a.smoke animation issue in Blender?

[Len12]

I'm doing a route - Venice. I have an a.smoke animation. See below. The Cruise ship is animated - one mesh. In Blender I have made a.smoke the child of the ship mesh which in turn is the child of the lattice b.r.ship which is animated which in turn is child of the parent b.r.main which is not animated. As you can see the a.smoke doesn't want to go on a ship cruise:hehe:. It prefers to stay at the port. When playing the animation in Blender it goes with the ship as it should. When placed in Trainz though it behaves as noted below. I have made a.smoke the child of the animated lattice b.r.ship but then in Blender it clearly stays as the ship leaves. Any solutions?

 

[johnwhelan]

There are some oddities about animated parts in Trainz, normal mapping is one this maybe another. Have a dig in the wiki?

Step one would be take it off the animation and see what happens.

Cheerio John

 

[Len12]

There are some oddities about animated parts in Trainz, normal mapping is one this maybe another. Have a dig in the wiki?

Step one would be take it off the animation and see what happens.

Cheerio John

Hey John. I made it a child of the boat mesh. It should do whatever the boat mesh does but doesn't. In Blender it does however, following the boat mesh as it should. That's the perplexing thing about it.

 

[narrowgauge]

Len

A rather obvious question. What do you need to get by animating your smoke? Is it not possible to use a smoke attachment and let Trainz make the smoke? The inbuilt smoke system is quite flexible and can be made to do most things.

If you really must use an attachment, look up the instructions for the transfer table. There is a specific way of referring to attachments on moving items, if I could remember them I would post them here, no doubt someone will post.

Peter

 

[Len12]

Len

A rather obvious question. What do you need to get by animating your smoke? Is it not possible to use a smoke attachment and let Trainz make the smoke? The inbuilt smoke system is quite flexible and can be made to do most things.

If you really must use an attachment, look up the instructions for the transfer table. There is a specific way of referring to attachments on moving items, if I could remember them I would post them here, no doubt someone will post.

Peter

That is a smoke attachment and Trainz is making the smoke. Problem is that it is not following the moving ship even though it's attached to the ship. It continues to billow smoke even though the ship now leaves. Now maybe the instruction is the problem:

attachment "a.smoke"
mode "timeofday"
color 150,150,150,250
accel 1,0.3,0
start 0.25
period 0.75
rate 8
velocity 3
lifetime 5
minsize 0.5
maxsize 2

 

[PEV]

Check out the naming conventions for animated attachment points in the Trainz Wiki page on the transfer table.

 

[narrowgauge]

My original comment was a bit off track then. You are using the usual smoke system which is not following the main mesh. Is your wording in the config correct? The smoke command has to be in a smoke container as:-

smoke 0
{
attachment "a.smoke"
mode "timeofday"
color 150,150,150,250
accel 1,0.3,0
start 0.25
period 0.75
rate 8
velocity 3
lifetime 5
minsize 0.5
maxsize 2
}

Apart from that I can only suggest that it is a Blender problem, unlikely as others are making locos with steam effects. I have never had this happen to any of my traincars or locos made in Gmax.

Peter

 

[Len12]

My original comment was a bit off track then. You are using the usual smoke system which is not following the main mesh. Is your wording in the config correct? The smoke command has to be in a smoke container as:-

smoke 0
{
attachment "a.smoke"
mode "timeofday"
color 150,150,150,250
accel 1,0.3,0
start 0.25
period 0.75
rate 8
velocity 3
lifetime 5
minsize 0.5
maxsize 2
}

Apart from that I can only suggest that it is a Blender problem, unlikely as others are making locos with steam effects. I have never had this happen to any of my traincars or locos made in Gmax.

Peter

Yep Smoke0 is in there. I've tried this animation before with an attachment and it always stays behind and doesn't follow the mesh although in Blender it follows properly the animated object. It just is that when it's in Trainz the smoke itself stays behind.

 

[PEV]

For attachment points to move in animations you need to follow the correct naming conventions.. Refer my previous post.

 

[Len12]

For attachment points to move in animations you need to follow the correct naming conventions.. Refer my previous post.

Ok I'll check it out.

 

[narrowgauge]

Len

Is your smoke attachment linked to something that itself is animated and attached to the main mesh, or is it attached directly to the main mesh?

If it is the first case, then you will need the correct naming as Pev says, however if your smoke attachment is just like a smoke attachment for a locomotive or a building then it should be specified in the main config using the format I posted.

One thing that may interest you is that smoke attachments can be 'overloaded' which means the same attachment can be referenced in more than one smoke block. I suggest that in your case you use a speed related format as your vessel will move and as it does the smoke rate will change from a standby engine while moored to increasing smoke volume with increasing speed.

Peter

 

[Len12]

Ok Peter thanks for that. The smoke is attached to the mesh which is the child of the b.r.ship the latter of course is animated not the mesh itself as per convention though of course the mesh follows the lattice animation.

I haven't checked PEV's reference yet which I will.

 

[narrowgauge]

Len

I think you are working this the wrong way.

Firstly, your vessel should be created in the same way as a traincar with a.bog0 and a.bog1 attachment points equidistant from the centre, and a.smoke where the funnel is. You then set it up using invisible bogies <kuid:-10:149> no need for b.r.ship, b.r.?? normally relates to a bogie which does not need attachments and need not be used in this case.

A hint, a ship steers from the aft end and the hull pivots around a point about one thrird back from the bow. Position your hull mesh according ly, ie, not centred on the 0,0

Peter

 

[Len12]

Len

I think you are working this the wrong way.

Firstly, your vessel should be created in the same way as a traincar with a.bog0 and a.bog1 attachment points equidistant from the centre, and a.smoke where the funnel is. You then set it up using invisible bogies <kuid:-10:149> no need for b.r.ship, b.r.?? normally relates to a bogie which does not need attachments and need not be used in this case.

A hint, a ship steers from the aft end and the hull pivots around a point about one thrird back from the bow. Position your hull mesh according ly, ie, not centred on the 0,0

Peter

I've never created traincars or trains. All the animated objects I've created have been simply animated scenery objects using keyframes - heavy equipment, boats, cranes, walking people, etc. - so the b.r. naming conventions I've been using. In this case a simple b.r. ship and b.r. main. Setting up invisible bogies seems a rather cumbersome way to deal with this issue. Do I take this to mean that the ships movement would be controlled by laying invisible track?

 

[bnsf50]

Do I take this to mean that the ships movement would be controlled by laying invisible track?

Yes, set the ship on the invisible track and drive it like an engine, either yourself or by ai.

 

[Len12]

Yes, set the ship on the invisible track and drive it like an engine, either yourself or by ai.

Ok first problem. The name is showing up in the engines area but when I lay a track and place it nothing is visible. No errors in CM just the warnings:
"Warning: An asset must be specified for tag 'enginespec'.
Warning: This asset requires a shadow mesh, but the mesh table does not contain one."

Config file is:


kuid <kuid:452104:100158>
username "Shipcarx"
trainz-build 3.4
category-class "AE"
kind "traincar"
engine 0
enginespec <NULL>
mass 37000

mesh-table
{
default
{
mesh "Shipcarx.im"
auto-create 1
}
}

thumbnails
{
0
{
image "venicepic.jpg"
width 240
height 180
}
}

bogeys
{
0
{
reversed 1
bogey <kuid:-10:149>
}

1
{
reversed 1
bogey <kuid:-10:149>
}
}

smoke0
{
attachment "a.smoke"
mode "timeofday"
color 150,150,150,250
accel 1,0.3,0
start 0.25
period 0.75
rate 8
velocity 3
lifetime 5
minsize 0.5
maxsize 2
}

 

[whitepass]

enginespec <NULL>

You can not use <NULL> it has to have a kuid number there.

 

[Len12]

enginespec <NULL>

You can not use <NULL> it has to have a kuid number there.

Ok thanks Peter. Showing up nicely now. Only problem is I think I'm putting the a.bog0 and a.bog1 in the wrong place on the mesh. I'm getting an immediate derailment.

 

[bnsf50]

Make sure the ship is running on the Y axis that would be up and down in the top view. then make sure you have starting from the bottom a.limfront, a.bog0, a.bog1, a.limback

 

[Len12]

Make sure the ship is running on the Y axis that would be up and down in the top view. then make sure you have starting from the bottom a.limfront, a.bog0, a.bog1, a.limback

All's good now. Thanks Peter. For sure this is much better than animating using keyframes - at least for objects such as ships, planes and such.