Tips and Tricks-Surveyor

[USTrainBrain]

Ok a few from me:

- Don't use the undo button to delete a spline, chances are TRS will crash

- Where possible, lay your track in the direction the trains will be travelling. This helps the AI as it "prefers" track which is laid in the direction of travel. For the same reason, do not use double track as a) it makes the AI think it's travelling the wrong way and b) it makes curves very difficult to build (and for certain countries it's the wrong spacing anyway)

- Leave the signalling till last, as laying a signal and then laying more track ahead of it can cause problems with the AI.

- Trackmarks. If you have a long stretch of track or you find the AI constantly takes the wrong route at a certain location, lay a trackmark down on the path you want the AI to take and then tell your trains to "Drive Via". I find that placing a trackmark a full braking distance before a signal and telling a train to "Drive Via" prevents the AI from trying to take control of points which are beyond the signal and it will instead wait for the signal to clear.

- Choice of track. Experiment! There are thousands of different types of track available in TRS and on the DLS. It's sad to always see people putting so much effort into the rolling stock, scenery and buildings used on a route and then to have the visual effect of all that ruined by using the default tracks which were built-in to the original Trainz and have been available for six or seven years now. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this?

There are plenty more but I'll leave that to the others

Cheers,

JB

Very True...and Good tips as well...

 

[Smileyman]

i think you can do the same thing without blurring it, but just by streching the displacement map over more than one baseboard...

That's not quite correct.

Although you obviously get more gradual hills by stretching it over several baseboards, the supplied displacement maps are low resolution, low colour mode, and as a result, the gradients between greys are steep.

Changing to RGB and blurring gives you back the amount of steps between greys needed to create smooth hills.

Of course, if you create a high resolution map with a decent graphics program, and save it as 32-bit, you're going to have better results than you would with the supplied ones, but you'd probably need to blur it to get the best results.

Smiley.

 

[escafeld]

Why not make your own bridges, especially for where the road cuts across the railway at an angle.

Here the railway track is set at 8.6m height and the road 1.6m.

Start by laying a length of road just beneath the track as a ‘track bed’ and to hide what is below. I used FMA Asphalt Road and set it 0.2m below track level, so here it was laid at 8.4m.

Next, lay two lengths of AJS Portal Wing Wall between the road edges. When at normal height, the road stands at 1.60m, so here it wanted sinking to –1.80m to get beneath the track. Keep your finger on the shift key when laying splines together or like magnets they click together and these don't need to join.

Go into Wireframe View so that you can see better and lay two lengths of AJS Low Wall or Bridge Kit. Keep just far enough away from the ‘track bed’ so that it doesn’t show. This was set at a height of 8.45m and extended to just beyond the ‘gape’ of the bridge.

Next, lay more AJS Portal Wing Wall from the embankment to where it will butt up to the wall laid previously. This was set at a height of 0.9. Make sure the Girder or Low Wall does not show through either side of the Portal Wing Wall. If you wish, add one or two short lengths of wall to make piers.

One I made earlier.

 

[Zwabberaar]

Excellent kit-bashing Dave!

 

[freightcar2]

Cool tip, Dave! I'm going to have to try it!

 

[escafeld]

Thanks, I might just mention to newbies that you need to keep your finger on the shift key when laying splines together or like magnets they click together and these don't need to join.

 

[escafeld]

A screenshot of more of the same. It sure beats looking for bridges that may or may not do. A bit of W.I.P I spent time on today.

 

[gisa]

Hi Escafeld,


These look like great tips to build a bridge and not just at any angle. I usually do something similar with other bridges and wall splines (I learned this from Dermmy, but it doesn't matter where we learn it from). I just wanted to ask though...the FMA asphalt road doesn't produce cars right? I always assumed it did as it's a road...:hehe:

Keep 'em coming everyone!

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[escafeld]

Hi Escafeld, These look like great tips to build a bridge and not just at any angle. I usually do something similar with other bridges and wall splines (I learned this from Dermmy, but it doesn't matter where we learn it from). I just wanted to ask though...the FMA asphalt road doesn't produce cars right? I always assumed it did as it's a road...:hehe:

Keep 'em coming everyone!

:wave:

Gisa ^^

Well, I've tried it for producing cars first and it didn't, but if you join a road that does produce cars they will carry on running down the FMA road. If in doubt use the viaduct spacer, would could be a little too deep, I'm not sure.

 

[gisa]

Thanks escafeld. I just want to have a road that doesn't have traffic on it at all and I know the FMA stuff is great so I thought...two birds with one stone! =) Still, perhaps someone here knows the KUID of a road that has no cars on it at all?

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[escafeld]

Thanks escafeld. I just want to have a road that doesn't have traffic on it at all and I know the FMA stuff is great so I thought...two birds with one stone! =) Still, perhaps someone here knows the KUID of a road that has no cars on it at all? Gisa ^^

I do. It's called Road No Traffic KUID -1:100923 and it's built-in content in TRS2004

and then there's these: -

NZ unmarked road no traffic KUID2: 45676:137010:1
NZ Stone road no traffic KUID2: 45676:137013:1

Both by NZRailfan


Regards, Dave

 

[gisa]

Excellent! Thanks for the perfect answer Escafeld! Could I ask you two more quick questions (to which you might know the answers to?). If you don't know the answers, no problem!

1) I could turn any road into a *no car* road by setting the carrate tag in the roads config.txt file to 0 right? I like the roads you recommended but I am just curious for curiousity's sake.
2) Does a spline's length influence how many cars are on the road? This sounds like a silly question but hear me out:

I'm making an 8 lane highway and I want there to be a lot of traffic. I've set up all the lanes (even placed a few AJS invisible roads over the lanes that are empty) and I even changed the road's carrate tag to 3 in the config.txt, but I'm still not seeing all that much traffic. Could it have to do with the spline being very long? If I inserted a spline point or made it shorter, would that make a difference?

Thanks for all your help BTW!

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[escafeld]

I'm sorry gisa, but I don't know the answers to your questions. Why not start a new thread, but firstly, look at the manual. No problem with the help, I'm glad I was able to. I once was able to replace the vehicles with others of my choice, but I can't remember how to do that.

This is Rural Station Green - Kuid:42884:28001, which is a very nice piece of content, but didn't fit in with any other stations on my route.

I dropped it's height by -0.10 and disguised some of the railings with a brick wall, which fortunately just sits behind the station lamps. The MS Platform, set at 0.00 level, covers the contents platform nicely.

Dave

 

[gisa]

Will do and thanks again Dave =)

Good tip BTW (one I find myself using a lot)

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[froobie]

cars and roads

Gisa:

TRS2006
carrate
Defines traffic density on road (minimum seconds between each car generated).

0=no traffic.
Number must be greater than 3.

-Trainz Railroad Simulator - The Content Creator's Guide Version 2.0 Page 77

The only way I've found to increase the car density (the number of cars per inch/foot/metre/whatever of spline) is to connect the ends of the road together, forming a loop. (when the loop is 81 baseboards long, it takes a while to fill up :hehe: )

Also, fun can be had with "Road Car Spawner BNSF50" <kuid2:39134:10138:1>

Tip - even though someone said "don't do this", When laying/moving a road in Surveyor, the car traffic everywhere goes away. I find that laying a bit of road somewhere and then using the "UNDO" seems to kick start the car traffic. I suggest experimentation somewhere else than the production route. I will say I use this all the time and haven't had a problem. This is not the case for track. I never, ever "undo" track!

You said you are making an 8-lane hiway, (I know, it's the QEW) you might have a look at:
http://www.ajsmith.nildram.co.uk/trs/street01.shtml
Somewhere in the Streets Tutorials is how to make one lane traffic. ( Remember he is from the UK)

Wait until you try to make off-ramps hehehehehehe (<- fiendish cackling )

cheers,
--michael. <aka froobie>

 

[gisa]

Hi Froobie,


Thanks for the advice. I'm using 04 so it's a bit different. I can't use the traffic spawner though, although I guess I could loop the highway. The problem is, that loop is going to be mighty big and 9 kilometers of cars zipping about can't be good on the FPS.

I do know how to use the AJS street kit though. I'm not going to make off ramps (as thankfully there aren't any where I'm modelling it at the moment).

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[American_Connections]

On & off as you please!

Hi Froobie,


Thanks for the advice. I'm using 04 so it's a bit different. I can't use the traffic spawner though, although I guess I could loop the highway. The problem is, that loop is going to be mighty big and 9 kilometers of cars zipping about can't be good on the FPS.

I do know how to use the AJS street kit though. I'm not going to make off ramps (as thankfully there aren't any where I'm modelling it at the moment).

:wave:

Gisa ^^

http://www.geocities.com/ac_mwm_interstate/interstate_page.html

 

[gisa]

Thanks anyhow American Connections, but I don't see how that will increase the traffic on my roads by purchasing a new set of them. I'm also not into payware either but thanks anyhow. =)

:wave:

Gisa ^^

 

[Bill69]

Hi All,

here is a little trick to use with lift bridges or swing bridges I have just posted to help another trainzer.


Signaling wos (woes)

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

tip on water textures the deeper the water the darker the texture