View source for Protrack

Protrack describes a set of procedural-track assets.  This page provides details of how you can create and configure additional assets using the system. At the time of issue Protrack comprised a mesh-library, 12 sub-component assets and 13 placeable tracks.

=Mesh Library=
* <kuid:122285:80001> This contains all of the meshes and textures used by all of the placeable assets.
* The meshes and textures have been set up so that they are as easy as possible to re-skin.

=Sub-Components=
* <kuid:122285:80010> to <kuid:122285:80051>  These assets (listed below) define the various component splines which go to make up the actual tracks.  These are hidden from the surveyor listings so you will never see them in game and, unless you want to change the LOD settings, there is nothing meaningful that can be altered in these objects.<br><br>

: <kuid:122285:80010> Protrack rail-flat-bright-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80011> Protrack rail-flat-bright-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80012> Protrack rail-flat-rusty-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80013> Protrack rail-flat-rusty-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80014> Protrack rail-bullhead-bright-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80015> Protrack rail-bullhead-bright-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80016> Protrack rail-bullhead-rusty-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80017> Protrack rail-bullhead-rusty-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80020> Protrack chairs-pandrol-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80021> Protrack chairs-pandrol-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80022> Protrack chairs-bullhead-left<br>
: <kuid:122285:80023> Protrack chairs-bullhead-right<br>
: <kuid:122285:80030> Protrack sleepers-timber-light<br>
: <kuid:122285:80031> Protrack sleepers-timber-dark<br>
: <kuid:122285:80033> Protrack sleepers-concrete<br>
: <kuid:122285:80034> Protrack sleepers-concrete-dark-timber (concrete main lines, timber sleepers in junctions)<br> 
: <kuid:122285:80035> Protrack sleepers-concrete-light-timber (concrete main lines, timber sleepers in junctions)<br> 
: <kuid:122285:80050> Protrack conductor-third<br>
: <kuid:122285:80051> Protrack conductor-fourth<br><br>

=Tracks=
* <kuid:122285:80100> to <kuid:122285:80112> These are the actual placeable tracks and it is only these objects that will be seen in the Surveyor listings.  The published assets cover a range of variations but not all combinations are included (there are 180 possible variants, excluding some combinations that don't make sense)

=Naming Conventions=
Protrack tracks are named as below, it will help everybody if you use the same convention for any tracks you create.
* Protrack B means bullhead rail and chairs.
* Protrack F means flat bottomed rail with Pandrol track clips.
* These prefices are followed by 'ballast/sleeper' names with any other descriptors at the end.

=Defining Additional Tracks=
This is the recommended procedure:
* The ballast texture is defined in the main placeable asset so your starting point is to find an asset with the ballast that you want to use.  
* Let's say that you want to produce a variant of <kuid:122285:80106> Protrack F Sandstone/Concrete with light timber sleepers.
* Clone this asset and give it your own kuid and username.
* Open config.txt and go to the attached-splines table.
* The entries for chairs_left, chairs_right, rail_left and rail_right are already correct so you simply need to amend the sleeper entry which should be altered by changing the spline-kuid from <kuid:122285:80033> to <kuid:122285:80030>, which is ''Protrack sleepers-timber-light''.
* Subject to matching geometry you could also use a kuid from a different procedural-track (such as <kuid:523:19723344> which is the sleeper component from Auran's built-in Oak sample track)

* The same principle applies to any other attached-splines entry.
* If you add third or fourth conductors you must make sure that the entries are at the end of the attached-splines table.  For current UK tracks the correct entries are these:
  third_rail {
    lateral-offset                        -1.16
    use-same-direction                    1
    spline-kuid                           <kuid:122285:80050>
    visual-only                           1
  }
  fourth_rail {
    lateral-offset                        0
    use-same-direction                    1
    spline-kuid                           <kuid:122285:80051>
    visual-only                           1
  }

=Reskinning the Meshes=
* TBD
* Source files are layered, saved in Photoshop *.psd format and should be usable in Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Gimp.
* Download Source Files: [[media:Protrack Textures.zip]]

=License=
License conditions are in the assets themselves.  You are free to create variations by cloning and amending tracks or by cloning and reskinning the mesh library.  You do not need to seek my consent to upload any such assets to the DLS provided that they are free for everyone to use.

Andi06