Changing resolution of ground?

autodctr

Active member
Forgive my lack of using the correct terms please. When I start a layout in Surveyor, the "blocks" on the grid are divided into 4 smaller blocks. I seem to have read that you can change a setting to enable you to use the smaller blocks in order to get better resolution of the ground. Two questions:

If this is true, how or where do you do that?

Secondly, how much of a hit is that when you got to run the game on that route? How badly are the CPU and GPU affected?

Thanks in advance!
 
The ground squares are smaller, but I think you can still only adjust the contours at the same corners as for the 10 meter grid size.
 
That's not correct. The whole point of the 5m squares is that you can raise the corner of the 5m squares meaning you can get sharper and steeper inclines. However it roughly quadruples the memory usage, so it's very unwise to use it unless you actually need it. Has nothing to do with textures, purely to do with more defined contours and best used only if you have an extremely hilly landscape. (or an extremely powerful pc with lots and lots of memory).
 
It has nothing to do with the textures, however, don't do this to an already textured route because changing the resolution to 5m screws up the texture mapping and the textures become squares and rectangles. (How would I know about that...)
 
That's not correct. The whole point of the 5m squares is that you can raise the corner of the 5m squares meaning you can get sharper and steeper inclines. However it roughly quadruples the memory usage, so it's very unwise to use it unless you actually need it. Has nothing to do with textures, purely to do with more defined contours and best used only if you have an extremely hilly landscape. (or an extremely powerful pc with lots and lots of memory).


I agree, there are now vertices at the 5 meter corners. However, you still cannot effectively move them truly independently of the squares around them. Overall, yes, more resolution on contours can be achieved. For example, it will take you a very long time to try to model a 5 meter cut through a hill.
 
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I am looking to get an area where a train is going up the edge of a mountain and I want that dramatic drop-off for just a short distance.

If I understand correctly, I can do this for just one or two or a few base boards and not all of them?
 
I am looking to get an area where a train is going up the edge of a mountain and I want that dramatic drop-off for just a short distance.

If I understand correctly, I can do this for just one or two or a few base boards and not all of them?


If you want dramatic drop-offs, you should look at cliff type scenery items.
 
Click where or how on an existing board? I get nothing when I either left or right click.


If you want to create a new board, you have to click on the edge of an existing one. If you change an existing one from 10 to 5, you probably won't notice anything unless you are in wireframe mode.
 
If you want to create a new board, you have to click on the edge of an existing one. If you change an existing one from 10 to 5, you probably won't notice anything unless you are in wireframe mode.

But you will get a warning message (on by default) when you click on an existing baseboard whether going from 10 to 5 or 5 to 10.
 
Either I am dense or my Trainz isn't operating correctly. I have tried clicking everywhere both in and out of wire grid and I cannot find anything that will allow me to change from 10 to 5. What am I doing wrong?
 
Either I am dense or my Trainz isn't operating correctly. I have tried clicking everywhere both in and out of wire grid and I cannot find anything that will allow me to change from 10 to 5. What am I doing wrong?

In the terrain panel, where you adjust the height and stuff, towards the bottom you will find where you add baseboards, and there will be a dropdown box with "10m" in it. Click that, and the menu appears that will let you change it to 5m. Then select the "Add baseboard" tool and click the existing baseboards to upgrade them. Then every new board added will be in the 5m grid. This will have to be done every time you close and re-open surveyor.

Matt
 
Alright....I found that in the terrain panel. I clicked on it and set to 5 meter. Then, I saw nothing changed. I am still moving 10 meter blocks. What in the world am I missing?
 
After you've set it to 5 meters, if you want to update / change an existing area, left click on that area (with the add / update ground tool selected), and it will change the resolution of that area.

If you want to add new ground with 5m resolution, just click in a blank area to add new ground.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Piere.
 
As I said before do this on untextured ground, otherwise, weird things occur with the textures because they lose their mapping and end up looking like carpet squares.
 
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