Water

[bigvern]

As the route I'm hoping to build has rather a lot of coastal and inland water I wanted to garner opinion of those who have already dabbled (no pun intended) as to the best of the decals to use. I can only see two, one for lake and one for pond. No problem as regards pulling out the corners to fit a larger area, but I find it staggering the only way to adjust height on the decal is with the keys/mouse and that the "y" entry in the proprties tab is not directly editable. That needs to go on the list for Patch 2.

My main query is which, in other users' opinion, of the water decals gives the best rippling effect?

Secondary, which terrain texture have you found works best to represent the sea or lake floor?

Unfortunately I'm still not convinced as to the lofted water objects for rivers and streams. They still look to me like sections of the water rides from RRT3 and don't blend seamlessly into the surrounding terrain particularly once you move away from the default green terrtex. These are another case where the joins between sections need to be flexible in the "y" vertical plane. Best way to lay water splines (at least in TRS) was to place the spline on the terrain surface, then drop the spline point 2 - 3 metres below the surface to conform. The only equivalent procedure I can come up with in KRS is to roughly calculate the gradient of the next piece to keep the end just under the terrain but as any lofted network forms a solid unit there is no way of changing the height on one joint or an exposed end.

[Sly401]

Vern
You can change the height of one end of track which is a lofted object, or any break point that you wish....... does the same tecnique not work on lofted scenery?

If it doesn't....place track where you want a stream edit to your heatrs content then add a stream at zero offset and then delete the track..

Sly

[moranb]

While the gradient tool is a dangerous instrument to use on track - it can have a disastrous impact miles away from where you are working - I find it very useful for laying out roads and rivers. I usually begin by measuring with the height tool the actual height of the rail/terrain at the point where the road or river is to go, then I lay a short length (25-30 metres) of road or rail at that level. I then use the level tool (with a 10 metre brush) to bring the terrain at the bridge down to the level I want the road or river to be at. Some railway companies publish lists of actual bridge heights for roads to prevent them being damaged by large vehicles. With rivers, I just use a best guess. I then lower the road/river with the V/B keys to that level, extend it on from both ends for whatever distance is needed and then use the gradient tool to add gradient points to the extensions and adjust them to whatever level and whatever gradients I want. I agree that the banks of the rivers and streams look a bit unrealistic, but again by using the lowering and height tools with a 10 metre brush, you can camoflage the green banks with terrain. (With a 10 metre brush, you can raise or lower individual vertexes of the terrain grid in much the same way as you could with the raise/lower tool in MSTS). If using the decals for large areas of warer, I find the mud and bare grass paint gives a realistic effect.

BM

[bigvern]

Thanks for the tips - sound good and I'll give them a shot, once the primary track laying is done.

Have to agree, Level tool is your friend though the "Height" tool (the one that allows you to grab and pull up or down the terrain) is quite useful, with a brush of around 300, for tweaking those areas where the DEM is not very precise or as in a couple of locations near Glenfinnan there are holes in the DEM. The Smooth tool also comes in handy too, then.

[RSAdam]

Using the reflective water and duplicating several 1024x1024 squares this is what I came up with.
Ive used a mix of sand textures from the US route and the rest is just the default grass.

[overmarze]

Using the reflective water and duplicating several 1024x1024 squares this is what I came up with.
Ive used a mix of sand textures from the US route and the rest is just the default grass.

Is that the next pic of the new route being built by RS?

[bigvern]

Looks good Adam - I have gone with Mud for the lake and sea beds but will blend pebbles round the edge in lieu of sand, as I'm using the European terrtex set.

We have come a long way from the old model railway days of pouring layers of varnish on to painted plaster to get a water effect!

[Ghostcav]

We have come a long way from the old model railway days of pouring layers of varnish on to painted plaster to get a water effect!

Best not to mention that one! Years ago as a youth I poured a lot of varnish in my "river" & left it to set on my bedroom model railway. Woke in the morning to find it had escaped from my river feature & leaked down the wall,onto the bottom of my duvet & onto the carpet. Parents were not impressed to say the least.

[whittaker]

Hi Vern
just spent a week building river Blyth estuary and coast line using the reflective lake tiles and must say they look the part. (as long as you view them from a distance).


joe

[Retro]

We have come a long way from the old model railway days of pouring layers of varnish on to painted plaster to get a water effect!

Best not to mention that one! Years ago as a youth I poured a lot of varnish in my "river" & left it to set on my bedroom model railway. Woke in the morning to find it had escaped from my river feature & leaked down the wall,onto the bottom of my duvet & onto the carpet. Parents were not impressed to say the least.

Same here except I ruined the carpet in the spare room
Regards James.

[nikos1]

love the beach scene Adam, very realistic, alot better than what my beaches in TRS looked like

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Vern

I agree that the default rivers are a bit naff. I have been carving out rivers using a small brush and the level tool and then gently smoothing the banks to get rid of the dragons teeth, then a little mud or grass texture down the banks and non-reflective water tiles to fill in. If you make slightly wider rivers and keep the bottom flat with the level tool, you can pull up the water tiles, lay speedboat or barge tracks on the bottom of the river, multiple select and draw the track up to the final water level, lower the water tiles and then when you start the game the boats travel up and down the rivers. It takes a little more work than I have described but that is the general idea.

The default rivers would be a bit better if the banks were flattened quite a bit instead of having rounded tops, and not quite so green.

The reflective water tiles are a bit of a problem as the reflections sometimes appear suddenly which looks a bit odd.

With gradients I have found that it is best to add gradient points one or two at a time, exit the gradient tool and the reselect the gradient tool. This seems to be a safe way of ensuring that you are not altering lofted objects that you cannot see in another part of the route. In tight places around stations, I add and then use gradient points one at a time and so far I have not messed up any unseen track or fences even though this is slightly more time consuming.

Geoff Potter

[bigvern]

One interesting side effect of the water decals, is that placing these such that they overlap under other scenic sections is that they can make it very difficult to select other objects, esp. lofts. Also very easy to inadvertently delete the decals.