Elvas Tower: Freight Animations - A Tutorial - Elvas Tower

Jump to content

Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

Freight Animations - A Tutorial Adding Crews and Cargo Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   atsf37l 

  • Executive Vice President
  • Group: Status: First Class
  • Posts: 4,634
  • Joined: 25-February 05
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:San Diego
  • Simulator:ORTS
  • Country:

Posted 28 October 2014 - 05:09 PM

OK, gang, time for a little FA School. How do these things work?

History: A FreightAnim was intended by the Kuju guys to be able to have a coal load in a tender start out a run with a full bunker and go gradually lower until the coal is spent. The tender could be refilled at a coal “fuelpoint” and the level would go back to full. There was also some thought to use it for filling and emptying bulk loads like ballast or coal in hoppers and such. None of these latter operations worked, but the tender thing worked somewhat, some of the time. Sometimes it would load the coal in the right place sometimes it wouldn’t.

The FreightAnim statement looks like this:
FreightAnim ( ThingIWantToAdd.s 1 1 ) It is found in the .eng or .wag file usually right below the "Type" line.

“FreightAnim” tells the program you are going to add something, “ThingIWantToAdd.s” represents the shape file I want to attach to the engine or wagon or carriage or tender and the numbers say where I want it to go if it is a coal pile in a tender. One number says how high it needs to be in meters in relation to its 0-0-0 origin point (more on that later) and the other says how much in meters it is allowed to drop. These figures only work on car type “Tender.” When a Freight anim is used on an engine, a wagon or carriage it stays put and doesn’t drop regardless of the numbers. But if it is used on a tender it will move and may not start out where you want it. If you are going to use the FA to hang a crew off the front of your tender so they’ll be in the cab of your engine the correct two numbers to use in the FA statement are “0 0”.

What Kuju did give us, unwittingly, is a means to attach extra shapes to existing equipment. I use FAs all the time for loads on my flatcars and gondolas and because their application is simple I will start there. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say I have an empty flatcar, D&RGW 6098, at Alamosa and I want to ship a 1939 Ford to Dolores on the RGS. Since I happen to have a 1939 Ford in my shapes file folder, I will go to the Shapes folder, find the Ford I want, and copy it’s shape file along with the .ace files that give it texture. I then paste those files in the file folder for DRGW_Flat_6098. Note, no .sd file is needed for an FA shape.

Now I go and open my flatcar’s shape file In ShapeViewer. Here it is with MSTS Measurement Tool superimposed to show that the flatcar is at 0-0-0: The X axis is dead center, left to right; the Y axis is sitting at the railhead, and; the Z axis is dead center, front to rear.

Attached File  Flat with Measuring Tool.jpg (183.46K)
Number of downloads: 4

Now I go to “Open second shape” in the File menu and I add 1939Ford-Black.s to the original shape. Notice, since this shape file is designed to sit on the ground and/or be used in carspawners, it too is at 0-0-0. Because we are loading it on track it sits even with the top of the rail.

Attached File  Flat with Measuring Tool & Ford.jpg (183.75K)
Number of downloads: 2

Now we need to adjust our “second shape” to fit where we want it on our base shape. It’s position is totally relative to the base shape’s 0-0-0 position. We now select “Position second shape” and using the “Vertical” bar on the left side we raise it up 0.75 meters. We know this is the perfect height because Wayne Campbell has provided us with a shadow under his beautiful little Ford which is now on the deck boards of our flatcar.

Attached File  Ford in Position.jpg (146.62K)
Number of downloads: 2

OK, since we want the auto centered on the flatcar, this is the only measurement we need to use. Time to set this height on the shape file for the Ford.

Opening Shape File Manager and navigating to the DRGW_Flat_6098 folder I find the 1939 Ford on the top of the alphabetical list of shape files in the folder. You may note that I have numerous shape files in there since the 6098 already has several FA loads in her repertoire.

Attached File  SFM Screen.jpg (116.84K)
Number of downloads: 3

I click on “Options” on the 1939 Ford line and select “Uncompress” taking the file from a compressed 55 Kb up to 819 Kb uncompressed. Again from the “Options” tab I select “Shift” to bring up the “Shift” window. Note the entry on the top line of the window, “A backup will be made before the shifting is applied.” We’re safe to shift the shape as a “Pre-Shift” backup will be made. We zero out any settings in the X and Z settings since we don’t want them to move and we put in our 0.75 in the Y (Height) setting and click on OK.

Attached File  Shift.jpg (131.61K)
Number of downloads: 2

To test the whole thing we go back to Shape Viewer, “Remove last Shape” to take the Ford off the picture, then “Open second shape” to put it back on. The Ford should now be perfectly set on the flatcar and the position bars should show the new position for the second shape as 0-0-0.

Attached File  TaDa.jpg (131.87K)
Number of downloads: 2

My next step would be to find one of the already established .wag files in the folder with an FA load and copy it, then change the name from, let’s say, DRGW_Flat_6098_logs.wag to DRGW_Flat_6098_Ford.wag, go in and find all the “logs” and replace them with “Ford” and changing the FA statement to “FreightAnim (1939Ford-Black.s 1 1 )” and saving the file.

Voila! One new load.

That gives you a very basic idea of how to use the FA to add shape files to existing cars and engines.

The main thing to remember here is that the FA shape’s position in the sim world is totally in relationship to the 0-0-0 point of the base model.

If you want to use an FA shape from one model and place it in another – like a crew from an existing locomotive and putting it in another locomotive, that FA shape’s position will be the offset X-Y-Z position from the original locomotive’s 0-0-0 point. You have to A. Use Shape Viewer to see where the shape is in relation to the new model and B. Use Shape File Viewer to move the FA shape to where you need it to be and record the numbers of the required movement and C. Use Shape File Manager to permanently adjust the FA shape to its new position.

Once you have mastered these skills, you can add lots of life and cargo to your existing rosters.

Questions? Fire away! :offtopic:

Ps: If you need to get Shape Viewer and/or Shape File Manager software go to Steam4Me.net

#2 User is offline   captain_bazza 

  • Chairman, Board of Directors
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: ET Admin
  • Posts: 13,927
  • Joined: 21-February 06
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Way, way, way, South
  • Simulator:MSTS & OR
  • Country:

Posted 28 October 2014 - 09:30 PM

Well done, Herb; tute spiked for future reference.

Cheers Bazza

#3 User is offline   ianmacmillan 

  • Fireman
  • Group: Status: Active Member
  • Posts: 162
  • Joined: 22-March 13
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Scotland
  • Simulator:MSTS
  • Country:

Posted 29 October 2014 - 11:30 AM

I have gone further by aliasing the loads to a Common.Loads folder.

The load is placed in a folder along with other loads which fit the wagon type.
This folder is then placed in a Common.Loads folder in the trainset folder.

The .wag file contains the line....

FreightAnim ( ..\\common.Loads\\RCH_1923\\RCH1923_7p_Coal1.s 0.0 3.0 0 )

The texture is also aliased within the shape file to a commonAce folder.

images ( 1
image ( "..\\common.loads\\CommonAce\\RCH_Loads.ace" )

This means that in a long coal train. only one shape file is used.
Furthermore every coal wagon, no matter what size, uses the same texture.

With over a hundred of coal wagons in my trainset folder this represents a considerable saving in disk space

#4 User is offline   atsf37l 

  • Executive Vice President
  • Group: Status: First Class
  • Posts: 4,634
  • Joined: 25-February 05
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:San Diego
  • Simulator:ORTS
  • Country:

Posted 29 October 2014 - 12:34 PM

What a great idea, Ian! Keep it simple! Those .ace files can be substantial. :Neeeedsleeep:

Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users