Kington - Hereford (Fantasy)

[jjules]

Yo what's up all? Just popped in to ask about some things...

I went through the Help files in Train Sim Tools, selected the geographical area and all that for the terrain in my local area (Kington, Herefordshire). All's going well I thought. I followed each instruction precisely. Went to Route Editor, and I have no hills, or ground or anything! Any ideas what I haven't done?

I'm only doing such a route because one doesn't exist in real life, but I've always wished it did for some reason...

Anyway, ideas people? I'm sort of working my way around the tools windows, but not having any terrain at all means I can't place track.

Such a question probably has been asked before, but I really need some help on this...

Just a thought, Kington doesn't have a rail station, but Hereford does...

[micksasse]

Now then, do you mean you've got nothing at all in the Route Editor, i.e. just white space, or do you mean you've just got flat greenness with no hills? If it's the former, have you selected a start tile? If it's the latter, this is normal: you only get hills if you make them yourself, either manually in RE itself, or (much better) by using TSTools or Terraform.

Actually, when you say "Train Sim Tools", perhaps you're just referring to the Route Geography Exctractor with the editors? 'fraid all that actually does is give you a flat piece of green with the right (hopefully) latitude and longitude co-ordinates.

Strongly recommend you invest in Michael Vone's guide to route-building - it's absolutely indispensable, I'd say, and will save you endless hassles. Abacus Software (who publish it via download) are at http://www.trainsimulatorworld.com.

and good luck...

[ohmygawdwotsausername]

Its a very steep learning curve Jules and it will take over your life, forget wine women and song, forget food, hot water and soap, forget reality...there is none, but the RE.

Colz

[jjules]

Yeah I mean the tools that came with MSTS. I have nothing but blue sky with some clouds, and the sun. Below that is a blank white space...Any ideas what is going on?

I'm planning on getting that book, so long as I don't need a credit card...

I gather it's very difficult to use and absorbs you into it...I love trains, so I don't care...

I got around to creating a route map today!

[ohmygawdwotsausername]

Heres the first thing you should do.

Go into the C drive, Program Files, Microsoft Games, Right click on the Train Sim folder and create shortcut. Cut and Paste the shortcut to your desktop

Next,

go into your new shortcut, to the routes folder and right click on your own route folder, copy and paste the it to your desktop.

Now you have a backup of your route and a quick way into the game folder where you can get at the route folder.

Never mind what people tell you, look at the posts, the proof is in the pudding, people like me never have RE problems, its us trying to help those that do.

So the best way to help you is to teach you how to help yourself.

The RE is easy peasy, its just a little unforgiving, If you screw up it is going to . all over you and your route from a great height.

So, whenever you are about to do something that might be a little iffy, that the RE may construe as being rather iffy back it up.

Go through your shortcut to the route folder and copy it to desk top and update your back up. Not once a week, or once a day or even once an hour, but whenever you feel its time, say about once every ten minues or less.

You will get a 'feel' for it, you'll 'know' when its going to bitch on you, you'll become of the knowing and able to deal with anything it throws at you, even the tricks it plays.

Colz

[jjules]

Lol...so much in there that was funny...

Still, thanks for helping me here. I appreciate it!

[jjules]

The amazing thing? That my route folder already takes up 68.9MB of my hard drive...And there's no track, station or anything!!!

[micksasse]

Yeah I mean the tools that came with MSTS. I have nothing but blue sky with some clouds, and the sun. Below that is a blank white space...Any ideas what is going on?

I'm planning on getting that book, so long as I don't need a credit card...

I gather it's very difficult to use and absorbs you into it...I love trains, so I don't care...

I got around to creating a route map today!

White space definitely sounds to me as though you omitted to set a start tile. Go back into Route Geography Extractor, select your route, click on "Load Quad Tree", and zoom in so you can see the squares covering your future route's area - the squares you've already extracted terrain for (yes, that wildly impressive flat green stuff!) will have little crosses in them. Choose where you want your camera to start off, right-click on that square and click "Route Editor Start Tile". Save changes & exit.

You should get green rather than white now when you go back into the RE.

But do get the Route-Building Guide - afraid you'll need a credit or debit card, but it's really worth it.

[jjules]

Trust me, I'll get the guide, just I don't know yet whether I'll be able to use my Solo card - if so I'll be there!

I am almost certain that I have got that start tile selected...Still, I'll go back now in a sec and re-try it...

I'll report back in just a minute

[jjules]

OK, I've got my quad-tree loaded, and I've got loads of tiny sqaures with a blue x in, then some slightly bigger ones like that, and some bigger ones with blue crosses in too. I assume this is correct so far,

I've now chosen a sqaure for my Route Editor Start Tile. So far so good...

GOD DAMN IT!!! WHY THE HECK HAVE I STILL GOT WHITE EVERYWHERE BELOW MY SKY!!!!!!

[ohmygawdwotsausername]

right click on a square with a blue cross in it, drag a little tiny box and you should see a menu, update route start tile and the proggy will say, route start tile updated...now you save quad tree and if you created tiles where them blue squares is you should, when you go into RE have green grahnd...mate.

Colz

[jjules]

Yeah I made the tiles before...I've re-done the Start Tile thing as well, as well as any other suggestions...Still the blank white space!!!Any ideas?

[jjules]

Do I need to reinstall my tools?

Or should I get any other software from the Net???

[ohmygawdwotsausername]

Control + up arrow key in case you're below ground level, if you are the /? key toggles the ability to go through the ground level. You may be below ground. If that doesnt work then its obviously not generated the tiles, or its failed to save the quad tree...solution, go do it again...fun innit?

Or...are you sure you're at the same coordinates as your tiles? In RE write down Long / Lat then in RG put mouse arrow over tiles and read Long / Lat numbers, its fiddly, but it could lead to clues.

Colz

PS No you dont need to re install anything or add anything...it works fine as it is. You could be posh and add TS Tools but thats only used after you've done this bit.

[jjules]

OK, I'll try it one more time, but I confess I'm getting p$$$$d off here...