Trainz/Tips And Tricks

Multiple Versions Of Trainz On The Same Computer

Suppose you have 2006 and 2009 installed on the same computer. You want to load something on 2006 from TPR but can't because it keeps opening CM2 in 2009 and you want it to open 2006. The solution is to open the 2006 CMP manually. It then downloads from the DLS to that version. To download to CMP2 in 2009 again you have to open CMP2 manually first. After closing CMP/CMP2 it will default to the one you had open last including TC3.

Texture

Rotate you textures in big areas not small for realistic looks. 2) When creating water with different heights close together make sure the water doesn't touch otherwise it will act as one big water mass. Another Tip from Google Earth! Where Power Lines cross your Fields make a small circle of Grass a1 round the base of each post or Pylon. Farm machines steer clear of power line bases so they are always surrounded by rough grass.

Planted trees/objects and now don't want them. Copy and paste a blank area of board onto the trees/objects and now they're gone. If you are using a very small variety of trees and it's all looking a bit similar, try pulling a few into the ground to resemble less mature trees and also shrubs. You can do this with the ones you are going to copy and paste and they will retain the heights above ground. Do this with grass as well and then it won't look like a harvester/mower has been through it.

With some tunnels a 'dighole' has to be used in order to see through the tunnel. The 'dighole' is then masked with a suitable 10x10, or larger, terrain object that resembles the surrounding texture. At least one of andi06's tunnels requires the 'dighole' and he has created a piece of terrain to cover above and below the tunnel.

When your putting down textures if you want a baseboard done fast click the thing that looks like miniature baseboards theres 8 of them with red in the middle it textures the hole baseboard gets textures.

Don't try and populate your world with every item available (whether inbuilt, or downloaded). Pick a set of items you can use repeatedly, and try and stick to them. Only add a new item to that set if it can be used in many places. Use the adjust hight and rotate buttons to add variety. For vegetation for example - as others have said - a tree can be a bush by burying the trunk, but its can also be raised above ground to add variety, without its supension being obvious from a distance. Overlay/combine buildings to create new buildings. Only use high poly items (such as 3d trees), where they are in full, close and lengthy view of a camera. While the 3d trees look great in the screenshots, they have less impact at 100 km/h from the loco cab. Finally, you can force perspective by using matching tall/short trees sets for foreground and background. For Oz layouts 'Tree Gum Group' (kuid -1:100275) can be use in the foreground, and the smaller 'Tree Stickish Group' (kuid -1:100286) used in the distance.

To make rivers, use water / river splines instead of the animated water. There are three reasons for this: 1) When you're speeding past on a train you can't really tell it's not moving. 2) Performance will be massively better than if you used animated water 3) Splines allow you to make realistic rivers which flow down hills, rather than having lots of flat bits broken up by rocks / waterfalls etc.

When making large industrial or residential areas, set up a nice looking section and then use the copy/paste tool to expand the area. This can save you hours when route building.

I'm modelling an area in the Eastern U.S., where vegetation is everywhere, and one thing I've had a hard time locating is good impenetrable-looking undergrowth. I've found a very effective solution to be to place low-poly trees (the cottonwood trees are especially effective for this) and lower them with the height tool until only the tops of the trees are visible. To my eyes it's much more realistic and much faster as well than placing vast numbers of bushes, etc. along the route. If you stick to just a few types of trees the rendering time is minimally impacted as well. (Be sure auto-rotate is on.)

If you are doing a country route, don't use the same hedge spline ! Mix it up with others, or different types of fencing.

-When laying out large numbers of trees always use the "Randomly rotate new objects" function in Surveyor options AND vary the height of the trees by using the Height button.

When laying out Tree Splines, don't lay them in straight lines - lay short stretches in criss cross lines so as to make them look less uniform.

Sick of planting trees and texturing. Build up a random clump of trees and add the texture beneath in a square somewhere out of sight on a baseboard. Name one of the trees 'Trees' so that you can do a 'find' if you forget where you put them. Now copy and paste where they need to be.

Always paint the forest floor a darker color (e.g. Ger Forest) than the surrounding area. For good measure use a sound file such as "Crows".

If you would like some random terrain (user-specifiable to a degree) to start a new fictional route with, take a look over at http://www.gaurc.us/index_files/software.htm for a utility called Terrain Zurveyor. You can specify general conditions and hit Generate and it will create a displacement file that you can directly use in Surveyor to set the terrain of a user-specified area.

You can also find some nice pre-generated displacement files over at http://www.trainz-online.com/ which includes some pictures so you can have an idea what you will be getting.

Here's one from me, always save before you paste. I've avoided that nasty spline bug (where you paste and some splines go nuts and try to join others half way across the map).

UNDO Button

- Don't use the undo button to delete a spline, chances are TRS may crash

The undo bug seems to be fixed in Trainz Classics.

How to show Kuids

Add this sentence to your trainzoptions file:(-showkuids)

Tracks

- Choice of track. Experiment! There are thousands of different types of track available in TRS and on the DLS. It's sad to always see people putting so much effort into the rolling stock, scenery and buildings used on a route and then to have the visual effect of all that ruined by using the default tracks which were built-in to the original Trainz and have been available for six or seven years now. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this?

-Where possible, lay your track in the direction the trains will be travelling. This helps the AI as it "prefers" track which is laid in the direction of travel. For the same reason, do not use double track as a) it makes the AI think it's travelling the wrong way and b) it makes curves very difficult to build (and for certain countries it's the wrong spacing anyway) - Leave the signalling till last, as laying a signal and then laying more track ahead of it can cause problems with the AI.

-Use the track straightening tool to make proper switches and don't make the diverge leave the mainline at too sharp of a curve.

Don't use double track. It's a lousy shortcut.

Hold down shift as you are moving or placing a spline point to prevent it from joining another spline (also do this for if the spline is incompatible with another spline, which can prevent it from being place. Hold down shift to make it go down). This is a godsend if you are working with a very complex area!

Also, spend a minute or two to install Trainz tuner. http://www.kreativenergy.com/index.p...25&Itemi d=28

When laying down multiple spline points, hold ctrl and simply click one right after the other. Handy for curves.

Buildings

-Combine multiple buildings together to make them fit the situation Always lay a base texture (I use green) in case you miss an area of the main textures.

When you're building a station make sure you get the gap between the train and platform right by placing a train on the track and creeping the platform up to the train. The rule of thumb is - if there's space for a passenger to slip down,the gap is too wide.

If you put a train on the track you can't move the track or any track directly connected to it....which is why it makes more sense to move the platform.

Temporarily drop "hydraulic buffers" onto the track and shove the platform up to them and that way you get the width correct and the ends to match as well.

What some of you might not know - Trying to rotate an object to match the angle of the track and can't quite get it spot on. Hold down the 'Ctrl' key when you rotate the object and get a 1/10th more precise angle.

To get a closer 'zoom-in' distance in surveyor, to help fine tune or position something at closer range... is to add the line "-surveyorfov=30" to the trainzoptions file

The minimum distance between the railway boundary fence or wall and the nearest running rail is 10 Feet / 3 Metres. Anything inside that is called the "Lineside". When you place fences, don't make them less than 10 feet from the track.

Copy and paste is your friend. Allows you to knock out large areas/tasks in a breeze

Releasing a Route

Before you release a route try to run most common scenarios to make sure the AI/signalling actually work and check for any track work that isn't right.

Use as many photo's as you can to see how things are really done to make routes more prototypical.

Try to add one unique area to your route, ie. a different sort of factory or industry that you haven't seen in another map.

Try to look at routes from different geographic areas for inspiration, for example if you model USA then look at Euro/UK routes and vice-versa.

When you're building a station make sure you get the gap between the train and platform right by placing a train on the track and creeping the platform up to the train. The rule of thumb is - if there's space for a passenger to slip down,the gap is too wide.

If you put a train on the track you can't move the track or any track directly connected to it....which is why it makes more sense to move the platform.

Trackmarks/AI Drivers

Here is a tip for moving Track marks. If you want to move track marks beyond spline points, use the move function for track objects (i.e. signals etc.) it works on track marks of all kinds.

If your AI trains refuse to load or unload at ProtoLars tracks try this. When sending the AI to a ProtoLars track, I use the driver command "Stop Train" (131986:150150). So issue the following driver commands: -Drive to Trackmark-Stop Train-Wait for n minutes-etc. -Drive to Trackmark-Stop Train-Wait for 10 seconds-Uncouples-etc. This applies the air brakes to the whole train and prevents any movement (the probable cause of not un/loading).

You can use a driver more than one time if you just change their name. I set names of drivers to the name of the train to see train locations when on the big map,

By the way, when a portal creates trains, the same driver get assigned to the same train every time.

If you have a long stretch of track or you find the AI constantly takes the wrong route at a certain location, lay a trackmark down on the path you want the AI to take and then tell your trains to "Drive Via". I find that placing a trackmark a full braking distance before a signal and telling a train to "Drive Via" prevents the AI from trying to take control of points which are beyond the signal and it will instead wait for the signal to clear.

I have been experimenting with 'path control' and 'path trigger'. I wanted to get the train to stop before it made the next path and carried on with its journey into the yard from the mainline.

I was moving the trigger to get it so far from the signal that the train would reach the trigger just as the signal stopped the train. after some playing around i found the train stops 25 metres short of the signal, so i now place my triggers in exactly the same spot as the signal and set the radius to 26 metres, works great.

Bridges/Docks

-When you make Bridges note that grass does not grow under a bridge so use a dark colour such as "Dock Surface" or Ballast if its track side. When you are making Fields note that a field is rarely plunged right up to the fence. Try to orientate you fields so you can paint a rough grass texture to follow the line of the fence and paint the rest of the field your required colour. Always include a "Farm Gate" or "Open Farm Gate" in your field and paint a Mud texture round it, suggestive of tractors or animals going through it

I've used "Plate Girder Bridge" to cross 2 tracks. First I lay the basic bridge across the tracks and set the height by placing 2 Locos underneath and allowing about 4 feet clearance. This is important because Plate Girder Bridge has an extra deep girder. Then I click "Get Height" and "Use Height" to make sure both ends are the same height. Next I form another section of bridge and VERY gently stretch it until it forms a new Abutment but stop stretching it before it forms a girder. I place the end of the new abutment in line with the bridge abutment after using Use Height to make sure the new abutment is the same height. It's best to line both abutments up in an Aerial view. On the left side of the bridge you see the completed abutment - the Blue Brick makes the join virtually invisible. Of course, while you manoeuvre the section into position you must keep the shift key pressed down so that they don't physically join up! This will work with nearly any Trainz bridge and repeating sections of abutment you can construct a long brick viaduct.

Train Drivers

-Remember that real Train Drivers will not allow their trains to actually make contact with the Buffer stops/Rail Ends. Thus, although your siding rails may be shiny, the last few yards and -certainly- any track beyond the Buffer stops should be rusty since no trains ever run over it!, Trap Points and Catch Points should never have trains running over the "dead" track so that track should always be rusty.

-freeintcam

Allows you to move freely around inside a train Cab. You're no longer locked into one place now. Works in TRS2006 and TC as far as I know.

Holding down shift allows 'zooming' speed in driver to check track connections without travelling the route at regular speed.

Quick and Easy Mountains and Slopes

-This is a two step process. Use the Fill area tool in the "Topology Menu" on an area I call the palette, just some base boards that I add to the route to create items to be copied for pasting elsewhere. I select "Hill" and fill an area at least three to four grid squares inside one full base board. It does not have to be square nor a full baseboard, just leave enough room around the filled area so later you can place all the copy lines at 0 elevation. If I'm after really big hills I use 4 base boards but again only fill up to 3 or 4 squares from the edge to leave the 0 level edge.

-Now the trick. In the "Tools" menu use copy and paste. Copy the "Hill" but be sure to have your copy lines just outside the raised area and at "0" elevation. This is important. Set the paste functions to height and RELATIVE. The relative is critical. This way you have no sharp edges on your pasted item and can overlap and compound with additional pastings to double the height of the new land form. By varying the original template from a gentle slope to sharp cone you can get almost any topography you wish. Also note that when you paste you can use half the hill by moving to the edge of a base board. That way your hills can start high at the edge of the route and slope down and in, acting as backdrops to the route. With a little bit of playing around you are just a few clicks away from mountains, hills, and slopes that cover entire base boards quickly and easily. -Stagger the paste in a brickwork fashion and rotate each time to avoid repetition. Planted trees/objects and now don't want them. Copy and paste a blank area of board onto the trees/objects and now they're gone.

To create nice gradients, lay the track first, set the spline heights then click on the "smooth spline height" button to snap the ground right up to the track! This works with curves and turnouts too, beautiful cuttings and embankments at no fuss at all!

For Prototypical Routes

1) Carefully look at the scale of the buildings your putting in your route. There are buildings on the DLS that are much too huge and way out of scale for modelling the real world. Rule of thumb- If a 200 ton diesel loco looks small next to a building in your route the building is probably too large and not to scale

2) There is nothing worse then driving your train over "floating track" that has a space between the track and the ground. When you are done laying all the track for your route, use the ground elevation tool to bring the ground up to your track. Don't bring your track down to the ground or you will lose the gradient you set for the track. Select the "ground up" button in the topography menu and gently tap your left mouse button to bring the ground up to your track. Keep doing it until the ground just starts to cover the edge of the track, then hit the undo button once to lower the ground one "mouse tap". Do this for your entire route. It is time consuming but the result is no more ugly space between your track and the ground.

3) Iron and steel bridges should have abutments at each end. Iron bridges do not magically emerge from the ground. It looks very fake. Also, track does not hang in the air when connecting to a bridge. (Would you drive a locomotive over that in real life?) Place a stone or concrete abutment to give it that prototypical look. Or use a retaining wall spline to give the bridge an abutment

4) Try to keep your industrial complexes a realistic size. Set surveyor to use "real scale" and measure the buildings from Sanborn maps. You will find that most factory complexes in the real world are actually much smaller then they appear.

5) In city areas, use textures that are kind of drab. Railroad yards and industrial sidings are very dirty, dark, unfriendly places. See the route "UK Somewhere" for an example of excellent example of texturing to give a route a "industrial look".

6) Don't use "black" textures for forests floors.

Track Laying Tips for Yards

First when laying a Yard out, do each half of a double ended yard with Track running in one direction then do the same for the opposite end. so that the track will look like this

<---------------:-------------------->

That way your track marks will be facing in Opposite directions and will make it easier for AI Trains to move to the proper ends of the yard Also as a Naming Convention, Try to use a Formate like this N-S or E-W (Yard) Trk (#) NB-SB or EB-WB for your track marks that way you have things in nice and neat order when your want your AI Trains to Drive to or Drive Via a Certain Track mark.

Name junctions to tell what track it is.

Example: a run through track going from East to West. the west junction to the run trough track can be called WRT and the East ERT

yards major on e consist of 5 things.

• Receiving yard
• Classification Yard
• departure Yard
• local yard
• service tracks

These all help the yard function.

Cars go to the receiving yard to the classification to the departure yard. the first yard ever to have this was Dewitt Yard in East Syracuse follow the tracks from old plans you sac easily run from one end to the other in this manner.

Service track is where bad cars and locos are fixed.

Local yard holds car used for local service at industries.

Another good thing to have is a storage area to store extra cars.

If your AI Drivers refuse to go into a siding or sidings try placing an Invisible Signal in front of the Bufferstop/Railend. I have a Goods Yard on my Route laid out exactly as it was in real life - you have to set back from the Main Line into the Headshunt then drive forward into the goods yard. The AI drivers wouldn't do it, but when I added the Invisible Signal they drove in OK. Apparently the line was "unsignalled" and that was the cause of the problem.

On UK Railways catch points were spring loaded trailing points provided on rising gradients to derail runaway wagons in the days when many wagons were only fitted with handbrakes or had "through" vacuum pipes. They are best used on lines where you normally let the AI drive and Alastair should not be allowed near them. They should be laid with rusty track and provided with a Catch Point sign

When making yards, with out a template, start with you mainline like this: ____________________________________________

Then off that make a normal spur that straightens out and and ends where ever.

___________________________ ___________________________\_____

Now make another off that like so.

___________________ ___________________\___ _______________________\____

Leaving a space so that you have an area for the junction so it dont mess up anything. I find this type of yard building much easier and better.

If track is floating, then there is a button on the top-right row of the advanced track tab (Can't think of it's name) that will change the ground height to the height of the track.

There are also tools in the advanced tab in the track tab that allow you to set gradients and spline point heights that I have found very useful.

Searching for content when building

When building a route there is an endless seeking for content, tracks and textures that you know that you have somewhere but everything drowns in the huge amount of material. I know about filters etc. but find it a bit tricky to organize. -To find and place what you want to use later on an empty baseboard and then get it by the pick tool is no news either, but I have added a little extra routine there that works very good for me.

-First I have to start with a time consuming and rather boring task, but it pays off very well in the long run. I start with an empty baseboard and then I fill it with all the content, textures etc. that I like and possibly want to use later. Yes, it takes a long time really to search trough everything and place it in proper order on the baseboard...

-Then I save that single baseboard, by the name "toolbox". Whenever I want to build a new route or go on with an already started route I simply merge the toolbox-baseboard to the route and pick whatever I need from the toolbox, easy and fast without a lot of boring and endless searching.

-When the route is ready, if that ever happens, I simply delete the toolbox. No time saved really with one single route, but the point is that you can use that saved toolbox to all routes you ever wish to build as many times you wish. The boring task to search for material is only necessary one time.

-If you have a large area such as a Town a Forest or a Major Road to build, make up a "Works Yard" on an empty baseboard. Go through EVERY type of house, tree or road bridge and put one example of each in the Works Yard so that you can compare them all and use the best ones. You'll often forget what Content you have available, and this is a good reminder My solution was not to try to put everything into one route, but to make separate, categorized routes with only one type of objects, and no more than 100 or so of those per route. I named the routes according to the type of objects that are installed on each ("Bridges 01", "Bridges 02", etc.)

I just use the "Get Object" tool to click on the object I'm interested in - I found no need for separate labels I just use the "Get Object" tool to click on the object I'm interested in - I found no need for separate labels.

Coupling to Consist

When you want to use AI to couple a Locomotive to a Train/Consist in a Siding the Locomotive will drive at Line Speed as far as the points for the siding and then at 1 MPH until it reaches the Train. This can be tiresome if the siding is very long, so what you do is 1) decide on a place (call it the Coupling Point) where the last vehicle in the Train/Consist will stand, this being the vehicle the Loco will couple to. About 5 yards from the Coupling Point pace a Signal Invisible on the track so that the AI Driver can see it as he approaches the Train. Then place an Invisible 5 0r 10 MPH Speed Limit on the entry to the siding, and (leaving the siding) a Speed Limit for whatever your Line Speed is. Now when the Loco enters the Siding it will drive at 5 or 10 MPH till it reaches the Signal Invisible (a few yards from the Train) and slow down to 1 MPH before coupling. This works like a charm for me.

Rolling Stock/Locomotives

You can load a car by pressing the ? button in Surveyor it will show you the list of loads it can take

But quick easy way to get your engine from heaven out of the way is to upper left corner tab "remove missing dependancies" then save this will remove your ghost engine... ( did that myself one time and that worked for me).