Article: Trainz Dev Diary - Height-Mapped Ground Textures and Geometry (sneak peek)

Very nice work N3V :Y:

For the longest time Trainz has been in need of more natural looking water/ground transition, this is really a leap in Trainz!
 
I think having a temp folder for multiplayer settings would be cool. Then you can play with 3rd party content.
 
Hi,

Wow, I am impressive -- However, would we need a powerful video card to see such effects come alive?

Ish
 
This is really great and will result in some terrific screen shots. Can water levels be changed locally without affecting other areas? pomme
 
...would we need a powerful video card to see such effects come alive?

Hi Ishy :)

To be blunt: yes. A low-end GPU won't cut it for this kind of effect. You can of course disable the texture heightmapping if you have an older computer, and still benefit from PBR etc., but the really cool stuff needs a fairly decent (high end from the last few years, or mid range current) GPU. We'll release detailed hardware specs when the next product is closer to release, but that should hopefully give you a decent ballpark of what to expect.

kind regards,

chris
 
... You can of course disable the texture heightmapping if you have an older computer, and still benefit from PBR etc., ...

Is that going to be a TANE-NEXT video setting? I cannot see anything in my NVidia video driver for that.

Just curious.
 
Hi Ishy :)

To be blunt: yes. A low-end GPU won't cut it for this kind of effect. You can of course disable the texture heightmapping if you have an older computer, and still benefit from PBR etc., but the really cool stuff needs a fairly decent (high end from the last few years, or mid range current) GPU. We'll release detailed hardware specs when the next product is closer to release, but that should hopefully give you a decent ballpark of what to expect.

kind regards,

chris

Hi Chris,

Thank you, sir for that explanation!
Looking forward to seeing all of these new features play-out on my computer on the next version of trainz! :D

Take Care
Ishy
 
We've been fixing lots of issues, and we're still doing so. With a small team, a complex program, a massive amount of legacy content and unlimited ways of combining various items, the result is that there will always be more things to fix.
 
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Looks encouraging. As a fan of routes in and through the mountains, it can be quite difficult to get the right effect with the current flat textures, even the more recent iterations.
 
I have learned just how texture detail improves the overall appeal of a route...this development will greatly enhance route aesthetics ... congrats.
 
Looks good, but I'd love to see what that looks like on slopes. I'd also love to see some new topology tools.

And indeed on vertical slopes. One of the massive shortcomings with the Jet engine or "new" (ahem) engine derived from Jet is that it doesn't render textures on vertical or near vertical slopes at all well. Even the finest most up to date high-res texture just looks stretched out.
 
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