Major Tri State Area Project

In the fourth pic were did you get the canopy and stairs also in the first pic were did you get the Diesel MN Car?

If you're heading down towards Grand Central I could probably help out with this project.

Old motive power that has been rebuilt at the Croton Harmon shops. Here we have Metro North FL9 2012 on an excursion trip heading up the Hudson hauling 2 shoreliner I's and a Shoreliner I cab. I blended textures to give the terrain a realistic look.

We finally have some night shots. Here, we have an SD80MAC in CSX paint bound for the Oakpoint line terminating at a freight yard in the South Bronx near the RFK bridge.

Would anyone know how I can make my screenshots look better quality like the other ones on the forum. My screenshots seem to look somewhat not detailed or have the hd look to them.

Are you using the built-in screenshot tool?

Are you playing Trainz in full resolution?

Does your upload host limit bandwidth?

What are your graphics settings?

Do you remember when the RFK Bridge was the Triboro Bridge?

Yep, I forgot exactly why they changed the name of that bridge. Sometimes I call it Triboro bridge though. I am playing Trainz at Full Resolution. I am not sure about the upload host limit bandwidth. For the graphics settings, I have most of the sliders set to high with the draw distance set to 5000m. I hit Prnt screen to get the screenshot and then I upload it to this website called hostthenpost.org. It seems alot easier than photobucket.

My main goal for this route is to build a good decent looking Hudson line route that my laptop can handle. I would like some nice detail in there but I would still like to keep the frame rates smooth. If not, then I will accept just a little bit of lag. Here are the key specifications for my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop.

Processor: Intel Pentium Inside Dual Core T3400 (2.16Ghz), 1MB cache, 667MHz FSB
Memory: 4GB DDR2
Graphics: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Display adapter: Mobile Intel 4 series express chipset family


I read somewhere that accelerated Integrated Graphics are better than regular Integrated Graphics when it comes to gaming but discrete graphics are truly designed for this. I will happily appreciate any tips on how to keep this moderately detailed route to run smooth on this machine. I know I have probably asked this same question before but I would just like to hear what everyone has to say. Some of my routes are more detailed than others that is why I ask the same quesiton.

Here are my display settings for trainz.
Display Mode: Direct X
Display Resolution: 1366x768
Bit depth: 32
Full Screen
Aspect Ratio: Auto detect
Anti Alias Mode: 2
Resource Cache size: 256
Vertical Sync: Auto
Frequency: Auto

Trainz Video settings


Maximum Draw distance: 5000m
Scenery detail: Normal
Texture detail: Normal
Anisotropy: 2
Train Detail: High
Good weather fog: 0.2
Bad weather fog: 0.4
Gamma: 1.00 None

Would there be anything in the settings that I can change to see a bit of an increase in fps.

The route is still being built. But right now, I would like to hear everyone's opinion on this. A couple of weeks ago, I started using Transdem to make a DEM for my Major Tri State Area Project. About the last 5 or 6 screenshots I posted are in the DEM I am talking about. Last weekend, I took the time to look at the manual and the tutorials for transdem. I went to the seamless server and this time, I downloaded parts of NJ, NYC, upstate NY, Long Island, and Connecticut. I successfully got the DEM's that I wanted. The whole process involved merging DEM's and saving them in pieces to my computer. Getting the TIFF image and merging the DEM took a good amount of time to do. I think it has to do with the size of the DEM. Last night I finished the DEM and merging process. Earlier around 1:30, I decided to import the DEM to the Trainz CMP and at first, I got a fatal error for trainz 2009 but then the DEM continued it's import to trainz 2009. Right now, it is 5:06 and the DEM is still importing to trainz. It seems that my hard drive memory went decreased a good amount. Last weekend when I decided to use the Transdem program to make a new DEM that would consist of NJ, NY, and CT I had 97GB. Today, I have 78GB of free space. I know Transdem is a very good program if you are making a railroad in trainz but I am really debating if I should be using this on my laptop. My hard drive space has been decreasing and I don't want it to decrease to the point where I am going to have to buy a new hard drive. I wonder, should I store the Transdem program on a flash drive so when if I get a new computer soon hopefully, I can put it on there and use it. What does everyone think. Or should I do what I did in the first screenshots of the first Major Tri State Area a couple of months ago which was creating all the elevations and hills by hand. Something is telling me to go with hand creating the route on my laptop and and when I get a new computer hopefully, use transdem. I had no problems hand creating. I think it all has to do with patience because I think I could build the elevations just like transdem can but at a slower rate. Yep, I think I will go with hand creating for now and transdem for the desktop soon if I get one.

Also, if I am hand creating, could somebody tell me how to get the basemaps to appear high quality and remove the white or blue edges from the basemap. I also see that somebody by the name of Fishlipsatwork made a whole bunch of DEMs on the DLS that I could use for the Major Tri State Area Project such as Bronx East, Bronx North, and Port Jervis. How good are his DEM's. Since it is a prototypical railroad I am making, would his DEM's be good to use also. I would really like to hear everyone's opinion on how this is going to go. I also found the Major Tri State Area Project that I had when I first posted screenshots of the Major Tri State Area Project and the frame rates for that suprisingly are very good on my laptop. Very little lag and no stuttering whatsoever.Very smooth for a detailed route. So for now until I get a computer that is built for trainz, I think I will hand create my routes and use transdem in the future.

The DEMs are fairly good (about the same that you'd get from TransDEM), but you'll need to do some trimming around the edges before you attempt to merge the routes.

I decided to give Transdem another go. One thing I just figured out is, instead of rectangle selecting the area I want in the seamless viewer, I can choose the area I want by County. I am not going to mess around with the orthophotos due to the amount of hard drive space on my laptop. Files would be scattered all over the computer. Really, the only thing I wish I knew how to get in my DEM is the dark blue lines (water), red lines (roads), and light blue lines (train tracks). If I can get that into my DEM, than I would be ready to start building. One of the members that is creating the tri state railroads, Trainzpro has the lines that I am referring to. For now, I'll test my route building with the Port Jervis DEM that Fishlipsatwork made. I'll continue my DEM for the Major Tri State Area until I get a little more research on DEM's. I appreciate any help along the way.

Great shot guys, and good luck with your progress!!

Ish

malikrthr said:

... I downloaded parts of NJ, NYC, upstate NY, Long Island, and Connecticut. ... I had 97GB. Today, I have 78GB of free space. ...

Click to expand...

It's relatively simple math. The higher the resolution of the DEM and the bigger the DEM (talking about the cartographic data source here), the higher its storage needs, unfortunately resolution increasing it quadratically. It you have little disk space, stick to 1 arc sec DEMs. Do with 1:24k topo maps, refrain from aerial imagery wherever possible.

In TransDEM, make small modules, merge in Surveyor. Select DEMs to acquire in small modules, too, limit yourself to the data in the immediate vicinity of your route. You can't pack half of New England into one Trainz route anyway.

Instead of having to deal with 20GB of geo data you might be able to bring it down to less than 10% of it, by downloading only what you really, really need.

Status Update: Experimenting with a DEM by Fishlipsatwork called Bronx East. The Fordham Station is now complete.

malikrthr said:

Status Update: The Fordham Station is now complete.

Click to expand...

Can't wait to see the screenshots! :wave:


Ish

malikrthr said:

Status Update: Experimenting with a DEM by Fishlipsatwork called Bronx East. The Fordham Station is now complete.

Click to expand...

The DEM does not include Midtown. I have tried merging with another one of FshLipsAtWork's DEMs (NY NJ), but they don't line up.

Status Update: Just completed all the track work between the Fordham Station and Botanical Gardens Station. Now we need some more scenery between these two stations and we'll have an awesome Metro North route. Here are some screenshots on the EOH Harlem and New Haven lines. Right now, this is on a DEM called Bronx East by Fishlipsatwork.


Shoreliner Consist at the Fordham Station


R46 subway cars at the Fordham Station playing the role of the Metro North M3 since there is no M3 for trainz. I don't know if anyone knows this but did you know that the R46 subway car is the sister car of the Budd M3.


Botanical Garden Station. Here is the new multistory parking lot that was recently built.

malikrthr said:

Status Update: Just completed all the track work between the Fordham Station and Botanical Gardens Station. Now we need some more scenery between these two stations and we'll have an awesome Metro North route.

Click to expand...

Well done, now for the "hard" part! The scenery alone can take years depending on the level of detail you choose! Good luck!

That's the challenge, trying to build this route without putting too much detail into this since I am building this on a Dell laptop with an accelerated IGP. I want to try to run this with decent fps. My first screenshots of this project which took place last year ran quite well on my laptop so I would like this to have around that much detail.

Some more screenshots have arrived. I am really trying to not add too much detail. Conrail SD40 bringing these retired NJT arrows north to the Beacon line/Housatonic Railroad, where they will be traveling northeast soon going onto the Danbury and New Haven line. They are going to be used on the AMT service. Notice Fordham University on the small hill.



Metro North Shoreliner III's at Fordham Station.