SD40-2W Wide Nose CN Enhancement

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

I suspended the project for a while because the game has a clock problem: under 16fps the game's time clock starts to delay in comparison to real time clock, which mess a perfect synchronization between the visual effects (lightinings) and the sounds (thunders), but I'll finish it anyway (despite of issue) after the update of LEP (the problem is the "when?" ).

Ah, this explains a lot! I already wrote RSC off as a serious programming outfit because they cheat with time, big time even! Slowing down a game clock because of sloppy programming I consider a mortal sin. However, I didn't know it also leads to audio synchronisation issues. So thats's why I hear no thunderclaps anymore after a while when I run those 140 car coal trains up the Alleghanies in a severe storm and the frame rate drops below 14 fs, the cheating threshold

I swapped Tom Boswell's severe storm for yours and notice a difference. Tori's scenario is set to start at 1100 am, during daytime also. Tom's sky is pitch black, there is no daylight at all. Your sky is pitch black as well, but the player's position is like bathing in floodlight, key 1, 2 ,3 and 4 alike. Otherwise is very dark, like with Tom like at night.

Is that a bug or a feature or did I miss an option since you say the weather is still beta? My screencaps are too big, so I cannot post a picture, sorry.

[Hawk]

My screencaps are too big, so I cannot post a picture, sorry.

You might be trying to post the default png type of screenshot, which is not allowed here. You need to convert them to jpg fist.
png's aren't allowed because of their huge file size as compare to a jpg.

[Machinist]

One light effect missing is the ground light under the cab windows. I believe this is/was used to check ground speed before the advent of Doppler effect/ground radar speedometers that came with AC traction.

I missed this part of your post.... what are talking about? do you have a real shot of this ground light? I'd appreciate to see, it looks like easy and intersting to add...

[Machinist]

However, I didn't know it also leads to audio synchronisation issues.

In fact the audio (wav or dav files) never delays, it follows perfectly real time; if game clock is delaying all the rendered images are delaying also, and then is when you get the desynchro issue between image and sound...

I swapped Tom Boswell's severe storm for yours and notice a difference. Tori's scenario is set to start at 1100 am, during daytime also. Tom's sky is pitch black, there is no daylight at all. Your sky is pitch black as well, but the player's position is like bathing in floodlight, key 1, 2 ,3 and 4 alike. Otherwise is very dark, like with Tom like at night.

Is that a bug or a feature or did I miss an option since you say the weather is still beta? My screencaps are too big, so I cannot post a picture, sorry.

Ah! I forgot to mention that in Readme.
Yep is only a beta sample I published mixing some effects, it's not a definitive weather type with all its own characteristics.
As I said before I'm creating 10 types of thunder storm weather, 5 for day and 5 for night. The sample in the pack is exclusively to be used at night.
This is why when in a storm you naturally have fog (I'm using three types of fog's distance/intensity) and the fog (in the game) must have different collors: darker at night, brighter at day. This is also why the RSC weather Night Foggy doesn't work once is too much "white" for the night, should be more "black".

but the player's position is like bathing in floodlight, key 1, 2 ,3 and 4 alike.

I didn't understand, even with the help of Google Translator, what you wanna mean... could you re-explain using other words, please? And also post the pictures as Hawk instructed...

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Here are two screenshots.
Tom Boswell's severe thunderstorm storm, note the obtrusive rain, versus

BoswellStorm.jpg

your thunderstorm: subdued rain, different lighting, both of the scene and the locomotive.

MachStorm.jpg

The floodlight has no visible source, casts no visible shadows and stays the same intensity in any view (key 1, 2, 3 or 4).
Remember scenario time in the HUD is around 11 am, and you said the beta weather was meant for night scenarios only.
Also it travels along with the train, making for spectacular floodlighted night shots, like in O. Winston Link's photograpphs.
With Tom Boswell's weather you travel in total darkness once out of Ronceverte.
Only the headlight beam and those intense flashes of lightning provide illumination.

I think it will be difficult for me to get a photo of locomotive ground lighting. It was probably weak like your walkway lights and illuminated only the trackbed directly under the cab windows, say with a 3 foot radius.

I'll try to put together a quick hack to show what I mean by ground lights, since you have given away your secrets with that SD40-2W I'll look for a suitable emitter there.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Voila, that was easy.

GroundLight_L.jpg

I copied your Lateral emitter object to a ground level position directly under the driver. By fiddling with the x,y,z coordinates one can make it shine outwards a little if necessary.
Matrices and matrix transformations are not my style of maths but it wouldn't be very difficult.

Edit: added a few lines of code to the engine simulation file, so now the ground light goes off above 5 MpH and comes on again when stopping.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

This is the floodlight effect I tried to describe.

Floodlit.jpg

Even though the light has no visible source or direction, it does seem to come from the south with respect to the key 9 map. There are quite a few 90 degrees curves in the line and the illumination changes. Normally under clear skies around 11 am the line is mostly in the shadows, so it cannot be an artificial "sun" emitter you perhaps left behind in the severestorm.bin?

Once that "Thunder and Lightning" pack is out perhaps we should continue this conversation in a separate thread, it gives running trains a new dimension.

[Machinist]

Good job....
And yes! when I really start to work with the thunder storm pack we can open a thread. What you are seeing in the last shot (CSX 5200) is probably the ambient light from sun position (sun emitters are features of "time of day" blueprints bin files, I didn't touch that), there is an almost black fog (in real life fog is always white), but it's not enough to block the "sun" floodlight along the "day" time of day as it happens inside tunnels (you always have inside cab the same light you have out of tunnel, huh?). And also I have to think in setting no short distances, bacause in my packs there is (indeed) headlight (actually from 300 to 500 ms). If I set a nighty fog to 200m it will kill my headlight, obviously. Closer fogs (making everything black) was good on RW2 and with default RW3 headlights (30-100m), but not anymore with enhanced ones. As I said before my sample is to be used at night, more than that at darker night time (00:00-01:00am), with brighter headlight, all of this walking along together. This is why I'll make 5 night types and 5 day types, each time of day claims for different fogs. That's funny, sometimes more than driving scenarios... BTW is now 3 months long I don't sit just to play a scenario end-to-end without worries on checking this and that!

Finally, the first stage on my plans for enhancements (up to the 2nd update of LEP) is just "enhance" existing lights in many locos which takes me much time yet. Add a light child is easy, the hard thing (sometimes painfull) is tweak it typping in bin in three dimensional axles till find the best position, sometimes each inch or even cm by cm. A single instrument light can last over 3 hours (counting the time to exit/load the testing scenario). The second stage will be start to play with virtual animations digging into simulation and lua files, like you did (for example, I already wondered step lights on under 10mph, and off above), a key press to virtually turn cablight on/off (no animated and visible switcher object though) etc. Never intended (never will) to create basic model objects, it's up to scenery modellers which is not my case.

Thank for your inputs and heads up. There is a lot of stuff to be explored yet, further of course, at its right time...

Cheers,
Doc.

[peterhayes]

Machinist great enhancement>

Chacal

I have published such a batch file here already (in relation to SD40-2 modifications).

Do you have a link for that file - I've searched but couldn't find it.
Thanks
PeterH

[Hawk]

I believe this is it.

http://railworksamerica.com/FileLibrary ... idenose_V1

[peterhayes]

Hawk
Many thanks for the link but it was the "CHACAL" link that I was after for modified files.
But many thanks for your help.
Regards
PeterH

[Chacal]

This is the post:
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3991&p=42648&hilit=batch#p42648

This one is only for simer4's sounds, but you get the idea.

[Hawk]

Hawk
Many thanks for the link but it was the "CHACAL" link that I was after for modified files.
But many thanks for your help.
Regards
PeterH

Oops! Sorry!
I guess I should have read the whole thread.

[Chacal]

Corner.

[Redferne]

This is the floodlight effect I tried to describe.

Floodlit.jpg

Even though the light has no visible source or direction, it does seem to come from the south with respect to the key 9 map. There are quite a few 90 degrees curves in the line and the illumination changes. Normally under clear skies around 11 am the line is mostly in the shadows, so it cannot be an artificial "sun" emitter you perhaps left behind in the severestorm.bin?

Once that "Thunder and Lightning" pack is out perhaps we should continue this conversation in a separate thread, it gives running trains a new dimension.

What HUD are you using?