Hi all,
At first I have to say that I feel kind of uncomfortable with this post, and I would have preferred to sort that out by PM or mail. As - coming up not only with an issue but also with a suggestion how to solve it - to some people I will probably look like a know-it-all calling for attention or pretending to be better than JR. That's exactly not what I want, I just would like to see these Searchlights working in TS2010 the way they are supposed to do - as soon as possible.
In TS2010, whenever a Searchlight signal changes aspects while being out of the drawing-distance, it will show some wrong colored coronas when visible again (e.g. yellow corona on (correct) green lens!).
Actually, the mouseover tells the correct state, the lens shows the correct color, it's the corona only showing another color.
Searching the forums I couldn't find anything about this issue, so I'm not sure if this is known or not. If it's well known, then I'm sorry to waste anyone's time.
It's definitely not a problem of placing the signals, as in TS12 the Searchlights behave perfectly well.
Also, using the Safetran signals in TS2010, all works fine.
To keep things as simple as possible, let's take the following example using exclusively "05"-type signals:
- A single track of line, signaled one-way only, divided into several blocks, each block protected by a "05".
- The length of a block resp. the distance between each signal exceeds our maximum draw distance set in the options.
- There is a sufficient number of free blocks in front of us to give us a "clear" at each signal we pass in this example.
So, starting in front of our first signal (#1), all of the following ones are still out of drawing distance, but at the moment they are supposed to show: #2 green, #3 flashing yellow, #4 yellow, #5ff. red.
Now approaching these signals they should of course show green, but they will still show a corona of the same color they had when starting:
#2 will show a green corona on a green lens (which of course is correct in this case)
#3 will show a yellow corona on a green lens.
#4 will show a yellow corona on a green lens.
#5 will show a red corona on green lens etc.
Approaching #3 with the SD45 (the SD40 on the left is only here to show how the green corona should look like):
Thanks to the distance multiplier effect the yellow corona is very obvious from this far.
Somewhat nearer, the green of the lens begins to fade in, but it's still some rather yellowish green...
Yellow corona on a green lens and the mouseover telling me "clear"!
Now, this issue giving me some serious headache last weekend, I couldn't do anything other than looking into it... so I figured out that the Safetran do not cause any trouble because they have LOD (It looks like it has something to do with attachments containing an attachment point - for some strange reason this works for parent-meshes equipped with LOD, but it doesn't for those without). However, adding LOD to the Searchlight's parent-meshes would fix the problem very easily!
Don't get me wrong... these are great signals with great features, so it's just a pity to have these signals looking really great, but not doing correctly what they are supposed to do!
Kind regards,
Felix
Some information about the versions installed:
TS2010: Build 49933
Jointed Rail Smart Signal library v1.51: <kuid2:45324:555100:4>
Searchlight Signal 04: <kuid2:45324:24300:2>
Searchlight Signal 05: <kuid2:45324:24303:2>
Searchlight Signal 06-LD: <kuid2:45324:24301:2>
Searchlight Signal 06-RD: <kuid2:45324:24305:2> etc.
At first I have to say that I feel kind of uncomfortable with this post, and I would have preferred to sort that out by PM or mail. As - coming up not only with an issue but also with a suggestion how to solve it - to some people I will probably look like a know-it-all calling for attention or pretending to be better than JR. That's exactly not what I want, I just would like to see these Searchlights working in TS2010 the way they are supposed to do - as soon as possible.
In TS2010, whenever a Searchlight signal changes aspects while being out of the drawing-distance, it will show some wrong colored coronas when visible again (e.g. yellow corona on (correct) green lens!).
Actually, the mouseover tells the correct state, the lens shows the correct color, it's the corona only showing another color.
Searching the forums I couldn't find anything about this issue, so I'm not sure if this is known or not. If it's well known, then I'm sorry to waste anyone's time.
It's definitely not a problem of placing the signals, as in TS12 the Searchlights behave perfectly well.
Also, using the Safetran signals in TS2010, all works fine.
To keep things as simple as possible, let's take the following example using exclusively "05"-type signals:
- A single track of line, signaled one-way only, divided into several blocks, each block protected by a "05".
- The length of a block resp. the distance between each signal exceeds our maximum draw distance set in the options.
- There is a sufficient number of free blocks in front of us to give us a "clear" at each signal we pass in this example.
So, starting in front of our first signal (#1), all of the following ones are still out of drawing distance, but at the moment they are supposed to show: #2 green, #3 flashing yellow, #4 yellow, #5ff. red.
Now approaching these signals they should of course show green, but they will still show a corona of the same color they had when starting:
#2 will show a green corona on a green lens (which of course is correct in this case)
#3 will show a yellow corona on a green lens.
#4 will show a yellow corona on a green lens.
#5 will show a red corona on green lens etc.
Approaching #3 with the SD45 (the SD40 on the left is only here to show how the green corona should look like):
Thanks to the distance multiplier effect the yellow corona is very obvious from this far.
Somewhat nearer, the green of the lens begins to fade in, but it's still some rather yellowish green...
Yellow corona on a green lens and the mouseover telling me "clear"!
Now, this issue giving me some serious headache last weekend, I couldn't do anything other than looking into it... so I figured out that the Safetran do not cause any trouble because they have LOD (It looks like it has something to do with attachments containing an attachment point - for some strange reason this works for parent-meshes equipped with LOD, but it doesn't for those without). However, adding LOD to the Searchlight's parent-meshes would fix the problem very easily!
Don't get me wrong... these are great signals with great features, so it's just a pity to have these signals looking really great, but not doing correctly what they are supposed to do!
Kind regards,
Felix
Some information about the versions installed:
TS2010: Build 49933
Jointed Rail Smart Signal library v1.51: <kuid2:45324:555100:4>
Searchlight Signal 04: <kuid2:45324:24300:2>
Searchlight Signal 05: <kuid2:45324:24303:2>
Searchlight Signal 06-LD: <kuid2:45324:24301:2>
Searchlight Signal 06-RD: <kuid2:45324:24305:2> etc.
