Turning Vehicles into Carz to be used for a Region Help

hert

Screenshot Creator
I have been trying to make traffic versions of some vehicles to be used in a region. By creating a new asset and having it reference to a mesh on a different kuid. But I have ran into a problem I get error:

VE109: The low-detail meshes total more than 500 polygons. This may have a negative impact on performance: 0: 4584

So how do I set it up to add LOD on traffic versions that reference a mesh?

Any help thanks,
 
If the original vehicle doesn’t have LOD, you’re not going to be able to create meaningful LOD’s out of thin air, although I suppose you could configure it to be culled at a certain distance.

The usual work-around is to declare the trainz-build of the traffic asset to be 3.5. This build gives warnings about the lack of LOD and the inefficiency it causes, but not a hard fault. It’s not a great solution because it’s exploiting what you might call a loophole in the validation protocols. If N3V ever get around to enforcing their support lifetime policy, build 3.5 assets will no longer be accepted as uploads to the DLS, which will close that loophole.

If the original vehicles do have LOD, they will likely be of the mesh-table type. From experience I know that mesh-table LOD does not work well on traffic vehicles. You often see the dreadful looking lowest detail mesh even when you are only a short distance from the vehicle. The solution is to configure the LOD using a .LM.txt file, which works better with animated things.

Be aware too that since you are “aliasing” another asset, it may come to grief if that original asset changes in some way that is incompatible with your traffic asset.

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Ok thanks for the help. The version workaround at least worked to have the asset show up in game.

With making a .LM.txt would I have edit the original asset to added it in then reference it within my new asset?

The cars I am wanting to use do have different LOD meshes. Its the 1933 Ford Coupe assets from Trainz Forge.
 
You wouldn’t (cannot) edit the original asset because that belongs to someone else. And no need to anyway. You would simply list all the LOD meshes in your mesh-table (as “mesh-asset” references) and then also refer to them in your .LM.txt file, along with the corresponding fraction of screen size at which they appear. At least I think that’s how it would work, I’ve never actually done it and might be wrong.
 
Well the good news is I got one of the assets I wanted as traffic. The JR old log truck and trailer. Iam using aliasing is because it references to payware models and such. Thanks for the help, Anyways here it is in game:
My-Trainz-Screenshot-Image.jpg


As for the 1933 Model Coupe I cant seem to get it to work. I added a .im to my asset reference the LODs and I get an error:

; <kuid:106007:101495> : Validating <kuid:106007:101495>
; <NULL> : MeshResource::LoadResource> <NULL> | arc:fld:$(local)/hash-72||kuid 106007 101495.tzarc|
; <NULL> : Loading mesh lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : TrainzMeshFile_Load> unable to open output file for reading: lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : VE77: Unable to load indexed mesh 'modelcoupe.lm'

Not exactly sure how to fix this one.
 
Great job Hert! It would be interesting to see some more unique vehicles in the road traffic sometimes. A lot of it is pretty standard.
 
As for the 1933 Model Coupe I cant seem to get it to work. I added a .im to my asset reference the LODs and I get an error:

; <kuid:106007:101495> : Validating <kuid:106007:101495>
; <NULL> : MeshResource::LoadResource> <NULL> | arc:fld:$(local)/hash-72||kuid 106007 101495.tzarc|
; <NULL> : Loading mesh lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : TrainzMeshFile_Load> unable to open output file for reading: lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : VE77: Unable to load indexed mesh 'modelcoupe.lm'

Not exactly sure how to fix this one.

Hard to be sure without seeing everything in detail, but there seems to be some confusion between .lm and .im (or in capital letters that would be .LM and .IM). And also I'm not sure if all or only some of the meshes are in .trainzmesh format. Just work through it carefully making sure the content of both the config.txt and the .LM.txt files reflect what is actually there in the source asset.


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; <kuid:106007:101495> : Validating <kuid:106007:101495>
; <NULL> : MeshResource::LoadResource> <NULL> | arc:fld:$(local)/hash-72||kuid 106007 101495.tzarc|
; <NULL> : Loading mesh lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : TrainzMeshFile_Load> unable to open output file for reading: lod3.trainzmesh
- <kuid:106007:101495> : VE77: Unable to load indexed mesh 'modelcoupe.lm'

Open the asset for editing in Explorer and check for a .fbx file or files.

Delete them and then submit if they're there. That should fix that problem. If there are none, I don't know the answer either.
 
I dont know if it has anything to do with them not showing up as trackside, but the assets have been classified wrong.
All the 1933 Model Coupes are:
category class- passenger stations and type industry.
 
I eventually found the 1933 Ford Coupe pack on the Trainz Forge website (man, I really detest 3rd Party websites and the way they organize things). I looked at one example too see if I could work out how to reference it for use as a traffic vehicle, but I couldn't do it. I don't know how to implement an LM.txt file if the actual meshes are not in the same asset. Maybe the .LM.txt method isn't eve necessary with TRS19 style LOD, I just don't know. Bit out of my depth I think.

Maybe it would be better to ask the guy at Trainz Forge to create the series of traffic-enabled vehicles and then ask for permission to reskin them. They are indeed gorgeous-looking models.



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I can't find anything remotely near a 1933 Forde Coupe on the Trainz Forge website. It's not on the DLS (I think) and you haven't quoted a kuid for it, so I can't look at the original asset to make an informed comment.

The traffic vehicles I'm accustomed to seeing have the following config properties;

Kind scenery
trackside 0
category-class VL

You could try those settings with your asset and see if it makes any difference.

Oh sorry they can be found here:

https://trainz-forge.com/scenery

1933 Ford Coupes
Looks like they were fixed because I redownloaded them and they are correct now, so will see if it works now.
 
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