Penn Central Route

[TheR62Fan]

Hello All, I've just joined the Railworks America Forum after following for about 3-4 months. I am working on a fictional route centered around the Penn Central.
It's in its most early stages, (with only the harbor about 30% complete and the Erie-Lackawanna junction with only track laid down), but I'd like to show a screenshot or two.

[artimrj]

You have to make 2 posts before you can post pictures. This is 1. Security reasons.

[TheR62Fan]

You have to make 2 posts before you can post pictures. This is 1. Security reasons.

Ok I understand.

[TheR62Fan]

Ok here are the screenshots.

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[TheR62Fan]

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[TheR62Fan]

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[TheR62Fan]

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[TheR62Fan]

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[TheR62Fan]

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[jpetersjr]

Looks good.

[TheR62Fan]

Looks good.

Thanks.
As you can plainly see, a lot of scenery work is needed (trees) and possibly more harbor track. I don't want to use asset blocks as they seem to cut down on performance a lot, especially on my device. So the scenery work might be a while.

[buzz456]

What sort of blocks are causing problems. I found in most cases a block was better for performance than individual items. What are you putting in the asset block?

[BoostedFridge]

I agree with Buzz. In most situations the asset blocks filled with 2d trees are an easier on the FPS. They do load all together though as they come into viewing distance though, so you might get a momentary 'stutter' as the tile with the blocks comes in to the players view. Running your game on an SSD helps minimize that.

[RailWanderer]

I agree, but you can also place smaller blocks of 2d trees at staggered intervals and make certain the first anchor point is nearest the tracks near the center point of the block. The first anchor point or node won't always be right at the tracks, but should be the nearest to the tracks. This way the blocks are drawn and come into the scene at different times with not as much hit on the stutter. This is how I do my trees, and 2d is the key for distant trees.

3D trees or ones marked "near" can always be used as thin strips of trees near the tracks and mingled in with the 2d trees. This takes a bit of overlap with irregular asset blocks. When done properly, many grasses and other foliage assets can be added as the secondary asset in the strip blocks. And don't leave out those single placement objects as they add value to the scene, just watch you level of detail number in the object placement dialog box.

[buzz456]

Bob's rule of thumb when we were doing the Lafayette route was to try to stay under a thousand count on each block and if you have ever run it you will have seen that there isn't much stutter on it.