[Sumit Singh]

Hello, Greetings to all,
I have a small problem, please help me out.
I made a signal cabin in Sketchup, and placed it in my route, well the problem starts when I tried to increase the time from NIGHT to DAY.
In my shape description (.sd) file I wrote ESD_Alternative_Texture (256) for my cabin, but sometimes only day textures is loaded or only night texture is loaded during game play.
I had many textures for the cabin building, but in NIGHT folder, I placed a copy of CABIN_WINDOWS.ACE, made from original ace file of the same, setting of brightness and contrast in PS.
Please check these screenshots.
I am almost a newbie in making Night textures, however I also tried writing ESD_Alternative_Texture (257) but it also gave same results.
I am on Open Rails X3831.

[Csantucci]

Please attach the Openrailslog.txt file you get when the problem appears.

[Csantucci]

Some questions and some suggestions to try:
1) Are you using .dds textures? If not, try unchecking option "Load DDS textures in preference to ACE";
2) Try unchecking "Load day/night textures only when needed";
3) Is your route very heavy?

[Sumit Singh]

Csantucci, on 25 April 2017 - 06:44 AM, said:

Some questions and some suggestions to try:
1) Are you using .dds textures? If not, try unchecking option "Load DDS textures in preference to ACE";
2) Try unchecking "Load day/night textures only when needed";
3) Is your route very heavy?

1. Ok well I have only .ace textures.
2. I will disable the option, as suggested.
3. No it is a test route with 2t tracks, and some platforms only.

Again my question is, is there is a bug in ESD_Alternative_Texture (256).
I should write only ESD_Alternative_Texture (256) for night texture and place a copy in texture-night?

[Csantucci]

Sumit Singh, on 25 April 2017 - 12:14 PM, said:

I should write only ESD_Alternative_Texture (256) for night texture and place a copy in texture-night?

Yes, that should be so.

[vince]

Sumit Singh, on 25 April 2017 - 12:14 PM, said:

--------------SNIP---------------------
Again my question is, is there is a bug in ESD_Alternative_Texture (256).
I should write only ESD_Alternative_Texture (256) for night texture and place a copy in texture-night?

This is a clip from the MSTS Tech Docs.

Quote

ESD_Alternative_Texture ( n )

Shapes can have a range of optional textures that are applied dependant on the time of day or the weather.

If n is 0 - The simplest option is to have one set of textures that is used all the time.

The object will be lit realistically, becoming darker at night as you would expect. The weather will have no effect.

If n is 1 - The object has two sets of textures, one in the standard texture directory and one in the snow subdirectory. The snow textures will be used when the weather is appropriate. The object will be lit realistically, becoming darker at night as you would expect.

If n is 252 - The object has a texture for each of the seasons with and without snow. This is different from the simple snow texture, allowing more subtle variation by season. These textures should go in the subdirectories named by season, i.e. Autumn, AutumnSnow, Summer, SummerSnow, Winter and WinterSnow

If n is [257] (do not use 256) - The object has two sets of textures, one in the standard texture directory and one in the night subdirectory.

The night textures will be used when the sun sets, and when a night texture is in use the object will not be lit realistically. When night textures are applied the object is lit very brightly from all directions, so that parts of the texture that are light in colour will seem very bright at night. To make the object look realistic therefore, parts of the texture that would not be bright at night must be darkened.

Suggested reading: The MSTS TechDocs.
Tech Docs are located on MSTS install Disk #1 as self extracting executable.

regards,
vince

[Csantucci]

OR recognizes 256 for night textures, accordingly to the original MSTS spec document. 257 is night + snow.

[Sumit Singh]

Finally I have figured out the problem.
ESD_Alternative_Texture (256) should be used only for night textures, and as I am making a route of India, where we have no snowfall in that region, so I am not worried about it and those missing textures were due to using the option of LOAD NIGHT TEXTURE ONLY WHEN REQUIRED turned on.