[SP 0-6-0]

The terrain updates alone will be very welcome with me as I never did like the originals very much. But then I always thought the FPM Surfliner terrtex was more california like. I've never been out there so I would have no idea what it really looks like around the railroads property out in California.

Jeff did a fantastic job on the stations. But, They have alot of wasted polys hiding in unpainted or not visible locations that could reduce the load on my machine if they were rebuilt. A tempting idea but too much work without the original source materials.

Mosaic, I have the full version but have yet to use it. I really, really, really would have liked Mosiac to work like the textureing tool in Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3. RT3 has in my opinion one of the better terrtex texturing methods ever put into a railroad game.

Robert

[SP 0-6-0]

The microtex.ace available here at ET adds to the realism of the surfliner in my humble opinion.

Microtex.ace

Robert

[paulytechnic]

SP 0-6-0, on 02 February 2016 - 12:23 PM, said:

The microtex.ace available here at ET adds to the realism of the surfliner in my humble opinion.

That's a great microtex, and I do use it on a few of my other routes. However, I wouldn't be able to use it as-is since it has a brownish tint to it, which works great for most other terrains (especially those with DXT1-compressed terrtex), but it tends to discolor the ocean textures on the Surfliner (since the "water" is really just painted onto the terrain). At the moment, I'm using a modified variant of Tom Galbardi's rocky terrtex since it has a completely neutral (gray) color. Even with that, I need to be very careful with the brightness and contrast of it, since it would show an abrupt/jagged border where the microtex/forground terrain stop and the distant terrain starts. I plan to fiddle with the microtex further, but only after all foreground and distant terrtex is completed.

[Railroad Librarian]

I've been trying to understand the role of the microtex.ace file. Could someone offer a quick insight into its role and what it does?

Thanks

paulytechnic, on 03 February 2016 - 05:00 AM, said:

That's a great microtex, and I do use it on a few of my other routes. However, I wouldn't be able to use it as-is since it has a brownish tint to it, which works great for most other terrains (especially those with DXT1-compressed terrtex), but it tends to discolor the ocean textures on the Surfliner (since the "water" is really just painted onto the terrain). At the moment, I'm using a modified variant of Tom Galbardi's rocky terrtex since it has a completely neutral (gray) color. Even with that, I need to be very careful with the brightness and contrast of it, since it would show an abrupt/jagged border where the microtex/forground terrain stop and the distant terrain starts. I plan to fiddle with the microtex further, but only after all foreground and distant terrtex is completed.

[c36dash7]

Railroad Librarian, on 03 February 2016 - 12:27 PM, said:

I've been trying to understand the role of the microtex.ace file. Could someone offer a quick insight into its role and what it does? Thanks

The Best explanations I have found, actually, came from our friend, Jovet. Joseph has a very good understanding of the "technicalities", of those.

But in very broad terms, with the very first MSTS "default" Routes, they used very small, and very, say, "bland", and very generic , .ace textures, for the Terrain. So "bland", in fact, that they had no real "texture" to those ( looked-like "painted smooth plaster" / you get the idea ... ) .

"By default", such Terrtex .ace texture, do allow a certain degree of "transparency", and used in combination of a so-called "texture" image, called a "microtex", this would make the "bland" / most-visible, Terrtex .ace texture, have more, say "grit", or, "texturing".

With more modern hardware and graphics cards, there is a "blend" between the so-called "top" .ace ( main ) image texture, for the Terrtex, and the microtex.ace file, itself.

This can vary to extremes..., from absolutely ZERO ... Microtex , "showing-through" the "other" .ace texture ( as on my own computer ), to basically "out-of-whack" / "reversed" proportions, with a good 75 to 8o % "microtex.ace"..., now being... the main "visible" image, and barely a very thin , "washed-out", kind of "tint", for the so-called "main, terrtex .ace texture .

This would explain why such "microtex.ace", in some cases, can become super-critical, especially if such "microtex.ace", render, in an "overpowering", kind of manner.

Personally, I still use the variation from Tom Garbaldi, at 1024X1024 image size. As Paul did mention very well, its "neutral" grayish / white overall color, works well, and with every Route. The same "image", also works well, in most cases, to represent gravel.

Jean Brisson

[Jovet]

c36dash7, on 03 February 2016 - 03:09 PM, said:

The Best explanations I have found, actually, came from our friend, Jovet. Joseph has a very good understanding of the "technicalities", of those.

Thanks for the compliment Jean. But, I think these days I can explain it even more succinctly: the microtex.ace file is a bumpmap for the terrain. It is the only kind of bumpmap that MSTS supports.

Years ago I made this graphic which sums it up pretty well still today:

http://msts.jovet.net/files/images/TerrainManipulation.png

[SP 0-6-0]

Thanks Joe for the explination. I remember Tom fussing about with those microtex files years ago. My question is how do you create one of those microtex files and have it look even somewhat real? This remains a bit of a mystery to me.

Robert

[Railroad Librarian]

Thank you gentlemen.

I appreciate the succinct explanations and I can now take the best microtex and apply it to the routes I wish to.

Bookman

[paulytechnic]

SP 0-6-0, on 03 February 2016 - 05:07 PM, said:

My question is how do you create one of those microtex files and have it look even somewhat real? This remains a bit of a mystery to me.

As far as I know, it's a matter of starting with a realistic ground texture (gravel, grass, etc) that's as uniform as possible, in addition to lots of trial-and-error. Even so, many starting textures are less uniform than you may think, as any part of it that has a slightly different texture or shading will be obvious once it's tiled across the terrain. For me, it's a lot of back and forth between MSTS and Photoshop to paint out anything that looks too repetitive with the clone brush.

[paulytechnic]

Thought I'd take a quick break from Mosaic to repaint Robert Mapplebeck's "1067" house (original on the right)....



Seems to have turned out fairly well for a 13-year-old model!