[Genma Saotome]

The question of "Is shape viewer obsolete?", well, IMO the answer is Yes. It was designed to view cars and locomotives. It does not do a great job on large buildings. It is also limited to a view distance of around 300m, far too short if you are using longer LOD values -- and with extended view distances longer LOD's farther than 300m are been assigned.

It sure would be nice if someone would step up to the plate and hit a homerun with a new viewer.

[steved]

Couldn't live without it.

Randy

[BB22210]

Genma Saotome, on 19 June 2023 - 11:03 AM, said:

The question of "Is shape viewer obsolete?", well, IMO the answer is Yes. It was designed to view cars and locomotives. It does not do a great job on large buildings. It is also limited to a view distance of around 300m, far too short if you are using longer LOD values -- and with extended view distances longer LOD's farther than 300m are been assigned.

It sure would be nice if someone would step up to the plate and hit a homerun with a new viewer.

for objects creator it is a blockling point :(

[eric from trainsim]

As an object creator, I've never relied on SV for my objects.

Where I've used it is browsing other people's scenery objects, and I rarely used other people's objects once I figured out Sketchup and GMax.

[Genma Saotome]

eolesen, on 19 June 2023 - 03:27 PM, said:

As an object creator....

....I rarely used other people's objects once I figured out Sketchup and GMax.

Same here. The only time I use it now is to see how much I've culled by use of LOD's. I will stop at 1000m -- about 8 inches wide on a 2k monitor. I've thought of going further -- both of the routes I work on have near distance terrain out to 10km -- but I already have too much on my plate to take the time, especially when you consider a 4k monitor will still have visible on an 8 inch object at 1000m (IOW it will wink out when the LOD takes it). One reason why I think OR should have a default LOD resolution in the .sd file and adjust the distance value up or down depending on what the monitor is showing (e.g, my LOD's were created for a 2k monitor. If I had LODResolution ( 2k ) in the .sd file and the monitor was displaying 4k then the loader would update the distance value so an original 1000m would now be 2000m).

[ebnertra000]

Mostly what I use SV for is making sure I didn't mess up a shape I'd just made. One I do wish is that the SubObjectID counter in the Hierarchy window would go past 4. That's only an issue for signals, but that's a large proportion of what I make

[BB22210]

Shapeviewer tested successfully on a non-patched Win10 PC, thanks you Microsoft !!!

[ckawahara]

Obsolete...not for me. I create static models for others, so it's a very useful tool to verify that the file I prepare to send to the route builder contains all the required texture and model files.

[Jovet]

I've thought for years about trying to ask for the source code to Shape Viewer so I could spruce up its UI, make it easier to use, and fix some probable bugs. But I never have asked.