Pure Black Shadows?

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

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.

Holding down the Shift key equalizes the RGB dials and makes them all change in sync. Is that what you meant by an optional lock? If so, then that still needs to be done for each editing position around the diurnal clock, so at best is a clumsy, indirect way of changing the strength of the shadows. A dedicated control called shadow opacity would be much easier to understand and use in my view.

 

[JCitron]

Holding down the Shift key equalizes the RGB dials and makes them all change in sync. Is that what you meant by an optional lock? If so, then that still needs to be done for each editing position around the diurnal clock, so at best is a clumsy, indirect way of changing the strength of the shadows. A dedicated control called shadow opacity would be much easier to understand and use in my view.

Yeah, that is a bit clumsy. I agree. A dedicated control would be much easier.

The alternative would be a graduated curve or slope. Set the dimmest light for morning and night and let the program set the curve in between over time. The same curve can be optionally connected to fog. Where I live, we have foggy mornings many times during the year followed by bright sunny days slowly fogging over towards evening. This is common in the spring and fall mostly but does occur during what we call the dog days of summer where the heat and humidity are at its max.

 

[Paulsw2]

It's a good question as to why this part of the UI hasn't changed since 'Trainz Primordial' bearing in mind how important it is to the lighting of the game and therefore how realistic it looks. This environmental UI is still based on a cartoon version of the game. Nor does it incorporate post-processing settings, which are also critical. A complete re-design of environmental and lighting settings are long overdue!

Paul

 

[davemare]

Appreciate this post and info. Shadows have been annoying me as I operate in the winter on a grey cloudy day with snow squalls. the shadows really looked bad on my video capture.

The RGB changes worked well. However I couldn't increase my shadow quality above medium without impacting video driver performance. I am due for a new graphic card, however trying to get the last ounce out of this one.

 

[davemare]

So as a follow up, I have just posted a video of the Spokane Falls and Northern in Northport WA in 1902 in January.
Adjusted the RGB and sunlight and fog to get as cold and dreary as possible.

My only wish is that I could have 3D snow so I could have trains running through snow banks, guess I can dream.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I can`t help but think that there ought to be a way. Of course a 3d-modeler could create snowbank objects and splines, but you might consider sculpting the snow right into your baseboard terrain. Of course that last option will not work if you want the snow to be seasonal. Just some ideas.

 

[boleyd]

Has anyone found a method of eliminating the under the track ballast, black areas? I can erase them but the process seems to vary and there are quite a few under-track black areas on my route..

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Has anyone found a method of eliminating the under the track ballast, black areas? I can erase them but the process seems to vary and there are quite a few under-track black areas on my route..

There is a config tag called “does-cast-shadows” which can have a value of 0 for no shadows, or 1 for shadows. This tag is added into the mesh-table, one tag for each mesh. From memory, it was introduced at trainz-build 4.3, so can be applied to mesh-based assets of build 4.3 or greater.

You could use that tag to disable shadows cast by the track used on your route. This solution would only apply to your local copy of the route unless you can convince the creator of the track to update it with shadows disabled.

 

[Forester1]

Are you meaning when the track is laid there are shadows where the track is not quite touching the ground due to low sposts? I am trying to work that out with a dual track layout right now. Fixing one track tends to put the other track under ground and vice versa. I am trying to come up with a combination of adjusting node heights and smoothing splines that will leave me both tracks above ground and without shadows, but it is proving to be very allusive.

 

[JCitron]

Are you meaning when the track is laid there are shadows where the track is not quite touching the ground due to low sposts? I am trying to work that out with a dual track layout right now. Fixing one track tends to put the other track under ground and vice versa. I am trying to come up with a combination of adjusting node heights and smoothing splines that will leave me both tracks above ground and without shadows, but it is proving to be very allusive.

Make sure the nodes are at the same height to start with. Sometimes you have to straighten the track to pull the track up and out of the ground in those places. It doesn't make sense but that works. You may have to add more nodes and also lock those.

To add insult to injury, PBR textures will drive you crazy unless you use "Basic" Shader Quality. With PBR textures, you need to spread them further out than the older 2d textures to fill in the space under the tracks. Don't mix the two, otherwise it's the equivalent of putting oil on water.