Cab mode: why is the interior a separate mesh?

[CRQ4125]

At least that's what I think the cab mode is, a separate mesh added to the interior attachment point used on the locomotive. This is the only part I feel where Railworks excels. It seems that the cab mode in Railworks is the control stand inside the locomotive. Doesn't really make sense unless you've played RW. I just wonder why Trainz isn't capable of something like this. Even with custom cabs, the colors are off because of something in the game I believe.

My point is this. Every reskinned sd40 in railworks has a "custom" cab because the cab is just the cab, not the entire engine as a mesh. Trainz, every paint job has to have a separate cab. Makes for a real pain in the a$$.

Thanks guys, this has been really bugging me.

 

[captainkman]

Apparently it's easier to make cabs like this, as they're a cut-diown version of the original loco. If you'd like to, have a look at the way my 1963 VW Beetle is set up. The interior is just an invisible survace with attachments. The exterior mesh has the interior in it as well. If only others copied that method. Then we'd have perfect cabs for every loco.

Kieran.

 

[ZecMurphy]

Hi CRQ4125
Part of the reason for making the interior view a separate asset is to ensure performance in-game. First is that it isn't necessary to see a fully detailed cab view when you are outside the locomotive, especially on a diesel. A steam loco can look good, but it's still a fairly large waste of resources that can be used elsewhere... On the flip side, you can also remove any unnecessary details from the locomotive body when in the cab view (e.g. a diesel doesn't need to have bogies, chassis, ends of the body, etc display in the cab view).

Second is to allow creators to use common/default cab views. Some locomotive designs have very little view of the exterior of the locomotive (if any at all!), and hence a 'generic' cab view can be quite suitable. It also means you don't have to create the custom cab view for your reskin until you are happy with it.

As to the interior lighting, at this stage all interiors use a default 'ambient' lighting, they do not currently have any directional lighting.

That said, a carefully designed locomotive and cab view can be setup to use the exterior locomotives body in the interior view, by adding the tag 'outside-visible-from-cabin 1' to the interior view's config.txt file. However, to do this properly would either mean you will have nothing apart from walls in the cab of the 'exterior' model (or some very careful modeling of control stands, and similar), or would require a script to turn specific parts off when in the cab view. However, livery specific details within the cab would still require a custom cab view...

Regards