[HSBforMSTS]

Hello,

can someone give me a hint, what's wrong here: The water column has an animation, that works in shape viewer and on MSTS, but in OR only a part of the animation works. Has it something to do with the value "PickupAnimData ( 3 4 )" out of the world file? Or is there a way to configurate, how OR plays animations? Is it maybe a bug? To be sure, you understand me: I didn't mean the speed of animation or the filling rate, but the grade of movement itself.


Screenshot: https://hsbformsts.f...tercolumnor.jpg

Used a selfbuild route. Object of the watercolumn is from another autor. Tested in explorer mode.

Thank you for every advice,
Chris

[HSBforMSTS]

Hello Weter,

on my Windows XP desktop pc with OR default stable version I would say, it's 45 degrees instead of 90. But on my laptop in this version of OR like mentioned above it seems like around just 20 degrees maybe. I thought, it was just a problem of the stable version. Meanwhile I wrote an email to the autor of the object, if he can change the organisation of animation. Maybe the problem isn't OR, maybe it is. If I have new information about the shape and its animation, I will write here.

[Laci1959]

https://kephost.net/p/2021/36/2988_48900376698e.png

Explorer doesn’t work just in Activity, and only when you’re already out of water. You need a trial activity where you set the fuel quantities to 25%. Then you see it work.

[Weter]

Most likely...
If/when tank is full, it must turn-out automatically, so, for working, it must BE, what to refill...

[HSBforMSTS]

Laci1959, on 12 September 2021 - 01:48 AM, said:

Explorer doesn’t work just in Activity, and only when you’re already out of water. You need a trial activity where you set the fuel quantities to 25%. Then you see it work.

I think it's not a question of explorer or activity mode. You think it is, because PickUps are not working in explorer mode, when they are empty. And in most of the routes they are empty in explorer mode, because the defeault capacity is set to zero. So everybody is thinking, they don't work. But you can set them to 100% as defeault value. Open the *.tdb file and search for "PickUpCapacity". The fourth number from the end is the defeault capacity. Use "8" for 100%, "4" for 75%, "2" for 50%. If the 4th number from the end of line is zero, the PickUp is empty. In my route every PickUp is at 100% also in explorer mode. You can check this, by using the MSTS ActivityEditor and open the route. On the map every PickUp shows in red "100%" now. Normaly there is no information about the Capacity, only after changing every single PickUp in the RE.

But to be sure, I created a trial activity and the problem is the same. That means for me, OpenRails uses animations of PickUps in a different way than MSTS does. But how to fix this? For me PickUps in Open Rails should work like in MSTS or maybe better, but not worse.

On the other point you're right. It's necessary to expend some of water to use the PickUp (in case of Watercolumn).

[Weter]

The other fact-ORTS manages animations the different way, rather MSTS: models are clapping with their doors and jealousies, cases are shivering...
Sometimes, pantographs are acting strange.

[Laci1959]

My link

Look for it here, I think you can find the solution here.

[jonas]

Hello everyone,

I have been working a bit more intensively the last few days with the pickup animations since a longer time again.The meaning of the two parameters of the line "animation ( F1 F2 ..." in an animated pickup shape is extremely different in MSTS and ORTS! In both simulators the use of these parameters for pickups is different from the usual shape animations.

According to the file "newshape.bnf" of MSTS, the first parameter (I call it F1 in the following) represents the total number of frames of an animation to be played. According to MSTS, the second parameter, F2, should indicate the frame rate - means frames per second. Even with normal animated shapes, however, MSTS does not adhere to its "newshape.bnf" specification. Parameter F1, the number of frames, does not need to be specified at all in MSTS and can even be 0. While F2, the frame rate, is accurately readed and worked with, both in MSTS and in ORTS.

Here, however, are the almost strange-looking functions of the same parameters in pickup shape animations:


--- MSTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

animation ( F1 F2
F1: not considered, can also be 0
F2: must not be 0, at least 1! / a count of 30 must be added per animation frame (except to the first frame).

F2 -> 30 must be added per frame, except to the first frame. If, for example, a pickup shape contains 4 frames, then F2 = 90 must be used so that all 4 frames are played.

1. Frame0 -> F2 = 0
2. Frame1 -> F2 = 30
3. Frame2 -> F2 = 60
4. Frame3 -> F2 = 90

In MSTS, a pick-up animation can contain more than 2 frames!
But according to the MSTS TechDoc it should be "using as few key frames as possible".


--- ORTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

animation ( F1 F2
F1: divisor for the animation duration / F1 may also be 0.
F2: not considered, can also be 0

F1 -> is used as a divisor for the animation duration stored in the w-file of the pickup (e.g. PickupAnimData ( 3 7 ))! So if, for example, a "PickupAnimData ( 3 7 )" line in the w-file of the pickup specifies an animation duration of 7 seconds, then these 7 seconds are divided by the first parameter F1.

Assuming F1 = 2, then the animation duration would be halved, if F1 = 3, then tripled, etc.

In ORTS, only the first two frames of a pickup animation are ever played!
Why?!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to these peculiarities, that F1 as well as F2 are not needed in one or the other simulator, but the other parameter has an extremely different meaning in the respective simulator than in normal shape animations, the creation of equally working pickups for both simulators is not that easy!

Therefore, after careful consideration, there is really only one variant for the animation line for me: "animation ( 1 30".
The 1 is only relevant for ORTS and causes the animation duration (PickupAnimData line from the w-file) to be divided by 1, which in fact means that the given animation duration from the w-file is not changed.
The 30 is only relevant for MSTS and causes frame 0 and frame 1 of the animation to be played completely and not "freeze" halfway through, as described in this thread here.

Since ORTS basically assumes that a pickup never has more than 2 frames, MSTS pickup animations with more than 2 frames can never be played completely in ORTS. Only the first two frames will be animated in ORTS. Unfortunately, this prevents water animations during refuelling, for example, from being possible in ORTS, as they were in MSTS.

Conclusion up to now: A pickup shape for both simulators may only have 2 key frames and should definitely contain the line "animation ( 1 30".

Greetings
Jonas

[ebnertra000]

It should be possible to modify the animation data of the offending shape to have only two keyframes, though depending on the way the shape functions, it may look funny. Tweaks like that are something I do semi-regularly