Jumping into a New World

SantaFebuff

That's So Trainz Forum
Yesterday, I purchased TransDEM. It was a leap of money and faith to see what I could produce, I had no idea what I was getting into and hardly read information regarding it beyond knowing what to buy and what was required.

So far, my results are not impressive. I have the hang of how to use the program and have officially generated Google Earth mapped rail lines, but unfortunately, the topography is off horribly. I know this because the area is local to me. The area is overly hilly and excessively "busy", and I am sure I am doing something wrong with scaling or whatnot of the DEM or with the Google Earth placement marking. I am currently in the process of discussing this with the TransDEM members on their forum as this is more than likely my own error. It does have me questioning the accuracy of SRTM data, but I will wait as I've seen very impressive results from this method.

Overall, it's been a huge learning experience. Figuring out what a UTM tile is to making a route and exporting it into Trainz. TransDEM is nice and I hope to offer more prototypical routes in the future with this purchase. I am still working on my fictional route Harvest Time. That route will have 100% in-game adjusted and created topography. TransDEM will hopefully allow for nice routes of my local rail line, a dream realization from my childhood when I first got my hands on a copy of TRS2006.

Wish me luck!

- Joshua
 
Yes, good luck. You should try the 3D tiles since you then get much of what you need ready made in the route. I did this with Rjukanbanen in Norway using free raster maps with height data and was amazed at the result. Very good.
 
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