[Garry]

I have run into a problem, the semi-transparent top layer keeps disappearing. The only difference between the 2 images is a slight rotation of the viewing camera in Open Rails. I think it is something to do with the bounding box in the .sd file

shape ( gp_watertop.s
ESD_Detail_Level (0)
ESD_Software_DLev (0)
ESD_Alternative_Texture (0)
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -45.00211 0.2058406 -44.99611 54.99791 0.2058569 55.00389 )
)

I haven't yet thought about night and snow textures for it, but strangely this layer seems to be invisible at night, and it doesn't look too bad with snow.

Any thoughts?
Garry

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[mrmosky]

Can anything be done with Shapeviewer? I think that has a view of the bounding box, and may allow an edit.
Geoff

[ebnertra000]

mrmosky, on 05 August 2017 - 09:28 AM, said:

Can anything be done with Shapeviewer? I think that has a view of the bounding box, and may allow an edit.
Geoff

I use Shape Viewer for bounding box info. It's actually quite easy to get and verify BB figures

[Garry]

Thanks for the suggestion of shape viewer.
I have changed the .sd file as it suggested, not very different from the original.
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -50.00352 -0.2500089 -50.00001 50.00001 0.2500093 50.00289 )
The top layer still disappears.

The odd thing is that the bottom layer does not seem to have this problem. I made them both using Sketchup to 3DCrafter and exported to MSTS. I made the bottom layer this way, then renamed the 3DCrafter file as top layer, moved it up 0.5 metres, and retextured it, so the two objects should be the same.

I have posted this query on UKTrainSim as well, as I am sure I have read a thread about disappearing objects over there.

I am going to see what other suggestions come up, and will try these out.
Garry

[Jovet]

Garry, on 06 August 2017 - 06:11 AM, said:

I have changed the .sd file as it suggested, not very different from the original.
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -50.00352 -0.2500089 -50.00001 50.00001 0.2500093 50.00289 )
The top layer still disappears.

That's because the .sd file has nothing to do with clipping or raw shape visibility parameters. The .sd's ESD_Bounding_Box and ESD_Complex_Box data are used for collision detection and snapping.

The "view sphere" in the .s file is what you might increase, as a shape will not be rendered if the camera cannot mathematically see that sphere.

[Garry]

Thanks for this possibility of it being a .s file problem. This is the start of the semi-transparent top layer .s file.
shape (
shape_header ( 00000000 00000000 )
volumes ( 1
vol_sphere (
vector ( -1.754761E-03 2.384186E-07 1.441956E-03 ) 70.71339
)
)
shader_names ( 1
named_shader ( BlendATex )
)

The bottom layer, which is an identical shape, not transparent, and 0.5 metres lower is slightly different.
shape (
shape_header ( 00000000 00000000 )
volumes ( 1
vol_sphere (
vector ( -1.754761E-03 -0.4999998 1.441956E-03 ) 70.71339
)
)
shader_names ( 1
named_shader ( TexDiff )
)
Any thoughts on how I should change either or both files. Whatever happens it wont be a disaster as I will keep copies as I go.
Garry

[ebnertra000]

I don't know if this has anything to do with your disappearing problem, but I noticed the shader on the transparent shape is BlendATex. Have you tried these at night, as in my experience, that shader results in always lit textures

[Garry]

I think the BlendATex comes with the semi-transparent. I have seen some objects with BlendATexDiff, and I might try that if I can get it to stay in view.
If I can't succeed with that I might just go with a base layer and an identical moving layer above.
Garry

[Jovet]

Garry, on 07 August 2017 - 05:01 AM, said:

			vector ( -1.754761E-03 2.384186E-07 1.441956E-03 ) 70.71339

Any thoughts on how I should change either or both files. Whatever happens it wont be a disaster as I will keep copies as I go.

The 70.71339 is the radius of the "volume sphere" I mentioned above. As a test, multiply it by 10 and see if the problem goes away.

ebnertra000, on 07 August 2017 - 07:13 AM, said:

I don't know if this has anything to do with your disappearing problem, but I noticed the shader on the transparent shape is BlendATex. Have you tried these at night, as in my experience, that shader results in always lit textures

The BlendATexDiff shader would be a better one to use.

[Garry]

I think I will give up with my attempts at a semi-transparent layer.
There is a suggestion that the problem might lie with the .ace file, but if so I don't know what to do about it.

I have modified the start of the .s file so that it says:
shape (
shape_header ( 00000000 00000000 )
volumes ( 1
vol_sphere (
vector ( -0.001755 0 0.001442 ) 700
)
)
shader_names ( 1
named_shader ( BlendATexDiff )
)
Note I have changed the vol sphere up to "700" and the shader to "BlendATexDiff". The shape still disappears in OR.

I have made a copy of the .s and .sd files, renamed them, and changed the shader to "TexDiff". The shape appears as a normal opaque object in TSRE5, but is suspiciously totally invisible in OR. But when I change the .ace entry in the .s file to another texture the shape appears without problem in both OR and TSRE5.

This is my first venture into semi-transparent textures, and I have tried to do it just as the tutorial on steam4me says, but it has not worked.

My next step is to put together the working shapes and textures, and upload them with instructions for use.
Garry

[mrmosky]

Great work so far Garry. It looks like the semi-transparent layer was not solvable, but you had a good try at it.
Geoff

[Jovet]

Glad the view sphere is ruled out. You might consider posting your files for others to play with. I would like to see your texture file, for one.

What happens when you substitute this texture file? (Simply rename it to the one your shape needs.)

If it's not the textures, then it sounds like an OR problem to me. I've seen OR do some weird things, but only with the "built-in" water. I've not seen regular shapes affected.

[Garry]

I have attached a zip file containing my latest version of the animated river. The shapes are explained in the instructions file.
I have included a WaterTop.bmp file in the hope that someone else will have a go at it with more success.

My idea is that a flat 100 metre square with semi-transparent texture is placed just above the river bottom and moving river shapes. To aid in placing them I wanted to copy positon and rotation from the bottom shape.
Another improvement would be if the bottom shapes snapped together without overlapping. This would then do the same for the top layer, if these overlap there is a difference in transparency that shows up in OR.

Here's hoping.
Garry

Attached File(s)

•  GP_Moving_River.zip (158.39K)
  Number of downloads: 1066

[mrmosky]

Hi Garry,

The textures for the moving river objects GP_WaterRiverA B and C are not included in your download.

Geoff
edit
Ah.. is that the reason you included the bitmap?
I see.
Geoff

[Garry]

Hi Geoff
Hopefully GP_WaterRiverA B and C all use the same texture as GP_WaterBottom.s . This way the moving pieces (GP_WaterRiverA B and C) only show up as moving ripples as they travel just above the river bed.
The bitmap is what I used to create the semi-transparent top layer. This is the same ripple texture but a few shades lighter. The moving pieces show through this top layer.

Hopefully someone can get this to work as I intended.

Garry