[mrmosky]

This is something that I have been playing with. It uses existing features in Openrails, and TSRE to make water move.
To start off with, here is a screenshot and a video.



Video:
https://youtu.be/CT05mqTxPtg

The water looks better in the sim than in the video. Note the shadows of the trees on the water.
I have been asked to share the method I used, which I am happy to do. I wil upload the TSM source file for anyone who would like to experiment further.

So in the subsequent posts, the steps will be explained.

Geoff

[thegrindre]

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/jawdrop2.gif Super coooool. Ya gotta love it. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_rockon.gif

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[mrmosky]

Firstly, in TSRE open up the route you want to use.

Then select the ruler in the TSRE tools section under the objects tool. Select place new and put the first marker at the start of the river.
Press T and then left click the mouse at the next position for the river, the second marker will show, joined to the first. Then click at the next position for the river and so on. You can create bends in this way and go as far as you wish. For a trial, though just draw a failrly short marker path. The river should be on a flat and even surface.

After one click it will look like this:


and after a few clicks it should look like this:



Next, you should look at the left side were there is a panel for the attributes of the ruler. Click on create road paths, and the ruler will look like this:


Finally, in the right hand objects panel, in rthe ref.file box, you should find a section for vehicles, and in there should be carspawner. Select place new and add a carspawner to the path you have just created. The carspawner will be tiny at the position on the path where you clicked. On the left hand panel, there is a button on the left panel marked expand. Click this and the carspawner will expand to the size of your path. Now it should look like this:


Save the route and exit TSRE for the moment.

[mrmosky]

If you downloaded the file I uploaded (called Moving river), http://www.elvastowe...2-moving-river/

you will see that there is a Shapes file and a Textures file that you can add to your route in the normal way. The shape is just a flat surface with 16 polys.

Then you should also find a folder named Openrails, this should also be added to the top level of your route. It contains a carspawn file with the list of multiple carspawners for use with OR. This will not work with MSTS since you are only allowed one carspawner in that sim.

For reference the contents look like this:

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0v1t______
3
CarSpawnerList(
ListName ( "List1" )
1
CarSpawnerItem( "River2.s" 0.5)
)
CarSpawnerList(
ListName ( "List2" )
1
CarSpawnerItem( "jp1car01.s" 12 )

)
CarSpawnerList(
ListName ( "List3" )
1
CarSpawnerItem( "jp1car01.s" 6 )

)

You can see that there are three carspawner lists defined. List1 is the one we will be using for the river. each carspawner can have a different set of "vehicles" and you can add as many entries as you like. The number after the shape identification ("River2.s" 0.5) so 0.5, is the space to leave between vehicles so they don't crash into each other. We want the river sections to crash, so I chose 0.5 for this. If you choose a bigger number, there will be gaps in the river.
So re-open the route editor TSRE and select one end of the carspawner. This will bring up the properties as we saw before. The car list box will be set to "default", press it and the list of carspawners should appear. if they don't then the Openrails folder is probably not at the correct location. if they do appear, choose "list1 for this carspawner. the boxes above allow you to set car speed, and frequency of appearing (car number). Set car number to 1 and car speed to 2.

You can now save the route and try it in Openrails. You will see that the river starts to "fill up" from one end. It takes a time to get all the way to the other end, and this is why it may be a good idea to have a short river section, say between 2 bridges, then another one and so on.

I painted the river bed in my route, and you can add a river bank and trees etc if you wish. This will come in handy for the next thing to try.


Geoff

[Csantucci]

Sorry Geoff,
where did you upload the "Moving river" shape?

[Garry]

Hi Geoff
This looks really good and I will soon be in a position to start laying a river in my route. I have been placing the retaining walls for the banks today.
If I were doing a river in MSTS I would set the ground below water level, perhaps 5 metres. Should I do this for your river solution, or should I set the ground at river water level?
Garry

[mrmosky]

Ok, so here's something else to try.

If you open TSM and load up the file that I downloaded, you can see that the shape is just a rounded off rectangle. The texture is one that I downloaded from the internet, so you can substitute others to get a different colour if you wish.

You can easily get a slightly different effect by changing the material type of the river. Click F2 and this will bring up the properties of the part. Set the material to be Alpha, and this makes the river semi transparent, as I prepared the texture this way.
Save the model and export to MSTS format into the route you have been using. You should notice that the appearance of the water has changed in OR. the river bed can sometimes be seen through the water.
It may now look something like this:


https://youtu.be/4Ef5-Jb5gxc

keep trying different settings to see what happens. That's what i am doing.

Cheers, Geoff

[mrmosky]

Csantucci, on 31 July 2017 - 09:40 AM, said:

Sorry Geoff,
where did you upload the "Moving river" shape?

Sorry, only just read your post

http://www.elvastowe...2-moving-river/

Added the link above too.

Cheers,
Geoff

[mrmosky]

Garry, on 31 July 2017 - 10:03 AM, said:

Hi Geoff
This looks really good and I will soon be in a position to start laying a river in my route. I have been placing the retaining walls for the banks today.
If I were doing a river in MSTS I would set the ground below water level, perhaps 5 metres. Should I do this for your river solution, or should I set the ground at river water level?
Garry

Hi Garry,

I set it on the surface of the ground, but try it and see if it works like that for you.

Geoff

[Garry]

Hi Geoff
I have downloaded your file and instructions, and I am enjoying playing with the river.
Thanks
Garry