At least as you're using Blender I could probably help you in part.
Presumably you have the Train Simulator Briage Plugin for Blender which gives you all you need to have the correct model properties.
If not, you'll need it.
http://jujumatic.free.fr/
Also comes with some documentation on all the features that will be very useful.
ronhessar40 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:19 pmAnother big grey area is animations. I love how the AP 40 has scrolling blinds, and I’d made my own for .. another sim
https://youtu.be/U0lrehXlq4A .. but I’m not sure how these animations are set up for TS. There is a bone for every vertex pair, I think running up to 130-ish bones. How would I import/name/parent these things in Blender for the proper BAN file to be made?
I believe that's done with the Scrolling UV method.
You have a (flat plane) node on the model with a fixed frame size (aka each digit window on the headcode box) and that uses a texture that has all the digits lined up vertically.
And using some settings in Blender (it's explained in the Briage manual) you can scroll the visible frame up and down the texture.
The problem is that I believe you can then control when to stop and start on call (aka from one digit to the next) but don't know how it's done exactly.
It can be noted that in practice it is much more straightforward to setup a non-scrolling headcode blind, where you simply jump straight from one digit to the other in a single frame, and there are a couple of ways of doing that.
In the case of the class 40 as well, I think each blind reel is its own seperate model rather than being intergrated into the main loco model.
Matt Wilson is very good with blinds and might be able to tell you exactly how to set it up.
ronhessar40 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:19 pmAnother thing is pantographs. Well, 2 things! I would like for the spring on the old Faiveley pantograph to stretch out, effectively making the cylinder longer by an inch or two in the animation. Does TS support this? I had done it in TRainz by parenting the two cylinder caps’ vertices to two different bones, then animating one bone accordingly to stretch.
The second pantograph thing is, well, there are two pantographs! How do I configure it so that only the trailing pantograph is used at all times.
Using Blender animation for TS works on the keyframe principle.
In the case of the cylinder, if you want it to grow rather than simply shift position then I would suggest using keyframe animation steps to increase the scale of the object in whichever direction (XYZ) you want it to grow.
As for the pantograph end, TS has that sort of pantograph control set up already. In Blender, you will have to animate the pantographs such that at keyframe 0, the no.1 end pantograph (as if you were running in reverse) is up, and at the end keyframe, the no.2 end pantograph is up (as if you were running forwards).
Then you export both pantograph movements as one animation file.
To know how to have this set up in the blueprint editor, the best / most simplest place to look is inside the .bin file of the default/Kuju DB Class 101 loco.
ronhessar40 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:19 pmFor baked animations where every object has its own keyframes, do there need to be lattices bones used?
I'll be honest I'm not sure what lattice bones means.
I'm not sure "bones" is used as concept for rolling stock modelling in TS. Animated characters yes but trains don't think so.
At a basic level, the way I understand animating anything such as a pantograph for Train Simulator is you have a set of components/model nodes that make up the pantograph model. You have some grouped together where possible (if they're physically fixed together with no translating/rotating joins) and across a series of keyframe animations, you will perform a translation, rotation and/or scaling movement in XYZ directions. When you export the collective animations of these items together, that makes up your single animation file for that object.
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but it's both heartening and interesting to watch it develop! Keep up the good work.