[thegrindre]

longiron, on 01 June 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

Can you explain why you need to have this set an the individual item level? Plus you are asking for the software to do an enormous amount of work to determine what the camera should do regarding each individual object for, IMHO, not a lot in return.

Yeah, what Dave just said again. :pleasantry:

:oldstry:

[longiron]

Genma Saotome, on 01 June 2011 - 01:45 PM, said:

First, the bounding box is ....
Second, not all objects deserve to be bounced away from ...
Third, assuming a one-bounce-for-all is ....
Fourth, the suggestion was made about object classes ...
Fifth, it seems to me it's better to let the designer ...

Dave, you've done a great job on the "what", but haven't addressed the "why". My view on the "why" is that it's not a important feature to include, in any form, for the following reasons:

First, this issue really applies mainly to the #2 camera, and maybe the #6 camera. Does not having those cameras NOT respect solid object definitions detract from the game experience? My judgement is no. There isn't an issue with seeing into, through solid objects for a train sim, unlike a first person shooter game. There may even be advantages when spotting a cut of cars inside a large building to zoom inside to see the actual position of the cars. Nor do I believe this is a big issue as many users position the #2 camera above likely solid obstructions (bridges, etc) of their view of the train when just running.

Second, by allowing the camera to go wherever the player want it to be, Open Rails is providing a consistent experience and NOT imposing anyone else's idea (devs, route designer or modeller) of what should or should not viewed from the camera. Having the camera respect some kinds of objects and not others will only create questions and confusion as to what, how, the feature works or doesn't work.

Third, the community has not clamored for this feature. I interpret that as being satisfied with the behavior of the the cameras as they presently are and consistent with MSTS #2 camera behavior.

Just my 2 cents.

[Genma Saotome]

Perhaps I misunderstood... there were comments about cameras bouncing and then comments about using bounding boxes and collisions; A very common camera collision-bounce technique is to put a bounding box around the camera location and then see if it collides with other bounding boxes, bouncing when it does. My comments were made thinking that was the context. If I misunderstood the context and the comments were actually about train collisions, not camera collisions (sorry 'bout that), then it seems perfectly reasonable to me that the bounding boxes of the cars and locomotives are put to use.

WRT a camera-object bouncing bouncing feature, I agree it's not a good idea. My previous comments about not making it universal were made thinking it was not a good idea... and if the feature isn't ever added to OR, well, that is fine by me.

[B & O GUY]

Quote

Allen,
Looking at the code, Open Rails only reads the SIZE dimensions of the Shape file. OR does not read the bounding box or inertial tensor values at the present time. Values are read from the coupler section to determine the length of the coupler. We will need the bounding box information when solid body collision physics is added to Open Rails.

Chris

I believe the size of the shape file is the bounding box in the shape file. All items of the model object including couplers, mirrors, awnings and such are contained within the bounding box. And it's the adjustment of that box that allows the coupler's to join visually. But i'm not sure of the effects or reasons of the inertial tensor box other than it affects coupler function or no coupler function in some cases if improperly adjusted.

Allen

[B & O GUY]

Chris and James

I wanted to add that whatever method your using for coupling objects seems to work pretty well and has few problem's. So I hope you don't change that part of the programming.

As for the #2 camera view. I like the not bouncing off the train objects. It's kind of fun standing behind the Herb Kelsey and Tom Werb characatures in "Tom's Crew's" while looking out the engineers or firemans cab front windows. Or sitting in any seat you want in the passenger cars or caboose. It's a fun view that wasn't available in the old sim.

Allen