What's the biggest/most complex project have you done in Surveyor?

PC_Ace
thanks for the info on Virtual memory, I'd missed that tip before and will use it in future as routes get much bigger.
I'll be merging the ARTC routes also after my current project on the NSW Great Northern Line.
PG
 
(We need a smiley icon for blowing your own trumpet - no, not that TRUMPet, I mean the musical one that plays nicely with others :D)

My current route under development, the SAR Peterborough Northern Narrow Gauge (3ft 6in, 1067mm) Division, is 223 miles (375km) in length. That includes a 79 mile (127km) section of the main line with the rest as 3 branch lines. I have never counted the number of baseboards.

The layout is based on data from Google Maps, for the track ROW, and published diagrams for the yard track layouts.

It originally started back in the dim distant past (circa TRS2004) and was released in 2009 for TRS2006. I have since upgraded it for TANE and then to TRS19 standards and added a 55 mile (88km) branch line. The original release used standard gauge tracks which I have now replaced with prototypical narrow gauge tracks. In the time since 2009 I re-gauged (with permission) a number of standard gauge bridge assets to narrow gauge for another project which has made releasing this route in narrow gauge possible.

It is virtually release ready now but I am contemplating whether or not to add TurfFX and Clutter, neither of which I have ever used before. I will need to do some experimentation before I make that decision.
 
(We need a smiley icon for blowing your own trumpet - no, not that TRUMPet, I mean the musical one that plays nicely with others :D)

My current route under development

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It is virtually release ready now but I am contemplating whether or not to add TurfFX and Clutter, neither of which I have ever used before. I will need to do some experimentation before I make that decision.


TurfFX does look good, apart from the bald patches that appear when you apply too much. On my two configs (i7-7700/GTX1070, and I5-7300HQ/GTX1050ti) I have not noticed any great performance impact. However, if you plan to apply TurfFX across a large route I suggest you play around a bit with various layers in a small area first. Work out just a handful of 'generic' effects you want to apply more broadly across the entire route, and THEN go for it. I wish I had done this. My experience is that once you have applied TurfFX across a large route you cannot then define and apply a new layer. If you do so then any previously applied layer, and many hours of work, disappears instantly (and there is no 'undo'). Hopefully there will be a fix for this at some point, but until then it pays to plan your TurFX layers carefully before starting out. I am waiting on this fix so I can put down a track side clutter layer, without impact on the crop layers it took me many days to apply. Also waiting on a fix to correct the bald patches.
 
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Thank you for that Phil.

I was thinking that applying these effects throughout a very large route could be problematic (the Wiki is a bit vague here as it talks about "limited data binding space in a layout" for the effects layer) and I was going to apply them in just a few places (mostly in the yards, sidings,etc) but restricting it to just a few layer types.

Some experimentation on some simpler and smaller layouts is called for.
 
Thank you for that Phil.

I was thinking that applying these effects throughout a very large route could be problematic (the Wiki is a bit vague here as it talks about "limited data binding space in a layout" for the effects layer) and I was going to apply them in just a few places (mostly in the yards, sidings,etc) but restricting it to just a few layer types.

Some experimentation on some simpler and smaller layouts is called for.

I went for it and then had awful performance slowdowns in Surveyor to a point it was worse than a slideshow on a ca. 1998 '486DX2-66. At that point, I gave up and reverted. I've decided after that, that Turf-FX like PBR textures is great for new routes, but retrofitting on to an older route presents problems due to the original construction methods. This isn't saying it can't be done, it's just a whole lot of extra work.
 
Thank Phil and John.

I have decided to not use TurfFX and Clutter in this project as it is already advanced to the point of release and, 11 years after its initial release in TRS2006, that is more than enough time. I will look at using the effects layers in my next, start from scratch, project.
 
There are many fine routes that creators have 'spilt blood' as a result of constructing them. As with any route the devil is in the detail, something I learned early on. Personally I delight in creating routes, some reasonably prototypical others pure fantasy.

My first attempt was with the Blue Mountains [Australian] Line; carving its way through national parks yet including a reduced Sydney terminal. The route was created in T:ANE and was astonished at how many downloaded the route once it was made available. I have no idea of its length but it took just over two years to make.

After that I went on to make the Southern Region Brighton Line. A third rail experience. A lot more challenging than I first thought. This route takes in Brighton to Southampton [incl Littlehampton/Bognor Regis/Haying Island/Portsmouth] to the west. Newhaven/Seaford to the east. Finally Gatwick/East Croydon/Victoria station to the north. All in T:ANE and as close to originality as possible for me to complete.

Currently I am working on this Brighton, Southern Region route for TRS19 which include a smattering of historical elements for the steam enthusiasts.

Off and on I guess its over five years in total to produce these routes.
A labour of love for me.

Cheers
 
I'm creating my first project in Trainz 2019. It has a main line of 302 miles in length, plus a 33 west line, and a 41 mile east line. It's nearly 400 miles in total and most is a quadruple track system. I counted up the baseboards (which took ages) and it has 2,147, so in order to keep motivated I have a plan to fill in four baseboards per day, which will take 18 months to complete. I generally do 1 urban board and 3 rural boards per day, as that's about the ratio over the entire layout. The layout is a fictional route I created in a fictional country that I invented in my childhood.

As a general description; the main core of the route is a coastal city (on a south coast); the route starts at the ports (shipping ports and airport) then goes north into the central business district, the so called "commuter belt", then into the suburbs, going north. Then there's a high speed line going to another city 251 miles north east. The station north of the CBD is a major junction creatively named "Main Street", and that connects to the "West Line" which is a scenic route that sees a lot of uphill into the mountains. Still have to smooth some of the gradients out here, as some are too steep to be realistic, but that will all come in due course. The East line goes east from either the Port or Main Street and goes through a lot of suburbs, but this is mostly rural scenery.

I'm not too focussed on massive realism and haven't got AI running on it yet, but the areas that have been done look pretty cool. All the track has been laid so far, and tested. Some of the junctions are very complicated though and not necessarily well implemented so I may have to edit some of this at some point.
 
Sounds like a fun project Richard
maybe you can show some screens in the Screenshot area of the forum, there are a few UK threads there


the original topic of this old thread...What's the biggest/most complex project have you done in Surveyor?


Where to begin, Project 1 Netherland West (rough est. 6k baseboards)
after returning from my 11 years break from Trainz, I found many dutch users still use the things I made in 2004
gave me a big grin as you can imagine.


On Trainzonline, the dutch forum, I found a thread of many years of barrie40,
in over 10 years he had made almost 70% of my country with near all mainlines.
Many items were broken since TANE and later TRS19.
So I set out to help him fix things and make it ready for the future
about 500 scenery items often from 3dware house conversions had to be fixed and optimized
When barrie was too busy IRL he handed the full project to me and gave me full rights to carry on.
I released the fixed route and content packs on trainzonline so it could be used in TRS19


Work continued and many emplacements were added based on Google earth templates (estimate 80% now)
also all 16000 junctions and signals are named as they are in the real world


When SP2 was released, it ruined the route(spline issues) and work came to a halt
glad I had a backup in build 100240, although I had to rename over 3k items again
Now this route will only be worked on in 100240.
It is never finished, in my country alone, 20k people work daily, changing and improving the railways
hope after we finally get the SP4 I can release V7 of the project


Project2: London-canal tunnel-Lille
Anathoth71 made a very nice map (=on the DLS) 13 year work is in this huge map
For this project I add (custom made) catenary and make all Trains that drive through the tunnel
again a project that can never be finished but gives great joy


ofc. its not the biggest/most complex that matters
it's all about what gives you fun doing
and Trainz enables that.
 
The word "biggest" has many connotations. Take the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway for instance. It is only 57 miles long, but runs from just over 500ft to over 7400ft in those miles. Started by ten of us back in the TRS2004 days, it is still running and now under modification by Euromodeller for TRS2019. We took three and a half years to build it. For sheer operating complexity, it has 4 Z-style switchbacks and 2 loops. All of this on a single-track mainline with no signals or guarded road crossings.

Bill
 
The average noobie often proudly announces their intention to build the entire rail system of their country. Sadly, they give up long before finishing.:D

...
Guilty as charged. Back when I first started on this journey, once I figured out how to make a simple object, my next ambition was to build a country. Naturally I picked a small one to not overwhelm myself, LOL. Over the years I've worked on it off- and on. Using a set of detailed topo maps and my lat-long reader, I started placing stations all over my map, adding baseboards as needed to reach the next one. It still exists in TRS19 and is worked on from time to time. Using SpoorPlan maps, the station tracks are pretty good representations of the real thing and a few major landmark buildings have been added but that's about all that has been added besides some of the major roads. When I drive around, my imagination fills in the many blank spots with more detail than even the most poly heavy objects can provide. Over the years, I've found that the building and making is what is fun for me. One really nice thing about virtual trains is that multiple projects can be in various stages of development, can't do that with a real model railway.
 
The work I'm now employed with . Keep me busy . But I know may never be finished . But I could say this about any of my model rail too . Thought the route and research for the work . I'm learning and finding many aspects I didn't know of , or didn't fully appreciate the working and design .

Matt
 
The last released version of my Clovis Sub (Clovis 2.5) went from just west of Belen (MP 897) to a meaningless point in the desert just east of Yeso (MP 719) for just on 180 miles. The unreleased Clovis 3.0 version was fully completed to the Fort Sumner Bridge (MP 740), with track layed a couple of miles further for a total of almost exactly 200 miles. It took about 6 hours to drive from Fort Sumner to the Belen fuel racks against a realistic flow of AI traffic.

And no - it will never get finished, and what is done is un-releasable without a major rebuild which just isn't worth the trouble. Many ground textures are broken, and the texturing was never up to much of a standard anyway, the road network is broken, but most of all I built the route 'wide' - 5 or 6 boards - back when two or three was the norm and 1500m was a 'long' draw distance, but with the current draw distances it's nowhere near wide enough. She was a fun project tho...

Andy ;)
 
Back in the days of TRS2004 I started modelling a small part of the 3ft 6in (1067mm) narrow gauge system in northern South Australia operated by the South Australian Government Railways. My intention was to only do a few kms, just to test out a few route creation techniques. The entire network back in the 1960s was about 640km in size (not counting another NG system, the Central Australia Line, it connected to of 1,240km in length). In 2009 I uploaded the "finished" route (only 290km of it).

This year I uploaded an updated TRS19 version of the route which was expanded by an additional 80kms by completing one of its branch lines. I am currently working on upgrading a 137km section of the original work to give it accurate terrain and scenery (it was created before the existence of TransDEM and Google Earth). I am also adding an 80km section of the Central Australia Line, the only section of that original 1,240km line that was still in operation in the 1960s. Estimated release date - sometime in 2022. I have no plans to complete the entire network.

Of the entire original NG network (about 1,880km) only 39kms between Port Augusta and Quorn is still in operation as the Pichi Richi Railway, a narrow gauge steam preservation railway.

That is my biggest and most complex route so far, and about 18 years (and still counting) in the making.
 
Hmm the biggest route I've ever made in Trainz was over 450 miles total.
I was burnt out from that project but its finished. I'm still feeling burnt out from it since it was just myself working 9 straight months everyday when I had the time. Nevertheless I felt it was worth it and has been pretty good with Trainz so far without major issues. Just minor things that needed touch up here and there but that's it.

Cheers
 
I must be a masochist. I now have 3 routes on the DLS which are all rather large. I started off with VR Goulburn Murray Lines which has now grown to 300 kms of track on mainline and branches and working on version 5. ARTC Main South - VR North East is over 400 kms and version 2 will add another 150 kms. Illawarra South Coast is only a baby at 200 kms, but most of the work went into the detailing and fortunately Taggy did the vast majority of trackwork and overhead wiring.

Cheers Graeme
 
Yes, masochism explains a lot in trainz. The pain of creation, a bit like child birth (so I am told) followed by the elation of seeing your creation released into the "wild" of the DLS, or is it more pain like guiding a child through their teenage years?
 
The teenage years are when a new version of Trainz comes out, and you find out your child is no longer what you hoped it would be. :hehe:
 
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