HD Terrain - When and backward compatability?

First off, apologies if the information is available; I've looked and didn't see it.

Has there been a date or estimated date for the release of the Trainz+ update with the HD Terrain, and when that comes, will it be backward-compatible? That is, will I be able to, or will existing layouts automatically update and/or be able to apply this feature?

tirediron said:

First off, apologies if the information is available; I've looked and didn't see it.

Has there been a date or estimated date for the release of the Trainz+ update with the HD Terrain, and when that comes, will it be backward-compatible? That is, will I be able to, or will existing layouts automatically update and/or be able to apply this feature?

Click to expand...

To answer the first part, the HD Terrain is scheduled to appear in the next Trainz Plus update, sometime this month - unless the sky falls in.

For the second part I have no clear answer at this stage. I would hope that it will be an option for current Trainz Plus layouts (build 5.2?) in much the same way as you currently have the choice between 10m and 5m grids. But unlike the current 5m grid option I believe (to be confirmed) that it does not have to be applied to an entire baseboard i.e. you could be able to select the area around the track only to apply the HD Terrain grid. But this is speculation and/or wishful thinking on my part.

We will see.

I certainly hope it's more granular than baseboard size. In many cases that would be a lot of unneeded verticies to track.

I have mixed feelings over all, there are few places I can't flex my creative muscles and get good results for terrain (not going for real world 1:1 mind you) but getting away from stair step ground textures would be nice. Although even that can be mitigated thru splines.

HD Terrain is updated at the baseboard level using the S20 marquee tool (same system as 10m>5m is now, although the process is slightly slower so there's a progress bar showing you how long to update). We'll be publishing a guide text week for our upcoming Alpha test. Register your interest here: https://n3vgames.typeform.com/to/XWZ3YK6p

Due to the way it works, performance is similar to existing terrain.

Thanks!! Very much looking forward to this. The crudeness of the terraforming has been one of my biggest gripes with the last few versions!