Uploaded September 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
We've been working on adding height mapping to our shaders in the Trainz engine. This is effectively a distant relative of normal mapping, where the normal-map texture includes an additional "height" channel in addition to the usual XYZ normal information.
The height information is used to perform simple ray-tracing on the GPU, resulting in some ultra-realistic visuals. To be entirely honest, the technique does have its limitations - you can't simply add it to every asset and expect it to benefit everything equally - but used correctly it can add a lot to the scene.
It's also worth emphasising right now that this technique requires some serious GPU power. If you don't have a moderately high-end gaming GPU, you probably won't be using this.
For more information on future Trainz development visit trainzportal.com
To find more info specific to this dev diary visit:
trainzportal.com/blog/view/trainz-dev-diary-height-map-ground-textures-sneak-peek
We've been working on adding height mapping to our shaders in the Trainz engine. This is effectively a distant relative of normal mapping, where the normal-map texture includes an additional "height" channel in addition to the usual XYZ normal information.
The height information is used to perform simple ray-tracing on the GPU, resulting in some ultra-realistic visuals. To be entirely honest, the technique does have its limitations - you can't simply add it to every asset and expect it to benefit everything equally - but used correctly it can add a lot to the scene.
It's also worth emphasising right now that this technique requires some serious GPU power. If you don't have a moderately high-end gaming GPU, you probably won't be using this.
For more information on future Trainz development visit trainzportal.com
To find more info specific to this dev diary visit:
trainzportal.com/blog/view/trainz-dev-diary-height-map-ground-textures-sneak-peek
