Default Track Replacements

[CSRX]

Yes, that's in the works. Possibly by end of week.

The testing set is available as 88502 but I didn't get any feedback on those. Feel free to give it a spin and let me know.

Hmm, maybe a fluke, but I clicked "download" a few times, and it didn't do anything. I clicked view file, and it shows nothing inside it. Maybe some how I'm not able to download the testing file? Thought I was able to before when the test files of the kuju/xtracks were available.

[yellowdog]

^^I'm seeing the same thing. I thought I had previously downloaded it, but apparently not. And now can't.

[eric]

I'll re-upload and also add the compressed shapes. The last one was uncompressed and ridiculously large.

Check in about an hour or so.

[yellowdog]

Download works now, thanks!

[TrainSimJack]

Where does this initiative stand today?

And would this help update an old Mapleleaftracks MSTS route I just bought this weekend?

Right now my switches look like this:


Did this end up in the file library, and is there a guide on installing it?

[scfe_fan]

Where does this initiative stand today?

And would this help update an old Mapleleaftracks MSTS route I just bought this weekend?

Right now my switches look like this:


Did this end up in the file library, and is there a guide on installing it?

They've been in the file library for weeks. They work great and I can attest to them matching up fairly well with scale rail as well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eric]

Yes, and the new tracks work great -- I'm currently using it on the LS&I.

Use the Option 1 (ACleanTrack) and not the US Track (linked in the Banner)

Copy that zip's Global\Shapes into your Global\Shapes,

Also copy the provided TrackProfile directory into your LS&I directory so that the dynamic track gets the right profile and textures.

Right now my switches look like this:

Yeah, and we can't un-see that, Jack. Thanks for the reminder of how far we've come....

[TrainSimJack]

The banner looks like it's pointing to Option1 - And that's the one to use for the old LS&I route correct?

[TrainSimJack]

I think I've got it!

Eric, does this just replace the rails?
Is there a replacement track/tie texture as well?

[eric]

It replaces the rails, and re-uses the existing textures in the route. It's a true once-and-done drop-in replacement.

While some feel otherwise, there's a lot of work that goes into track textures and terrain painting on some of these vintage routes, and an outright replacement (e.g. the Option 2 tracks with DDS textures from US Tracks) might look better, but doesn't blend into the scene quite as seamlessly as the Option 1 tracks do.

[pschlik]

Noticed what's less of a bug and more of an oversight in that some aspects of the dynamic track profile use "US_Track3s.ace" (in addition to other pieces using "US_Track3.ace"), but there are no alternate textures for US_Track3s.ace. The result is that, from far away distances, dynamic track will appear to use the default ballast color rather than the alternate ballast color. (Note that US_Track3sw.ace and US_Track3w.ace are in a similar position-no alternate texture versions are provided).

Here's a bit of dynamic track on the MLT Greater Toronto Area route that uses the default texture, while every other bit of track is using the MacTier texture (since that seemed to most closely match the original ballast color used by MLT)


I could probably figure out a way to modify US_Track3s.ace to match the regular US_Track3.ace texture, but every time I have to deal with .ace textures part of me dies. All these old tools just refuse to work as designed, crash because you looked at them wrong, and produce nonsense output if you forget how exactly to set the dozen different compression options. And don't even get me started on messing with alpha channels, nobody seems to agree if the alpha channel should be implemented as a separate image or if the transparency should just be built into the source image, and translating between the two approaches is always a nightmare.

Could also modify the track profile to not use textures that lack the modified ballast texture but I suspect that could produce unintended results since US_Track3.ace does not contain any rails/tie plates in the image.

[kapitaen]

@ pschlik

You seem to be confusing something here.
The Default Tracks - Option 1 (ATracks) does not use any US_Track Textures for either the tracks or the track profile?








Here again the installation instructions!

     1) You may want to back up your Global\Shapes directory before proceeding.
       Right click the "SHAPES" directory and send to a compressed file "GlobalBackup.zip".
       This will preserve your original files and make them available to restore if there are problems with the replaceents
      
 2) Unzip the Global.zip folder and copy the SHAPES and TEXTURES folder to the GLOBAL directory.
          Replace files in the SHAPES directory when prompted.
          Keep any files already existing in the TEXTURES directory
          
 3) There should be no need to install new textures if this route was already set up for XTracks or Kuju Tracks (acleantrack1.ace/concrete1.ace).  Do Not replace any existing Textures. If the route does not have acleantrack/concrete textures already, you can copy over the ACE files in the textures-spare folder or seek out better ones on Trainsim.Com as these are relatively low quality.
          
4) Copy the TRACKPROFILE folder to your {route}folder to enable the new dynamic track profile in OpenRails.
​

Jan

[pschlik]

Since it apparently wasn't obvious, I'm using option 2 which uses US Tracks textures because I don't like seeing individual pixels. Some of these atracks textures are absolutely tiny.

[rdayt]

The ATrack textures can be any size you need.
There are several really nice ones in the libraries at both TS and ET.
The ones I use are 2048. I don't see any individual pixels.

Randy

[eric]

If it's Dynamic track that's not behaving, then just change the TRprofile.stf file for that route to use whatever you want to use, including a DDS texture.