[darwins]

A strange observation:
Having been told there was a problem with the wheel rotation speed of a steam loco model I tried exporting the model with the wheels not animated.
In Open Rails the wheels still go round even though they were not animated. (Okay it is a strange steam loco with bogies so they are Wheels11, Wheels12 and so on all parented to bogies.)
My understanding was that in OR (and previously in MSTS) the simulator would animate wagon wheels (so no need to animate them in the model) but did not animate locomotive wheels (hence they should be animated in the model).
Has this changed somewhere along the way?
The loco was made with 32 frame animation and I think that this is correctly shown in the shape file as animation ( 32 30

[superheatedsteam]

You may want to check out my last post in the following thread.

http://www.elvastowe...gear-animating/

Note that this information is derived from observation and experiment. It should also apply to MSTS though I have not tested to confirm it.

Any objects called WHEELS with 2 numbers after it, do not need to be animated in the modelling program. Open Rails will rotate objects with that naming convention around the pivot point of that object. Open Rails will use the WheelRadius() value in the Wagon section of the ENG file to control rotational speed of WHEELSxy objects relative to the speed of the to the locomotive. If you apply animation frames to WHEELSxy objects, Open Rails will ignore your animation frames and rotation speed will be based on WheelRadius() value in the Wagon section of the ENG file.

In a 'conventional' steam loco like the Flying Scotsman, the main drivers are called WHEELS with a single number after it. These objects are not animated by default by Open Rails. The modeller has to apply 16 frames of rotational animation to these objects in the modelling program. Open Rails will animate that object using the WheelRadius() value in the Engine section of the ENG file to control rotational speed relative to the speed of the locomotive.

If you have more than 16 frames of animation for your wheel object, then the rotational speed of the wheel will be proportionally slower than expected for the current speed of the locomotive. Conversely if you apply less than 16 frames of animation for your wheel object, the rotational speed will be proportionally faster than expected for the current speed of the locomotive.

Note that WHEELSx is purely for descriptive purposes. You could call these wheel objects ROUND_THING1, CYLINDER2, MAIN_DRIVER3, etc and Open Rails will still rotate them, as you animated them in the modelling program.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Marek.

[darwins]

Many thanks for that. I shall review my models!!