Blackout16
Member
is there a way to add the 3d turff grass to the entire route at once? i know it sounds like a stupid question, but it takes quite a while to add manually.
TFX Grass
- Thread starter Blackout16
- Start date
My question is why?
From my experiences with Effect Layers, and the experiences of other posters in these forums, is that they work best close to the track.
I restrict TurfFX to within 100m of the track, others keep them much closer. Unlike textures, Effect Layer assets have a built in LOD which makes them disappear from the screen fairly quickly so painting them right out to the edge of the furthest baseboard will be a waste of time (they won't be seen) and may actually affect system performance.
As to how you would paint them on the entire layout in one move, I don't know. I had a look in both Surveyor Classic and Surveyor 2.0 (which I am still "learning the ropes" so I may have missed the answer) and could find the option for painting in a selected and limited area but not the entire layout.
From my experiences with Effect Layers, and the experiences of other posters in these forums, is that they work best close to the track.
I restrict TurfFX to within 100m of the track, others keep them much closer. Unlike textures, Effect Layer assets have a built in LOD which makes them disappear from the screen fairly quickly so painting them right out to the edge of the furthest baseboard will be a waste of time (they won't be seen) and may actually affect system performance.
As to how you would paint them on the entire layout in one move, I don't know. I had a look in both Surveyor Classic and Surveyor 2.0 (which I am still "learning the ropes" so I may have missed the answer) and could find the option for painting in a selected and limited area but not the entire layout.
Blackout16
Member
good point, i dont know why i keep trying to do this, i need to stick to the track.
I know why, having thought of using them everywhere myself when I first "discovered" them. Effect Layers are visually amazing (in my opinion) and it would be very easy to get carried away. But I learned of their limitations very quickly.
Christopher824
CDETrainz.com
After playing with this I found, for me, that it's the amount of different TurfFX layers, not how much you use it, effects it more.
So if you covered a route with short grass, end to end, that's one layer. Next a medium and then a long grass, now up to 3 layers. Not much hit to performance at all. Start adding more layers, it will gradually degrade in performance.
So with a tall layer, you can see it far away, and does create a great visual effect. Notice the lighter green above and below the tracks in the image below;
.
My only wish right now with it would be able to restrict it within the 5m grid square, right now it can't go that small.
So if you covered a route with short grass, end to end, that's one layer. Next a medium and then a long grass, now up to 3 layers. Not much hit to performance at all. Start adding more layers, it will gradually degrade in performance.
So with a tall layer, you can see it far away, and does create a great visual effect. Notice the lighter green above and below the tracks in the image below;
.
My only wish right now with it would be able to restrict it within the 5m grid square, right now it can't go that small.
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When I use the Turf-FX grass, I keep the grass to no deeper than I would when using splines. I may go out 100 meters max, or about 10 squares on a 10-meter grid. This is deep enough to show there's grass, yet not so deep to be useless because it becomes invisible even with longer grass.
To mask the cut-off, I use bushes, trees and textures that are similar in color to the grass.
To mask the cut-off, I use bushes, trees and textures that are similar in color to the grass.