[qballbandit]

Good day ExRail,

I run a WIN10 gaming machine, and I redownloaded and unzipped. There is no "saves" folder, and no .bin file to be found. It does have the ETCS/Weather/Web folders in Content.
Perplexing.

Neil

[singleman74]

Hey ExRail.....I have done everything I can think of but for some odd reason that version won't load. It gets to the load screen then it pops up an error saying there is a bad bug. Version 3.0 ran fine but 3.1 doesn't. I run Win 10. And Neil I noticed that the save folder is in the Weather folder

[ATW]

The Track Monitor crashes on my system but I can use the web server one on my loco screens.

[qballbandit]

I downloaded a 3rd time and unpacked, no change. I couldn't find a "Saves" folder anywhere.
Decided to create one in the weather folder, and now it loads and I can see the panel (F3). Now to figure out how to use it! :)

Neil

LMAO when I saw the plane flying overhead with contrails. Nice touch.
Very neat little utility, thank you again - really!

[Niknak]

I'm thinking maybe "An Idiots Guide To Installing and Using" might be useful. Especially to this idiot.... :unsure:

[ExRail]

qballbandit, on 01 May 2024 - 11:21 AM, said:

I downloaded a 3rd time and unpacked, no change. I couldn't find a "Saves" folder anywhere.
Decided to create one in the weather folder, and now it loads and I can see the panel (F3). Now to figure out how to use it! :)

Neil

Congratulations!

But the 3.1.zip file has a save folder in Content/Weather/Save if that is missing something must have gone wrong in the unzip.

I've just downloaded it on my Win10 developer PC, dragged the folder to the desktop and ran Menu.exe - if the 'Internet Block' is not removed Smart Defender will pop up.
Removing it and unpacking again made it work.



"Now to figure out how to use it! :)"

Now that it has become so simple to use, the 'manual' only has two pages.
http://exrail.dk/Fil...ExpansionV3.pdf

The buttons are also displayed in the F1 help window and in Menu.exe Option keyboard and in the manual in the zip.

Deleting a weather file makes the program create a new one on startup with default parameters - like Reset to factory settings.
the weather files should also be interchangeable besides Rain & Snow, so a command like C:\copy SummerClear.bin AutumnCloudy.bin should work.
but textures remain fixed to weathertype.

What else, the 3 Skydome texture must be the same size, Skydome_Sunrise sets the size for all 3.
Precipitation looks best if it's going against the general direction of travel -45° 0 +45°, the precipitation vectors works with Rad I think so 2*pi 6,28 is 360°,


Picture of the day:
This is not an external view of the train, I remember walking to that point after inspecting the building and checking out the area.
http://exrail.dk/Pictures/FPmode1.jpg

[csxt8142]

Is there anywhere to modify the keys? I'm on a gaming laptop that doesn't have dedicated number keypad. For me, Delete and Insert are on the same key (toggled via the Function key).

EDIT:
I found the option to modify the keys in the Keyboard Option tab within ORTS. Thank you!

[qballbandit]

The GUI is very easy to use.
Prior to using this, my normal routine was to pick a specific clouds01 and/or skydome1 file to create a sky that I wished to simulate. I believe the user copying/pasting clouds01 & skydome1 files into the Content folder has no input since your program runs based on the activity creation of clear/rain/snow and the season, referencing your weather folder,correct?

I know I will miss that "manual" customization, so may be switching back and forth using your version and a "vanilla" ORMG 143.

Keep up the great work - thanks again!

Neil

[Csantucci]

ExRail, what is the URL of your remote source code repository? Maybe I could start thinking about integrating your improvements into the "official" ORNYMG.

[FS.E652 091]

Csantucci, on 01 May 2024 - 01:07 PM, said:

ExRail, what is the URL of your remote source code repository? Maybe I could start thinking about integrating your improvements into the "official" ORNYMG.

Such a great idea, we need this to be in the official rev. of Monogame!

[Weter]

Quote

I believe the user copying/pasting clouds01 & skydome1 files into the Content folder has no input since your program runs based on the activity creation of clear/rain/snow and the season, referencing your weather folder,correct?

*.bat-files could be written to change things, shortcuts to them may be placed, wherever needed.

[ExRail]

qballbandit, on 01 May 2024 - 01:04 PM, said:

The GUI is very easy to use.
Prior to using this, my normal routine was to pick a specific clouds01 and/or skydome1 file to create a sky that I wished to simulate. I believe the user copying/pasting clouds01 & skydome1 files into the Content folder has no input since your program runs based on the activity creation of clear/rain/snow and the season, referencing your weather folder,correct?

I know I will miss that "manual" customization, so may be switching back and forth using your version and a "vanilla" ORMG 143.

Keep up the great work - thanks again!

Neil

"I will miss that "manual" customization"
I've just been doing Skydomes 5 minutes ago and was overwriting the one used in Few so I'm perplexed why not just overwrite the X_skydome and X_clouds in weather folder?
and use the F3 window to edit and match the colors.

The normal skydome should be seen as Skydome_Noon texture then you paint on top of that in east and west for sunrise and sunset and/or maybe dim the reversed side and save those as sunrise and sunset.
Copy the clouds01 into X_cloud1 to get the usual overcast and some others into 2 and 3 and adjust in weather editor.

[ExRail]

Csantucci, on 01 May 2024 - 01:07 PM, said:

ExRail, what is the URL of your remote source code repository? Maybe I could start thinking about integrating your improvements into the "official" ORNYMG.

I was thinking of upload it to my webpage when that time was in and has been clean up from my messing around, so the least number of files and lines show up as has been altered, and a merge will be as painless as possible.
I was planning to transfer it to a latest version of ORNYMG to do that cleaning up, but at current I'm still experimenting and I think I need more clear sky weathertypes before I do that,
so I don't have to mess with Clear & Few, since it's copy/paste as this point, and then using the editor to design them and transfer the number from the log to the hardcoded settings.

Thinking of the TODO I saw there in Weather.cs

// TODO: Add several other weather conditions, such as PartlyCloudy, LightRain,
// HeavySnow, etc. to the Options dialog as dropdown list boxes. Transfer user's
// selection to RunActivity and make appropriate adjustments to the weather here.

PartlyCloudy that one.
LightRain could also be one, with a small particle size it looks like dusty rain.
Classic Clear/Rain/snow using the usual Skydone and cloud01 texture and matching setting was also a consideration I've been doing.


The Precipitation system has got another 5 hours of attention, it's now locked to the trains traveling heading and not the camera, so looking left and right in 2D & 3D cab view will not effect the rain or snow,
and all views now render the same precipitation system just from different pov's without restarting, so quick view switch between internal and external is without interruptions and restarts.
Only con is drive-by view when train is heading away, but that's a small price to get it 100% for cab view, witch was my main focus.

[qballbandit]

Quote

I've just been doing Skydomes 5 minutes ago and was overwriting the one used in Few so I'm perplexed why not just overwrite the X_skydome and X_clouds in weather folder?
and use the F3 window to edit and match the colors.

The normal skydome should be seen as Skydome_Noon texture then you paint on top of that in east and west for sunrise and sunset and/or maybe dim the reversed side and save those as sunrise and sunset.
Copy the clouds01 into X_cloud1 to get the usual overcast and some others into 2 and 3 and adjust in weather editor.

Ok, thank you very much for this. I wasn't clear on the workings - but now I get it. This is fantastic!

Neil

[ExRail]

qballbandit, on 02 May 2024 - 09:02 PM, said:

"I've just been doing Skydomes 5 minutes ago and was overwriting the one used in Few so I'm perplexed why not just overwrite the X_skydome and X_clouds in weather folder?
and use the F3 window to edit and match the colors.

The normal skydome should be seen as Skydome_Noon texture then you paint on top of that in east and west for sunrise and sunset and/or maybe dim the reversed side and save those as sunrise and sunset.
Copy the clouds01 into X_cloud1 to get the usual overcast and some others into 2 and 3 and adjust in weather editor."

Ok, thank you very much for this. I wasn't clear on the workings - but now I get it. This is fantastic!
Neil

This version uses a Skydomes texture size of 256x256px and they are getting mixed every 240 frame(4sec@60Fps),
I've not tried with 4K textures but it should work, so watch out every 4th second for an impact if your start doing that(and all 3 skydomes must be of the same size.)

I found out my paint program worked best with upscaling them to 1024x1024 and then paint sunrise and sunset and downscale again to 256x256,
I could not see any difference from 1024x1024 to 256x256, the default ORNYMG uses a 512x512px texture.

---

I'm in the middle of trying to implementing a button for Reload of the Weathertype Textures in the Editor Window, so I don't have to start and stop RunActivity to see a change,
while painting. A function that would also be needed for debug weather change witch now only change between Clear, Rain & Snow but keep the texture for the weather type that was loaded to begin with.

And I just did PartlyCloudy. It was copy/paste but then 1 hour on debugging because I forgot for the third time to also increase a index number in the Menu.exe the one it uses in the command line for the weather type.