KIND Groundbrush

KIND Groundbrush provides objects that are used in Surveyor to apply height variations to the terrain. The asset appears in game as a monochrome image where the brightness controls the height. Options are available to rotate the image, select the area where the terrain is to be adjusted, and select the scale at which the height adjustment will be applied.

KIND Hierarchy

TrainzBaseSpec

Parent Classes

none.

Child Classes

none.

Supported Tags

The KIND Groundbrush config.txt file supports the following tags (in addition to the tags that are available to all assets). Each tag is shown here with its default value.

displacement-bitmap  nothing

kind

Type: String "groundbrush"

Compulsory: Yes from 3.4

Default: n/a

Desc: Identifies the asset as Kind Groundbrush.

displacement-bitmap

Type: String

Compulsory: Yes from 3.4

Default: n/a

Desc: Greyscale bitmap used to define the height adjustment to be applied. Note that this is an image filename, not a texture. 8-bit BMP or PNG format is suitable. A RGB file format (eg, 24-bit PNG)can also be used, but the colour information is converted to greyscale and the results might not be correct. The pixel values in the image are used to determine the amount of height adjustment: values greater than 127 are height increases, values less than 127 are height decreases.

Example Config.txt

kuid                                    <kuid:xxxxxxx:yyyyyyy>
username                                "Rolling Hill"
kind                                    "groundbrush"
trainz-build                            3.5
category-class                          "BRSH"
displacement-bitmap                     "rolling_hills.tga"
thumbnails
{
 0
 {
   image                               "$screenshot$.jpg"
   width                               240
   height                              180
 }
}

Creating a Groundbrush

The simplest way to create a new groundbrush is to clone an existing one and make any required changes.

The files for a groundbrush are the config.txt text file, the thumbnail image file, and the terrain height map image file. It is therefore nearly as easy to create a Groundbrush from scratch.

The thumbnail can be created in any image editing program. It should be 240 pixels wide and 180 pixels high, in JPG format. It should indicate the general form of the height map.

The config.txt file can be created in any text editor, using the above example as a template. Make the changes as required.

The height map image file can be created in any image editor. The terrain can be drawn using a drawing tool, and edited with utilities such as blur, blend and gradients. There are also realistic terrain generator utility aplications, or plugins for some image editors.

Put the config.txt file, the thumbnail image file, amd the terrain heightmap image file into a folder. Open Content Manager and use File \ Import Content (for versions prior to T:ANE) or File \ Import Content Folder (for T:ANE and later versions), navigate to the folder where the files were placed, and import it.

To test the groundbrush, create a new route or select an existing route, open it in Surveyor, choose Edit Route from the main menu and open the Topology tab. Select Advanced, use the select option to select an area of the map, check that you are editing 'ground' and select your Groundbrush asset from the list in the box. You can now set the area to apply the height to, and the scale and rotation. Then use the Fill option to apply the height map.

KIND Groundbrush

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