Skybox editing! v3.31
Have you ever noticed the extended scenery that you can see on the "top of the south" layout? (the original New Zealand main layout).
When you are in certain areas you can see things like mountains and sea off in the distance in miniature scale, even though the edge of the table is all that is there in large scale.
Up until now this feature has only existed on the old "Top of the south" layout, and this is because that layout was made using entirely different tools than what modern player-made layouts use.
But piece-by-piece I am bringing every feature of the main layout over to the new editing system, so everyone can use these features in their own layouts!
And one of the big ones was the "extended scenery" you can see.
Well you can finally make this same effect yourself!
There is a new panel of options on the wall (next to all the room options like wall size and colors):
From here you can place props on specific layers and start creating and editing your own skyboxes.
The "large scale only" layer is useful for:
- walls and room details that you only want to see when looking at the layout in large scale, but you want to be hidden when driving trains in miniature.
And the "miniature scale only" layer is useful for:
- scenery that extends beyond the sides of the table, like backdrops and landscapes that surround your layout. These are hidden in large scale but you can see them when driving trains in miniature.
Beyond this you can also create your own "skybox regions" which allows you to make unique scenery show up based on where you are in the layout (e.g. show a mountain backdrop from one area, but a huge desert from another area)
But this starts to get a bit more complicated, so I've written a full step-by-step guide on how to create a layout that makes use of these new features:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2390114947
With these tools you can make your layouts so much more immersive to explore, since being in miniature mode can have fully detailed skyboxes and scenery off in the distance, while you can still keep that model railway table & bench-work in large scale at the same time!
As an example, I've updated the official "Puzzling World" layout to include extended scenery using these new features! You can access it in-game just in the "new game" menu:
You can also find a copy on the Steam Workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2391154447
This is just a simple example with one layer of skybox scenery.
But if you get creative with the more advanced "skybox region" system you can have multiple types of scenery on the same layout! like a vast desert that transitions into a city or mountain valley after passing through a tunnel and entering into a new skybox region.
There are already lots of map makers who are super excited about this new feature, so there's bound to be some awesome skyboxes showing up on the workshop soon!
Enjoy!