Best UK Terrain Set

[BigVern]

Now posted in the correct place...

After releasing my Trainz route, I've decided it's time to take a stab at something in TS2017.

Set "somewhere in the East Midlands" reviving a long closed route into the modern era. (More specific info to follow if it goes anywhere). Was wondering whether there is anything better than the default Kuju set for this sort of area, though I suspect most UK routes are derived from the original textures anyway.

[cjbarnes5294]

Hi Vern,

I would have thought that any recently released UK route from DTG would provide you with a terrain set that will look positively fresh compared to the 10 year old Kuju set. East Midlands makes me think of the lower Peak District with lots of pretty hills, so Weardale & Teesdale might be ideal for you - if you haven't already, take a look at the Wearhead and Middleton-in-Teesdale branches for some inspiration on beautifully painted countryside.

Looking forward to seeing what you might come up with!
Chris

[Rockdoc2174]

I haven't found any terrain textures other than Kuju and the UKTS Freeware Pack set. We're using Weardale as a dependency for The Friargate Line and it doesn't bring any more textures to the party. I like the way the AP Wherry Lines uses terrain textures underneath asset blocks and vegetation assets for fields close to the line. Asset blocks only count as one asset in the total, no matter how many assets they contain, so are a much better way of adding lots of vegetation if your asset count is causing stutter at tile boundaries and that route shows how effective this can be and is ifinitely better than the procedural flora you get with some textures.

Keith

[BigVern]

I plumped for ECML South in the end, as I will probably need some of the assets anyway albeit the route comes out somewhat north of Peterborough.

It's just a shame we never got an easy way to add in additional terrain textures on the fly. The asset block method is used to good effect on the two Japanese routes so I definitely think that is the way to get a more random effect across the terrain.

[brysonman46]

I plumped for ECML South in the end, as I will probably need some of the assets anyway albeit the route comes out somewhat north of Peterborough.

It's just a shame we never got an easy way to add in additional terrain textures on the fly. The asset block method is used to good effect on the two Japanese routes so I definitely think that is the way to get a more random effect across the terrain.

You can select 2 different assets in each asset block, but you can lay as many as you wish on top of one another in any one area. So if you make "n" large blocks, but sparsely populated, you can have 2n different assets in the same large area, and by moving each block slightly, you can "move" some assets. And still only use "n" assets in the tile!

[DPSimulation]

I haven't found any terrain textures other than Kuju and the UKTS Freeware Pack set. We're using Weardale as a dependency for The Friargate Line and it doesn't bring any more textures to the party.

You don't get any textures simply by activating a tickbox in the editor, textures are done when you create your route template, this can also be modified afterwards.

In terms of the original question by Vern, many of the more recent routes offer a much more expansive texture set than that provided by the original Kuju sets.

[Rockdoc2174]

You don't get any textures simply by activating a tickbox in the editor, textures are done when you create your route template, this can also be modified afterwards.

I'd appreciate some pointers. Chris Baker set the route up initially but scenery is in my court now and improved textures - or even just a wider selection of them - would be nice to have.

Keith

[callum112233]

I think it's quite a ball ache if you want to switch out your terrain paint set though. It's easy to swap it in the route properties but if you've already painted parts of the route you will would have to repaint it all over again with the new textures.

I quite like the Settle-Carlisle texture set. There's quite a large array of textures in there.

[Rockdoc2174]

Is the choice of textures either/or then, Callum? I think that it would be acceptable to leave some areas with Kuju/Freeware Pack textures so I'd be happy to add textures but, as you say, if it means starting again from scratch it's not really worht the grief.

Keith

[callum112233]

I'm pretty sure you can only use one texture set so yeh, if you wanted to switch textures mid way through a build, you would have to repaint everything. I could be wrong though.