TimeOfDay Revisited

[GreatNortherner]

Colleagues,

Last night I spent a couple of hours tweaking the custom TimeOfDay blueprints for the BigHorn route, which will also be in use on other future route uploads I may do. I toned down the color saturation a bit, made everything a bit darker, removed the super bright moonlight in daytime which illuminated the ground quite too much, and also added a bit more contrast between sunny and shadow side of objects.

There are about prototypical sun/moon-rise and -set times throughout the seasons, so you'll get a long summer day and a short winter day. The moon will be up at different times in each of the four seasons too, so sometimes you'll see moon and sun at the same time, sometimes you'll get the proper night moon.

Please send me a PM or email if you'd like to get a copy of these blueprints for your own routes.

Here's a full a sunny autumn day with "Default" weather:

5 a.m.


6 a.m.


7 a.m.


8 a.m.


NOON


3 p.m.


4 p.m.


5 p.m.


6 p.m.


6:30 p.m.


7 p.m.


8 p.m.


MIDNIGHT

[harryadkins]

Can these blueprints be used with existing routes?

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Yes, they can. Quite easily actually, you only need to install them and then edit one file.

Seeing there is some interest in these files I've uploaded them to this thread (10 kB!) These will install to GreatNortherner \ Krug in your assets directory and will overwrite the older TimeOfDay blueprints if you already have the latest version of the Big Horn route installed.

Here is the download:

TimeOfDay v2.zip

To use these in your own route, simply install them and then edit your routeproperties.xml in a unicode aware text editor (not IE or Firefox). You may possibly also have to edit this route's associated templateroute bin file. Not sure about the second one, I always do that out of habit but I don't actually know if it's even necessary.

Anyway, open the file(s) and look for the SKIES code section, edit it to so it looks like the one you see below. Now you should already see the new skies. These use the default sky dome, sun and moon.

Please let me know if something doesn't work.

Cheers,
Michael

Code: Select all

   <Skies>
      <cRouteBlueprint-sSkies>
         <SpringSkyBlueprint>
            <iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
               <BlueprintSetID>
                  <iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
                     <Provider d:type="cDeltaString">GreatNortherner</Provider>
                     <Product d:type="cDeltaString">Krug</Product>
                  </iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
               </BlueprintSetID>
               <BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">TimeOfDay\GN-Spring.xml</BlueprintID>
            </iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
         </SpringSkyBlueprint>
         <SummerSkyBlueprint>
            <iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
               <BlueprintSetID>
                  <iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
                     <Provider d:type="cDeltaString">GreatNortherner</Provider>
                     <Product d:type="cDeltaString">Krug</Product>
                  </iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
               </BlueprintSetID>
               <BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">TimeOfDay\GN-Summer.xml</BlueprintID>
            </iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
         </SummerSkyBlueprint>
         <AutumnSkyBlueprint>
            <iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
               <BlueprintSetID>
                  <iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
                     <Provider d:type="cDeltaString">GreatNortherner</Provider>
                     <Product d:type="cDeltaString">Krug</Product>
                  </iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
               </BlueprintSetID>
               <BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">TimeOfDay\GN-Autumn.xml</BlueprintID>
            </iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
         </AutumnSkyBlueprint>
         <WinterSkyBlueprint>
            <iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
               <BlueprintSetID>
                  <iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
                     <Provider d:type="cDeltaString">GreatNortherner</Provider>
                     <Product d:type="cDeltaString">Krug</Product>
                  </iBlueprintLibrary-cBlueprintSetID>
               </BlueprintSetID>
               <BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">TimeOfDay\GN-Winter.xml</BlueprintID>
            </iBlueprintLibrary-cAbsoluteBlueprintID>
         </WinterSkyBlueprint>
      </cRouteBlueprint-sSkies>
   </Skies>

[thecanadianrail]

just curious, won't this be obsolete in 2 months or what?

[harryadkins]

Thanks, Michael. We appreciate your help.

[micaelcorleone]

just curious, won't this be obsolete in 2 months or what?

This question also came into my mind.

[Toripony]

Thanks for the update, Michael. This does, indeed, look even better than your previous set.

[imnew]

thanks Michael, great stuff !

[GreatNortherner]

just curious, won't this be obsolete in 2 months or what?

Yeah, I'm curious about that too. I don't know which files of the 'old' game the new engine will still use, so I the motto is wait and see.


Cheers,
Michael

[artimrj]

Well if it becomes obsolete, we can still enjoy it for the next 2 months. Thanks Michael, I am using them on my route. I was allready using your other set.

[dogmouse]

Most impressive, Michael! Great work!

~Rich

[SAR704]

Digging up an old thread here, but can one still use the xml files (posted above) in TS2013, via the same method? I'm been looking for some reasonable replacement TimeOfDay blueprints for some time now.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

I don't think that anything has been changed in the TimeOfDay blueprints with TS12 or TS13. You should be able to still use them. I'm still using derivative blueprints of the ones posted above on my own route work, but I can't remember what I changed in them over the last couple of years (probably only some color tweaks though).

The SkyDome model at the bottom of this page: http://golden-age-rails.com/rwscenry.html also works okay in TS13, also in conjunction with the TimeOfDay BPs.

Cheers,
Michael

[SAR704]

Ah, thanks for clarifying. i was a little confused regarding this, after the comment regarding it being obsolete.

Just wondering, how far is it possible to go with shadows in TS 2013? My route has literally thousands of trees lining the right of way, with empty paddocks behind them. Heading north when the sun is low in either morning or afternoon, the lighting in the cab should be constantly changing as the train passes clumps of trees. Is this one of those things that can be optimised in TS2013?

Also, the sun seems to head the wrong way in Railworks for an Australian setting. Over here at least, the shadows here point due south at noon. In Google Earth in Illinois, they point north. Is there a way to fix this to suit the Southern Hemisphere?