[elvasleis]

Hi,
I have ticked the shadows box but shadows are not showing.
I am using the x2475 version of Open Rails.

Regards Geoff.

[JohnnyS]

Hello,

Just did a little test, the shadows show fine for me using x2475.

Cheers,
J.

[vince]

As I have been installing scenery on the LIRR I've noticed that there are no shadows unless the objects properties (in the Route Editor) specify dynamic shadows on.

vince

[JohnnyS]

vince, on 12 September 2014 - 12:33 PM, said:

As I have been installing scenery on the LIRR I've noticed that there are no shadows unless the objects properties (in the Route Editor) specify dynamic shadows on.

vince

There is a registry modification for OR that enables shadows for all shapes regardless of the object properties set by the route author. Markus_GE gives instructions in this post: http://www.elvastowe...post__p__137536

[markus_GE]

Let me re-post it here, after some edits and corrections :D



To enable dynamic shadows for all shapes on a route, you need to give ORTS the info to do that. Therefore, you need to create a new registry entry, as sadly the official option to enable this mode has been removed from the menu.

Anyway, go to Start, search for "regedit" (Windows Registry Editor) and open it. Then, in the tree view, at the left of the window, expand the path "HKEY_Current_User\Software\OpenRails" and click on "ORTS". If it isn´t already there, create a new "REG_DWRD" (select from "new" in the dropdown menu of "Edit" and choose the type of the new entry) called "ShadowAllShapes", and give it the numerical value of 1 (if the key is there already, just adjust the value). Simply close RegEdit then and try in ORTS. You should now have shadowns for EVERY shape, not matter how they´re set up in the route files. If you don´t get them, well, it´s probably some sort of a bug.

For forest objects, I can´t really tell how this works (I have only run routes with just bushes as forest objects until now - these bushes were simply too small to cast noticeable shadows with the customizations I made to the other Shadow registry entries on my system. But for signals etc. it works for sure.

Cheers, Markus

[elvasleis]

Hi,
My problems with the shadows may be related to a recent drop in Frame rates in Open Rails.
When I start an explore the route activity I am getting a frame rate of 5-9.
In Msts the frame rates are quite reasonable.
My system is a NEC Powermate pentium D 3.2ghz with 2GB RAM.
The system is Windows Vista home premium.
The video card is a NVidia geforce GTX 650.

Is there any reason due to recent changes with Open Rails that might have caused this dramatic drop in performance.

Regards Geoff

[vince]

markus_GE, on 13 September 2014 - 06:37 AM, said:

Let me re-post it here, after some edits and corrections :pleasantry:
To enable dynamic shadows for all shapes on a route, you need to give ORTS the info to do that. Therefore, you need to create a new registry entry, ....................snip................
..................... . . .
I can´t really tell how this works (I have only run routes with just bushes as forest objects until now - these bushes were simply too small to cast noticeable shadows with the customizations I made to the other Shadow registry entries on my system. But for signals etc. it works for sure.
Cheers, Markus

Hi Markus,

Enabling Dynamic Shadows (DS) for all objects?
That is something I would be hesitant to use as I normally enable DS for only objects immediately alongside the rail line in my very heavy urban scenery Long Island Rail Road.

Enabling DS on tiles with over 1000 objects would probably tank frame rates. Some of my route tiles count over 2000 objects. (Sunnyside Yards and downtown Brooklyn for instance)

So my question is; Do Dynamic Shadows get turned on for ALL objects in a route by your hack?
Or are they turned on for just the objects with the Dynamic Shadow flags set in objects entry in the world files?
Thanks in advance.

Vince

Quote

@ >>elvasleis: ".........In Msts the frame rates are quite reasonable.
My system is a NEC Powermate pentium D 3.2ghz with 2GB RAM ...........snip.........."

Hi Geoff,
Your system seems a bit underpowered for running OR. I had frame rates very similar to what you are seeing with my old XP 3 Ghz Hyperthreading CPU (mimics a dual core) 2 Gig Ram system.
Good frame rates in MSTS but in the ditch with OR. Happly the old mother board fried 'forcing' me to build a new box. New system is a 3 Ghz i5 quad core, 8 Gig Ram, Nvidia GTX650 system fixed the frame rate problem and runs OR smoothly with truly astonishing frame rates. >50 in most areas.

Regards,
Vince

[Eldorado.Railroad]

Not Markus...but I'll answer the questions

From 14 September 2014 - 08:46 AM:

Enabling Dynamic Shadows (DS) for all objects?
That is something I would be hesitant to use as I normally enable DS for only objects immediately alongside the rail line in my very heavy urban scenery Long Island Rail Road.

Open Rails != to MSTS. For MSTS, yes this is a problem, but for Open Rails, not as much...however (salt lick please as your grain of salt!), you can mitigate the impact on your GPU by limiting the following:
ShadowMap Distance
Number of Shadow Maps
ShadowMap Blur
"did I miss anything"?

I am not on a machine that is used for OpenRails but all of those items are in the registry. Our esteemed colleague Markus can "fill you in" on that.

From 14 September 2014 - 08:46 AM:

Enabling DS on tiles with over 1000 objects would probably tank frame rates. Some of my route tiles count over 2000 objects. (Sunnyside Yards and downtown Brooklyn for instance)

More recent incarnations of OpenRails handle this a little better. I can tell you that from my experience, since 2010, there are some routes that reduce framerates...some times pretty badly...when you have a bunch of objects that have all of their viewable distance levels set to 2000 meters, and DS turned on for ALL shapes. I also must stress having SLI will help with the alphas quite a lot with modest, not state of the art GPUs. No, per say, SLI is not supported in OpenRails, BUT, all of the antialiasing is helped in a very BIG way with SLI. Something to think about...by CKO.

From 14 September 2014 - 08:46 AM:

So my question is; Do Dynamic Shadows get turned on for ALL objects in a route by your hack?
Or are they turned on for just the objects with the Dynamic Shadow flags set in objects entry in the world files?

Turning on this switch in the registry is mainly (and VERY VERY VERY useful I might add!) for debugging. One of the great things about it, you do not have to modifiy your world files to see what things can look like with DS cast for everything. Currently in some enhancements I am working on, DS is on for everything. This used to be a problem with the old particle generator (smoke for the layperson) code. But James, Robert, Peter, and Markus (did I miss anyone?) have mostly fixed that problem. So give DS for everything a try, you might just want to buy that extra GPU after that!

Eldorado

[Eldorado.Railroad]

From 13 September 2014 - 06:37 AM:

For forest objects, I can´t really tell how this works (I have only run routes with just bushes as forest objects until now - these bushes were simply too small to cast noticeable shadows with the customizations I made to the other Shadow registry entries on my system. But for signals etc. it works for sure.

In reality, it has very little to do with size. At present, the range of luminance, a filter used to "cutoff" what will be shadowed, are used to limit what will shadow "nicely". You can control quite a lot how things will look in the SceneryShader.fx file. There are some compromises that can add solutions for this. Right now OpenRails uses pretty much a one size fits all for dynamic shadows. That is why certain things appear not to have shadows.

[markus_GE]

Eldorado.Railroad, on 14 September 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Not Markus...but I'll answer the questions

:sign_thanks: a lot, I´d never have been able to write it so explanatory ;)

Eldorado.Railroad, on 14 September 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Open Rails != to MSTS. For MSTS, yes this is a problem, but for Open Rails, not as much...however (salt lick please as your grain of salt!), you can mitigate the impact on your GPU by limiting the following:
ShadowMap Distance
Number of Shadow Maps
ShadowMap Blur
"did I miss anything"?

AFAICT, you did not miss anything. Only, you can strike out ShadowMapBlur from that list, as it´s impact might be measurable, but is not noticeable at all.

Eldorado.Railroad, on 14 September 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

I am not on a machine that is used for OpenRails but all of those items are in the registry. Our esteemed colleague Markus can "fill you in" on that.

Just go ahead and ask ;)

Eldorado.Railroad, on 14 September 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

More recent incarnations of OpenRails handle this a little better. I can tell you that from my experience, since 2010, there are some routes that reduce framerates...some times pretty badly...when you have a bunch of objects that have all of their viewable distance levels set to 2000 meters, and DS turned on for ALL shapes. I also must stress having SLI will help with the alphas quite a lot with modest, not state of the art GPUs. No, per say, SLI is not supported in OpenRails, BUT, all of the antialiasing is helped in a very BIG way with SLI. Something to think about...by CKO.

OMG, so many abbreviations. Especially confused what Streamlines (SLI) has to do with this? :pleasantry:

Eldorado.Railroad, on 14 September 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Turning on this switch in the registry is mainly (and VERY VERY VERY useful I might add!) for debugging. One of the great things about it, you do not have to modifiy your world files to see what things can look like with DS cast for everything. Currently in some enhancements I am working on, DS is on for everything. This used to be a problem with the old particle generator (smoke for the layperson) code. But James, Robert, Peter, and Markus (did I miss anyone?) have mostly fixed that problem. So give DS for everything a try, you might just want to buy that extra GPU after that!

Eldorado

I run with the switch enabled at all times (that´s why (only) 1 showed up for it in James' recent study), and I like it. As Eldorady said, you just need to fine-tune the other shadow-related settings ;)

Cheers, Markus