3DTrains: World Landscapes

[boleyd]

I would not try to use RW3 trees as a standard. They were exciting a few years ago but the world has passed them by.

Vegetation is a serious issue on smaller railroads. I like to spend the time needed to make the trackside stuff look as real as possible. Without 3rd party vegetation everything looks the same and is very well tended to. One problem that remains is the trackside brush. almost all of it looks like it has been given a good dose of fertilizer. Nice bright green leaves. A fantasy world.

Trees and trackside brush make up a large portion of what you see from a train. Hillsides are a real problem with the original RW3 trees. They look like they were planted in rows and received constant attention to insure they all remain at the same height. The asset feature is nice but awkward to use. It would be nice to be able to make an asset from a variety of vegetation and save it. With several asset groups in a kit much better trackside vegetation would appear.

The other element is the grass. It is widely used and ends up looking like someone periodically trims the stalks to a common height - ugh. A simple trick is to lower the patch slightly and tilt it to place "shorter" stalks in front. I only use the 03 grass. The other stuff is either too green and/or too bright.

The point is that with care you can make a quite real looking RW3 scene. On a 200 mile stretch of rail winding its way through the Appalachian Mountains such attention to detail is beyond reasonable expectations.

[OTTODAD]

The asset feature is nice but awkward to use. It would be nice to be able to make an asset from a variety of vegetation and save it.

What I am doing is create a patch of mixed vegetation in an empty area, circle it and after Ctrl-C copying it then paste it elsewhere with Ctrl-V, moving and rotating it if required.

While still selected, it's Gizmo showing, it can then be snapped to the terrain with J !

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[boleyd]

But, the old question since the beginning of RW3 time is - how can you save for the next dayt some of the complex assets you capture with CTRL-C?

[madoke]

While I'm sure you already know this, for the sake of others who don't, you can get a pretty significant variation in tree heights, on a somewhat random basis, by changing the "scale" function in the asset block flyout panel (right under the asset quantity). Building a route that is placed in the Northwest US, my route is overwhelmed with White Pine and Ponderosa Pine, and having a forest of same size trees just didn't look right. .Changing the scale to 0.500 provided a change in height of random amounts on about half of the trees. If you go to 0.900 you get a lot more variation. Try it out and see how it goes for you. Results may vary depending on the asset.

BTW, Ponderosa Pines and White Pines are typically 150-200 ft in my neighborhood and around this area. The DP versions of these trees are not correct, with Ponderosas too tall and wide and white pines too short.

I haven't had a chance yet to try out Marc's new 3D trees I just bought, but looking at the previous version my primary complaint was that the pines were way way too small, or the green color too light. In real life, a 30 ft pine would be invisible most of the time because it would be hidden by the bigger trees, since it is still a baby tree. RW has always provided a somewhat overly bright set of assets, and having properly colored trees really helps to compensate for that. I have been almost completely using the DP Trees since they are the most realistic colored and sized of the whole current RSC set (all US DLC routes and generic routes included). The main problem, of course, is that by using only 3D trees to cover mountains and hills, the frame rate suffers. Having some of the animated trees that look right would really help since they reduce system workload to some degree.. I have some time this weekend, so I'll see what Marc's new version has. Looking forward to it, since he does such a fine piece of work on everything he produces.

One last thing, the flex tree lines are really a Godsend in many cases. If all trees were set up this way, as one variation in a set, it would make life so much easier, not having to adjust height of thousands of individual trees (where asset blocks won't work). The DP flex tree lines are a good example. Some versions have varying heights and some have mixed trees in a single line. There are some places in a route where this is the ideal solution. Just need more tree types in this form.

Doug

Doug

[OTTODAD]

But, the old question since the beginning of RW3 time is - how can you save for the next day some of the complex assets you capture with CTRL-C?

You can not and have suggested a long time ago that they should be savable like Consists.

Have also suggested that Asset Blocks should offer a choice of more than one type of whatever in them, to save having to place multiple ones on top of each other.

All that would help the few who are actually creating or modifying routes, but would not make a lot of money for RSC !

In my clone of Thomas Bontempo's B-SB Mojave I have created a selection of such mixed desert vegetation patches in an empty scenery tile and having made a note of it's compass co-ordinates can jump to it, copy a patch and then jump to where I wanted to paste it.

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[Bananarama]

Update v08.04.12 is available. I improved several of the models (size) and textures (hue) for the following:

• American Sycamore (2)
• Austrian Black Pine
• Beech Pine
• Coast Redwood (2)
• Colorado Spruce (3)
• Cuban Royal Pam
• Date Palm (2)
• Giant Sequoia
• Kentucky Coffee Tree
• Lodgepole Pine
• Ponderosa Pine
• Quaking Aspen
• Queen Palm (2)
• Spanish Fir

[OTTODAD]

Update v08.04.12 is available.

For both the Freeware and High-Res versions ?

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[Bananarama]

Yep.

[BNSF650]

How about some new cars Marc... Pleaseeeeeeeee

[OTTODAD]

Yep.

Thanks a lot !

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