Class 73

[Irishrailguy]

I leave all my textures uncompressed as I don't see a framerate hit on my system with railworks, on my project I have around 4 2048x2048 textures uncompressed on my unit per carriage

Seriously, my 377 dmso has 4 main textures, each 2048x2048 in size, I think only 2 of them use a _nm extension but I still see 30-35fps with multiple units on the tracks, I suppose they will need to be compressed before I send it to be published, it would make most users systems explode. But until then I'll leave them as is I just thought that putting most of the textures into a couple of large detailed maps would reduce drawcalls, and I don't see any stutter or texture loading as I do with other dlc rolling stock that I have.

Kev

[MallardFan]

New improved bogie!

[MallardFan]

OK I think I need some help

I am trying to make a grid texture... now i have done it before, and, with a bit of help, I got it working, but now I can;t get it to do anything ;/

This is the latest effort I have:



As you can see its a white square (ignore the side texture, a case of the mesh being more updated then the texture).Now I created this in GIMP, with three layers. All three layers I created as transparent. each has a alpha layer set for transparent, and a black layer mask



Now I painted the top two layers with green stripes. I saved it and flattened it, and when I converted I got that white - not even any sign of the green lines? Anyideas what I am doing wrong? Pretty sure this may also be connected to my weird window textures too

[Irishrailguy]

Do you have an alpha in the texture? If not add it and make sure the parameter in your material panel in Blender called Transparency is set to 'trans', just check this first then we can look at the other potential problem areas.

Kev

[MallardFan]

Double-checked the texture, and all three layers have Alpha Channels - in fact I can't even see the grid, just the grey transparency texture - the only think that makes me think its there is the layer boxes are green

Can't find a transparency button in blender

http://i50.tinypic.com/2z7o5qs.jpg

[malkymackay]

There isn't a Transparency button in Blender. See http://zugguy.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/40/#more-40 for a way to enable alpha as transparency. I used this successfully for the mesh walkway on top of my PAV Grain Hopper.

[Irishrailguy]

Thanks for the clarification Malky.

Now Mallardfan, when you say that each layer has an alpha, what do you mean? A single image has only 1 alpha channel, along with the standard R G and B, so something isn't right there. Just to test, create a plain green texture and create the grid in the alpha channel, so we can see there's a working alpha in the texture.

Kev

[MallardFan]

Thanks for the clarification Malky.

Now Mallardfan, when you say that each layer has an alpha, what do you mean? A single image has only 1 alpha channel, along with the standard R G and B, so something isn't right there. Just to test, create a plain green texture and create the grid in the alpha channel, so we can see there's a working alpha in the texture.

Kev

OK I think I got something now...

No grid though...

[MallardFan]

OK so tried the windows today, still with no luck...





Its a wierd reflection... I am getting the front of the cab reflected in the mirror!

Any ideas what is causing this? I followed the rain tutorial (trying to get rain on my outside windows lol)

[SaMa1]

Looks great. Real reflections on window?? What shader are you using? Material like that would make mirrors possible in RW.

[MallardFan]

Looks great. Real reflections on window?? What shader are you using? Material like that would make mirrors possible in RW.

I don;t think they are reflections when thinking about it, I am not sure what they are

In that second picture the "reflected" cab you can see can only be that loco

using the rainy windows Shader (TrainGlassWeatherEffects.fx)

[MallardFan]

hmm, whilst I rack my brain over the last few bits of textures - I'm nearly there, as soon as I can get the glass and grills sorted, what would be the next best thing to do now? Get the cab sorted? Is there a guide or something to getting the cab working? how to make the controls move etc?

[Irishrailguy]

hmm, whilst I rack my brain over the last few bits of textures - I'm nearly there, as soon as I can get the glass and grills sorted, what would be the next best thing to do now? Get the cab sorted? Is there a guide or something to getting the cab working? how to make the controls move etc?

I find cabs to be the fun part of the modeling. The only 2 things you need to remember when it comes to the basic model actually showing is that all cab components need to be named with a 0000 in the distance parameter (Since you never move away from the cab, so no LOD's are needed), also you need to use a particular shader for cabs, TrainShadowOnly.fx. Because cabs have normals facing inwards the only way to generate a proper shadow within the cab is to use this shader, as it generates shadows on flipped normals only.

As for the animation, it's usually a case of animating the control from off to fully active, then reference the .ia file in the control value section of the blueprint, but it's best to just get on with the basic modelling aspect first.

Kev

[MallardFan]

Ahh I see OK thanks

best look into animating things now

[MallardFan]

Using my faithful guide (http://www.44090digitalmodels.co.uk/tut ... orting.pdf) for modelling again for the animation, but as its for Trainz (I think anyway, I know I found out it wasn't RW) and the naming convention for the lattice is B.r.main (

Rename the Lattice object to 'b.r.main'

) Now of course as this is RW what naming convention would be used this time? At the moment trying to animate the radiator fan at the top (any idea for a rough rpm it would have as well?)

Many Thanks