Pure Black Shadows?

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boleyd

Well-known member
The shadows from N3V are pure black. The last time I saw such total shadows was from the astronauts on the moon. Is there a way to modify the intensity of the shadows?
 
Well, shadows can be pretty near pure black in direct sun, depending on viewing distance, angle and camera settings, https://www.railpictures.net/photo/843717/

Although on hazier days, while up close and personal, https://www.railpictures.net/photo/843721/

💡Hey, there's what the program needs! A gigabyte of new code varying shadow intensity by time of day and interacting with the sky effects type code to vary shadow intensity by cloud cover percentage moment by moment ...
 
boleyd said:
The shadows from N3V are pure black.
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If they were pure black then you would not be able to see any colours (or objects for that matter) in the areas covered by the shadows. I have never seen or experienced such a situation myself.

You are the only other poster that I could find reporting this or a similar issue (shadow-density back in July 2021).
 
McFly888 said:
I think, every one of us have seen this effect in tunnels with lights off.
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Yes, deep underground where sunlight shadows do not exist I have experienced that but I was actually referring to scenes in Trainz (but I didn't state it). In any case no monitors (so far) will give a pure black but the advertised claim is usually "deeper or darker" blacks.
 
The way to reduce the shadow blackness is to adjust the Sun colour at each clock position in the Environmental settings. I forget which way it should go, darker or lighter, but try it. In TRS19 and above there is also a general brightness slider thing and you should fiddle with that too and see if it affects shadows.
 
I apologize for the use of the word PURE. I have lots of trees here and I never see a "strong" black" . Latitude somewhere around 42 degrees N. I usually use 10am as my lighting time in Trainz. IT AIN'T A BIGGIE! This could go on forever arguing dispersed and refracted lighting. So, as a general matter I find the Trainz lighting and its variables quite satisfying.
 
@boleyd - We've discussed this before... The better your understanding and knowledge of how the Lighting and Environment Settings dialog works, the better - and more realistic - your shadows (and atmospherics) will become.
It is indeed a combination of Trainz performance settings elements, such as shadows detail and quality, plus the Environmental Settings application of judicious AMBIENT lighting and DIRECT lighting dials.
For more natural shadows, bump up the ambient ("Ambient color preview' pane) RGB dial levels (at appropriate times-slots throughout the day) and decrease the direct lighting ('Sun color preview') RGB dial levels. I typically set mine to a darkish, uniform grey colour, except for dawn and dusk time slots, where I apply a little colour. (Move the adjacent brightness slider to suit the level of overall brightness desired/ appropriate for that time of day).
Best results are possible only at the highest Shadow quality and performance settings, combined with careful choice of ambient light settings on the Diurnal clock.
env_set.jpg
 
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I made those adjustments slowly, with reference to several scenes, and I have a very satisfactory graphic display of "mother nature" and the trains..... Performance is not an issue at highest settings - all max.. TS2022 standard.
 
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This is a reminder about how important the settings are on the Diurnal clock as it can make a big difference to the in-game lighting (and difference between realistic and cartoonish). So it's a shame that the basics of this user-interface haven't been updated in 20 years. It would be useful if we had numeric controls for the RGB settings and brightness slider and then these could be recorded and shared across the community.

Paul
 
Making numerical values instead of sliders may not work since you also work with display settings and characteristics. The ultimate values to you may not jive with others views. But, the other side of the coin is they are at least a starting point. N3V has the numbers. Reduce them to decimals and display.
As I mentioned, it is possible to get a presentation that is very good with the sliders.
 
boleyd said:
Making numerical values instead of sliders may not work since you also work with display settings and characteristics. The ultimate values to you may not jive with others views. But, the other side of the coin is they are at least a starting point. N3V has the numbers. Reduce them to decimals and display.
As I mentioned, it is possible to get a presentation that is very good with the sliders.
Click to expand...
The numeric values would be an easier way to find a baseline instead of the magical It's about There-method. Numeric values too would allow us to remember what we used route to route if we happen to like the lighting for a particular time of day. What would help too is a real clock with both the hour and minute hands and a much easier way to adjust the time.

We've had the same setup since the beginning of time except for new things bolted such as the calendar and ambient light adjustment that came about in TS2010 and T: ANE respectively.
 
Dinorius_Redundicus said:
I think a single “shadow opacity” setting would be better than trying to manipulate R, G and B values at every marked position on that infernal clock.
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An optional lock could be used to allow all the sliders to work together as is done in some display control panels such as the NVidia Control Panel.
 
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