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I don't know if there are orther programs free or less expensive programs for the making of PBR textures
Two free programs for PBR stuff, Awsomebump and Materialise on N3V's software page https://contentcreation.trainzsimulator.com/category/software/
Chasys Draw free graphics suite that does layers etc, from playing with it, plenty good enough for Trainz stuff.
Tattoo a free Mesh skinning tool, not tried it but supports TGA and 3ds and obj
Free add-ons for Blender appearing gradually.
Recently, I watched an Allegorithmic candidate tutorial for their new, still in beta, Substance Alchemist. As I recall, the tutorial showed how to extract height data from a simple texture texture. i.e. An image of a real cloth texture. The tool allows you to vary the height and see the effects onscreen. You can get some rather weird results....
Also my observation. I would like to see some further discussion on this topic, perhaps some examples, e.g., comparison pictures in game. For example, I have viewed Trainz - Content Creation - #33 - Convert Old Ground Textures to PBR / Parallax (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDKXWd4zOV4) many times and tried use height maps to get the effect nut to no avail. Frankly, I still don’t understand how a height map is supposed to simulate parallax given that the usual definition of parallax is “the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions”. Just one example of the complexity of PBR that I think needs more discussion and examples of its application.
....
Blender 2.8 is going to be a game changer ...
One concern I do have is reskinning a PBR textured asset. Is it possible without some fancy software to modify the PBR textures?
To go back to the original theme of this thread, I think that the "golden age of Trainz" is right now. It is easy to look back at the past (TRS2009 and earlier) with rose coloured glasses and claim that things were so much better (or easier) back then. All too often we let nostalgia take over and we forget all the problems and "issues" that we put up with, mostly because we did not know any better. Things may have looked "rosy" but, as many posters in these forums frequently point out, a lot of the graphic quality of assets was cr@p (no disrespect to those creators who blazed the trail), video performance was poor and features limited.
Yes, the technology has advanced since those "heady days" and the tools we used back then, GMax, MS Paint, etc simply will not cut it any more. But the results you can achieve from using the new materials and features, and learning the new tools as Zec points out in the post above, are far far better. These tools will become easier to use (software tools always do - who remembers the very first version of MS Word running on MS-DOS?) Heck, the new Blender interface is so much better that I am going to roll my sleeves up and give it a serious go!
To go back to the original theme of this thread, I think that the "golden age of Trainz" is right now. ... the technology has advanced ...
GDennish has at least one, and perhaps two or three videos on the Trainz CC website. It says they are by N3V Games but I know he made the Blender PBR one.....
How many can you name that are currently publishing or have recently published articles and tutorials? Of course there is N3V, but who else? Help me extend the list:
pcas1986
steveflanders
Cayden
....
GDennish has at least one, and perhaps two or three videos on the Trainz CC website. It says they are by N3V Games but I know he made the Blender PBR one.
I've been wondering how one gets tutorial content onto that site.
There are several pages of videos. I'm surprised I don't see more discussion on them.
“I think the golden age for Trainz hobbyists was back in 2009 when for a short period of time Trainz Magazine was published monthly.
The current agreement for uploading to the DLS allows N3V to do what they like with the content including selling it and limiting access for editing or other purposes. This is hardly going to encourage the hobbyist who wants to create and share work freely to upload to the DLS.
There was that alternative Wiki that was created by a now banned user and was unfortunately rapidly out of date. It stopped when he got banned for some kind of spat on the forums.
Creating tutorials and videos that are any good requires someone who not only knows what they are doing but can also explain it clearly so others can understand, not everyone who is good at content creation is good at putting it into words or has the time!
GDennish has at least one, and perhaps two or three videos on the Trainz CC website.
The ban from updating the wiki is permanent. It was mainly because of negative comments re Auran/N3V being included in user documentation, but the fact is that the language used was overblown and turgid, and often not helpful.From memory though people who have been banned are allowed back after a couple of years in the wilderness if they wish to return.