[Lindsayts]

A test cabview has been uploaded (hopefully) to the OR discussion forum. The late Alan Lownsborough, a giant in MSTS in Australia provided the images for this cabview.

I would be very gratefull if some could give this a try and tell me how it goes.

Lindsay

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

This is very exciting news.

If and when the development of virtual/3D cabviews gets more serious, I would like to offer two 3D models of cabviews built for Railworks that might come in handy for anybody who wants to experiment. The 3d models are of a 1st gen. EMD hood unit cab (SD7, drum type control stands) and a Doodlebug cabview.

Both models were built in 3DCanvas and are fairly high poly (10-15k). They aren't 100% accurate or done yet but they do have lots of animated parts, so you wouldn't have to worry so much about these things and could focus more on the implementation in the new sim instead.

If anybody is interested please contact me by PM or Email and I'll send you the source files (3DC 7.1.2)

Cheers,
Michael

PS, Screenshots from RW:
http://i197.photobuc...g_MW_final4.jpg
http://i197.photobuc...SD7-GN_WIP8.jpg

[cjakeman]

 Lindsayts, on 31 August 2012 - 01:27 PM, said:

The problem I was referring too to is that most(all?) railway cabs are more or less vertically arranged this makes it very difficult to squeeze everything into a wide screen monitor.
. . .
I have used a number of simulators with scrolling cabviews and I did not like them at all, very unrealistic. 4x3 is a far better ratio for a railway cabview but that ship has well and truly sailed, I have no idea what the answer is.

A hardware unit would only closely represent one style of cab. I think virtual 3D cabs are the long-term answer.

Also, I've started experimenting with MS Kinect for Windows so you could be reaching out to adjust the throttle or apply the brake.

[cjakeman]

 Lindsayts, on 31 August 2012 - 05:10 PM, said:

A test cabview has been uploaded (hopefully) to the OR discussion forum. The late Alan Lownsborough, a giant in MSTS in Australia provided the images for this cabview.

I would be very grateful if some could give this a try and tell me how it goes.

I reported on this cabview in the other thread. Just wanted to say that it's revealed a problem in the code - so many thanks for uploading, Linsay.

If I run full-screen but with a different resolution in Options > Window size, then I see some strange behaviour. I'll dig in some more.

[cjakeman]

 cjakeman, on 01 September 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

If I run full-screen but with a different resolution in Options > Window size, then I see some strange behaviour.

The full-screen toggle using Alt-Enter was messing up the Cab 2D Stretch, but it seems to be fixed now in v1207.

[Lindsayts]

 DAve Babb, on 29 August 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

I have similar ideas for 3D modelled cabviews.
For a content creator I think a 3D cab is easier to produce, much more flexible to just model a cab than try and get a perfect photo to convert.

My thoughts for levers etc was based around a couple of animation frames, maybe 1 with the control at each end of its travel and maybe config data to define any intermediate positions based on % of movement
Consider something like a rotary switch to control wipers.
Frame 1 control "off"
Frame 2 Control at "maximum", maybe 180 degree turn.
To add a 3rd position at halfway position to define a slow wiper setting just define it as being at 50% of the movement in the cabview file.

You would clearly want to have predefined names for each type of control. maybe something that also defines how the control works, ie notched or variable.

For 3D cabs rather than using direct animations as the current Cabview does the obvious answer is to include translate, rotate, scale and texture selection instructions directly in the 3D cvf and manipulate the objects themselves in the 3D Cab. If OR does go down this path it may be worth pointing out that this is the way Openbve does 3D cabs (Look at the Openbve's animation file Docs, this may avoid some arguments later).

Lindsay