Tracking cameras
- Thread starter tmunn
- Start date
tonyhallam
New member
You will need to switch to the tracking camera view in driver by clicking on the camera icon in the view section
Placing the cameras can be tricky, they have a fairly short range so you can't just plonk them down anywhere. There is a camera placement tool by martinvk on the DLS here which will help. Place the guide in Surveyor, move it around till it covers the area you want in the camera view, then place a camera right over the blue cross in the guide's centre. Delete the guide and you should be in business. If you want a series of cameras covering a length of track place as many guides as necessary with a slight overlap...
Andy
Andy
Last edited:
A NOTE on using Tracking Camera Views :
In most situations . . . they are very cool.
BUT . . . if you have a very complex route like I have (average FPS 13 to 20), when using the Tracking Camera, you pay a price in FPS performance. Much depends on the location of the route and the amount of distant objects in the camera's view. I experience about 30% to 60% in FPS performance.
Drop in 30% performance is no big deal on routes where your average fps rate is 30 and above. You might not even notice the drop in FPS.
In my case, specially in areas of intense number of 3D objects, if the average is already down to 10 FPS in "EXTERNAL" or "CAB" view, the additional drop in performance of 60% becomes unusable. I have had to remove many of my "Tracking Cameras" in these intense areas.
In intense areas, switching to the camera view takes quite a calculation and some time to calculate. Therefore the first few moments after switching, the display may look frozen, then a few frames of stutter, then jittery display due to the low FPS.
Unfortunately, 3D scene calculation is the same even if most of it is hidden behind a mountain. You will also notice the change in FPS as the direction of view changes.
I have an area with a sweeping 120 degree turn. All the intense 3D areas are totally hidden behind hills. The visible area is just textures and moderate amount of trees. When the train enters the curve, the intense 3D area is just out of the "draw distance" and the FPS is at 24. As the train progress on the curve and gets closer to the hidden intense 3D area AND the direction of view start to point towards the intense area, the FPS performance drops dramatically. As the train exits the curve, the FPS drops to 7. All of this happens without much change in 3D intensity of the "visible" area. If there was a tracking camera at the end of this curve (like I use to have), the FPS drops to 3 or 4.
Drive around with your eye on the FPS. Avoid placing tracking camera where the FPS is lower than usual.
Hope this helps. :wave:
In most situations . . . they are very cool.
BUT . . . if you have a very complex route like I have (average FPS 13 to 20), when using the Tracking Camera, you pay a price in FPS performance. Much depends on the location of the route and the amount of distant objects in the camera's view. I experience about 30% to 60% in FPS performance.
Drop in 30% performance is no big deal on routes where your average fps rate is 30 and above. You might not even notice the drop in FPS.
In my case, specially in areas of intense number of 3D objects, if the average is already down to 10 FPS in "EXTERNAL" or "CAB" view, the additional drop in performance of 60% becomes unusable. I have had to remove many of my "Tracking Cameras" in these intense areas.
In intense areas, switching to the camera view takes quite a calculation and some time to calculate. Therefore the first few moments after switching, the display may look frozen, then a few frames of stutter, then jittery display due to the low FPS.
Unfortunately, 3D scene calculation is the same even if most of it is hidden behind a mountain. You will also notice the change in FPS as the direction of view changes.
I have an area with a sweeping 120 degree turn. All the intense 3D areas are totally hidden behind hills. The visible area is just textures and moderate amount of trees. When the train enters the curve, the intense 3D area is just out of the "draw distance" and the FPS is at 24. As the train progress on the curve and gets closer to the hidden intense 3D area AND the direction of view start to point towards the intense area, the FPS performance drops dramatically. As the train exits the curve, the FPS drops to 7. All of this happens without much change in 3D intensity of the "visible" area. If there was a tracking camera at the end of this curve (like I use to have), the FPS drops to 3 or 4.
Drive around with your eye on the FPS. Avoid placing tracking camera where the FPS is lower than usual.
Hope this helps. :wave:
The following link has a tutorial on camera installation (and more):
http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html
Peter
http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html
Peter