This is exactly how I work especially on my ancient routes I imported into TRS19/TRS22 + but decided for the default make the brush bigger. I suppose it depends upon whether people want to use PBR with all the quirks or cover the surface with textures. If the PBR textures worked as textures without the quirks, then it wouldn't be so bad. I found that setting the Shader Quality to Standard gives the most consistent results across the board no matter what textures are used.
Install the app
How to install the app on iOS
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Build 117042 progress
- Thread starter rhban
- Start date
This is exactly how I work especially on my ancient routes I imported into TRS19/TRS22 + but decided for the default make the brush bigger. I suppose it depends upon whether people want to use PBR with all the quirks or cover the surface with textures. If the PBR textures worked as textures without the quirks, then it wouldn't be so bad. I found that setting the Shader Quality to Standard gives the most consistent results across the board no matter what textures are used.
The PBR textures will cause the triangles of land over the tracks as well as gaps underneath. The solution to this is to paint the area with a wider brush.
When laying track, you want to ensure that the height is fixed, otherwise, your trains may derail due to a broken rail. The tracks will have a slight gap between them at spline points that cause the derail.
To fix the height of your track, click on the height adjust tool found in the advanced pulldown at the bottom of the track tools panel just next to the spline point. When the height is fixed, the spline circle will turn from white to solid yellow. You can also get the height of the track at one spline point then click each following spline point to fix the height the same along a line of tracks. This is useful for those areas where everything has to be the same height such as in yards and stations and also for bridges. Set the height of one end, get the height and then apply that height to the other end.
I do know how to fix height and the pieces of track in the photos above are fixed to an extent, except that they are on a slight slope: the bridge end is set at 5.00 and the next one at 4.50, and I gave the terrain an initial height of 5.00 before smoothing the track and then gradually lowering the terrain down to the stream. What I am complaining about is that with older versions - I've haven't tried trs2019, but I had a version of TANE before my old computer packed up - with older versions, this was not a problem: the track smoother smoothed anything, you could even pull a track over a mountain and the smooth tool would create a nice ravine. I have no idea what you mean by painting with a wider brush - this does not seem to have any affect apart from... ah, I see others have pointed out other solutions, using the scary new version 2 tools.
I do know how to fix height and the pieces of track in the photos above are fixed to an extent, except that they are on a slight slope: the bridge end is set at 5.00 and the next one at 4.50, and I gave the terrain an initial height of 5.00 before smoothing the track and then gradually lowering the terrain down to the stream. What I am complaining about is that with older versions - I've haven't tried trs2019, but I had a version of TANE before my old computer packed up - with older versions, this was not a problem: the track smoother smoothed anything, you could even pull a track over a mountain and the smooth tool would create a nice ravine. I have no idea what you mean by painting with a wider brush - this does not seem to have any affect apart from... ah, I see others have pointed out other solutions, using the scary new version 2 tools.
You have to remember that we provide support to people around the world at many skill levels. We also provide support with generic information and provide basic information so that everyone, not just you, can find the answer they need. Sometimes, the help answer may appear basic, but that's because we also don't know your skill level either. Remember, as you've found out already that Trainz can be quite complex even though it's supposed to be a game.
The issue is the textures, but I wasn't sure if you were aware of the height settings, and this issue has nothing to do with the new Surveyor 2.0.
The new PBR textures, such as the built-in ballast, grass, and rock textures, have height information built into the textures to give them a 3d look to them. The issue here with the PBR textures is they raise the height of the terrain and then the terrain goes over the track as you have encountered. In other instances, there are spaces below the terrain making the track appear to be floating when it's not. One of the solutions is to use a wider texture brush when putting down the textures under the track. This will smooth out the terrain and remove the raised portions, well it's not really removing them and only spreading them out a bit more.
The alternative is to turn down the Shader performance, found in the Trainz settings tab on the Launcher under performance, to standard. This requires a restart so don't do it while you have a route open. When you open your route then, the PBR effect is no longer there, and the same textures work as if they did in TANE.
It's not that PBR textures can't or shouldn't be used with the Shader set on high, it's they take a lot more work and practice, and for those of us who have imported old routes we worked on a decade ago, they create a sad mess that needs repairing. If I were to start a new route from scratch, I would definitely use PBR textures because they can be quite nice.
It's not that PBR textures can't or shouldn't be used with the Shader set on high, it's they take a lot more work and practice, and for those of us who have imported old routes we worked on a decade ago, they create a sad mess that needs repairing. If I were to start a new route from scratch, I would definitely use PBR textures because they can be quite nice.
I was able to do both - import an old route with its original (non-PBR) textures and then remove all the textures so I could start again with all PBR textures. Removing the old textures was easy.
- I used Content Manager to give me a list of all the environmental textures used as dependencies in the route.
- I then used the Bulk Asset Update/Replace tool to add all those textures to the Assets to Update box
- I made sure that the Anywhere on the route option was selected and ticked the Replace ground texture rotation and scale box
- I then placed the TRS19 Grid texture in the Asset to Update box
- Then I clicked the Begin button
That gave me the original route with all the track, buildings, scenery, etc plus the terrain features, Clutter and TurfFX layers all in place but with no ground textures. I then started "painting" with PBR textures.
Last edited:
I was able to do both - import an old route with its original (non-PBR) textures and then remove all the textures so I could start again with all PBR textures. Removing the old textures was easy.
- I used Content Manager to give me a list of all the environmental textures used as dependencies in the route.
- I then used the Bulk Asset Update/Replace tool to add all those textures to the Assets to Update box
- I made sure that the Anywhere on the route option was selected and ticked the Replace ground texture rotation and scale box
- I then placed the TRS19 Grid texture in the Asset to Update box
- Then I clicked the Begin button
That gave me the original route with all the track, buildings, scenery, etc plus the terrain features, Clutter and TurfFX layers all in place but with no ground textures. I then started "painting" with PBR textures.
How big is your route?
One of mine is 320 km long with a gazillion baseboards.
Using your method, I may try that someday but right now my enthusiasm for a project like that isn't there.
How big is your route?
One of mine is 320 km long with a gazillion baseboards.
Mine is about the same.
Using your method, I may try that someday but right now my enthusiasm for a project like that isn't there.
It is a long slow process, like painting a room, but I have learned a great deal about using PBR textures. Some advice I received from Zec in another thread has proven invaluable.
Using PBR textures can mean a bit of a change for how you paint textures.
The first step is that blending PBR and non PBR textures is not recommended; but at this point there are a lot of PBR textures available so that should hopefully be a little easier.
The second is to not use texture rotation unless you specifically need to. Apart from the performance cost (each angle of rotation is essentially like loading another ground texture), it will also cause issues with the parallax effect. You can 'align' textures where necessary (so for example wheat fields you'll choose a specific angle to paint it), but you want to avoid 'rotation spamming' (holding rotation keys when painting).
The third is, as a few have mentioned, to play with the scale. Most ground textures tend to work best with the scale at or around minimum, unless you specifically want the 'larger' effect.
One addition is that there are a few creators (I can't remember usernames offhand, sorry) that are making PBR ground textures with the heightmap set to RGB=128,128,128 (this is essentially the same height as non PBR ground textures, and is flat); this results in a flat texture that should work at least somewhat well with legacy textures and works fairly well with full PBR/heightmapped textures.
As to the 'jellyfish' effect, this is unfortunately a side effect of parallax effects, due to the way that games render them. As noted by pware this effect is seen in a lot of other games (I've actually had a bit of fun the last few years playing 'spot the parallax artifacts' in games lol ); most games work around this by using flat textures on terrain that is not actually flat. This is where having flat versions of textures that also have parallax could work, but it might be difficult to blend them well depending on the textures. The other option is to avoid very sharp changes to terrain, or to cover them with other objects.
By not using the texture rotation effect (holding down the "[" and ']" keys while painting) has saved about 4MB in the route size so far (I am about halfway through retexturing). However, this does result in the repeating pattern effect you often get with all textures that the rotation effect can eliminate but this is not very noticeable when viewed at ground level and I am using grass and bush assets, including TurfFX, to further hide the repetitions close to the track.
One problem that I will soon have to deal with is the "jellyfish effect". Most of the route is in the Australian Outback, fairly flat and featureless, where "jellyfish" are not a problem. But one section is on a mountain pass with mostly sloping terrain where the "jellyfish" will probably "swarm". I may have to use non-PBR textures in that area.
Peter
You have to remember that we provide support to people around the world at many skill levels. We also provide support with generic information and provide basic information so that everyone, not just you, can find the answer they need. Sometimes, the help answer may appear basic, but that's because we also don't know your skill level either. Remember, as you've found out already that Trainz can be quite complex even though it's supposed to be a game.
The issue is the textures, but I wasn't sure if you were aware of the height settings, and this issue has nothing to do with the new Surveyor 2.0.
The new PBR textures, such as the built-in ballast, grass, and rock textures, have height information built into the textures to give them a 3d look to them. The issue here with the PBR textures is they raise the height of the terrain and then the terrain goes over the track as you have encountered. In other instances, there are spaces below the terrain making the track appear to be floating when it's not. One of the solutions is to use a wider texture brush when putting down the textures under the track. This will smooth out the terrain and remove the raised portions, well it's not really removing them and only spreading them out a bit more.
The alternative is to turn down the Shader performance, found in the Trainz settings tab on the Launcher under performance, to standard. This requires a restart so don't do it while you have a route open. When you open your route then, the PBR effect is no longer there, and the same textures work as if they did in TANE.
It's not that PBR textures can't or shouldn't be used with the Shader set on high, it's they take a lot more work and practice, and for those of us who have imported old routes we worked on a decade ago, they create a sad mess that needs repairing. If I were to start a new route from scratch, I would definitely use PBR textures because they can be quite nice.
Thanks. I have gone for the Shader adjustment, and that seems to work.
Similar threads
- Replies
- 4
- Views
- 113
- Replies
- 23
- Views
- 996