[B & O GUY]

Quote

I have whacked more moles in MSTS than I care to count. Been doing it for quite a few years now. The one model I found that did not rotate in the correct axis in OR had them running round the x axis, although in MSTS the rotation was correct. I shall have to revisit the .s file and see if I can find the difference.

The fans rotating on the "X" axis might be that the "X" axis was not oriented correctly when the model was produced. If the fans were made on the "X" axis and then rotated to the "Y" axis position, this might be the reason it works the way it does.

I have written the code for all the .rot positions of "X-Y-Z" in 16 point animation. Not sure about using a bogie. Seems like it would have to be tipped onto it's side. I use the Wheels1 thru ? . The ones used for steam locomotive drivers. The SD9 has 6 roof fans and they had been working in previous versions.

Thanks for the explanation James.

Allen

[copperpen]

Allen

The bogie itself being used in this manner need only be a single textured poly, but in this particular model is a small cube. The wheels within a bogie can be oriented any way you like and MSTS will still animate them in that orientation. The problem comes with OR reading the fan set as a proper bogie and animating the wheels in the normal axis for a bogie wheelset.

Because it is identified in the s file as a bogie, and has an auto controller attached there is nothing that can be done about it. Luckily in this case, the model builder remade the model using WheelsX which carry their own animation within the s file.

Far as OR goes in this particular case, if the s file clearly uses a bogie and associated wheelset for fan animation, that is one mole that is unwhackable.

[R H Steele]

James Ross, on 20 June 2013 - 02:00 PM, said:

Please do try and understand how much of a pain in the bass this whack-a-mole game of getting MSTS content to work is. :give_rose:

Indeed, the OR team should be praised for the patience you've shown to the myriad "moles" that have popped up ... mostly I am reluctant to post these minor issues because I know the team is probably aware of 99% of the problems making it backward compatible with MSTS. Someday all fans will work but the moles will still pop. Speaking of moles .... .....taking liberty with a quote (from Mr. Rat).......
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in trains." Thanks for making it so much better. rhs

[James Ross]

DAve Babb, on 21 June 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

Would it be possible, from a purely technical point of view,to create a new Train part name that OR will automatically animate, ie 'fans', what would the effect be on MSTS of it finding a part name that it did not recognise ? Would it not simply accept it as a normal user defined model part name and not animate it ?

Anything that isn't WHEELS, BOGIE, WIPER, DOOR, MIRROR or PANTO and is animated (with a controller) is considered "running gear" and is animated according to the movement of the wagon.

I guess here, though, you want something animated at a constant rate, all the time, or something similar? That's easily doable but we're trying not to add odd little OR-specific things just now. Maybe later. :)

[R H Steele]

You guys got some ways ahead of my understanding, let me know if I grasp (gasp?) what you wrote
1. The fan animation towards the top of the model has been disabled
2. At this time I cannot do anything to correct this
3 Fan animation in MSTS is the same general function that controls moving wheels, not specific animated parts using a "controller"
4. The fan animations are controlled differently depending upon how the models are constructed
5. At some point in the future the animation function may be modified into an original OR feature unlike that of MSTS.

So far so good?? Well, a question, the original fans that stopped working....still are inop ..... however.... the fans on the default TRAINSET\DASH9\dash9.eng work just fine (these are at the top of the model) ... how can that be if the fan animation function was disabled. Are the dash9 fans animated differently from the fans discussed above OR am I missing something critical to the discussion. Pardon my obtuse/ignorance. rhs

[copperpen]

DAve Babb, on 25 June 2013 - 10:12 AM, said:

James,
I'd have thought that would have been a more than reasonable compromise at this stage to satisfy most people for now.

It would be, but if I am not mistaken it would require the original pre-compiled code to be altered for the s file to reflect the new OR specific part.

[copperpen]

.... the fans on the default TRAINSET\DASH9\dash9.eng work just fine (these are at the top of the model) ...

My Dash9 has no animated fans, but the default SD40-2 does. They still work because they use the part name of Rodxx and carry a manually coded animation controller.

1. The fan animation towards the top of the model has been disabled
Yes
2. At this time I cannot do anything to correct this
Correct
3 Fan animation in MSTS is the same general function that controls moving wheels, not specific animated parts using a "controller"
No. In MSTS the fans can be animated in two ways. One is to use the Third bogie with wheelsxx or no bogie and Wheelsx with a coded animation controller or any other MSTS part name that has to be hand coded for animation

4. The fan animations are controlled differently depending upon how the models are constructed
Yes
5. At some point in the future the animation function may be modified into an original OR feature unlike that of MSTS.
That is how I understand the situation, however, there will always be MSTS items that will need to use the old MSTS way of animating things.

[B & O GUY]

Okay. I just renamed all the fan's from Wheels1 thru 6 to ROD01 thru 06 and they rotate as before. So I'm happy again. In this particular case it's fairly simple to make changes as the model is being worked on daily.

A shot of the fan's. Sorry! No video. You can take my word for it. They do work.



Would be great to have them rotate contantly and in the same direction irregardless of engine direction of travel.

Allen