blank wagon textures and edit the texture. I use photo textures for the most part and the colour changer tool in Paint Shop Pro after X9 is very useful for changing the colour whilst preserving the wooden texture underneath. If you’d like your reskin on the DLS bug me and I’ll put it up under my kuid. That way I can update it if need be next time N3V update their error checking etc.
If the detail on the 17_5 wagons is good enough, use them. If you look at old photographs of a train of wagons you’ll notice that not all five plank wagons were the same height. The same applies for other wagons. Look carefully and you’ll find I have different height wagon meshes, certainly in 3 and 5 plank wagons but not all liveries are available in all heights. Again often you can clone a different height wagon and copy over the texture file. You might want to adjust the wagon number or add a faint air spray of dust to the texture file. I use normal mapping on many of my models, if you wish to tone it done a bit then start with the blank version of the texture file, you may need to edit this to cover up any writing, then use the nVidia Normal tool available from here: https://developer.nvidia.com/texture-tools-exporter
The important thing is to have fun.
John
I started by re-skinning the work of others but later went on to create my own meshes, first in GMAX and later in Blender. There has always been a trade off between detail and performance in trainz and with a background in both hardware and software I’ve tended towards performance friendly content.
The first wagon content I made everything was included in the mesh.
However Jack Barber noticed that if the under-frames were identical you could put different tops on them to produce detailed models that ran well together. The penalty in Trainz for repetition was much lower than having to render from scratch. The “BR Standard 9ft Wagon Chassis” was the first of these. He was bribed to create three GWR based under-frames for me. The libraries contain a variety of buffers, axle boxes, bakes one and two sided. They are very good even though they were first created in 2016.
Ed, Edh6, was kind enough in 2017 to create a set of under-frames that had a wider range of sizes than Jack’s did. These included innovations such as dumb buffer options and a fifteen foot wagon base which meant earlier wagons could now be produced. He has created updated versions over time.
Also in 2017 I’d picked up a Dell refurbished laptop that had an HD series 4000 integrated GPU. The 3D score is 344, well below the recommended minimum for TANE at the time. 10,000 3D score is normally accepted as a reasonable GPU score. However it did support all the instructions needed so I wondered if it could be persuaded to run Trainz. The result was the 17_5 series of content. Basically the same low poly under-frame on all wagons. The late Chris {Nawlins} was kind enough to work with me to build Middleton for laptops layout. The big problem was finding or creating a low poly loco. Eventually I created the G15 Steam tram using an engine spec from an 0-6-0 tank engine. There is a version with the correct engine spec for those interested. It’s much less powerful than the first one. Chris built an interesting session that shows fly shunting in action. Some small diesel locos are just about low poly enough to run on lower end machine.
In TRS2004 I noticed when one of my wagons was added to a layout the game crashed. The problem was that scripts could read and write to the same memory. I never did find out which the other scripted asset was but took the view even though I was a professional programmer it was safer not to write scripts but to reuse other mainstream scripts. The standard for UK couplings included Blue Star and ACS. Eventually Kessica was kind enough to write the JAG system scripts for rolling stock but unfortunately there was never one written for a loco. The scripting system has improved over time but I’m not sure I fully trust it.
Reskins have become a problem over time. In TANE if you reference a library with the base kuid it will use the latest version. In TS12 it will use the version in the config.txt file. So using an asset with version 3.5 or higher is desirable. Unfortunately hundreds of reskins of my work exist with lower build numbers. N3V have both tighten up their error checking and relaxed it. So content built for TS12 and TANE can have errors in TS19 but warnings in TS22. Some of my assets have 8 or 9 versions as errors come to light and are corrected but I have no control over the reskins. However for your own use you can clone one of my updated wagons then copy in the texture file from the reskin.
Note that scenery objects have a lower machine impact than rolling stock. So I created some scenery wagons that are track attached or “track object” to fill sidings.
So what does this all mean.
First if you have an RTX 5090 don’t worry about anything.
Second try to stay with the same under-frame to squeeze the most out of your hardware. Note that often the same texture file is used in different versions. So the scenery wagons for example can be cloned and a different texture slid into place. If you want a different company or PO design start clone one of my blank wagon textures and edit the texture. I use photo textures for the most part and the colour changer tool in Paint Shop Pro after X9 is very useful for changing the colour whilst preserving the wooden texture underneath. If you’d like your reskin on the DLS bug me and I’ll put it up under my kuid. That way I can update it if need be next time N3V update their error checking etc.
If the detail on the 17_5 wagons is good enough, use them. If you look at old photographs of a train of wagons you’ll notice that not all five plank wagons were the same height. The same applies for other wagons. Look carefully and you’ll find I have different height wagon meshes, certainly in 3 and 5 plank wagons but not all liveries are available in all heights. Again often you can clone a different height wagon and copy over the texture file. You might want to adjust the wagon number or add a faint air spray of dust to the texture file. I use normal mapping on many of my models, if you wish to tone it done a bit then start with the blank version of the texture file, you may need to edit this to cover up any writing, then use the nVidia Normal tool available from here: https://developer.nvidia.com/texture-tools-exporter
The important thing is to have fun.
John