Atomic Systems

Well, Theo you are entitled to your view but if I was to ever tackle a route on the scale of "BrisCard" for MSTS it would be entirely optimised for out the cab viewing. 'nuff said.

Hi,
If the camera was restricted to the cab, then I would certainly only model what the player can see.
However, the game is played in many different ways. (the screenshot and movie threads show this)

I drive the train from about 10M above the loco, and model what I think is needed.
However my tile count hardly ever goes higher than 500 assets per tile.
(I make my own assets to help fill up the middle and far distance.
Just because you can see far does not mean you have to lay down thousands of assets.

Carlisle may well hit 1000 assets on the tiles it sits on, but everywhere else will be pretty low.

regards

Derek

Clever use of textures is the key in open areas where you can give the impression of field boundaries, bushes and small trees in the distance simply by changing the terrain colours. As terrain is textured anyway, then this is scenery at no additional cost at all.

Woodhead is a great example of this technique.

For my next route building attempt, I thoroughly intend not to get too wrapped up in scenery that it becomes a boring time consuming chore that vapourises. I would really like to cover quite a good sized route network. I don't want the lack of depth of view of a GARL or EG either. This means that I need to find a slap dash method of doing distant scenery without it looking too slap dash. Forgive me if I fail to put the village post box in place when the village is one mile from the station. If you can't see the buildings for the trees, then is it worth clearing a spot in the mass asset block for them?

One of the issues we are having with the Cambridge route is that the view distance of the real thing can easily be several miles in most directions and without being particularly high. Hence Neil & I are getting bored of laying out hundreds of fields (which we are doing to the real plan, otherwise it looks empty and/or fake). While the asset count of a field may appear to be low, in order to differentiate it from "we've not bothered here" it is surprisingly difficult.

As others have said, it's a matter for the route builder and the route location: some routes may only require much within 1km; others may require 5km or more, and the driving style affects it too. For me, I rarely drive in the cab: I can't see enough (recall I normally use Steam and the driving position for steam engines is particularly poor in most cases, showing even less than the small amount a real driver sees).

Regards
Ruth

Memo to RSC for TS2013 (or TS20140, then. Autogen, please?! I'm pretty certain that's how MSTS2 World of Rails would have worked. Okay, not perfect but for the mid-distance stuff, i.e. from 500m out to around 2km an acceptable compromise for what will mostly be seen in peripheral vision.

Hi Vern,
I've no idea when i comes to scenery creation, or its terminology. But when you mention autogen, thats one i am familiar with due to my years of playing flight simulator. And that, (fs9) is great for adjusting the settings without losing slightly essential scenery, like runways....

As far as detail is concerned for myself, this kind of highlights what my preference is

Click the image to zoom in


Any more than that on a section of track where you are only restricted by the service you are running is just a waste of time putting it in in my opinion.

I don't recognize that route, looks pretty decent. Unless its one i've got and haven't zoomed out far enough lol.
Is it one thats available or one that you're working on?

One I'm still working on

Look forward to it.

If you want to keep up with progress Stevee click on the link in my signature

yes Pete, i noticed the link after my last post. It looks really great. And its in my area, something that i've been wanting since i got this sim. I lived in Blackpool for a couple of years. So i'll be following your progress closely.

Surely its down to the individuals PC capabilities and how they use RW when deciding how much detail to use in their routes?