Fictional Terrain into trainz

Hi.

I'm planning to create a new route and I was wondering, what is the fastest way to get fictional generated terrain (using an external program) into trainz?

Transdem. Just find an area that matches the type of terrain you're looking for, doesn't even have to be near a railway line!

As Vern says.

Take an area that looks interesting and fits and then add in your own rail line. I've built a couple of routes and route additions that way. I surveyed the land and laid the track being careful to watch out for roads, waterways, and grades. This proved a bit more difficult than it seemed at first, but the results are amazing. I kept the roads and building locations largely intact and made some of those areas into towns.

Does it need to be AEM? can't it accept anything other then that?

There are programs that can generate fictional gray scale terrain files (or you can create those files using gimp, etc) and then be brought into Trainz (Topology/Advanced/Displacmentsxxx) but there are height limitations of around 300+ meters. Often the results look bad. Every time I have tried using this approach has been a total waste of my time.

I finally did what others have suggested: Bought TransDEM. I use it mainly to quickly create interesting chunks of terrain for background since I was not starting a new route, just improving an existing one. Yes the software is complex but you don't need to use every feature to accomplish what you want to do. Once you get into it (thanks to youtube tutorials) you will be surprised how efficient it can be to get good results.

Honestly, I tried the greyscale method using L3DT and I found it was only good for patching terrain (repairing terrain that had been deformed using industries, tunnels etc.), but when it comes to the actual route creation aspect, it does come up short.

Are there ways to generate custom DEM maps which would be imported into trainz?

I had the same question so I asked the author of the software, Dr Roland Zeigler before I bought it:


I have not used this process. Why? Because with the availability of actual elevation data anywhere on earth, just haven't had the need. But it's good to know the capability is there.

Oh wow, that's good to know, I was on the fence about buying it before because I have always wanted to create fictional routes.

There are several guys here that have made all their custom/fictional terrain, on a 1, or 2, baseboard wide route, all manually by hand, and their routes look absolutely fabulous

I totally agree I've been looking through the routes on the DLS and, if you take enough time and effort, you can make anything look good, it's just a timesaver really for working with multiple baseboards.