Elvas Tower: Proposal for New Lighting Conditions - Elvas Tower

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Proposal for New Lighting Conditions Brakes, Doors, Reverser, Etc. Rate Topic: -----

Poll: New Lighting Conditions (25 member(s) have cast votes)

Which of the new lighting conditions are worth implementing in ORTS?

  1. Brake ( x ) (11 votes [25.00%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 25.00%

  2. Reverser ( x ) (13 votes [29.55%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 29.55%

  3. Doors ( x ) (13 votes [29.55%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 29.55%

  4. Other (mention below) (7 votes [15.91%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 15.91%

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#61 User is offline   railguy 

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Posted 19 March 2024 - 05:20 PM

For several days, I've been experimenting with implementation of the flashing ditch lights on a locomotive with both front and rear ditchlights. I have managed to get the headlights and ditchlights functioning and flashing mostly correctly on both front and rear. I also have the light spheres functioning correctly on the front. These enhancements do, however, dramatically illustrate the need to "unlock" the restriction of light spheres that can be used on a locomotive or rolling stock. That is an artifact of MSTS that just needs to be dumped.

I can't put up the entire .eng file of my "subject" locomotive, but here is the light section dealing with the flashing ditchlights and related headlights. This likely could be adapted to other locomotives just by adjusting the locations of the various lights on the locomotive model. Here is what I've used:
Spoiler

I also added the flash duration line to the .eng file right below the "DoesHornTriggerBell" line as follows:

ORTSHornLightsTimer ( 15 )

As of now, I'm using OR_NY_MG_R151.1 for my experiments.
<Admin's advice:
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#62 User is offline   vince 

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Posted 19 March 2024 - 06:53 PM

The GP-38 I use in the LIRR activity LILCO Coal has functional front and rear Spheres of light just not at the same time.
Also in the PRR-East v2 I modified the light section of the PRR B1 electric to give rear sphere when switched to Dim. Great for night switching.
Here's the GP-38 code:

Light	(
    		comment( Sphere of light High Beam )
    		Type		( 1 )
    		Conditions	(
    			Headlight ( 3 )
    			Unit ( 2 )
    			)
    		Cycle	( 0 )
    		FadeIn	( 0.5 )
    		FadeOut	( 0.5 )
    		States	(	1
    			State	(
    				Duration ( 0.0 )
    				LightColour ( ffffffff )
    				Position ( 0.0 3.5 18 )
    				Transition ( 0 )
    				Radius ( 400.0 )
    				Angle ( 15.0 )
    				)
    			)
    		)
        	Light	(
    		comment( Sphere of light Rear )
    		Type		( 1 )
    		Conditions	(
    			Headlight ( 2 )
    			Unit ( 3 )
    			)
    		Cycle	( 0 )
    		FadeIn	( 0.5 )
    		FadeOut	( 0.5 )
    		States	(	1
    			State	(
    				Duration ( 0.0 )
    				LightColour ( ffffffff )
    				Position ( 0.0 3.5 -116.0 )
    				Transition ( 0 )
    				Radius ( 100.0 )
    				Angle ( 35.0 )
    				)
    			)
    		)


regards,
vince

#63 User is offline   railguy 

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Posted 20 March 2024 - 06:01 AM

Vince,

I'm aware of that, and have used spheres that way in other locomotives. Here is the issue: Quite often, in prototypical operations in, say, switching, the engineer will leave the the front and rear headlights on, which requires a sphere at both front and rear (either for dim or bright). With the ditch lights on and set to flash on horn blow--either front or rear--that requires a ditch light solid sphere and a ditch light flashing sphere. On my example above, with OR sphere limitations, I could only have sufficient sphere entries for the front headlights and ditch lights.

As a secondary wish list, I would like to have sphere capabilities for truck lights and step lights. I have not heard an explanation of why sims like TSim20XX can have multiple light spheres all over the place, but OR can't, other than OR still trying to keep rolling stock, etc. backward compatible with MSTS. As far as I'm concerned, that ship sailed long ago.

#64 User is online   Weter 

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Posted 20 March 2024 - 07:09 AM

Hello.
@Railguy
There was James Ross's explanation about two possible technics of making multiple spheres of light (search forums for "deferred" word), but, AFAIK, both ways have negative sides and we need to convent, how many spheres should be the limit.

@Vince and all
AFAIK, MSTSBin could flip the same sphere of light 180 deg, once cab is changed - no need to add any extra definitions.
But special code-numbers for Headlight (cab changed) should be defined...

#65 User is offline   Laci1959 

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Posted 21 March 2024 - 02:35 AM

My link

Hello.

It's worth watching the video. It works with tender steam locomotives with 3 entries as follows:

		Light (
			comment ( Dim )
			Type ( 1 )
			Conditions (
				Headlight ( 4 )
				Unit ( 2 )
				Control ( 2 )
				TimeOfDay ( 2 )				
			)
			States ( 1
				State (
					Duration ( 0 )
					LightColour (  BFF9CD84 )
					Position ( 0.0 1.5 5 )
					Elevation ( 0 1.8 0 )
					Angle ( 15 )
					Radius ( 15 )
				)
			)
		)
		Light (
			comment ( Dim reverse )
			Type ( 1 )
			Conditions (
				Headlight ( 4 )
				Unit ( 4 )
			)
			States ( 1
				State (
					Duration ( 0 )
					LightColour (  BFF9CD84 )
					Position ( 0.0 1.5 -11.8 )
					Azimuth ( 0 180 0 )
					Elevation ( 0 1.85 0 )
					Angle ( 20 )
					Transition ( 0 )
					Radius ( 15 )
				)
			)
		)
		Light (
			comment ( Dim reverse 2 )
			Type ( 1 )
			Conditions (
				Headlight ( 4 )
				Unit ( 1 )
			)
			States ( 1
				State (
					Duration ( 0 )
					LightColour (  BFF9CD84 )
					Position ( 0.0 1.5 -11.8 )
					Azimuth ( 0 180 0 )
					Elevation ( 0 1.85 0 )
					Angle ( 15 )
					Radius ( 15 )
				)
			)
		)


I came across it completely by accident. There are three entries where Type ( 1 ), see the code above. But I also have a version where four Type ( 1 ) entries are listed.

Sincerely, Laci1959.

#66 User is offline   ErickC 

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Posted 30 April 2024 - 02:52 AM

I suppose the multiple spheres of light question is the question of the decade, isn't it? :D

Anyway, I am experimenting with the new light code, and I am wondering if there is any way to treat an MU'd set of locomotives as a single unit. Specifically, I want the aft-most unit to activate its headlights when the reverser is moved to reverse. I also don't want unit position to be a factor because this only takes into account position in the train, not position in the consist, so whether or not the locomotive is coupled to the rest of the train shouldn't matter. In real life there is no functional distinction between units in a consist, they are considered a single locomotive and the headlight setup reflects this - so switching on the aft headlight will always light up whatever headlight is at the rear of the train, regardless of whether the unit is the last unit in a train or not.

While I'm not sure if this is possible with the current setup, the guidance above seems to indicate that we should at least be able to use the new conditions to light the aft headlight on the rearmost unit when appropriate, which is acceptable. I attempted to implement this, but no combination of reverser and unit status seems to work in terms of lighting the rearmost lights (flipped unit or no) when the reverser is in reverse. Here is the code I attempted to use:

		Light	(
			Comment ( Fore Cone Bright )
			Type		( 1 )
			Conditions	(
				Headlight ( 3 )
				Unit ( 2 )
				Reverser ( 5 )
				MU ( 2 )
				)
			Conditions	(
				Headlight ( 3 )
				Unit ( 4 )
				Reverser ( 2 )
				MU ( 2 )
				)
			Cycle		( 0 )
			FadeIn	( 0.5 )
			FadeOut	( 0.5 )
			States	(	1
				State	(
					Duration ( 0.0 )
					LightColour ( B0FFFFCA )
					Position ( 0.000 4.266 6.169 )
					Transition ( 0 )
					Radius ( 400.0 )
					Angle ( 45.0 )
					)
				)
			)
		Light	(
			Comment ( Aft Cone Bright )
			Type		( 1 )
			Conditions	(
				Headlight ( 3 )
				Unit ( 3 )
				Reverser ( 2 )
				MU ( 2 )
				)
			Conditions	(
				Headlight ( 3 )
				Unit ( 5 )
				Reverser ( 2 )
				MU ( 2 )
				)
			Cycle		( 0 )
			FadeIn	( 0.5 )
			FadeOut	( 0.5 )
			States	(	1
				State	(
					Duration ( 0.0 )
					LightColour ( B0FFFFCA )
					Position ( 0.000 3.967 -8.322 )
					Transition ( 0 )
					Azimuth ( -180.0, -180.0, -180.0 )
					Radius ( 400.0 )
					Angle ( 45.0 )
					)
				)
			)


If I am understanding correctly, then the following conditions should apply:

Fore headlight on when lead unit (2) of the train and reverser (5) is set to forward or neutral. Also active when flipped and last unit (4) of the train and reverser (2) is in reverse.

Aft headlight on when last unit (3) of the train and reverser (2) is set to reverse. Also active when lead unit (5), flipped, and reverser (2) set to reverse.

In either case, upon testing in-sim, the lights on the trailing unit will not light under any conditions, flipped or not, reverser in reverse or not. I think I am missing something, but I am not certain what I am missing - especially because I am not asking the sim to activate more than one sphere of light at a time.

#67 User is offline   pschlik 

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Posted 30 April 2024 - 08:22 AM

Only the player locomotive specifically will ever show a light cone, and as we all know even then it will only show one single light cone even if loads of them are theoretically active (it specifically seems to select the first active light cone found, so whatever's at the top of the list takes priority).

Honestly it would probably take more effort to allow other rail vehicles to have light cones but only if it's on the player train and only if the player locomotive doesn't have a light cone and only if nothing else wants to have a light cone...than to just allow lights everywhere. (Either a load of checks to try and catch every edge case to make sure that only one light turns on and it's the light you want to turn on...or just one check for 'does the user have the graphics settings turned up high enough for this light to turn on').

Not easy either way; a lot of the code assumes that each car should only have one light cone enabled and that only one light should exist anywhere.

#68 User is online   Weter 

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Posted 02 May 2024 - 10:39 AM

Hello.
Could MU () condition be improved further, please?
I mean, currently we have Coupling () condition, but there are 2-(3-) and even 4-sectioned locomotives, and, furthermore, some 2-cased or articulated ones.
All said cases are considered as a "train" now, but in reality, the light signals are being operated on such MU's as if that be a single locomotive.
Hence, Coupling () condition can't see distinction between MU-ed locomotive and such MU with or without a train, coupled to either end of it.
Meanwhile, what is called "class lights" in US practice, has different arrangement, depending on train's precence or absence.

Pardon for long and messy description of request, I'll try to think and improve it with time... or answer Your questions.
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