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Italian coaches

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:15 pm
by alex656
Hi to everyone

I am an Italian user; I have realized some models for Msts with Train Sim Modeler and now i am trying to convert and improve my models for Rail Simulator with 3d canvas; Now I am working at this:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3582/cuccettaor6.jpg

I have a big problem with all my shapes: when i move away the textures appears bad :cry: :
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8943/badcx8.jpg

Could you help me?
Sorry for my english :oops:

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:37 pm
by phat2003uk
Firstly, your english is very good! Secondly, great to see some Italian coaches in the sim. And finally, regarding the texture issue, have you tried putting the multisampling to '4' in the settings and applying antialiasing through your graphics card?

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:41 pm
by alex656
phat2003uk wrote:Firstly, your english is very good! Secondly, great to see some Italian coaches in the sim. And finally, regarding the texture issue, have you tried putting the multisampling to '4' in the settings and applying antialiasing through your graphics card?
I tryed with ad without antialiasing but the result is the same; where can i put multisampling to '4' ?
If you want so see the Msts version you can download it from here:
http://www.amicitreni.net/train-simulat ... ile_id=319

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:17 am
by Sly401
Hi Alex

The only thing that seems to be missing is the shaders

there is a fair bit on the boards and in the Dev Docs, but here is a quick rundown to get you started.

Make a 64 x64 bmp pure black and save as enviro. bmp

In canvas for each component exept windows ( this is for the shiny bodywork )

place the enviro bmp in the enviro slot.
set specular to 1
in the Railsim slot ( it will apear if you use the export wizzard )
put in the shader..... TrainSpecEnvMask.fx

In your texture make an alpha mask, white is high gloss black is Matte (grey shades in between )
Save to the alpha channel.
Save texture as a TGA (with single alpha) and also as a Bmp (no alpha in bmp)

Use the bmp to texture in 3D canvas ( else you get transparency caused by the alpha )

Important use the TGA to convert ToAce
Also convert the enviro.bmp ToAce

Now you can run the blueprint and you should see a nice shiny coach :D

the shaders are fantastic well worth the time investigating.

RS is quite strict on combinations of shaders and enviro / bump maps and shader names

The Coach looks fantastic.. good luck with your project

Sly

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:56 am
by alex656
Hi Sly401 and thank you for your answer

Effectively in the coach i have setted the shaders but not in all groups; this are the groups that have shader:

- Main Body with TexDiff
- Interior with Tex (for night, it works well)
- Glass with BlendATextDiff (the material is setted with Diffuse=20 Ambient=40 Specular=1 Trans=0)

Here you can see the night effect:
http://www.amicitreni.net/public/data/A ... _Night.JPG

look at the texture when i am near the coach (this time were without glasses):
http://www.amicitreni.net/public/data/E ... ccette.jpg

In 3D Canvas all the textures are in TGA and i have converted them in ace with Toace before the compiling with blueprint.

Now i will try to set the shader in each group with your suggestions!

But look at this simple building:
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/9363/pbgi6.jpg

The shape have only one group that i have setted with the shader Tex; i have THE SAME PROBLEM! it looks well when i'm near, but when i move away........disaster :( :( :(

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:06 pm
by kevmt
Multisampling can be found on the option screen that appears before the main game loads.

Your problem looks as if it's down to your video card, rather then a shader problem. You need to set your video card to it's highest quality setting to over come the texture blurring you are seeing. I have the same problem with my own models, and I can improve it by upping the video quality settings, sadly at the expence of frame rates! (I really do need to get a better card!)

I'm not sure how you have made your coaches, but if you have used alpha transparency effects to do your window cutouts, then you will not be able to use TrainSpecEnvMask.fx or TrainbumpSpecEnvMask.fx shaders, as these use the alpha channel for gloss info, rather then transparency.

Cheers,
Kevin

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:37 pm
by SAVV01
The clarity reducing as you move away is caused, I think, not by shaders (nor multisampling, nor graphics cards) but instead by the Mip Maps created when converting the file to ACE format. If you have exported voa the ToAce Program I am not sure if there is a work-around to generate less mips, or even no mips. When exporting from photoshop mips can be turned off or reduced in number so as to stop the blurring of the textures as much.

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 4:53 pm
by alex656
SAVV01 wrote:The clarity reducing as you move away is caused, I think, not by shaders (nor multisampling, nor graphics cards) but instead by the Mip Maps created when converting the file to ACE format. If you have exported voa the ToAce Program I am not sure if there is a work-around to generate less mips, or even no mips. When exporting from photoshop mips can be turned off or reduced in number so as to stop the blurring of the textures as much.
Effectively the problem can not be in video card or in the game settings because the original rolling stocks looks well.
Look how the texture of the simple building appear in RsBinTool (look the mipmaps):
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/843/texturebg1.jpg

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:00 am
by RSderek
Hi,

The problem you are looking at is the mips kicking in.

In max there is a value you can set to push the distance out (mip lod bias)
It is explained in the Train document 4.07, section 6.3.2

I'm not sure if Canvas has that setting. someone please advise.

best regards

Derek

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:23 pm
by alex656
RSderek wrote:Hi,

The problem you are looking at is the mips kicking in.

In max there is a value you can set to push the distance out (mip lod bias)
It is explained in the Train document 4.07, section 6.3.2

I'm not sure if Canvas has that setting. someone please advise.

best regards

Derek
Hi Derek, thank you for the answer.

I am looking for this setting in 3D canvas but i haven't found it; i'm afraid that is not possible to set mip lod bias.

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:40 pm
by Sly401
If its any help

I don't use LOD's at all and I haven't seen any detrimental effect when running the sim.. I export the IGS from the file menu in canvas and when it asks me If I want to use LOD's I decline.

Showing my absolute ignorance in these matters but If I only have one LOD model does that mean it always uses just the top mip from the texture , or does the game apply the lower mips as distances increase (which i think it does ) and I presume what we are talking about here is the different times at which the LOD models and the Mip textures change?

Either way if you only have one model it will solve it, even if temporarily :D

Sly

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:42 pm
by RSderek
Lol, no.
Mip lod bias is in the material editor, it basically pushes out the distance when the mips for the textures start kicking in.

You don't need too many lods, but if you have 10 full hst's in a line that can be seen for 1000M with all the scenery...
That is a fair amount to draw....

regards

Derek

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:53 pm
by kevmt
RSderek wrote:Hi,

I'm not sure if Canvas has that setting. someone please advise.

best regards

Derek
I'm pretty sure that this is not implemented.

Isn't it possible to force ToAce to not add mip maps by adding a -nm suffix to the texture name?

Cheers,
Kevin

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:56 pm
by RSderek
Hi,
no, thats to stop compression.
You can turn off mips, but you need photoshop for that.

regards

Derek

Re: Italian coaches

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:26 am
by alex656
RSderek wrote:Hi,
no, thats to stop compression.
You can turn off mips, but you need photoshop for that.

regards

Derek
I Have The gimp that can generate DDS files without mipmaps (starting from the tga file) but if i do this RsBinTool give me this error when i try to import: "You must import a DDS with Mimaps to replace data"