5 Tips to Make your Railways look SO much better in Cities: Skylines | No Mods
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2022
- Today I show you how you can improve your railway system with 5 simple tricks in Cities: Skylines
1. Gentle Slopes
2. Better Bridges
3. Embankments instead of endless Bridges
4. Cool Railway Junctions
5. Detailing
#citiesskylines #railway #vanilla - Hry
Calculating percentage slope grade.
3m every 12u or 96m is 0.03125 or 3.125%, already pushing it (but it's pretty good for vanilla)
3m every 10u or 80m is 0.0375 or 3.75%, nearing the limit for your average (loco-haul) train (4% is the recommended maximum but multiple units could probably do better)
3m every 8u or 64m is 0.046875 or 4.6875%. Probably fine for multiple units but you're pushing it.
3m every 6u or 48m is 0.0625 or 6.25%. This is beginning to get steep even for multiple units, though there are some railways which go past this, but they are rare.\
For the lols, your average vanilla train track is 9m every 6-12u or 48 to 96m, or 0.1875 to 0.09375 (18.75 to 9.375%, steep to the point of being absolutely frivolous).
In general try to keep your grades below 4% (3m every 75m or ~9.5u) for loco-haul lines, 8% (3m every 37.5m or ~4.5u) for multiple unit lines. Try to get slopes as low as the terrain allows. For instance, I have a few 6% or even 10% slope lines which go up challenging terrain.
If you're building an earthen embankment, when the contour lines start fading together, the slope has reached a grade of approximately 2% or 3m every 150m (~19u)
And with the rail junctions, not only do they look nice, they are also crucial for very high traffic lines.
and... try to calculate this for wheeled vehicles too! :-)
Especially those almost "slope too steep" kinds.
What is the max grade in the vanilla game anyway?
@@StaK_1980 Not sure since I play with anarchy. Plus different roads have different steepnesses. The easiest option would probably be to build a max steepness road and measure it with NMT
EDIT: Conveniently, it's 45 degrees or 100% slope.
Touch grass mate 🤓
LOL THATS A WHOLE paragraph
Relax dude, it´s just a game
I like these tips already, and I do in fact have some more:
- Avoid tunnels whenever practical
They're just as costly as bridges and look kind of bland...
- Leave space for trains to queue between junctions
Junctions in rapid succession are more susceptible to jamming.
Very helpful tips!
Tunnels are usually much more expensive then bridges.
The last one, this. Which suggests building a single more complex junction using the "split before merging" rule.
@@RustyWalker I was referring to having multiple splits in rapid succession, and it doesn't really apply if you use the 1-way track for junctions, because no tracks cross each other. If you built a simple triangle, you'd want to leave some space between the junctions so it doesn't jam.
tunnels cost money? oh, I'm playing with infinite money like the real government. lol
One more thing:
when road and rail are both being built new, the height for one to cross the other can be split between them, with one being sunk and the other raised. relative to the terrain The material cut out for lowering one into a trench serves as the material to build the embankment for the other.
Hello everyone, very good video, congratulations to Imperatur, but I would like to put, that for me should be #1 Tip for realistic railways:
Railways in real life are build with just two shapes, very large straight (as much as terrain allows) and big curves (but not that big neither). So if you want to create a realistic railway lane, you should first build the big straight sectors and then connect them with the curves tool. Do not use the Bézier (Spline) option as everyone tend to use (I always used that, but real railways arent like that, now I use this strategy).
As roads, but even more in this case, try to follow topography while designing the paths. Try to avoid slopes and build them if necessary like Imperatur showed.
And the last part of the TIP around designing: ALWAYS design railways with preference over roads, always. If you want an organic looking city, railways will be always the ones that kinda makes the shape of the rest of infrastructure. Think about this, train is more than twice older transportation than cars, railways have been there much more time than roads and highway. So build of prethink railways and then adapt roads to them, because thats how cities growed over the last 2 centuries.
Check any European town/citie (easier to see in medium towns) to see what I mean. Railways are the number 2 in hierarachy, after historic center. And they always try to make them straight as possible.
Valuable input. Much appreciated!
@@cheese5194 Thanks for feedback. Things you learn by studying urbanism and when you are a google Earth nerd haha.
Small simple things make the whole difference.
@hosatosa no need to build them, but you can place dirt roads where do you think railways should be and use them as a core, and then build the railway once you have the budget (is unlocled) and necessity. Basically connecting different urban centers isnide the same city. Remember trains are designed for long distances, metros for medium and bus for short systems, thats the Cities Skylines (and somewhat real life) hierarchy.
My town is a good example of that, since it was built in a narrow strip of land between the sea and the railway. As population grew new neighborhoods were built on the inland side of the railway. The old and new parts of town are connected via only 2 bridges that go over the railway (one of which was built like 12 years ago or something), and that's a good part of the reason why a small town of around 40k people has terrible traffic.
Here is an idea also for fencing, if you make rail junctions in a more dense urban neighborhood, I use the airport fence, I’ve been utilizing that for a few of my inner city areas and seaport areas in game on PS4
Actually, for HST you want the flattest possible ramp as well since they use continuous welded ballalestless rails
hsr?
Great tips as always! I don't really play vanilla, but I still love your tips and tricks as they still usually apply. and they are always informative, smart, funny and pleasant to watch!!!
definitely
I‘m so glad to hear that!:)
Yes, I was about to write it, it is pleasant to watch.
Preach it, brother!
Everything looks more realistic when it’s properly sloped 😊
These tips are great! Even though I often am aware of these simple intersection problems, I tend to avoid these practical solutions for the sake of saving time. Seeing how easily they can be setup in almost the same amount of time is inspirational.
Wow you blew me out of the water again!! This is beautiful detailing especially in vanilla, and coming from Berlin this vid just hit right home :) Will definitely apply this in my vanilla build! Kudos
one thing that i haven't really done much are using slopes to make bridges. I only discovered how beautiful it is recently when i was making on/off ramp for my elevated highway.
this video definitely inspires me to make more use of slopes! nice video!
One of the best landscape artists for CS.
I've learned so much from imperatur.
Soft setting and small tool tip for landscaping goes a long way.
Decorations bring an area alive...
Dang it, great ideas as always, off to restart my city build for the 10,245th time.
The gentle sloped bridges can be made into an enbankment. Just add dirt underneath them and use the road converter (the !) to change the roads to their ground level versions.
Neat!
The one way trick is very helpful.
It is better to raise or lower highways, because highways can be built with a 4-6% slope, while railways can only be built with a 2% slope.
Just noticed that the transitions of each tips by using Berlin S-Bahn system :3
Yes :333
I needed this so much. Thanks man.
Haha nice:)
Okay the first part of this video was tooo funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣 thank you for helping us vanilla builders out there!
This was very helpful for my huge city build I’ve learned a lot of tips form you #1 best CZcamsr of city skylines
but but... what about biffa.. and.. overcharged egg... and.. and city planner plays ...
Thanks buddy!! So nice to hear that:)
@@manoyal OE is the only one who is as good as Imperatur. I like both, because they show how to build great cities only with the base game...
@@manoyal they’re all great!
@@manoyal there good to but Impertuar is my favorite
This is exactly what I needed, thank you!
This video is very useful for the beginners who wants build their nice-looking rail/metro/tram systems.
Wow this is really helpful! It makes me want to make a train line in my city even though I just have 10,000 inhabitants lol, Thx so much
Trains are always an good idea:)
Thank you for this. I'm never going to be as good as artists like yourself but love playing. These how to tips help my cities look better which improves my experience overall. Love your videos, be well.
That was super helpful and very informative also! Thanks for doing such awesome stuff 🙌
I‘m glad to hear that😍
@@imperatur your very welcome 🙏 🤗
This is great. I was honestly thinking the last time I watched one of your videos it would be nice if you should how you leveled terrain. Handling elevation challenges is probably the most difficult part game (at least for me).
enjoyed berlin sbahn train clips in the background. 😃
Yeah my favourite train system in the world🥰
@@imperatur czcams.com/video/T2Nt9JheCQg/video.html Honey for SBahn enjoyers
Thank you for the tips and how to make a rail trumpet!!
Thank you Imperatur, always amazing ideas and easy to follow
I love the amount of detail you give every video!
🙃🙃🙃🙃
Immer wieder eine Freude zu sehen, was alles mit Cities Skylines auch im Vanilla Spiel möglich ist...
Werde mir bestimmt ein paar Sachen für meine aktuelle Stadt klauen...
😉😉
So geil! Ich mach das Video an und erkenne direkt die Berliner S-Bahn und auch noch meine Heimstrecke, die S1 Richtung Norden raus. ✌🏻
Danke für die Tipps!
For console players, that rock wall is *sort of* possible but you can't get rocks to overlap (same with foliage) so it ends up looking a little patchy and can be quite tedious (sadly).
but on console you can use the tall grass from the new trees update. They kinda overlap and look good from distance
@@bulfre a lot better than the other foliage that’s for sure. Still not what I’d like though 🥲
Do we have fences in a DLC somewhere?
In the United States and Canada the railroad tracks are usually built on the ground first and then the street, road, or highway is built either over them or under them. Keep the slopes under 8%! (8m for every 12 units)
Edit: grammar
thanks for the tips, you're a genius. More tips to come. God bless you...
You're a legend, thank you!
Great video. I haven't yet play this game, but this tips looks helpful. Next how about build your city without vehicle road, sounds challenging.
Loved that you used The Slap!
You totorial is very helpful! 😀
Lovely details and ideas. Thank you.
Thanks for this tips. at least now my railways look like a real railway and not a roller coaster 😂
Hahaha
That’s a good train flow that helps me a lot
Man.. Thats awesome tips and trick. Thanks imperatur 😎😎
I‘m glad to hear that:)
Very nice, to me the most realistic would be for the rail to run at grade and have the highway bridge over or tunnel under it
Aah yes more tips and tricks videos 🙂
I'm used to playing Transport Tycoon... where functionality and efficiency is key.
So if people want to spend hours and hours on setting up bushes and grass, then let them. But I don't really care..
Does it actually make more of the fictional citizens visit the station?
If so, then I would figure out the minimum to reach 100% efficiency and leave it at that
Great tips!
This is the most creative game I've ever seen , with future updates if we're lucky , it will be even better
Oh yes😍
Just FYI, for tip 2 bridges, you don't need to remove the road, just use the lower terrain tool on road then run your rail, or road bridge, over top. Then use level or smooth terrain tool. At least on console, the game will recognize the lower terrain even with the road still there.
Gute Tips wie immer. Schöne Bilder der Berliner S Bahn ^^.
Ooh. Nice , thanks .
You actually make a good video even the music is good
I always thought they looked ugly this really helped
Einfach ein Künstler! 😍
I like how the first tip is even possible to do mod-free, now imagine how precise you can make them with mods :)
My tips for the tips:
Use mods like precision engineering, moveit and anarchy. With these you can for example create very pretty mounds easily. Create a regular slope as the video shows and then "upgrade" the road while forcing ground placement, when game is presented with an elevated road/rail which is "on ground" it automatically creates a very pretty mound under it, or as video called it the embankment. Whilst the mound in the video is fancier, I create automatic mounds and then adjust terrain to the mound. This is of course only for perfectionists. Also these tools can force bridge mode without messing with landscaping tools which is nice.
Also you can use Node Controller to adjust the bridge lenght and slope of the rails to an obsessive degree, which will be prettier than mod-free tools allow you to do. For example you can adjust the whole overpass to be a perfect arc.
As for the rocks, I recommend Quay anarchy and quays from workshop or default ones. You can use the Network multitool to create perfect paralel quays to the rail or do it manually. Quays will look awful if done by hand, but using Moveit mod you can precisely adjust them to the perfect place in 3d space. There are angled quays on the workshop like 45 degrees instead of 90 degrees. But i'm pretty sure you can also use node controller to force angled quays. Anyway quays will look somewhat decent and require less mouse spam than placing many rocks. Also perhaps get some nicer rocks from the workshop than the defaults to cover the embankments if you still prefer them.
Also for rocks and greenery I recommend prop line tool if you wanna have nice equal rows. Thanks to it you can create more manmade-style embankments with lines of trees.
that's all :)
Oh cheers for the info, shame we can't do that with mods on console, we have to estimate and redo over and over again until we are satisfied how the bridge looks. Great tips for PC players cheating is all you can with mods. 👀
Xucaboa puts gravel paths on the sides of all the tracks and overlays with random vegetation
Nice Work!
YES I NEEDED THANK YOU
I always find when building a bridge over a road or railway is to split the difference of gradients, eg the road/railway dips down and the embankment lifts up to the bridge.
Most excellent tips. I play vanilla with All DLC on ps4.
Great video. I have been playing Cities Skylines for years and I still have issues with terrafaforming.
I would definitely add bigger radii. I usually use 100-200 m (12-24 u) for metro lines and 200-300 m (24-40 u) for trains. Lines consisting only from curves, turning left and right, without straight lines, aren't realistic neither.
You clearly never traveled by rail in Britain. There's barely a straight mile of rail in the country!
@@andrewprytherch So you've never travelled along the East Coast Mainline, 70% of that route is straight, longest straight is between Peterborough and Doncaster, thats around 40 miles dude.
@@KJames2345 nah, I'm in Devon, we live curves around here!
Bruh amazing work 👏. I still trying to learn this tips but my PC is trash and game lag to much when is loading, and took me like 40mins for open game. A BIG subscribe from me, anyway I'm thinking to buy the switch version of cities skylines now, what is your thoughts about it? 🤔
I know there are loads of rail bridges over roads, buuuut, I still feel like there's more realism in keeping the rail on the ground and making road bridges instead in most cases (based off the idea that bridges are expensive to begin with and train bridges have to support so much more weight). A lot of infrastructure is done in hindsight, so old-world stuff gets pretty chaotic with what bridges what, I think that's also a huge factor in the realism, not just appearance. I feel like modern developments would span the roads over instead, old developments have had to basically do whatever was necessary to remove a level crossing. I know this is an aesthetic video but since we're talking about looks, I think it's fair to talk about likely scenarios choosing which one to span.
Looks great
that´s really cool
I loved it!
Oh nice the Berliner S-Bahn 😉
I'm using mods, yet the things you made on vanilla looks way cooler !
Just perfect!
Great video! Well explained and very inspiring!
One small question: how do tou get access to prop fences in vanilla? Is it tied to a dlc? If so, Wich one?
Thanks in advance!
This was so useful
Thanks for the video
Very helpful for me cause I just started and my railways are not very good
Thanks for these!, amazing as always. Do you know of a way to make a Express only train line?, its kind of saddening to see the High speed trains stuck behind a slow commuter train
Amazing !!
Thanks for the tutorial! Now, imperatur won't slap me again 😎
Love the Eddy Wally reference 😂
Thats why i love to play Transport Fever (2) its more visually appealing and has even more freedom when it comes to building
Yes railways 100%, roadways is cities skylines + mods 1000 times better
Not entirely accurate. TPF has its flaws and the city building part of it so redundant. The game relies heavily on mods because the original content that comes with the game is so bad. I used to make mods for TPF but I was investing too much time in the mod making and not actually being able to play the game. I later realized it was just going to be an endless battle of needing mods for everything and the game was very picky about how mods were coded, so I gave up especially after losing all my data. Cities gives far more potential and Trainz is a better model railroad builder option. Plus TPF is overrun by furries that make the community toxic to work with.
@@NCXDesignsAuron Trainz is far better than TSW from Dovetail Games.
lol one of the most common bridges I've made, now to add detail it's very funny
It's so great to learn these things, because when I commute to work in the morning I see these things all around me too... who said gaming was a waste of time?
Cool!! But i have 2 questions :
1.The junction Is complete?
2. What graphics mods do you use?
Thanks
Bro, you are sooo funny... your intro, man lol
I play the PlayStation version and I can’t do a lot of these things. My aim of the game is to make an efficiently running large (250K+ pop) city and try to make it look as nice as I can. All my train tracks are underground. It’s a literal maze down there with one way tracks and different levels connecting to over 10 cargo hubs and train stations. It all works perfect with no jams and it made sense to me when I first built it but I’ve got no real idea what’s going on now so hopefully it doesn’t break
Great Tip ideas.
If I have 3 outside train connections should I use three separate "outside connection" Stations or bring them all to a central train station to connect to my metro?
Thanks for the tips imperatur! Do you have any tips for curved railways or railways in tight spaces? Thanks!
Don‘t build to tight curves😂
If you want something to look good, you must invest time in making it look good :)
Like real life
More train building tips please!!
Nice. Although in reality would it not be the road that's more likely to be made into a bridge and leave the trains on a line as close to level as possible?
that was sick
realistic is to sink road or elevate the road which is better than heavy rail brideges
Yes and no at the same time. Usually railway system is already there and cities are growing around it. Sinking roads under existing rail infrastructure is also quite expensive as well as building overpasses.
Yes that‘s also an good idea!!
Inspiring!!!!
Took me a solid minute to realise you placed down all those rocks
I would like to see your tutorial on how to make a creative road layout. I know that grids are bad but what should I do instead? I watched some videos about improving city layout but all of them looked just like grid with slight modifications. I'm sure you can come up with something interesting
Following the terrain height make organic looking cities. Lee Hawkins builds this way and his videos are very interesting most of the time.
If you play on console where you can't build while displaying height lines, it is doable but much more difficult
In Imperial grade is figured how many feet up for every foot of length. Not sure if grade % is equivalent with metric grade % or not.
So as such, in the US (Well, most of the American hemisphere and I think Australia) 4% is max grade that a diesel locomotive can go up. Any steeper and it cant get oil or fuel. Now, you start adding cars....
Generally speaking railroads tend to keep grades under 2%. The few sprinklings of 2.25%, 2.5%, 3%. and 3.4%+ have been largely eliminated in all but a few short segments. Now thats for mountain grades. The goal is 1-1.25% max. Unless you're in the mountains, that's usually do-able. Once you start getting over 1.5% needing helpers becomes a thing. By 1.8% all but the lightest of trains is going to need some help. Here in the Midwest, most grades are around the 0.2% to 0.8% with occasional 1-1.3% in certain areas (like getting out of certain river valleys). General rule for the game, if you can barely see the grade, your probably around 2% you might want to drop it a bit unless your going over a mountain pass. If you can clearly see the grade, your way too steep.
As a general rule for myself. I usually keep, say from the center tile to the edge of the map to around 20 meters or so. You can go 30, but that's a long steep grade. If you decide to put in and suburnban stops, you dont have much wiggle room to flatten a stretch without creating some unrealistically grade somewhere. 20 meters gives me some breathing room to flatten a couple spots if I need to and not having to go steep on the rest of the line adjust.
Railroads tend to put a short section of straight track in between curves. Lots of math involved, but basically this is to keep trains from string lining, especially in reverse curves or multiple elliptical (actually almost all railroads curves are elliptical for transition, as they almost all have some amount of bank...just not enough to be seen in the game. Usually just a few inches outside of some higher speed corridors).
**And by elliptical, i mean to the apex, not through the whole thing. You don't start a curve at 130% and end the curve at 115%. You start at 130% and at the apex you hit 115%, then at the outro of curve your back to 130%. The back also increases to to apex, then decreases on the way out. This is meaningless though, becuase the amount railroads eliptcal and bank is small you couldn't even see it in scale in the game,. Just saying, don;t run one giant shrinking elliptical. Run two curves, on tighter then the other, with a section of straight in the between.
Straight is always preferred for alot of reasons, but on grades curves tend to slow a train down. As such, say you going up a 1.5% straight section and go into a curve, still maintaining 1.5%. That curve is actually calculated to be more then 1.5% (depending on how tight the curve is, can be anywhere from 1.8% to 2.3%) despite the rate of climb actually being the same, because of the extra stress the curve puts on it, the train is acting as if it's climbing something steeper.
The contradiction is, the more curves you put into a steep climb, the farther you can climb in the same amount of space while still lowering the overall gradient. That long stretch of straight track is too steep and not lining up with where you want it? through a few S curves in there with some short straight sections in between, you get there.
When the decision comes to a crossing where you need to decide to raise the railroad or raise the road...always raise (or lower) the road. Railroads need to maintain their grade and vehicles can climb short steep grades. It's also cheaper and easier in real life to build a road bridge then a railroad bridge.
Now thats all for mainline rail. For things like metro's and trolleys they can and do go quite a bit steeper. Often 3-3.5% for shot segments. They can go 5-6% but I don't know of any cases, at least in the US where that's done, with the exception maybe of San Fransisco (not exactly sure what their trolley gradient is, but it's far far steeper then 2%).
Thanks for your knowledge:) I just gave some tips for newbies of course it isn’t a tutorial on how to build the most realistic railway possible🫠
@@imperatur Oh, I understand (and it was very well done, espically the section on keeping the rail line elevated through any siazable city and decorating the banks), just expanding abit. If one took out all my explaination on why it's done a certain way, it could all be fit into a hand full of sentences.
20m total gradient from center to edge, gap of straight track between curves and reverse curves, and keep grades around or under 1% unless climibing a mountain then keep around 2%, 3% as an absolute max.
What are the mods you use and/or don't use? Seems like your workspace is so clean.
Hahaha🤣😂😅nice video
Thanks:D
Ahora hazlo SIN MODS! 😌
Un buen constructor de ciudades sabe usar bien las herramientas base del juego. 👌
If it functions well, it looks good
Build sports facilities
I did it several times through out my new series🙃
The start was already so funny 😂😂😂😂😂😂🔥🔥
The start remind me how many CZcamsrs build their railways.
CZcamsrs like Biffa always build railways like noobs.