[Csantucci]

MSTS already foresaw animated freightanims for wagons, see picture from a pickup point within the MSTS RE:

however as far as I know this never worked.
What about making this work? A starting step could be a coal train where on a specific pickup point wagons are loaded one by one. Later also a "sink" position could be studied.
By the way, does someone know what all these options in the pickup item do mean?

Does someone know about a coal wagon where the coal is present as a (static up to now) freightanim, so that I could use it for tests?

Here an old story of the frustrations trying to make this work in MSTS
http://www.trainsim....=Freight-gravel

Blueprint for this function: https://blueprints.l...le-freightanims

[Lutz_s]

Hi,

you can find some waggons with coal as freightanim at the following link: trensim.com: EA-Bordes

Regarding the properties of the dialog I think it should work like this:
- Capacity means the maximum amount of coal, sand or whatever which can be loaded from this pickup-point
- Content means the amount of coal, sand or whatever which is in the pickup-point, when the activity is started
- Fill rate is the speed in which the pickup loads the waggon
- Speed range: The train can drive this speed and the loading will work
- Never runs out (infinite): The pickup doesnt run out of coal, sand or whatever
- Broken by default: This pickup won't work

Making this working would be great.

Cheers Lutz

[Hamza97]

Yes please..... Coal loading can be a starting point for further different commodities and gives a reason for driving a freight.

Trainz is REALLY good in this aspect, dynamic industries which comsume/produce commodities, animated loading of commodities in cars etc, Something on this line could be implemented in future in ORTS raising the level of realsim of ORTS.

[Csantucci]

Thanks for interest - and for info by Lutz! In reality my question about the meaning of the parameters referred to the Anim Type drop down list.

[asullenger]

I have a coal car that I made with the coal as an animation if you want it.

[Csantucci]

Yes please.

[asullenger]

Check Your PM's. Let me know if you can't get it or anything and I'll email it to you

[Lutz_s]

Ok, makes sense. I can only guess here:
- activated effects could be sounds
- on-empty animation: You only get an animation when the waggon is empty.
- fuel hose only maybe only for water- or diesel-pickups necessary
I think Kuju could have forseen an animation of the loading out of the pickup item. This could have something to do with the animations. Activated animations are animation of the pickup and the loading (sand, coal,...). Proximity animations only move the pickup but you don't see the loading. This could be useful if you want to load something other than the provided load from the pickup. You would see these animations too, if you are near the pickup, but not actually close enough (like you see this with the water-pickup in msts. It moves but the water doesn't fill in, till the pickup point is in the right position).

Maybe someone who has actually build pickups can provide some more informations.

Lutz

[Csantucci]

Thanks Lutz and thanks Antony for the Bethgon, which fits well with the D9 I will use for my tests!

[Csantucci]

I have created a blueprint. My intention is to manage following type of block

ORTSFreightAnims(
	FreightanimContinuous, -Discrete, -Static (
	
	FreightAnimContinuousType(string = grain, coal, gravel, sand)
	Shape(shapefile)
	Maxheight(metres)
	Minheight(metres)
	DoesWorkWithStandardCoalPickups (1 or 0)
	WagonCapacity()
	InitialState(Full, Empty)
	
	)
)

which can be inserted within a .wag file or within the wagon section of an .eng file.
The syntax allows for multiple freightanims within a single trainset, and for various types of FreightAnim:
- continuous (used for commodities whose level within a wagon can be raised or lowered)
- static (used to add parts to a trainset (numbers etc.)
- discrete (used for discrete objects, like a container). Animation for discrete freightanims (e.g. loading/unloading containers) is not planned at the moment.
Above the parameters for the continuous type of FreightAnim are listed.
The four subtypes for the continuous freight anim type correspond to the four types of commodity that MSTS already defines.
DoesWorkWithStandardCoalPickups allows the freight anim to work also with standard coal pickups; this, to easily enjoy and check the function without needing to edit the route to add specific pickups.
Parsing of this block is done within a specific file within ORTS.Formats.OR.

[JohnnyS]

Csantucci, on 06 September 2015 - 12:10 PM, said:

I have created a blueprint. My intention is to manage following type of block

ORTSFreightAnims(
	ORTSFreightAnim(
	FreightAnimType(string = Continuous, static, discrete)
	ContinuousFreightAnimType(string = grain, coal, gravel, sand)
	Shape(shapefile)
	MaxHeight(metres)
	MinHeight(metres)
	DoesWorkWithStandardCoalPickups (1 or absent/0)
	WagonCapacity()
        InitialState ( full, empty)
	...
	)
)

which can be inserted within a .wag file or within the wagon section of an .eng file.
The syntax allows for multiple freightanims within a single trainset, and for various types of FreightAnim:
- continuous (used for commodities whose level within a wagon can be raised or lowered)
- static (used to add parts to a trainset (numbers etc.)
- discrete (used for discrete objects, like a container). Animation for discrete freightanims (e.g. loading/unloading containers) is not planned at the moment.
Above the parameters for the continuous type of FreightAnim are listed.
The four subtypes for the continuous freight anim type correspond to the four types of commodity that MSTS already defines.
DoesWorkWithStandardCoalPickups allows the freight anim to work also with standard coal pickups; this, to easily enjoy and check the function without needing to edit the route to add specific pickups.
Parsing of this block is done within a specific file within ORTS.Formats.OR.

I have a couple of intermodal cars in development that would require something along the lines of your proposed blueprint to operate in the sim. If you need them for testing at some point please let me know.

[ianmacmillan]

I gave up trying to make freight animations animate.

You are welcome to use my FA loads to experiment with.

br_wagonpack1.zip on trainsim.

Contains several different loads in the Common.Loads folder
Also disappearing loads using the door animation.

[Traindude]

On the subject of the "Freight-Sand" setting--freight cars aren't the only cars that carry sand. Locomotives need their sandboxes replinished every so often as the sand supply (for traction) diminishes. I am wondering if this idea can replace the "infinite sand" default. Can it? Would it be practical?

[Csantucci]

Thanks to you all for hints and proposals. I'll try now to (slowly) implement something.

[Csantucci]

I unfortunately had to momentarily give up using asullenger's Bethgon for this purpose. Their shape hierarchy is such that the animating their freight gets OR stuck (infinite loop). This is not a problem of my changes, because I modified the Bethgon to be a tender, and it again gets OR stuck, also in preceding versions of OR.
Line 75 of MSTSWagonViewer.cs

                    // Force allowing animation:
                    if (FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls.Length > 0 && FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls[0].DistanceLevels.Length > 0 && FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls[0].DistanceLevels[0].SubObjects.Length > 0 && FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls[0].DistanceLevels[0].SubObjects[0].ShapePrimitives.Length > 0 && FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls[0].DistanceLevels[0].SubObjects[0].ShapePrimitives[0].Hierarchy.Length > 0)
                        FreightShape.SharedShape.LodControls[0].DistanceLevels[0].SubObjects[0].ShapePrimitives[0].Hierarchy[0] = 1;

does not seem to be the solution for all types of car shape hierarchies.

I will try with Ian McMillan cars. By the way I am using the Settle & Carlisle route as test route.