Environmental Settings

[BlackDiamond1964]

Here is a problem I came across yesterday. Note how the distant mountains looks. They seem to be much brighter then the middle of the viewing field. It looks as if there is a big cloud blocking the sun in the middle of the picture. I took a look at the environmental settings and did some testing. I see I can change the colors and hues of many things, but that big dark cloud remains no matter what I adjust. Is that just the way TRS2019 renders the scene, or are there other settings I can adjust?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Is the foreground a groundtexture or a planar object sitting just above the ground? And are the distant hills a background object or painted baseboard hills?


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[BlackDiamond1964]

Is the foreground a groundtexture or a planar object sitting just above the ground?

I'm not really sure. I do know that the map was made from the Tranzdem program.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

I believe it's all ground textures produced by the Tranzdem program.

added note: I also reset all the environmental settings but did nothing to the scene.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Just asking those questions because I think Trainz illuminates groundtextures differently to 3D objects even if they are both based on the same texture image. When creating some piles of ballast and groundtextures to go with them, I found it very difficult (= impossible) to get their brightness to match at all times of day. So I was wondering if your problem was due to such mismatches between objects and groundtextures. Unless you really know what kinds they are, it’s hard to test that proposition.

An afterthought; have you tried changing the time of day? Sun position has major effects on illumination of the scene.

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[BlackDiamond1964]

An afterthought; have you tried changing the time of day? Sun position has major effects on illumination of the scene.

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I cycled through the time to see what would happen. From 6 am to 3 pm that shadow remains in place. From 4 pm to night fall the shadow is gone. What is picture above is high noon.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Well, maybe that groundtexture, or whatever it is, needs its image to be brightened. Do you see a similar “shadow” with other groundtextures, or just with those that Trainzdem used to paint the scene? You can tell I don’t know the answer, but just exploring possibilities by asking questions that might point to an answer. You could be doing similar investigation.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

Well, maybe that groundtexture, or whatever it is, needs its image to be brightened. Do you see a similar “shadow” with other groundtextures, or just with those that Transdem used to paint the scene?

I'm just getting started so I haven't used any other textures as of yet.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

I'm starting to think it does have something to do with the textures. I noticed when I splashed other textures on the ground they where awfully bright. Maybe the guy who made Tranzdem knows about this. I know that I used the older version...can't remember the number.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

Here is another project I was working on. This is high noon on this map and the shadow is nowhere to be found.

 

[grazlash]

It's the transdem textures. If you rotate your view fron above, the dark patch moves. I find it useful for spotting small patches of painted texture I may have missed, by rotating while viewing at an angle of about 45 degrees.

 

[MP242]

When you freeroam over to the bright line on the distant hills, does the dark cloud effect follow you and darken the distant hills, or is there a distinct brighter color line when you approach the hills ?

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

When you freeroam over to the bright line on the distant hills, does the dark cloud effect follow you and darken the distant hills, or is there a distinct brighter color line when you approach the hills ?

The shadow seems to follow the camera.

 

[MP242]

I really hate when one side of a train has 200' long dark shadows, so I set my World Origin to be all 0.00 numerals, the location of Null Island Bouy off the coast of East Africa, where the sun shines straight down, and it is 115 F all year long, and both sides of my train had very little shadows, it is easily resetable. I have experimented with all aspects of environmental settings, including clicking on the top, middle, and bottom of the main box (sky, middle, ground) box, making 3 settings in that box.

 

[grazlash]

I really hate when one side of a train has 200' long dark shadows, so I set my World Origin to be all 0.00 numerals, the location of Null Island Bouy off the coast of East Africa, where the sun shines straight down, and it is 115 F all year long, and both sides of my train had very little shadows, it is easily resetable. I have experimented with all aspects of environmental settings, including clicking on the top, middle, and bottom of the main box (sky, middle, ground) box, making 3 settings in that box.

Yep, it has SO nothing to do with that. It has everthing to do with how the lighting reacts to the transdem textures. The effect is limited on a fully painted surface, but still noticable in the distance.