Railworks America

I would like to reduce the smoke particle density on a diesel. Can someone guide me to the particular line(s) in an xml smoke exhaust file and show me what has to be changed?

Thx

miata54 wrote:reduce the smoke particle density on a diesel.

I, myself would like to know how to do the oppisite for the more realistic effect!

You can either

* reduce the emission rate ( and number of particles total )
* reduce the alphas of the colours or even just lighten the colours somewhat. Less alpha will mean more transparent smoke.

You can make new emitters in the blueprint editor easily, I would very much recommend doing it that way as you can preview them. Editing emitters without previewing is soul-destroying.

Thanks Kali:

Need a little bit more info. I've got two files in the Particles folder. Diesel Exhaust and Engine Diesel Exhaust01. Do both of them have to be modified or just one of them?

The emitters are child objects, you can find which ones a particular engine uses down at the bottom of the blueprint where all the other child objects are. You can add as many as you like, they've got no specific names.

Bear with me Kali. You are making progress.

Kali wrote:You can make new emitters in the blueprint editor easily

I've looked at the bottom of the file for which I find MANY entries. I don't know exactly which one I'm looking for.

Kali:

Is what you are referring to seen below:

</sParticleBPProp>
</_sParticleProperties>
<_bRandomizeTexture d:type="cDeltaString">eTrue</_bRandomizeTexture>
<_texID d:type="cDeltaString">G-TraX\PortlandTerminal\Particles\[00]Smoke</_texID>
<_iRowColumnSize d:type="sInt32">4</_iRowColumnSize>
<_fFrameSwitchTime d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</_fFrameSwitchTime>
</cEmitterComponentBlueprint>
</EmitterComponentBP>
<PosOriComponent>
<cPosOriBlueprint/>
</PosOriComponent>
<RenderComponent>
<cEditorSceneryRenderBlueprint>
<PrimaryNamedTextureSet>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
<BlueprintSetID>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
<Provider d:type="cDeltaString"></Provider>
<Product d:type="cDeltaString"></Product>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
</BlueprintSetID>
<BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString"></BlueprintID>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
</PrimaryNamedTextureSet>
<SecondaryNamedTextureSet>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
<BlueprintSetID>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
<Provider d:type="cDeltaString"></Provider>
<Product d:type="cDeltaString"></Product>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
</BlueprintSetID>
<BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString"></BlueprintID>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
</SecondaryNamedTextureSet>
<GeometryID d:type="cDeltaString">G-TraX\PortlandTerminal\Particles\[00]ParticleGizmo</GeometryID>
<CollisionGeometryID d:type="cDeltaString"></CollisionGeometryID>
<Pickable d:type="cDeltaString">eTrue</Pickable>
<ShadowType d:type="cDeltaString">eShadowType_None</ShadowType>
<ViewType d:type="cDeltaString">ExternalView</ViewType>
<HeatHaze/>
<TexText/>
<ProjectedLightElement/>
<Instancable d:type="bool">1</Instancable>
<DetailLevelGenerationRange>
<cSceneryRenderBlueprint-sDetailLevelGenerationRange>
<HighestLevel_1isHighest d:type="sInt32">8</HighestLevel_1isHighest>
<LowestLevel_10isLowest d:type="sInt32">9</LowestLevel_10isLowest>
</cSceneryRenderBlueprint-sDetailLevelGenerationRange>
</DetailLevelGenerationRange>
</cEditorSceneryRenderBlueprint>
</RenderComponent>
</cEmitterBlueprint>
</Blueprint>
</cBlueprintLoader>

That's the blueprint for the emitter; if you load the engine blueprint and search for it's filename ( without the file extension ) you'll find it's child object entry.

OK, I think this is what you are referring too. There are 8 of them, I'm assuming one for each exhaust stack in back to back "A" units. Is this correct? If so, what line/value do I change to reduce particle emissions?

</Matrix>
</cEntityContainerBlueprint-sChild>
<cEntityContainerBlueprint-sChild d:id="34915936">
<ChildName d:type="cDeltaString">Engine_Exhaust_1</ChildName>
<BlueprintID>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
<BlueprintSetID>
<iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
<Provider d:type="cDeltaString">G-TraX</Provider>
<Product d:type="cDeltaString">PortlandTerminal</Product>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
</BlueprintSetID>
<BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">Particles\DieselExhaust.xml</BlueprintID>
</iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
</BlueprintID>
<Matrix>
<cHcRMatrix4x4>
<Element>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000000000F03F" d:precision="string">1</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000000000F03F" d:precision="string">1</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000000000F03F" d:precision="string">1</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000A099991140" d:precision="string">4.4</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000E08CA80540" d:precision="string">2.7073</e>
<e d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000000000F03F" d:precision="string">1</e>
</Element>
</cHcRMatrix4x4>

<BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">Particles\DieselExhaust.xml</BlueprintID> is the reference to the emitter blueprint, so the file you will need to edit is DieselExhaust.bin; either that or you make your own and replace that file. It's easier to make new emitters in the blueprint editor, as I mentioned. You can start with the settings from DieselExhaust.bin if you want a baseline, and try editing the alpha settings of each colour.

Thanks Kali for your patience with this novice. In MS Flight Simulator, the alpha channel determines reflectivity in textures, as I understand it. Is it the same for RW? Looking at the alpha channel numeric values, will reducing the numbers yield a more transparent texture or reduced intensity?

It depends on the texture in RW, as to what it does. For smoke it controls transparency, for other types of texture it might control specularity ( shininess ) or transparency again.

In my quest to understand file applications, can you tell me the differences and what these two files control?

1. Diesel Exhaust
2. Engine Diesel Exhaust01

You'll need to give me a bit more context than that, such as paths.

Hi Kali:

Thanks for staying with me on this.

The two files are found here: Assets/G-Trax/Portland Terminal/Particles. Just wondering what each file controls as their titles are somewhat similar.

From a previous thread, you said: "You can make new emitters in the blueprint editor easily." Is there a tutorial anywhere on how to proceed with this?

Thanks

Chris