Genma Saotome, on 21 April 2017 - 09:06 AM, said:
Rob, a questions: My interpretation of your post is you are asking for skins to be, at a minimum, assigned by what we now refer to as the consist file... or perhaps by the consist file and timetable specification combination thereby allowing the same consist to vary its appearance by virtue of where the instances appear in the timetable. Is that about right? If yes, which of the two is what you want.
The latter - consist and definition in timetable would define the actual set of textures which is to be used.
Default textures would be defined which are to be used in case no specific set is required.
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Am I also correct in guessing this is intended to address appearance matters when a fixed consist of passenger cars reaches one destination and then heads off in another direction, perhaps the reverse direction, now identified as a different train which requires different skins for identification?
Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind.
For modern trains with computer-controlled destination blinds this is ofcourse exactly as it happens in real life.
As for older days - well, I think it's a little too much to assume that we will be able to simulate that someone actually comes along and turns over all the boards to show the new destination .... :D
But at least, if you meet the train somewhere along the way it will show the correct destination.
This is mainly a timetable issue as trains in timetables do indeed form into the reverse (or indeed a completely different) working. Such things generally do not happen in activities - for activities it would be sufficient if such details just could be defined in the consist.
By the way - a bit of a complication which just comes to mind is how to handle portioned trains. In such cases, different parts of the train would obviously show different destinations, even if they are the same (type of) coaches.
Hmm, this is actually more complicated than I thought. Will need to do a lot more thinking on this.
Regards,
Rob Roeterdink