Regarding the forests; the route I'm working on is set in Southwest Washington, so the underbrush is usually fairly thick. The way I replicate, is to place detailed grasses, trees, and shrubs trackside or along the edges of the forest. Rather than planting brush on the forest floor, I simply paint the forested terrain with a dark forest floor texture; this way, any gaps between the trees don't stand out as bare spots and the eye assumes that there is underbrush beneath the forest canopy, as illustrated in the following screenshots...
In contrast to Buzz, I'm a "helicopter guy"
and I rarely run the sim from cab-view unless I have to operate controls and such. I prefer more of a model railroad view; so I'm not bashful about extending forested areas into the distance using framerate-friendly 2d tree assets, and beyond the 2d trees, I like to paint forested areas with textures to replicate fields, clear-cuts, etc...Of course the downside to my philosophy, is that my route is nowhere close to being finished and perhaps never will be.
I recently purchased the Pegnitz route (from Steam Store), an area I was very familiar with while stationed in Germany, and although it's a very nice route from track-level, I was a bit disappointed when I viewed from above and discovered the trackside forests did not extend very far from the tracks. I suppose it's related to framerates for the masses; but if I'm investing all my time into building a route, I want it to look like the actual terrain it's based on, even when viewed from above. With so many hardware configurations out there, I suppose it's a balancing act to create something that looks realistic and still achieve good frames with moderate hardware; and sorry, but I don't target laptop users when I consider framerates. I have a laptop too, but I don't run games on it. If a game comes out that I like, but I can't run it because of hardware limitations; then I'll upgrade to something that will run it. Over the years I've discovered that the ability to run flight sims smoothly, is usally the benchmark of a good gaming rig; if you can happily run a flight sim, you can usually run anything else with no problem.
Lastly, I like to keep a copy of Minerman's Bergen route that I can view in edit-mode and study his techniques. Now, I'm not saying that Minerman is better than other expert builders in our community; but for the most part he's built a massive route along with his son as his only assistant (AFAIK). Not only that, but the fact that the trackwork and signalling alone are fully functional is a testament to the craftsmanship that went into the build; and then there's the scenery... simply beautiful. So with all those aspects involved, it's my go-to route for getting ideas and learning the inner workings of route building.
I hope my two-cents has been helpful. Good luck with your route, and have fun with the build.
