[atsf37l]

Just a couple of "How do I?" questions today. I am running a set of SP SD's north out of Palmdale headed towards Mojave, going across the desert. The cone of light in front of the lead engine's four bright headlights are sufficient candlepower to turn the desert sands into glass! And this at Noon. The projected light during the daytime is way too much, not just with these diesels but with virtually any power I run. Just too much light on the hillsides for the middle of the day.

So my first question: Is there a place in the software for a user to tone down those lights? The "lights" statements in the .eng file sets location and color but there appears to be no adjustment in the old files for brightness. Anything in OR?

On to the second question: Is there a place where you can adjust the camera views? Specifically, I'd really like to be able to move laterally in the Trainspotter (4 key) view to get away from the standard "3/4" angle presented. You can go up or down to a degree but not side to side. Any way to tweak that?

OK, back to turning the sands to glass. :furiousPC: ;)


Burners on!

[Genma Saotome]

Part of the problem Herb is your cone of light is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to wide.

Try these two values:

• Radius ( 1000 )
  
• Angle ( 4 )

The meaning of those two are as follows: If you held up an ordinary light bulb it's light would be cast in all directions as a sphere. Radius() is the radius in meters of that sphere and so the value is what OR uses to cast a light a specific distance. Because a locomotive light is intended to be directional and uses a lens we need a cone of light instead of a sphere. Angle() refers to how many degrees wide the cone of light will be. Off hand I don't recall if Angle(4) means plus 4d and minus 4d or 4d in total. I do know that a value of 4 to 5 inclusive is correct for most North American locomotive lights.

The combination of the two will throw a cone of light about 6/10ths of a mile -- increase the value if you want more and it'll cover just the track instead of the whole countryside.

You'll probably want to fiddle with LightColour() too but I don't have any recommendation for that.

[wellsburg]

Herb,

Another way to get rid of the intense daylight light beams is to shut them off.

I always add TimeofDay ( 2 ) to the light sphere settings. Daylight headlight will still be on but no beam.

Run at night and the beam will be on.

Mike

[atsf37l]

Great guys! I'll go play. :pleasantry:

[cuontv]

Quote

So my first question: Is there a place in the software for a user to tone down those lights? The "lights" statements in the .eng file sets location and color but there appears to be no adjustment in the old files for brightness. Anything in OR?

Herb,

Try these values out as a starting place to tweak the light cones and light color entries in the ENG file to a brightness and color you would like:

Bright Light Cone - LightColour ( 75e5d1bc )

Dim Light Cone - LightColour ( 70cea476 )
Hint: You can alter the brightness of the cone by changing the first two values in the string (the 70 or 75). 99 is nice and bright for MSTS but too bright for OR.

For the headlight bulb color and brightness:
Dim headlight - LightColour ( 95cea476 )

Bright headlight - LightColour ( fff0e0cf )

I run the radius of these lights at about .50 for dim and .75 for bright to make the glare of the bulbs look right to me and very visible many meters away.

-Tom

[atsf37l]

Thanks, Tom. :)

[Railroad Librarian]

Great thread...

I also get frustrated by the inconsistent light effects from various engines.

I didn't know about the daytime option. Will have to try that later myself but I use another tactic, I simply identify a light cone from someon'es model and then just cut-n-paste that effect into the engine.sms files I want to use it in.

Just another option.

Cheers

KB

[markus_GE]

Railroad Librarian, on 25 November 2014 - 11:26 AM, said:

[...]

just cut-n-paste that effect into the engine.sms files I want to use it in.

[...]

I assume you meant .ENG file, right? :lol:

Cheers, Markus

[Railroad Librarian]

Oops!

Indeed! I apologize for that.

KB

[atsf37l]

That looks really good, Phillip.

I've done the TimeOfDay setting on most of my locos and that seems to correct most problems. :)