[Csantucci]

I'm working on mouse control for 3D cabs, and for testing purposes I'd like to have a download link to an electric or diesel locomotive with a complete 3D cab , possibly also with animations of mirror (from the inside) and wipers.

Blueprint: https://blueprints.l...rol-for-3d-cabs

Trello box (already present): https://trello.com/c...ntrol-in-3d-cab

[ErickC]

I could very possibly finish up this control stand I am working on:



And throw it in a new iteration of the GP10 proof-of-concept model that I posted recently. Would that do? It would look imperfect but would be fairly functional.

[Csantucci]

Well, that looks impressive! I got some other link to finished works, so I don't ask you to work faster for me.

[Csantucci]

So here are the runactivity exe replacements for x.3951 that implement mouse control for 3D cabs. I tested it in one cab from asullenger (thank you!) and also with this published trainset http://www.elvastowe...post__p__223286 .
The mouse control is made a bit easier by a helping feature that as a bonus I implemented also for 2D cabs. If you press the left mouse button in a place where there are no controls and move the mouse over the cab keeping the button pressed, you will get the name of the actuation controls when the mouse reaches the right points. So you know where to click then to actuate the command. It must be highlighted that commands for levers and analogous things that have multiple positions must be performed moving the mouse horizontally (for rotating controls and for horizontally moving levers) or vertically (for vertically moving levers) in the direction defined within the .cvf file (so no rotating movements with the mouse). I hope these rules apply for all controls (I didn't yet make many tests). Another point is that you must always start movement at the "center" of the control. So if you move a rotating throttle lever from 0% to 100% you will move the mouse from center e.g. to the left. If after having released the mouse you want to return to zero you must again start from center and go to the right. This is the same as with the 2D cabs, but it could be a bit strange if someone never used the mouse to control cabs.

17/9/17: new release with higher threshold
19/9/17: new patch release here http://www.elvastowe...post__p__225610

[jonas]

Thanks for the initiative to activate the mouse in the 3D Cab, I've tried the patch and it works good!

Only the throttle lever I've tested has a somewhat too small active area, too much related to the axis of the lever, but one can get used to it easely.
The active area of the same lever is a bit too low, which is certainly on my 3D-Cab-model. So it is now a disadvantage that I have modelled the axis-cylinder of the lever that large, that it stucks that deep in the console.



The Cab-View is part of this download: 3DCabView

[Csantucci]

Hi Jonas,
thank you for the test. I too recognized that the active area is a bit small, and have already decided to increase it. The algorithm anyhow selects the control which is nearer to the click point.

[Csantucci]

In post #4 there is now a version with a wider active area. The dimension of the area used to show the name of the control however has remained the same, in order to better identify the position of them.

[jonas]

Better now with the new patch! I can catch the throttle lever much easier than before.

It's been a few days ago when I was working on 3D programming project, with "macromedia director" IIRC. There was a 3D-command to monitor if the mouse is hovering over a single 3D object. Can you use this in OR as an additional possibility to catch the cab-control?

[Csantucci]

If I understood well what you are meaning, that's what I have described as a "bonus" in post #4.

[jonas]

I'm not sure if I mean the same what you've described as "bonus" in post #4.

Better I'll try to show it by a picture.



Is it possible that the sensitive area is not a rectangle but the shape of the 3D-object itself?

[ErickC]

I must be doing something wrong. I have a sample locomotive (the DF11G mentioned in the OR docs) where the mouse control works, but mouse control does not work in any of my test 3D cabs. Is there something extra that I need to do besides name the parts and add entries for the controls in the cvf file?

[Mike B]

Excellent! However, what MSTS did was pop up a box identifying the control when you simply moused over it. No click needed unless you were choosing that control to operate - then you clicked (and held, iirc, to drag) the left mouse button to operate the control, say, the throttle or an active electrical switch. I've missed that in OR, especially in the more complex cabs; great that we're getting it! Now if only everything actually moved when a control is operated - many cabs I have don't move levers when they are operated by the keyboard, especially but not exclusively brakes.

[Csantucci]

Following Mike's suggestion and after having checked how MSTS worked (not bad), with the attached patch files for x.3951 simply moving the mouse over the cab you will get the name of the actuation controls when the mouse reaches the right points, and the cursor icon will change to "hand". So you know where to click then to actuate the command. This works both for 2D and 3D cabs. As up to now it must be highlighted that commands for levers and analogous things that have multiple positions must be performed moving the mouse horizontally (for rotating controls and for horizontally moving levers) or vertically (for vertically moving levers) in the direction defined within the .cvf file (so no rotating movements with the mouse). I hope these rules apply for all controls (I didn't yet make many tests). Another point is that you must always start movement at a point where you get the "hand" cursor. So if you move a rotating throttle lever from 0% to 100% you will move the mouse from center e.g. to the left. If after having released the mouse you want to return to zero you must start from a point where you get the "hand" cursor for that control and go to the right.
 Runactivities_3Dmouse_rev4.zip (650.62K)
Number of downloads: 539


Referring ErickC post, I don't know. Maybe your controls have their root outside of the cab camera viewing area? If you are able to provide me a complete kit I can have a check.

20/9/17: New release solving ErickC problem
22/9/17: New release solving the Dynamic Shadows problem

[ErickC]

Csantucci, on 19 September 2017 - 08:53 AM, said:

Referring ErickC post, I don't know. Maybe your controls have their root outside of the cab camera viewing area? If you are able to provide me a complete kit I can have a check.

Certainly, the file is attached. This must be installed over the cab in the demo GP10 WIP in my "3D cab/OR sound demo" post in the modelling forum.

Attached File(s)

•  RLCX_1703_VCrev1.zip (12.08MB)
  Number of downloads: 549

[Csantucci]

I've found the problem. I'm supposing that the animated parts are hierarchically just under the root block (called FRAME in your case). Instead you have created hierarchical levels in between. I'll study how to modify that.