What's the difference?

[Alco_P-A]

In TRS22PE build #128487 there is SD and HD to pick from for detail. What's the difference and does it matter if you pick 2.0 or classic surveyor to build in?

 

[JCitron]

SD is the normal 5m and 10m grid just like we've been using since the early days.

HD is the new High-Definition terrain. This is a new thing available for route creation in Plus and I think PE.

HD terrain has a much finer resolution for the grid. There are some nice advantages such as finer control over grades, and less requirements for splines to fill in where tracks diverge at different heights.

There are some limitations when using HD Terrain.

There's a 16-texture limit per baseboard. This is actually a hardware limitation and not a program limitation. With all the calculations and whatnot, your CPU and GPU work really hard and run out of resources.

Route sizes are much larger. My old very large route went from 350 MB as reported in Content Manager to well over 2 GB.

Computer hardware requirements are higher due to the extra processing required.

HD Terrain only supports the new Effects-layer water and not the old-style water.

There are others but I can't think of them offhand.

 

[wreeder]

Everything John is true and very helpful to know but the SD and HD buttons on the edit route dialog do not choose the resolution of the grid on a route. They effect the radius of a brush when you are working on an HD terrain route. HD allows you to have a brush radius down to 0.125 of a meter. SD restricts the effective radius to 4 m and up. This is for terrain shaping and applying ground textures. These are dynamic settings so you can open the edit route dialog and change modes at anytime. In truth, Zec didn't explain the benefit of this feature but I assume it has to do with making a route in Trainz Plus that can use the HD compatibility mode in TRS22.

 

[JCitron]

but the SD and HD buttons on the edit route dialog do not choose the resolution of the grid on a route. They effect the radius of a brush when you are working on an HD terrain route.

Thanks, I didn't know that. This is another tidbit for the notebook.

 

[ricomon35]

Everything John is true and very helpful to know but the SD and HD buttons on the edit route dialog do not choose the resolution of the grid on a route. They effect the radius of a brush when you are working on an HD terrain route. HD allows you to have a brush radius down to 0.125 of a meter. SD restricts the effective radius to 4 m and up. This is for terrain shaping and applying ground textures. These are dynamic settings so you can open the edit route dialog and change modes at anytime. In truth, Zec didn't explain the benefit of this feature but I assume it has to do with making a route in Trainz Plus that can use the HD compatibility mode in TRS22.

@wreeder >>> Question: If One for example uses the HD brush for Trackside terrain detailing, say out to 10 meters from the track spline edge, but for the most part leaves the rest of the terrain mesh resolution at 5m, will the terrain texture limit still apply to the entire route/layout?

 

[pware]

HD is the new High-Definition terrain. This is a new thing available for route creation in Plus and I think PE.

Not TRS22PE. It is, I believe but I am prepared to be proven wrong, for Trainz Plus only. I am somewhat puzzled as to why this option (HD and SD) would appear in TRS22PE.

The HD button will allow you to use brush sizes for terrain and texturing down to 0.12m (12cm) in size. The SD button will limit the brush size to a minimum of 2m - if you have set the brush size smaller than that your setting will be ignored and 2m will be used. You can use both settings (HD and SD) anywhere in the same baseboard. The SD brush size is easier and quicker to use than the HD (when set to very small).

You can use brushes smaller than the 5m and 10m resolutions available in all Trainz versions (and when not using HD in Trainz Plus) but there will be restrictions on where the brush can be used in each grid square.

See the following - Ground_Height_Brush_Size_and_Grid_Resolution

 

[wreeder]

The resolution of a baseboard is for the entire baseboard so to use HD terrain anywhere on a baseboard the entire baseboard has to be converted to HD resolution. The feature I talk about above applies only to the radius of the brush on an HD resolution baseboard. Therefore the 16 texture limit applies to the entire HD terrain baseboard. In practice, the SD and HD buttons are only changing the size of the brush tool, not the resolution of the baseboard. They used confusing labeling for this feature by using SD and HD. Perhaps a better name would have Minimum Brush Radius with the buttons labels 4m and .125m.

Peter is correct. These button have no function in TRS22 PE as it doesn't support editing in HD terrain mode. TRS22 does have HD compatatibility mode that allows a user to load an HD route into TRS22 Driver and the route as per N3V will be converted to a apparent resolution of ~4m. However, if you save the route it saves as a 5m grid route.

In truth, I don't know of a time when I would use these buttons. I can just click on the brush radius box, type a new number and hit enter faster than opening the edit route dialog box, clicking the button of choice and then clicking OK.