[mrmosky]

I had a thought that this feature may be able to be used to get a moving river into OR. So that's what I've been working on.
I created a flat surface in TSM and copied it twice. Then I applied a water texture that I had from the internet. The three surfaces are not exactly coincident, I moved one laterally with respect to the others. This was to exploit the z-buffer problem. Now this is usually something to avoid, but here it makes the water shimmer.

Then I made a MSTS object, and added it to the carspawner. The carspawner speed was set to 3 in TSRE, and the repeat rate set to 1. In the carspawner list file, I set the gap parameter to 0.1 so that there should be no gaps between "vehicles" (water objects). The carspawner used Goku's recent feature where you can place a path using marrkers. This means you can quickly create a path for your river.

Anyhow, it is still experimental, but here's a link to the video.

https://youtu.be/mu7zLGiPWnI

[Jovet]

mrmosky, on 26 July 2017 - 08:15 AM, said:

I had a thought that this feature may be able to be used to get a moving river into OR.

Not to "throw cold water" on your innovative idea, but it seems far fetched to me to, at some point in the future, expect OR to support this methodology. For one thing, a flowing body of water is quite far removed from car spawners. Second thing, OR is already still using MSTS's extremely outdated form of "water" and we should be looking forward to outgrow that versus looking for ways to perpetuate it.

That said, your video does look like the idea works (if a bit swiftly), but I wonder how it'd seem on a curved or larger area.

[Coolhand101]

It's nice to see animated water in OR, well Done! Also, your animated horses and carts are excellent!

Thanks

[Csantucci]

Well, this seems a genial idea!

[mrmosky]

Jovet, on 26 July 2017 - 11:05 AM, said:

but it seems far fetched to me to, at some point in the future, expect OR to support this methodology. For one thing, a flowing body of water is quite far removed from car spawners.

OR does support this method right now. That's what I have used, as shown in the video.
Now we can use multiple carspawners, and we can define a path that is not a road that will take a carspawner (refer animated people thread). Then it could be that the carspawner list might include a dedicated one for a river or stream. Then in your route, you can define a path, using markers, and add a carspawner of that type.

Ok, it's a bit of a fiddle, but there is no other way to get moving water at the moment, is there?

Anyhow, as I said, it is just an experimental idea. I am happy to upload the shape if anyone else would like to play with it.

Cheers,
Geoff

[slipperman]

Hi Geoff,
It's brilliant that you've associated moving water with moving vehicles and linked it with a car spawner! The fact it uses existing technology is what makes it great!!

... and as for your horse/s and cart - well, you seem to have a real aptitude for that kind of work, so please keep it coming :)

Cheers,
Ged

[Jovet]

mrmosky, on 26 July 2017 - 11:51 AM, said:

OR does support this method right now. That's what I have used, as shown in the video.

I meant that, as OR's feature set evolves, sacrifices or special accommodations necessary to support this usage (should it become an accepted and established practice) may have to be made which have unintended consequences. It also does not address the fact that OR's representation of water is 15 years behind the curve. I agree with others that it's a novel idea, but to me the relative effort to desired effect ratio just isn't there. But that's me. Contrast that with the animated horses, which brought MSTS/OR's horse models out of the 1970s.

[thegrindre]

Why wasn't this idea of Geoff's thought of 15 years ago??? Fantastic idea. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/good2.gif

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[mrmosky]

Thanks for the comments. I am planning to do more horses, I may put a rider on one next. Then I may look at a bicycle and rider. There were a lot of cyclists back in the day, when railways were king.

I may have a further play with the river idea. It does have some potential.
I would agree with Joseph, that to do this properly might need some new feature in OR. On the bright side, the code that is already there for Carspawners could possibly be a good start point for a Riverspawner; and we have already seen that paths can be made for these in a very quick and versatile way. The texture for a river could be varied in colour and complexity. Anyway, that is up to others to develop.

More animation in route scenery has got to be good.

Geoff

[Garry]

I think this looks really good. I hope you will put up full instructions as I would like to try this myself.
Garry