Housing FlexiStrip...

[MadMike1024]

One of the new tools in RS2012 is an eight structure set that conforms to the terrain. It will be a wonderful tool for setting up city streets alongside the tracks In the LINC. However, (you knew this was coming) the selection of English country homes and mobile homes is not really what I want.

How it works: The first structure on the strip is created from a structure .geo file and becomes the anchor. Each additional structure is added as a child, and has a matrix to allow you to orient the front of the structures, and the distance from each other. I've succeeded in adding one of the SMM houses as the anchor, but anything I add as a child doesn't appear, except for the last object on the strip.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

[thecanadianrail]

the us houses has the same thing, at the bottom of the list though

[SMMDigital]

Each asset .bin file has a Name meta-tag that should be located near the top of the file. Whatever name is in that tag must be the name that is put into the Child field so that the parent .bin file can call upon it. You also have to give the Product, Provider, and the path of the child asset, usually with a .xml suffix as well.

I tried unsucessfuly to modify the flexible asset .bin that came with the HSC route. There was no problem getting the Child Assets into the .bin file, but orienting them correctly in the Matrix was next to impossible. I finally did it using the source files in the Asset Editor. The Flexible Asset Blueprint is a simple Scenery Blueprint with children added. The neat thing about it is that once you've added all your child assets, you can preview it and move the children into position in the Preview window, and those positions will "stick" when you export the asset. I created this housing block that way.

smm_block.JPG

All eight houses are attached to the blue house on the corner.

Also, if you wan't your houses to hug the terrain when you place them in the editor, there is an option for that as well.

[PapaXpress]

Few questions.

+ I assume that we can add fences, cars, dogs, goats, rocks, etc... as children as well?
+ By doing this we actually improve performance of loading objects, because it will be considered one object and not several?
+ How large would be on average "too large"? Perhaps a block or two is a good size to use?

[Csxgp38-2]

Can you add children as children?

[PapaXpress]

Can you add children as children?

I was trying to avoid that pun.

[SMMDigital]

As far as I know, you can put anything and as much of it as you want, as long as the blueprint will keep letting you add children. And yes, this is counted as one asset. However, it does not reduce the number of polygons in the assets, so I block like the one i've shown all total is about 16,000 polys. You could make a "low-poly" edition of each asset to improve fps than make it into a block I suppose.

[MadMike1024]

OK, Jerry... with your help, here's what I've gotten.



Structure is a bit odd, as the second entry is actually the last house on the strip, but it doesn't have to be. If you copy the first matrix, and use it for all the houses, the orientation remains the same down the row. The 4th number from the bottom is the distance (in Meters) from the left end of the anchor house. For your houses above, 27.5 seemed to be right. So, the second house listed is going to be 223.5 meters from the anchor. the rest go 27.5, 55, 82.5, etc. Of course homes with attached garages and so on will require some cut and try. It appears that the length of the strip isn't bounded, so you can use the spacing needed.