Transforming ordinary roads to seasonal snowy

john2002 said:
MSTS/ORTS has been seasonal since day 1, why not?
Click to expand...

Probably because MSTS had a massive in-house content creation team, and Trainz is predominantly freeware volunteers making content.

Deane, these assets are AMAZING. Not that I (a Victorian Route builder) have any use for snow assets, but gosh, they are so, so detailed.
 
Last edited:
These splines are actually not very detailed at all. Even the most detailed LOD in the 2-lane example is just 12 triangles per mesh. There’s a bit of effort in the textures, but overall they are quite simple assets.
 
They may be simple, as you say, but their effect is complex and simply amazing! What a cool effect. So nicely done! I love it! :cool:
 
Thanks Heinrich.

My hope is that other creators pick up on this concept and make more such assets. They are relatively quick for modellers to make but provide route builders with an easy way to enhance potentially hundreds of existing assets without needing anyone to re-skin, upgrade or make anything new.

I made a series of road cracks and road repair patches some time ago, based on the same concept.

Meanwhile, I will see if I can do some seasonal snow splines for sidewalks or station platforms and come back with more screenshots.


.
 
Last edited:
I am looking forward to these. The concept is great and you dont need to redo or pick a different road system to add snow to them.
 
That's certainly the ideal, but there are so many roads with very different shapes - especially in width and cross-sectional profile - that a one-size-fits-all solution probably doesn't exist. This is why I don't intend to make many, just a few examples to demonstrate the concept. Hopefully other creators will pick that up and make more for the roads that my splines don't suit, or just to provide alternative snow textures.
 
Hi again,

Looks great, and so does your old neighborhood layout. How'd you get the snow up there on top of the junked barbecue...or are they reskinned for winter ?
Hopefully this will work for he dirt roads I use.
 
Last edited:
Jim,

It's not really a layout, just a small scene for testing assets and taking screenshots. Not a BBQ either, a discarded gate I photographed in Bangkok and a derelict filing cabinet. The snow on the cabinet and the sidewalk was just painted into the screenshot ("fake snows", as Trump would say) but every other bit of snow is from proper seasonal assets.

p.s. That USB stick I posted to you looks like it's been stuck in San Francisco for the last week.


.
 
Last edited:
Snow covers available for download

The 1- and 2-lane snow splines for roads shown in this thread are now available on the DLS :);

<kuid:68213:37380> Snow cover 6m 1L 01
<kuid:68213:37379> Snow cover 12m 2L 01

Sidewalks and platforms are proving to be more of a challenge than I initially thought. The problem is that sidewalks and platform splines come in such a huge variety of widths. It's not feasible for me to make snow covers to fit them all, even if I limit myself to just one type of snow texture. I will need to re-think my approach.



.
 
Last edited:
The new style snow cover caused me to take a serious look at snow cover. I found that in a lot of the stuff I had it was way too bright. Snow here is slightly grey after a day or two. Adjusting for that reality revealed an interesting new non-snow lighting environment. It really looked like winter without the snow. I had the "beauty of simmer" versus "the depression of winter" attitude. The road forced me to re-examine winter. It can look quite nice.
 
I find it best to view snowy scenes when the sun is low on the horizon. It gives the scene a subdued wintery light with long shadows on the ground and reveals normal-map texture details in the snow that are otherwise wiped out by glare.

It also helps if the environmental “ambient” colour is a light gray with the RGB dials each set to about the “3 o’clock” position. That’s what I find works in TANE at least. TRS19 will probably need different settings to achieve the same result.


.
 
Last edited:
Seasonal snow covers for paths, sidewalks, platforms etc..

I've now made a set of seasonal snow cover splines for paths, sidewalks and possibly station platforms that are not, in themselves already seasonal. They complement the snow covers for roads shown earlier in this thread.

The snow has footprints (shoeprints?) in semi-random patterns, to suggest pedestrian traffic. The spline widths I chose are 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 metre. Obviously, they won't fit every available path exactly, but I hope the "feathered" edges will help and any overhangs or parts not covered can be disguised in some way with vegetation, fences, buildings etc. covering one side.

These are available on the DLS now;

<kuid:68213:37381> Snow cover 1.5m path 01
<kuid:68213:37382> Snow cover 2.5m path 01
<kuid:68213:37383> Snow cover 3.5m path 01
<kuid:68213:37384> Snow cover 4.5m path 01
<kuid:68213:37385> Snow cover 5.5m path 01


Some pictures showing potential uses;


Width 1.5m
HsADhHv.jpg




Width 2.5m
spqaFaq.jpg



Width 3.5m
VdVSkT7.jpg



Width 4.5m
4K2qh3M.jpg



Width 5.5m
8AcLhtR.jpg






.
 
Last edited:
That looks really awesome!

I wouldn't be out in short sleeves and shorts though it was -15 C last night with a high of 2 C today where I live.
 
Outstanding, Deane. Too bad there isn't some way of "winterizing" the people themselves. Miniskirts and short-sleeved tee shirts don't seem right in three inches of snow. I suppose some sort of scripting tied to the seasons could change the TGA files of a given person so different clothing would be shown.

Bill
 
JCitron said:
That looks really awesome!

I wouldn't be out in short sleeves and shorts though it was -15 C last night with a high of 2 C today where I live.
Click to expand...


That is so true. Those Aussie's must be really tough. "We don need no stinking coats ! " I tried digging down in snow to my mailbox in Merrimac, just once wearing shorts. I won't do that again.

Great job, Deane ! Love the foot prints .
 
HiBaller said:
Outstanding, Deane. Too bad there isn't some way of "winterizing" the people themselves. Miniskirts and short-sleeved tee shirts don't seem right in three inches of snow. I suppose some sort of scripting tied to the seasons could change the TGA files of a given person so different clothing would be shown.

Bill
Click to expand...
Well ya ! They should at least have some wet snow sticking to their bare knee caps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Seasonal PBR Surprise
Replies
3
Views
674
pware
P
H
Sunken roads
Replies
10
Views
682
Jayco-man
J
M
Multi-lane roads do not appear to be working correctly in TRS19 (build 110491)
Replies
11
Views
974
G.M.
G
J
Is there such animal as 'Drive to SIGNAL' command for Trainz?
Replies
6
Views
3K
stagecoach
S
T
A list of good DLS content makers
2
Replies
30
Views
13K
justinroth
J
Back
Top