Where are the birds?
- Thread starter autodctr
- Start date
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
Have you tried looking at one of these assets in Content Manager, using its Open\ Preview Asset menu?
How about quoting a kuid number of one of these bird generators so people can look at how they are constructed? For all I know, they could just be bird sound assets, with no visible 3D meshes at all, but even the sound effect should have a radius.
.
How about quoting a kuid number of one of these bird generators so people can look at how they are constructed? For all I know, they could just be bird sound assets, with no visible 3D meshes at all, but even the sound effect should have a radius.
.
Last edited:
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
Kuid number?
stagecoach
75377
Most of the birds that fly around do so in a rotation close to the generator, usually three.
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
OK found it, thanks.
It's not just a sound asset, it's an animated mesh of a single bird. In Asset Preview, all you see is the bird taking off from its initial point, but you can't really see what it does or how far it flies.
The mesh is in .trainzmesh format but I don't have a viewer for it. In any case, it's an animated mesh, so I could not tell what it does even if I could view the mesh itself.
Looking at it in Surveyor, you should see a red 1m x 1m square marker at the location the bird starts its flight. In my case, the bird sitting on the marker flew off at low altitude in a straight line, heading south for about 140 metres. It then disappeared and the animation repeated.
The red marker is only visible in Surveyor, not in Driver, and can be moved horizontally or vertically, rotated, tilted or deleted (which also deletes the bird). If you rotate or tilt the marker, the bird flies off in whatever direction you have pointed it to. Hence every instance of the asset might have the bird flying in a different direction, angle or height. When you placed your 35 instances of the asset you could have scattered them all over the place and in random orientations (depending on your Surveyor settings). Not only that, but each instance of the asset has the bird start flying at a random time, so even a group of them all pointing in the same direction will still fly as individuals, not as a flock. This is probably why you have not seen the birds.
To locate the marker(s), it can help to go into Surveyor's wireframe mode (F9 key) because they might be hidden below ground level. You need to keep looking at each marker for about 30 seconds in order to catch the animation as it re-starts, which then tells you the orientation of the bird's flight path for that instance of the asset.
.
It's not just a sound asset, it's an animated mesh of a single bird. In Asset Preview, all you see is the bird taking off from its initial point, but you can't really see what it does or how far it flies.
The mesh is in .trainzmesh format but I don't have a viewer for it. In any case, it's an animated mesh, so I could not tell what it does even if I could view the mesh itself.
Looking at it in Surveyor, you should see a red 1m x 1m square marker at the location the bird starts its flight. In my case, the bird sitting on the marker flew off at low altitude in a straight line, heading south for about 140 metres. It then disappeared and the animation repeated.
To locate the marker(s), it can help to go into Surveyor's wireframe mode (F9 key) because they might be hidden below ground level. You need to keep looking at each marker for about 30 seconds in order to catch the animation as it re-starts, which then tells you the orientation of the bird's flight path for that instance of the asset.
.
Last edited:
To anyone wanting to try using this asset: good luck. I put 5 of them right near my one station just to try them. Differing heights from 10 to 20. All pointed to fly above the station. I just sat here from a ground view and watched. I saw ONE bird fly over after several minutes. In my opinion, unless you are willing to put a bunch of these in one spot, you aren't ever going to be amazed by seeing a bird fly over.
Just my opinion.
Thanks again for your help!
Just my opinion.
Thanks again for your help!
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
The birds seem to fly a bit above the marker's height, so try putting the markers at ground level first.
When setting them up, stand behind the flight path so you get a good view as they fly away from you and count how many birds take off per minute. You might need to increase the number of birds so the launches are frequent enough that you see one or two every time you look. Then perhaps raise the marker heights a little, but not so high that they get above your normal field of view. I would guess no more than 5 metres would do the trick.
Beyond that, I don't think there's much more you can do.
As stagecoach said, there are some other flying bird assets in which a group or birds rotate around a central point. You might have better luck with that type.
I found a number of assets on the DLS that seem to be animated birds, but I haven't checked what they look like in practice;
birds anim - arraial - <KUID:524343:5848>When setting them up, stand behind the flight path so you get a good view as they fly away from you and count how many birds take off per minute. You might need to increase the number of birds so the launches are frequent enough that you see one or two every time you look. Then perhaps raise the marker heights a little, but not so high that they get above your normal field of view. I would guess no more than 5 metres would do the trick.
Beyond that, I don't think there's much more you can do.
As stagecoach said, there are some other flying bird assets in which a group or birds rotate around a central point. You might have better luck with that type.
I found a number of assets on the DLS that seem to be animated birds, but I haven't checked what they look like in practice;
Sea gulls - Vulcan - <kuid2:60238:36007:1>
Seagull 7 - OpAmp - <KUID:211961:36006>
n_chaika_1 - Neoklai75 - <KUID2:370528:1254:1>
n_birdpoint - Neoklai75 - <KUID2:370528:1256:1>
Mods of those by MSGSapper;
SAP_Birds_Animated - MSGSapper - <KUID:439337:101814>
SAP_n_birdpoint - MSGSapper - <KUID:439337:101199>
SAP_Seagulls Animated_with_Sound - MSGSapper - <KUID:439337:101054>
Last edited: