Philskene layout

Hi, all !

Here's an HO layout by Philskene, available on the DLS. I'm in admiration, as usual.

GIMP-2.png


As far as I can see there's no dighole in it, anywhere.
For me, this means that the layout's baseboards's are the room's floor and that the layout's tables or shelves (I don't know which is the right word) are terra-formed or something, and are actually part of the baseboards.

So, where can I find some docs, tutorials or whatever to learn how to achieve the same result?

Thanks in advance.
 
Philskene will no doubt have the definitive answer, but I believe he may use the recommended method of using the elevation tool to drop to the floor in steep escarpments that are hidden by the walls. But having said that, I have no idea how you then get a perfectly flat floor like that, or if he is doing it the way you mention, how he gets a flat tabletop! I just know the result looks great!
 
I did give the 'terraforming' method a try once and basically what you do is set the ground sculpting tool to the floor depth you want with a high level of sensitivity and shape your floor how and where you want. The only problem with it is that you can't get a right angle cut down to floor level and it will always be on a slight slope. That's why Phil and others who use this method use those very thick fascia boards on their layouts.
 
You can always just download a few of his routes, go into surveyor, and start disecting and learning. I learn best from taking things apart. This is a good way to learn session making also- (though with sessions other than Phil's as his are non "traditional" sessions (which I like, personally.) Visit Phils YouTube channel for more joy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2tLzQO9RFK7ILccYTsB5w
 
You can always just download a few of his routes, go into surveyor, and start disecting and learning. I learn best from taking things apart. This is a good way to learn session making also- (though with sessions other than Phil's as his are non "traditional" sessions (which I like, personally.) Visit Phils YouTube channel for more joy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2tLzQO9RFK7ILccYTsB5w


I also strongly prefer Philskene's narrative session format. I use that scheme exclusively in the sessions I have uploaded so far.
 
Phil's "success" and/or acceptance by the community is interesting to me. If I (unknown route creator) were to do some of the things he does I'd be "schooled." In his routes you find half of houses in mountains/hills, train tracks over the roofs of buildings, etc, etc. And yet, he is rightfully regarded as a great route builder and he is perhaps the most recommended route creator.

Is it because he is so good at his "style" that we can see what he is doing and those things just don't matter? In fact, for his style to work as it does those things have to be done. (In many cases he is "filling" every available space.) I find this very interesting. Can only philskene do philskene routes? (rhetorical) TS19 Port Zyd is my favorite route providing hours and hours of enjoyment. But I'm glad I don't work in one of those buildings with trains running on my roof! :)

Thanks Phil!
 
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In Denver, Colorado, the street overpasses over the D&RG shops and yard expanded to the point to where this scenario actually took place. A major attraction of his routes are no missing assets. There are also minimal if any boring (in my opinion) hours of running between destinations. The inclusion of several sessions with each route almost undoubtedly increases users operating the route.
 
Greg --

" ... you find half of houses in mountains/hills ... ."

Half? Surely not? Maybe a few? Here and there?

The philskene style. Yes, I'd have to agree with that. I seem to have developed a tool kit of assets that I use on most of my layouts. In fact, it has probably got to the stage where if you have a couple of my layouts you need to download maybe just one or two additional assets when you download another layout. And I generally tend to use maybe just four or five 3D PBR textures drawn from a pallet of a dozen or so textures that I've used in previous layouts. The same for the TurfFX effects too.

tfr. --

Maybe this will help show how the floor is made (this layout is work on progress):

Model-railroad----terraforming-floor.jpg


Select the "Topography" flyout / set the "Cursor radius" dial one clockwise position from the absolute minimum position / make the "Height value" -55.0 (or whatever you want) / select "Use height" (immediately to the right of "Height value").

Carefully lower the terrain at the edges of the baseboard to create the floor. You can make these cuts into the floor at the four cardinal points of the compass (north/south/east/west) and also at 45 degrees, though the 45 degree cuts require a little more skill. Once you have made the cuts around the baseboard you can increase the Cursor radius to clear out the rest of the floor.

As you can see it's not possible to make a vertical face. So use a fascia as shown above to disguise the non-vertical face. There are many different fascias on the Download Station. You need one that is one grid square wide.

As suggested above, consider downloading one of my layouts and then taking it to pieces to see how its done.

Good luck,
Phil
 
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Let me encourage you to try Phil's method of dropping the floor as he shows. I was able to do it rather easily as a rookie. Too bad I don't have his route making skills. I need to improve track laying and signaling a lot (along with most other things) but I encourage you to get involved as it's great fun and, hey, a person has to start somewhere! Maybe in 10 years or so I can share a route. I have some scenes on routes that look great, but still too many things that look very poor. Nice track layout is a problem for me.
 
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