Trainz Content Creation

Blender – Export to Trainz

N3V Games — Wed, 03 May 2023 22:24:46 +0000

This video helps with setting up the PBR materials for our example mesh, automatically create some LODs with a plugin, use another plugin to export all our LODs quickly and finally use a custom tool to create our Trainz Asset (texture.txt files and config.txt file) to allow us to import the Trainz Asset without errors into Trainz Content Manager (TRS22 in this case).

Youtube Video Links:
00:00 – Short overview on the video goals
00:53 – Blender material setup
02:52 – Easily create LODs with blender Trainz LODz plugin
06:33 – Bulk rename using blenders built-in Batch Rename Tool
08:29 – Bulk export meshes using blender Super Batch Export plugin
12:20 – Create the Trainz asset texture.txt files
14:13 – Create the Trainz asset config.txt file

Trainz Content Utilities and Blender plugins can be found in the Trainz Content Utilities & Plugins Google document.

Troubleshooting

Anyone who has followed along with the “Blender – Export to Trainz” video and is having trouble with either of the following errors should watch this video for 2 solutions that might help you.

Errors that this video might help solve are:
00:00 – FindInvalidDataProcess fails on mesh normals: Found zero-length vector
02:16 – Unable to determine vertex format

Low Poly Lighting – It’s all about the Normals

N3V Games — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 04:42:23 +0000

In the beginning Trainz (and most games around the 2000s) needed to use low poly assets due to hardware capabilities. These days we use low poly assets for either low LOD or art style choices. That isn’t to say you can’t use low poly assets up close but there isn’t really a need if you are trying to get your assets to look as real as they can be, and in Trainz Railroad “Simulator” that is how we try to approach things.

For those that still like to dabble in low polygon assets, here is some information on how you might get your lighting to look better inside Trainz’s modern engine.

What is the issue?

Well basically it comes down to “lighting”. When light hits a surface on a mesh, a surface normal is used to calculate the lighting. By default, 3D software usually set the normals for you and most of the time you probably won’t go editing them.

Trainz low poly legacy content when rendered in TRS19 appears to look incorrect.

This isn’t a bug, it is just that the normals on the surfaces of the mesh are all pointing outwards in different directions causing different shading on the polygons. There is technically nothing wrong with the mesh but visually it just doesn’t look desirable. Here is what the normals look like for the above asset:

What is the solution to the above visual issue?

The first thing you might consider is to stop using low polygon assets. The days of the crisscross ( X ) mesh to mimic a bush are limited as modern hardware is capable of rendering enormous amounts of polygons so bulk up your shrubs!

The next thing to consider if you just have to use a low polygon mesh up close to the camera is to change your normals. Make sure all your normals point upwards so when each surface on your mesh is lit they will all be lit the same no matter which direction the light is coming from. We have updated the normals on the above mesh in our 3D software package to have all the normals pointing upwards.

Doing so should give you the following result in Trainz:

Other things to consider that you might run into when trying to use low poly assets and adjusting the normals…

Using the metadata tag two-sided to generate additional polygons (the back faces in this example above) will result in the normals being flipped. Best to generate additional polygons in your 3D software package if you plan on changing the normals of your mesh.

There is a new metadata tag called “bend-normals-upward-ratio” for any assets that are 4.7 or higher. When you set this value to 1.0 it points the normals of the .trainzmesh upwards (like in the image above where the normals point upwards). This means you don’t need to manually edit the normals of your low polygon mesh in your 3D software package, you can just add this tag to the metadata file.

Hopefully this gives you some insight into why the lighting might look dark and light on different sides of low poly assets in TRS19 and also a way to help you resolve this if that visual outcome isn’t what you desire.

Reskin the Custom 40′ Boxcar

N3V Games — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 23:32:33 +0000

Follow along with the video tutorial to create your custom reskin of the boxcar.

The Asset you need to download from the DLS is:
Custom 40′ Boxcar – #1
The above asset will also download this next asset which you’ll also need to complete your reskin:
Custom 40′ Boxcar Lib

You will want to download the PSD file to make it easier to reskin the boxcar. You can download the PSD file HERE

Feel free to upload your asset reskin to the DLS. Also don’t forget to update the “thumbnail.jpg” under the subfolder “boxcar_mesh” to have the correct DLS preview thumbnail of your new boxcar!

Exporting Substance Painter Textures for TRS19

N3V Games — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 02:14:37 +0000

The tutorial above shows you how to export Substance Painter materials for TRS19.

The files we used in the above video can be found HERE

Blender – Exporting with FBX and PBR

N3V Games — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 23:24:11 +0000

Today in this tutorial we will be looking at exporting a cube from Blender 2.79 using PBR materials.

The files we used in today’s episode:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/if1smfo591…

Trainz Content Utilities:
https://contentcreation.trainzsimulat…

Transferring routes from TANE to TRS19

N3V Games — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 02:21:10 +0000

This tutorial shows you how to transfer your own routes from Trainz A New Era into Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019.

Making Multiplayer Sessions

N3V Games — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 02:56:26 +0000

This tutorial shows you how to make multiplayer sessions in Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019.

Turf Effects (part 3) – Examples

N3V Games — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:31:11 +0000

You can find more turf setup examples in the below videos:

Trainz Turf Effects wiki information is located HERE
Trainz Turf Effects wiki information example assets are located HERE

Terrain Editing – How to Manipulate Terrain (Topology tab)

N3V Games — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 23:39:45 +0000

In this tutorial video you’ll get to learn the basics of editing terrain in “surveyor” which is Trainz world editing tool.

Material Types

N3V Games — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 04:10:50 +0000

As TRS19 starts to get into the hands of content creators, the need to understand the new material types available in TRS19 is important. The new materials are much more realistic than previous materials.

The Trainz wiki lists all you need to know about the new Physically-Based Rendered (PBR) materials.

In a (extremely tight) nutshell:
m.pbrmetal – if you don’t need to render transparency or glass (yes we have a glass only material) then you’ll want to use this material.

m.pbrmetalmasked – for those meshes that require transparency

m.pbrmetaldetail – if you need to add some really nice up close high resolution detail to a model you might want to think about using this material. Can also be used to hit tiling artefacts on a much larger scale too.

m.glass – does this really need explaining?

m.clutter – gives similar results to m.pbrmetalmasked but adds support for cross-faded LOD transitions and does not include support for parallax mapping. This is intended for use with Clutter Effect Layers.

Each of the above PBR material wiki links should have information on 3DS Max, Blender and Maya support for setting up the materials for Trainz (or at least m.pbrmetal does and the rest are very similar).

You’ll want to use the PBR materials above if you have TRS19. Anyone with older Trainz versions the legacy materials are still available to use but once you go PBR you’ll never go back