The Trainz Channel - Twitch TV

pcas1986 said:
I'm having a few problems with tbumpenv in TANE for my locos. Can you do a similar tutorial for tbumpenv?
Click to expand...

Plus 1.

I have a similar material request, this one being rather specific. How, and more importantly, what, do you use in the alpha and environment map to give the loco sides this look?

D1015_Western_Champion_old_oak_common_depot.jpg


Obviously m.tbumpenv, but how do you generate the bumps in a smooth manner, giving that rippled look? Clouds?
 
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Trainz - Content Creation - #16.2 - Materials - Paint (using tbumpenv)
This is a sequel of tutorials that show how to create certain types of materials in Trainz.

This material is a "Paint" style material using tbumpenv.
https://youtu.be/YGGkb6nvg5I

Download the Material Paint Asset here

You can take this example and build / learn from it in the hope that you might achieve a better look using all the available material variables in Trainz.

Find more videos on The Trainz Channel page.
 
n3vpolsen said:
Trainz - Content Creation - #16.2 - Materials - Paint (using tbumpenv)
...
Click to expand...

Thank you for that. The one thing you missed was an explanation of how you created the specular image for the normal alpha channel. I often use ShaderMap for creating bump maps but the specular maps it creates are much whiter than the image you used. The NDo2 tool looked interesting. I've found it on the web.

The glossy finish might be ok for diesels but looks a bit odd on steam locos. I've since switched to tbumptex and that gets a better result for me.
 
Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. One thing to note is if for some reason the alpha channel is left completely opaque (specular map RGB (0,0,0)) the model will appear 100% black.

The ripples on diesels will be a bit more larger and flatter than that but still a great tutorial!

Thanks,

Ron
 
n3vpolsen said:
Trainz - Content Creation - #16.3 - Creating Specular Maps
This tutorial shows you how to create specular maps.
...
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul. I don't have PhotoShop and the processes are difficult to duplicate in the various image programs I have, but my ShaderMap tool allows me to manipulate a specular image to something similar to your result. The ability to play with a layer and then copy it into an alpha channel wasn't possible in any of the programs I tried except Images2TGA.
 
Questions about images

I have a few questions about image files. What is the maximum file resolution that is accepted (or is practical) in Trainz? 1024x1024 seems to be the normal "large" size that I've seen. Could you use 2048x2048 or even 4096x4096? If you have an asset that has more than one significant material or texture is there a noticeable performance issue if you use multiple diffuse tga files, or are you better to merge everything into one texture file? If multiple ones are acceptable, do you add all of the resolutions of the files together and need to make sure they don't exceed a certain resolution size? So for example, if the maximum resolution size that Trainz will accept is 4096X4096, you couldn't use more than two 2048X2048 or four 1024x1024? Would this also apply to the normal image (Diffuse) file and the Normal image file?

Finally, I have the Trainz export for Blender and it works fine. There has been some comments about using the FBX file format in TANE, but it sounded like that was experimental at the time. Moving forward, should someone start using FBX or would it be better to just keep using the Trainz export option?

Thanks for the tutorials, they have been a great help explaining things. I need to play around with Blender and see what exports well to Trainz and what doesn't in regard to Baking, Node Editor, and Cycles rendering.
 
Montbard said:
What is the maximum file resolution that is accepted (or is practical) in Trainz? 1024x1024 seems to be the normal "large" size that I've seen. Could you use 2048x2048 or even 4096x4096?
Click to expand...


2048x2048 is the max size you want to go to in Trainz. Whether you actually need that size is another thing. You would want to make sure you are getting a massive increase in detail at this size texture otherwise for performance/memory it is better to use the smallest file you can that achieves the detail you are after.


Montbard said:
If you have an asset that has more than one significant material or texture is there a noticeable performance issue if you use multiple diffuse tga files, or are you better to merge everything into one texture file?
Click to expand...


The more materials you have (i.e texture files), the more draw calls your object will have which impacts on performance. You will want to atlas multiple textures into one texture file where possible.


Montbard said:
If multiple ones are acceptable, do you add all of the resolutions of the files together and need to make sure they don't exceed a certain resolution size? So for example, if the maximum resolution size that Trainz will accept is 4096X4096, you couldn't use more than two 2048X2048 or four 1024x1024? Would this also apply to the normal image (Diffuse) file and the Normal image file?
Click to expand...


As above, the max size for any single texture is 2048x2048. You can have as many of these as you need, there are no combined limit BUT you shouldn't be using many at that size as that is a massive amount of space for most models to get some great detail. Again as stated above, use the smallest texture size you can to achieve the detail you need. If you can't fit all the detail in one texture than using a multiple texture approach is ok but squeeze as much into your textures space as you can and if you need 2 x 512 textures it might be worth combining them to be 1 x 1024. Different scenarios will call for different outcomes though.


Montbard said:
Finally, I have the Trainz export for Blender and it works fine. There has been some comments about using the FBX file format in TANE, but it sounded like that was experimental at the time. Moving forward, should someone start using FBX or would it be better to just keep using the Trainz export option?
Click to expand...


Right now, Trainz current exporters (.IM format for meshes and .KIN format for animation) is the only way to get your creations into Trainz. You'll have to wait and see what the future brings for additional support ... but the future is looking bright :)



Montbard said:
Thanks for the tutorials, they have been a great help explaining things. I need to play around with Blender and see what exports well to Trainz and what doesn't in regard to Baking, Node Editor, and Cycles rendering.
Click to expand...

Glad the tutorial videos are helping!
 
Can I suggest a tutorial showing how to set up a playable session using rules. For example displaying messages, setting junctions for shunting, using nav points and triggers and getting the Guard's Whistle/flag to appear. I've been trying to create some sessions, but the exact way the rule hierarchies work is currently alluding me.
 
I suggest a tutorial explaining the season functionality and how one would go about adding the season aspect to a loco, or scenery object.
 
GDennish said:
I suggest a tutorial explaining the season functionality and how one would go about adding the season aspect to a loco, or scenery object.
Click to expand...
This one catches my interest. I would love to add snowy effects to the train for my winter runs. (yet to find a loco that meets this interesting idea.)
 
Try finding a photo of the loco you are making with snow on it, I did and had no luck. If you find one you can not see the top witch is what you need. You can look at most of my US Box cars to see one way of doing it.
 
Can I suggest a tutorial showing how to set up a playable session using rules. For example displaying messages, setting junctions, using nav points and triggers, getting the Guard's Whistle/flag to appear & if you go past a red light the session ends
 
Trainz - Content Creation - #19 - Session Creation
This tutorial runs through all the requirements needed to start creating a session in Trainz.
The information can be found viewed in this document along with a sample session to download and view, edit or copy snippets from.
DOCUMENT
VIDEO

Find more videos on The Trainz Channel page.
 
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AussiePaul said:
Bump!
Did this get missed? or declined?
Click to expand...

Certainly didn't AussiePaul, we have just hit a small bug in the current way to create tunnels using v4.3 and need that fixed in order to show you how this is done... otherwise we have the tutorial ready to go :)
As soon as we have the fix (can't tell you a time frame I'm afraid) then we will get this up for you.
 
n3vpolsen said:
Certainly didn't AussiePaul,
As soon as we have the fix (can't tell you a time frame I'm afraid) then we will get this up for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.
I'm really enjoying these tutorials.
I feel it's like being able to go to the home of someone who is very good with T:ANE and watch how they do things.
 
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