[Icik]

Hi Carlo,
I tested it on multiple tracks where there was a problem. It looks good. The signals are set as expected correctly.
Thank you for your willingness to fix the problem.

[mrmosky]

Hi Carlo.

Thanks for the update, especially the corrected "bug" where smoke and steam is now visible for the driven loco when using a 3d cab. This is a really nice addition.

Geoff

[Csantucci]

Hi all,
thank you: the improvements within OR NewYear MG are first of all an achievement of the various contributors, in this case perpetualKid (with the support of eugenR that provided a test route) for the new signal script parser and dennisat for the visibility of smoke and steam.

[ErickC]

This update makes freight shapes visible in the 3D cab as well, which I foresee will actually solve a lot of future problems... cool! Of course, now I need to add a "zero" LOD to my crew shapes... no biggie.

[Csantucci]

Well, this is an unexpected fallout. Let's see if it has drawbacks or not.

[dennisat]

Csantucci, on 18 June 2019 - 07:32 AM, said:

Well, this is an unexpected fallout. Let's see if it has drawbacks or not.

Hi,

Has anyone got a steam loco with a 3D cab? I'm wondering what that would look like. Even before the patch, I would have thought none of the bodywork would have been visible from within the cab, even through the forward facing windows.

Dennis

[mrmosky]

I have tried my 3d steam cab, and the main loco shape is not visible. The crew are now visible inside the cab, which they weren't before. That is a slight problem in that the crew models are quite low poly, and were probably not designed to be viewed close up.

So I need to look for a driver and fireman who look realistic close up, or delete them from the model. Which would be a shame, as it always looks strange if an engine has no crew.

Geoff

[dennisat]

mrmosky, on 18 June 2019 - 09:34 AM, said:

I have tried my 3d steam cab, and the main loco shape is not visible.

Hi,

Was it visible before the patch?

Dennis

[slipperman]

mrmosky, on 18 June 2019 - 09:34 AM, said:

I have tried my 3d steam cab, and the main loco shape is not visible. The crew are now visible inside the cab, which they weren't before. That is a slight problem in that the crew models are quite low poly, and were probably not designed to be viewed close up.

Thinking along those lines (!!), if the player is in the cab, I wouldn't think any crew should be seen. Is it possible to include a LOD in the crew shape to only make them visible if the viewer is, say, more than about 5 metres away from it? Apologies if this is a dumb question, but my knowledge of the creation of shapes is very limited (ie nil!).

Cheers,
Ged

[ErickC]

mrmosky, on 18 June 2019 - 09:34 AM, said:

I have tried my 3d steam cab, and the main loco shape is not visible. The crew are now visible inside the cab, which they weren't before. That is a slight problem in that the crew models are quite low poly, and were probably not designed to be viewed close up.

So I need to look for a driver and fireman who look realistic close up, or delete them from the model. Which would be a shame, as it always looks strange if an engine has no crew.

Geoff

No, you don't need to do any of that. I had the same issue with the Soo Line cabooses because freight shapes have always been visible in the passenger view. All I did was ensure that the first LOD, visible from 0 to 1 meters, had no geometry in it. The second LOD, visible from 1 meter out, has the geometry. You would need to be clipping through the walls of the caboose from an exterior view for the figures to disappear, so it presents no issues in the game at all.

Having freight shapes visible in the 3D cab solves a lot of problems for diesel modellers. For us, each railroad will have the same basic locomotive, but with all kinds of different details. Without some way of making model-specific details visible in the cab, then each locomotive would need to have its own individual 3D cab with the correct details visible. This precludes any possibility of creating any kind of generic model that can have details changed out by repainters. With freight shapes visible in the 3D cab, now I can build a basic body, make the details a separate shape, and then swap them as required, calling up the models remotely to change the texture set. The only other consideration is that the 3D cab either needs a remote path or will read texture data from the cabview3D folder. The workaround, of course, is to have the basic body be a freight shape as well, since OR supports multiple shapes. Now the cab textures can reside in the cabview3D folder, and the freight shapes will take care of everything outside of the cab.

TL;DR, this is a boon for those of us who build US diesel content.