Any way to turn off Sun ground reflection

OverlordNZ

Grumpy Old Bastar*
Any way to turn off the annoying sun reflection on textures (when the sun is overhead while viewing/running a route) in Trainz 2010EE - TANE.
Both in Surveyor and while running the map in Driver...

(running custom textures with Glossiness and reflections off with no environment map, but still get reflections. Using 3DS Max 2011 and Trainz Exporter)
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Sounds like the same problem I posted earlier. For me the textures work correctly up close (no gloss/reflection), but start to reflect further from the viewing point (a kilometer or more away). I did an test using only the default Trainz grid texture and it also starts reflecting light the same way further away so it looks like a problem with the program and not with the texture assets.
 
Sounds like the same problem I posted earlier. For me the textures work correctly up close (no gloss/reflection), but start to reflect further from the viewing point (a kilometer or more away). I did an test using only the default Trainz grid texture and it also starts reflecting light the same way further away so it looks like a problem with the program and not with the texture assets.

Thanks for the reply..

Funny thing is that a model I made a long time ago in 3DS Max 5 (was for Trainz 2004 and 2006 and since adapted for 2009+) does not reflect, although it is a black model. I guess the devs never look at these forums. Would be nice to know if its a program problem for sure. Cheers
 
This may not help, but you can try: Eliminate the fog feature. I found that if you do this, images are clear, here and at distance. T:ANE graphics are better than anything we had before, still I and others in the forum have complained of excessive brightness or white whashouts.
 
This is actually caused by how the original textures were created. From what I was told, and I probably have this mixed up, it has to do with specular values which get turned on by default. This causes the bright highlights to be extra contrasty-bright. On the textures I looked at that didn't have this, there was an alpha channel added. The alpha channel is the same as the main texture.

Hope this helps...it's worth experimenting with, I think.

John
 
John,

The image below shows what the issue is for me. The textures on that hillside have alpha channels to eliminate any specularity, however as you can see the textures exhibit specularity, but only beyond a certain point (that hillside is mostly green). Closer than that point the alpha channel works and the textures are dull and earthy. I don't think this is something we can fix.
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I agree and doubt too that can be repaired. This may too have something to do with the sun-color and intensity as well and in addition to the fog. You might want to try playing with the distance fog and see if that helps.

The other game I use, Cities:Skylines has the same issues since the developer added in their After Dark and more recently rain. The lighting has changed substantially and has become a circle-jerk for the developer and content creators as the lighting is adjusted. An adjustment up in brightness causes glare, while an adjustment the other way causes mud.

There are probably other things you can try as well including the post processing, which is real-time and not saved unfortunately with the session data at this time.

John
 
My only problem is when you rotate the camera and the 'sun' is overhead of the texture, thats when it gets whited out and only then, If the sun is not overhead its just fine. I don't have any 'fog' turned on so thats not it. You can get rid if it in partial darkness but the you cant see much when working on the route.
 
I tried to log in to the Support page to report this as a bug, but it does not accept my username and password. How do I contact them to tell them that I can't contact them?
 
I tried to log in to the Support page to report this as a bug, but it does not accept my username and password. How do I contact them to tell them that I can't contact them?

Does Content Manager login? If so you should check you login and password there.
I guess request a lost password. Pretty sure they only accept email from Planet Auran logins...
 
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Ticket submitted. Tried my password again today and this time it liked it. Today I measured how far away the point is at which the textures start to reflect. Came out to almost exactly 3000 metres. Does that sound similar to what you are seeing OverlordNZ or are you seeing something different?
 
Ticket submitted. Tried my password again today and this time it liked it. Today I measured how far away the point is at which the textures start to reflect. Came out to almost exactly 3000 metres. Does that sound similar to what you are seeing OverlordNZ or are you seeing something different?

My only problem is when you rotate the camera and the 'sun' is overhead of the texture, thats when it gets whited out and only then, If the sun is not overhead its just fine. I don't have any 'fog' turned on so thats not it. You can get rid if it in partial darkness but the you cant see much when working on the route.​
 
This is really weird. I extracted a small part of the route using TransDEM using first 10m terrain and then 5m terrain. The 10m terrain reflected sunlight in the distance, but the 5m terrain did not. So I changed one baseboard on the 10m terrain route to 5m and this is the result. The 5m baseboard doesn't reflect, but the colour of the adjacent baseboards became darker.
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The texture mapping gets messed up badly if you change the grid size on baseboards that are already textured. I found this out the hard way when this feature was added! The reason is the textures are mapped to the coordinates on the baseboard and the reference point is now changed when the grid is doubled in resolution.

I recommend trying your experiment again but starting with a 5 meter grid and compare that to a 10 meter grid. You will notice that the textures are bit courser with a 10 meter grid.

For the sun angle issue, I recommend playing with the post processing effects and see what that does for your scene.

John
 
Guess no one knows about these 'Post Processing Effects' in TRS2010, why mention it then...

There is no such thing in TS2010, but in T:ANE there is that option to tweak light shafts, fog effects, lighting depth and all that other cinematic stuff which makes the Trainz world look a whole lot different.

Sorry for not replying right away. I've been busy watching live severe storm chases broadcast by Daniel Shaw.

John
 
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