Realistic Train Tracks created with textures within Vue

This little tutorial will show you how to make a short length of railway track when that is all that’s needed rather than buying a complete model.  For distance shots, just using a texture and bump on a standard 2D plane or flattened terrain will work well, but if you need a bit more oomph for close camera shots then this is ideal.  The method produces a mesh that will cast shadows correctly.  You can use this method for any similar objects you can think of.  All you need is a bit of patience and a GOOD QUALITY TEXTURE IMAGE AND BUMP MAP !

For this tutorial you will need a version of Vue that allows baking of objects to polygons.  If you don’t have this option, then there is an alternative way of doing it but the results aren’t quite so good (see page 3).  You will also need a GOOD QUALITY  texture map and bump map.   For this tutorial I generated a texture in Filter Forge and took it into Crazy Bump to make the bump map.  I made the texture seamless so that the tracks can be tiled to any length.  If you need a large or curved track, you’ll need to purchase a model (there are some at Cornucopia 3D)

Here’s the ‘artistic render’……

Why do all this?  Well, here’s how the track looks…..it has height and depth

This is how it looks if the texture and bump are applied to a 2D plane in the normal way – big difference !

Load a 2D primitive plane into your scene.  You will need to raise it very slightly above ground – just an inch will do

In the Advanced Materials Editor, on the Bumps Tab right click to Edit Function

The Bump node should be highlighted – if not, click on it and it will be framed red.  Now click to load a texture map and locate your saved bump texture image

If the image needs rotating, use the arrows (1) and make sure Interpolation Type is set to Bilinear (2)

Set the mapping to Object – Parametric (1), Check Displacement Mapping (2) and set the Quality Boost to +4 (3)

Adjust the Depth until it looks about right.  Here a depth of 0.300 is plenty.  Do a few renders till you’re happy with how the bumps look

From the Object menu select “Bake To Polygons” and set the quality slider to maximum

You can leave it as it is, or for a more refined finish, select Edit Object and increase the Max Smoothing Angle

Right Click on the material preview in the world browser and select Reset Material

Now you’ll see that although the bump has been removed from the material, you still have all the lumps and bumps on the plane.  This part is useful as you won’t be using excess RAM (if you’re short on it) to render displacements.

Go back into the Material Editor and on the Colour & Alpha tab, select Mapped picture and load your texture file, again, if you rotated your bump image then do the same with your texture.  Make sure Mapping is set to Object – Parametric

Now you have a little bit of track…..

I made my texture seamless so that I could make several planes and join them up.  The easy way to get them perfectly lined is to use the Replocate feature.

First, you need the Y size of your plane which here is 5.748 yards

With your plane selected, right click the Scatter/Replocate icon as shown

I’ve set to generate 6 copies and move back on the Y axis by 5.748 yards

Now I have a longer track.  Group the copies so you can move and rotate them without spoiling the alignment.

Click HERE to download this tutorial in PDF which also includes an alternative method of creating  this if your version of Vue does not have the option of Bake To Polygons

Leaf Hooking Point

Some trees and plants have a problem where the hooking point did not save correctly, therefore the leaf material does not sit where it should on the branch.

This can only be done in those versions that have plant editor capability

1. Load your tree or plant into Vue.  Then open the plant editor by clicking the button in the top menu.

2. I’m editing the Rural Maple here.  It has only one leaf texture. If the plant you’re editing has more than one leaf subset you will need to repeat this for each subset.

First, click on the icon with the little leaf on it

3.  You’ll see that the little red dot is off from where it should be – which is where all the branches meet in the middle.  (some leaf hooking points are in a different position – i.e. top centre or top right but you will easily  be able to work out where it SHOULD be)

4. Position the cursor over the correct point and left click. This will move the hooking point.  OK out of this window back to the plant editor.

5. Right click on the material preview image and select Edit Material.  Do not change any settings, just save the material somewhere you can find it easily (I simply created a temp subfolder in my Eon folder).  You’ll see why I added this action later

6. You can now save your plant.  Click on the icon shown to save the Plant Species. You can either create a new folder to save your modified trees, or save the tree with a new filename so that you do not overwrite your original plant.

The Rural Maple is 08uMaple.veg so I added an ‘a’ to make it 08uaMaple.veg and just added ‘Fixed Hookpoint’ in the Title box after Rural Maple

IF IN DOUBT, COPY YOUR EXISTING PLANTS AND TREES TO ANOTHER LOCATION BEFORE MODIFYING SO THAT YOU DO NOT OVERWRITE YOUR ORIGINALS

Now, this is where it can get frustrating……  OK out of the plant editor.

7.  Delete your tree and load the newly saved version.  Now go back to what you did in step 2 – click on the leaf icon.  Check to see where the hooking point is  Hopefully, your hooking point should now be in the correct place but occasionally, it still does not save correctly SO if this is the case……….

8. Back in the plant editor, click the little icon next to the leaf to load a material.  Locate your newly saved MAT that you did AFTER adjusting the hooking point.

Re-save the tree.

9. Again, delete your tree, then load your newly created one and go back to the plant editor.  Click on the little leaf icon.  If you’ve been lucky, the hooking point information will have been saved this time – but if not, repeat from step 8 and try again.  This one took 3 attempts before the information was properly saved.  The most attempts to date is 11 (that was in 5 Infinite) so you may need lots of patience here but once they are all done your leaves will look much better!!

To download the PDF version of this tutorial, right click on the icon and ‘Save Target As’ or ‘Save Link As’