Is there a spline to illuminate the ground at night?

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
There are various shadow splines to spread over the ground as under a canopy during the daytime.

Is there a ground cover to glow at night as from overhead lighting?
 
Spline assets don't produce any kind of light.

...unless they are telephone poles with streetlights

There is probably no ground texture (Paint) that emits light either.

I was using a concrete slab static object as an overhang for my diesel pump island and wanted to throw some light on the ground underneath it at night
 
No splines that I know of but there is a scenery asset "Light strip horizontal" available in various sizes by dinorius-redundicus that is built into TRS19 that produces light.
 
The alternative way to do this is to place a spline of utility poles and then line up streetlights. There are some streetlight heads on arms only available, but I can't remember who made them. It's been ages since I used them. You can stick these on buildings as well as poles.

In reality no scenery asset "produces" light the way locomotives and track objects do with attached coronas. There's a way around that using a special locomotive asset which is just a headlight and nothing else. This is used on some light towers, but I can't remember the author. The way the actual streetlight scenery items produce light is done through a light spot on the end of a cone. This is why we see light cones on some streetlight objects that are solid due to incorrect alpha-channel texture mapping.

Actual light-sources is in the someday queue. It was mentioned elsewhere in another thread when asked about it, but I can't remember where.
 
No splines that I know of but there is a scenery asset "Light strip horizontal" available in various sizes by dinorius-redundicus that is built into TRS19 that produces light.

This light strip content is being used by me to place under the overhang of my diesel fueling station for trucks. It appears to mimic commercial florescent tube fixtures and works nice for businesses.
 
The alternative way to do this is to place a spline of utility poles and then line up streetlights. There are some streetlight heads on arms only available, but I can't remember who made them. It's been ages since I used them. You can stick these on buildings as well as poles.

In reality no scenery asset "produces" light the way locomotives and track objects do with attached coronas. There's a way around that using a special locomotive asset which is just a headlight and nothing else. This is used on some light towers, but I can't remember the author. The way the actual streetlight scenery items produce light is done through a light spot on the end of a cone. This is why we see light cones on some streetlight objects that are solid due to incorrect alpha-channel texture mapping.

Actual light-sources is in the someday queue. It was mentioned elsewhere in another thread when asked about it, but I can't remember where.

Yes, hold your breath for "Night Trainz" where lighting and shadow both will be perfected. No more light, shadow, steam and smoke ghosting (bleeding) through solid objects.

How about a night-time moon?

QUESTION: Is there better sign content for Don's Diesel Truck Stop?

I did this to make a fake shadow for Don's Diesel overhang: texture the ground with a dark asphalt underneath it and a lighter asphalt surrounding it. Same notion as the tree shadow ground paints.
Since I will make a separate night version of my layout, I could use a light concrete to spray under my overhang to mimic light ground effect. Some gas station pump island overhang contents in this game do have a nighttime ground illumination effect built in. Here is my latest Don's truck stop remake:


kVfPWn1.jpg

T79uYDV.jpg

C7kUPKE.jpg

IjPjQMM.jpg

qNt85OK.jpg
 
Last edited:
<kuid:68213:21078> Light pool 001m

<kuid:68213:21051> Light strip horizontal 02x02m

<kuid:68213:21055> Light strip vertical 02x02m

;) Try these, there are several........I think they might help you for Illumination....

The Authors name is dinorius_redundicus who is a highly Skilled Asset maker, may I suggest you send him a note, he might be able to help you bit further in your quest for different types of lighting. :D
 
<kuid:68213:21078> Light pool 001m

<kuid:68213:21051> Light strip horizontal 02x02m

<kuid:68213:21055> Light strip vertical 02x02m

;) Try these, there are several........I think they might help you for Illumination....

The Authors name is dinorius_redundicus who is a highly Skilled Asset maker, may I suggest you send him a note, he might be able to help you bit further in your quest for different types of lighting. :D

Dave Snow and dinorius_redundicus have both made a bunch of KOOL STUFF for our game over the years. My engineer hat is tipped to both of them.

I will have to wait until I get into TANE or later to down load this:

<kuid:68213:21078> Light pool 001m

Not compatible with TS12 which I route-build in still.

The term light POOL now rings a bell. it's what I had in mind. Many static light objects as street lamps and YARN intersections have this ground illumination effect I was hunting for in a ground spline like shadow or house grass. Some gas station island canopies cast a light pool below at night too.

Light pool splines would be great to spread under train station canopies or on the floors of large buildings like garages, engine sheds and warehouses with large open doors.

Dinorius_redundicus's light strip horizontal is great to hang from the roofs of canopies and large industrial building interiors with a clear view from the outside. It is essentially a commercial florescent tube fixture spline.
This is hanging from beneath my Don's diesel station canopy. It is a spline that does indeed seem to be illuminated at night.
 
Last edited:
Dave Snow and dinorius_redundicus have both made a bunch of KOOL STUFF for our game over the years. My engineer hat is tipped to both of them.

I will have to wait until I get into TANE or later to down load this:

<kuid:68213:21078> Light pool 001m

Not compatible with TS12 which I route-build in still.

The term light POOL now rings a bell. it's what I had in mind. Many static light objects as street lamps and YARN intersections have this ground illumination effect I was hunting for in a ground spline like shadow or house grass. Some gas station island canopies cast a light pool below at night too.

Light pool splines would be great to spread under train station canopies or on the floors of large buildings like garages, engine sheds and warehouses with large open doors.

Dinorius_redundicus's light strip horizontal is great to hang from the roofs of canopies and large industrial building interiors with a clear view from the outside. It is essentially a commercial florescent tube fixture spline. This is hanging from beneath my Don's diesel station canopy. It is a spline that does indeed seem to be illuminated at night.

None of my light pools or light strips are splines. They are just Kind scenery items (flat planes) that illuminate at night and disappear in the day time, if I recall correctly. As others have already said, splines don't allow "nightmode" effects. At least they didn't last time I looked. The best I could do was make a range of sizes in the hope that some of them might be useful.

~ Deane
 
None of my light pools or light strips are splines. They are just Kind scenery items (flat planes) that illuminate at night and disappear in the day time, if I recall correctly. As others have already said, splines don't allow "nightmode" effects. At least they didn't last time I looked. The best I could do was make a range of sizes in the hope that some of them might be useful.

~ Deane

Sorry, D, I'm getting your light strip confused with Light Spline,<kuid2:58843:39202:1> by magicland. This is what appears to be horizontal florescent light tube which can be stretched to various lengths. This is under the Spline mode in Surveyor. It does glow bright white in the dark but casts no light pool below.

UhOGKqB.jpg

Dw6U4jv.jpg
 
Last edited:
In case people here are wondering, I used the following content as building materials to construct the Dons' diesel truck fuel island:

the vertical dark pillars (10):Wall 10m dark stone weathered,<kuid2:283805:37921:1> by tmz06003the canopy top: Conc Slab 15 m,<kuid2:30671:38008:1> by llj
the canopy top edge trim: AJS Low Wall,<kuid2:122285:3240:1> by andi06
the rafters on the ceiling of the overhang: wall low brown,<kuid2:69518:37000:1> by james73the light fixtures: Light Spline,<kuid2:58843:39202:1> by magicland { (note that mine are divided by the rafters to look like separate light fixtures and have double tubes (2 each side by side) }
the pump islands (5) to make total of 6 fueling lanes: Petrol Pumps,<kuid2:68236:23277:1> by magandy (one of several models by this author)the garbage cans 2 per pump island: Garbage bin 01,<kuid2:68213:25106:1> by Dinorius_Redundicus (one of several models made by this author)
the signs (2): Warehouse sign 20x4m white at 12m with support,<kuid2:30671:23104:1> by llj (offers several sign sizes with and without supports)

Thanks DD for keeping our routes litter-free with your garbage bins.

Here is my improved canopy with double-tube light fixtures and crisscrossing rafters (ceiling framework) :
7hSNatt.jpg

lB8dmUG.jpg
 
Last edited:
Magicland's light spline is probably made with an emissive texture. It is actually "on" all the time, but you tend to only notice it at night when the rest of the scene gets dark. It's not true nightmode, but it's the best you can do with a spline.
 
Magicland's light spline is probably made with an emissive texture. It is actually "on" all the time, but you tend to only notice it at night when the rest of the scene gets dark. It's not true nightmode, but it's the best you can do with a spline.

Don't many gas stations have the lights on underneath their fuel island overhangs anyway during the daytime?
Is there a config parameter mod to give this spline night-mode characteristics?
It's rather inconspicuous at a distance since it's up under a canopy.
 
I also think that is probably that this texture is an emissive texture or "auto-iluminated" material (depending of Trainz version). I think that after 15 years working with the same night-mode, it is necessary another way of lightning. Because TRS 2019 has another render engine and new materials (PBR) and I think that for night mode this materials can be a high improve this mode.
 
Back
Top