Assistance from genius required :-)

[mikesimpson]

I can use Kickstart to produce empty passenger carriages to populate sidings, however in night views they still have the lights on (probably to show the cleaners around?).

Does anyone know what I can change in the .geopcdx file to make the insides dull or dark? Can I change specularity or some such, or change a shader which will do this.

Any assistance will be gratefully received.

[AndiS]

Did you try Lit3DirSingle?
That is found in ShaderName under cHcExplicitStateMaterial and it refers to a texture with glass in its name.
That is all I know.
So I would try replacing that with something like TrainBasicObjectDiffuse.fx for starters.

[mikesimpson]

Hi Andi,

Thanks, I tried changing the Shader name but that just resulted in a crash of RS.

I was hoping to darken the interiors programatically by manipulating the .geopcdx file, but so far with no luck.

Editing the texture file for the coaches interior works but is not practical for what I had in mind.

[Sly401]

Hi Mike

according to the docs it is a shader called "Tex" that keeps coach interiors bright at night

3.1.1 Unlit object
Tex
Description
This shader is unlit (it never darkens).
Example use
Interior of coaches, and building windows at night (opaque).

removing it will almost certainly result in a crash, as it is a non fx shader I would say try using TexDiff in its place..

I just had a look through the mk1 geo and the interior geo

shaders listed that could be the source of illumination
UnlitSingle and Lit3DirectSingle.......... neither of theses shaders are in the docs, and they are not in the kuju plugin for 3dmax either (leastways not under that name )
So I cannot help there, other than to say that they do not appear to be .fx shaders so again TexDiff could be a possible substitute.

Hope you have better luck than me

Cheers Paul ( Sly)

[mikesimpson]

Hi Mike

according to the docs it is a shader called "Tex" that keeps coach interiors bright at night

3.1.1 Unlit object
Tex
Description
This shader is unlit (it never darkens).
Example use
Interior of coaches, and building windows at night (opaque).

removing it will almost certainly result in a crash, as it is a non fx shader I would say try using TexDiff in its place..

I just had a look through the mk1 geo and the interior geo

shaders listed that could be the source of illumination
UnlitSingle and Lit3DirectSingle.......... neither of theses shaders are in the docs, and they are not in the kuju plugin for 3dmax either (leastways not under that name )
So I cannot help there, other than to say that they do not appear to be .fx shaders so again TexDiff could be a possible substitute.

Hope you have better luck than me

Cheers Paul ( Sly)

Hi Paul,

Thanks for that, yes I had worked out that in the coaches I have the line in question is

<ShaderName d:type="cDeltaString">UnlitSingle</ShaderName>
and unfortunately there is no shader by that name in the Shaders folder, and changing it to Tex, TexDiff, or most other things causes a crash.

I seem to remember that in 3D Canvas you had to set Specular to zero for them to 'glow in the dark', so I tried setting Specular Power to a higher figure than zero, but that did not help either (at least it did not crash).

There is also a <LightGlowFadeDistance setting, but I can not see any change with that either.

Somehow there must be a way - Just need to find it

[AndiS]

On a second look, I see that all the other siblings of that element are cHcEffectMaterialDx but the one with Lit3DirSingle is a cHcExplicitStateMaterial. This could explain why swapping names leads to crashes.

You say, you played with specular power, but did you play with EmissiveAsVec, setting the latest value to 0.0000 instead of 1.0000 ?

Then, you could set LightGlowFadeDistance to 0.1000 or 0.0001. Now it is at 0.0000 which either means that this is unused data or that the glow does not fade at a distance at all. You do not say which values you used. My theory would be that unit is metres, but it could also be some abstract value, then try 1000.0000 before you leave it. But then again, it would not be the first value that is found in the files without being used in the programme.

For SpecularPower, my first guess would have been 0.0000.

If all that yields nothing, I would set all the last numbers in the quadruples from DiffuseAsVec to SpecularColourAsVec to 0.0000 which would result in a vector length of 0, in my understanding. However, they could also make the vector "unoriented", without changing the amount of light.

Thus, you could also change the third numbers in these vectors to -1.0000, then the planes should shine to the other side. E.g.,
<DiffuseAsVec d:numElements="4" d:elementType="sFloat32" d:precision="string">1.0000 1.0000 -1.0000 1.0000</DiffuseAsVec>
(note the minus at the third 1.0000)

If all that does not help, I would duplicate the section above, from
<cHcEffectMaterialDx d:id="395204704">
to
</cHcEffectMaterialDx>

then remove the section with Lit3DirSingle, from
<cHcExplicitStateMaterial d:id="392404360">
to
</cHcExplicitStateMaterial>

then change Name in the duplicate you created before to black5_glass, and maybe element e in TextureByName to textures\[00]black5_glass_da. I am not certain about the last bit with the texture. And since we do not know, what a ExplicitStateMaterial would be in comparison to an EffectMaterial, chances are you get another crash.

[davveb]

Mike

I think all you need to do is find the coach interior material, and change the ShaderName from UnlitSingle to Lit3DirSingle. This works for me on the MK3s. What's confusing is the naming convention in the geometry file is different from the IGS file. These are actually the Tex and TexDiff shaders. I think you'll get crashes if you try to replace a normal shader with an effects shader, or visa-versa, without changing all the other material settings to match.

Dave B

[mikesimpson]

Thanks all, I have tried all sorts of shader names, but will try some of the other suggestions. Trouble is it gets frustrating changing one figure, rebooting RS, finding it does not work (or crashes). Changing another figure, same result..

As there are a dozens of variables in each section, this could go on for years.

Mike

[mikesimpson]

Thanks Dave,

Changing the shader name from UnlitSingle to Lit3DirSingle worked fine and with no further changes to the file gives:-

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php ... aches2.jpg

[AndiS]

I had hoped that leaving the section there and just playing with the numbers would not cause it to crash ...

Anyway, looks like the genius contest was won by Dave, single handed. (assuming that the coach to the left is unaltered)

[mikesimpson]

I do not think there is any way to automate the ‘dark interior when it is dark’ option.

1. You need to know which .tgpcdx file is the interior of the coach – in the case of the Mint_ABn.bin coach (GR Mint ABn) it is not even in the Mint_ABn textures folder but in the re-abn\textures folder and is named abn-2.tgpcdx
2. You then have to change the shader name from UnlitSingle to Lit3DirSingle to make it dull, but this means that if you have passengers in the coach they will also be dark at night, so you really need to make a new .geopcdx file for the _MT coach

So what you really need to do is
Make an _MT.bin coach using Kickstart
Edit the .bin so that the Geometry line points to Mint-ABn2.geopcdx rather than Mint-ABn.geopcdx
Copy Mint-ABn.geopcdx and rename the copy to Mint-ABn2.geopcdx
Change any instance of UnlitSingle in Mint-ABn2.geopcdx to Lit3DirSingle

On top of which, Russell has advised me that he has some coaches where the interiors are set as Lit3DirSingle to start with.