Atomic Systems

I have produced a tunnel - my first, but I'm not very proud of it:

1) The decal has given me a bit of stick. How do you delete them if they are in the wrong place?
2) how do I stop it flickering to the rock surface behind it?
3) I have used the trackless tunnel from the "bag thingy" - even in the darkest spot the rails glow like neon lights, how do I turn them off??
4) The transition from daylight to tunnel dark is too sudden - is there a technique to improve this.

Been dabbling in rivers I (or should that be paddling - I like the water effects).

Paul
Dubai UAE

To delete the decal, select object mode, then click on it so that you see the doohickey (for want of a better name:), move in a bit closer to confirm you can also see the brown handles that allow it to be resized, and then press the delete key. If you're having problems selecting it you might want to try moving the tunnel mouth out of the way first, and change your angle of view in case the select button is actualy picking up the track instead.

Another way to get a better view of the decal is to go under the terrain and turn to look back out, but I'm not sure if you can get the resizing handles from this view.

Thanks, Adrian.... so it can be done then. More perseverence required.

I alsi have great difficulty selecting some linear objects.

Paul
Dubai UAE

PWHolmes wrote:I have produced a tunnel - my first, but I'm not very proud of it:

3) I have used the trackless tunnel from the "bag thingy" - even in the darkest spot the rails glow like neon lights, how do I turn them off??

Paul
Dubai UAE

I have noticed this also but don't know if there is a solution. It is very unrealistic however.
Regards James.

I think the waterways in RS are a bit naff (one of the very few classes of objects that is) so I have been building my own rivers and steams by carving out a channel with the leveling tool set on a small round brush size. I then use the smoothing tool on a small brush size to smooth out the banks and get rid of the saw tooth effect. I place a non-reflective water decal to the required width and length, add some textures and vegetation to the banks and Hey Presto! - a much more realistic waterway.

With a bit of practice, you can lay in a barge or speedboat track as well to bring the waterway alive with action. If you have any difficulty in laying these tracks then I can tell you the technique I have evolved.

You describe the problems with tunnels that we all have. Not only does the sun shine inside, but sometimes it also rains. A little annoying but not a major problem and I am sure this will be fixed in a later upgrade. In order to grab the tunnel decal, you may just have to move the brick tunnel entrance out of the way. I now try to build tunnels by laying the track first and then raising the terrain around it but if the hill is already there, then you need to work underground with the moles. Logic suggests that the back of the brick entrance object should butt up against the end of the tunnel section but you will get better results if you push the brick tunnel object right on to the tunnel track so that the latter is buried in the object and almost comes out of the front. Fine tuning of the terrain is difficult where the tunnel entrance object meets the hill so I usually place a lot of vegetation around the join between the object and the hill to fill the gaps.

I hope this helps a bit

GP

PWHolmes wrote:3) I have used the trackless tunnel from the "bag thingy" - even in the darkest spot the rails glow like neon lights, how do I turn them off??

Don't use them!

Replace the rail just inside the tunnel with "tunnel track 02" - this is dark ground, faint rails and no extra tunneling (01 has the single tunnel round it too).
Just cut out the normal rail, replace with this stuff and then do a Blend to fade the bright track into the tunnel track, et voila

Thanks Pete for that most useful hint. I wasn't aware that tunnel track other than the ones with built in tunnels existed. I simply added the tunnel_track02 to my Track Blueprint and was able to select the bright neon track and change it to the tunnel_track02 in my twin track tunnels using the trackless tunnel loft.
They now look brilliant and nice and dark.
Much appreciated
Kind Regards James

Pete,

I am trying to build a double track tunnel. When I tried tunnel track, I got two single bores sort of interlaced with each other, or have I got the wrong tunnel track??

Dazed and confused......

Paul
Dubai UAE

PWHolmes wrote:Pete,

I am trying to build a double track tunnel. When I tried tunnel track, I got two single bores sort of interlaced with each other, or have I got the wrong tunnel track??

Dazed and confused......

Paul
Dubai UAE

Hi Paul
Yes you have
You need tunneltrack02 (you have 01), this comes without any tunnel around it so you can lay double lines without the interlace issue. You do of course need to lay the double tunnel seperately around the track (the double tunnel is 1 object, only have 1 in the track laying box or you'll get interlaced double tunnels!).
Hope that helps

Edit: In fact, due to the way tunnels cut into the landscape, you're probably better off laying the empty double tunnel first, and then laying the track inside it

Well, I never.... I thought I'd tried both 01 & 02. Must be my age.

Thanks Pete.

Paul
Dubai UAE

PWHolmes wrote:Well, I never.... I thought I'd tried both 01 & 02. Must be my age.

Thanks Pete.

Paul
Dubai UAE

I missed 02 completely and it's definately my age
Regards James.

Simplest way to align it all is to lay doubletrack with tunnel track 02, then select one of the tracks, click the offset tool, set for the minimum 2.0 meter offset, and add the trackless tunnel to the offset between the tracks.



You can go underground to stretch track longer than 500 meters if needed.



Select the length of the underground track, set offset for 2.0 meters, select tunnel trackless and click on the cube in the center between the tracks.



Offset raises objects above the base of the track so you need to select it (CTRL click to select multiple objects if there's more than one section) and lower it down, also move sideways if it's not close enough to center. Takes a bit of fiddling to get the loft object and make sure you're not selecting the track itself instead, but it's the easiest way I've found to get the curves and gradient to match the track exactly.

The most difficult part of creating a tunnel in the surveying part. Trying to mine a tunnel 3 miles in length at the precise long and lat coordinates for the portals is quite difficult. The best way, I found is to lay the track from both ends, aim rougly in the direction you wish to go and them use "sticky track" to make the join. Lastly, add the tunnel walling and the entry portals.

I've managed to get my tunnels into place, but getting the land to deform around the portal is a bit of a whotsit - and then trying to get a black hole decal to fit the hole, without huge black spikes out of the tunnel and up the hill is almost impossible - I had to use 4 different decals to cover the one hole!!

What would be nice would be a scenery item, coloured rock, to fit around the tunnel portal and to merge into the ground, like a bit of trim.

Paul
Dubai UAE

Got the US version there are a bunch of rocks you can use, for the UK version the Tree line mixed near sapling or bush bramble near 01 work pretty good. Select the yellow globe to tilt the object on the hillside and lower partially into the terrain and it blends pretty well. Setting the brush size and strength lower and sculpting with the raise/lower tool;

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/showth ... p?t=264104

Usually makes that unnecessary.