View aligned objects

[srude]

Hello to all;

A short lesson, here:

A view-aligned object is a single panel that always aligns itself with the camera viewing axis--you are the camera. The advantage of this is that one can create highly detailed things--such as trees--and use only two polygons, (triangles).

There are two major disadvantages to this method;

1) The object never changes shape.

2) If one leaves the ideal viewing angle, then the nature of the objects becomes obvious--a flat panel standing up on your route.

If you are in the cab of a locomotive, speeding by the flat tree, do you care that it is a flat tree?

The crossed panel method gives you the 3-D effect but you can see the crossed panels, though you do have a shape of sorts when viewing the object from a high angle.

So, which is better?

It sounds to me like Trainz doesn't implement view-aligned method of making trees in any of the versions.

So, there it is . . .

Adios, Amigos

srude

:wave:

 

[Tiger313]

You do notice the difference if the tree is reasonably close to the track. Further off no one cares, but that's where ground textures usually come in.

 

[JCitron]

You do notice the difference if the tree is reasonably close to the track. Further off no one cares, but that's where ground textures usually come in.

This the proper way to handle flipboard objects (view facing). I use another program for animation called WorldBulder 4.x from Digital Element. The best looking vegetation is used at the closest camera points, and the flipboard objects are used in the background. The advantages of flipboard objects is that the render very quickly because there is virtually no geometry. They are simple double or single-sided polygons that have a plcture placed on them.

The problem with Trainz, it's only a problem if the route builder goes overboard, is that we have the ability to do flyovers and move away from the designated and canned route. This is unlike the other simulation products. In Trainz we can fly airplains and helicopters off of the main route. This gives us the ability to see beyond what is actually needed for railroad viewing, and thus we tend to want the extra eye candy on the ground because the world would look pretty funny from the air if were only covered with textures.

The other train simulators that I eluded to above, use the actor and the stage method for presenting scenes. Frank Ellison, the famous stage builder and early model railroader, once said, or paraphrased by me, that the baseboard is the stage for which the actors [trains] move through. This method saves memory in simulations and space on a physical layout, and like the real world, the virtual world still has its limitations, but in of different sort of way with memory resources and usable speed.

Nothing is free even in the virtual world.

John