Alternative Rail Simulator Export

Ah something I can get my hands on!!! Great!
One question though the entry in the RailSimX box,texturepath=….systemtextures. It that related to the specific model or should I use it with mine.
I must admit there are a lot of features of 3DC I have not explored yet

Dick

Bingo!!!

Got it working. Many thanks for the pointers. Much appreciated

Dick

The texturepath= is part of what is coming next and is part of the exporter, not 3DC.

I have already built in extra functions in the exporter that you can use to modify the materials. I need to write up something to explain them all.

texturepath= alters the search path for the textures this allows me to ‘alias’ texture files away from the default textures folder.

You’ll find my ‘blob’ shadow is also aliased.
Consequently all my wagons can use the same shadow texture and same number files if I store them in addonfreightsystemtextures

(just need to make sure you have the correct number of characters)

The RailSimX field can be a list of delimited entries
e.g. r0MipLodBias=-3;zbias=1;twosided=1
and will allow us to do things like animated textures.

I think I will need a big instruction book in English English!!!!

Dick

What was it said about Americans and British, two peoples divided by a common language? As a Canadian I may be closer to British than an American but I still have trouble with the lingo.

Peter – I have an Aussie passport is that close enough to Kiwi <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –>

Bill – My brother lives in Quebec – I’ll get him to translate <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –>

There is probably not a massive advantage of having wheel shadows but they’re not huge numbers of polys.

The sample truck was my first serious attempt to get a wagon running so I was experimenting a bit.
For my shunters truck in the same set I didn’t add wheel shadows.

Paul,
For some reason my wiper animations have suddenly gone crazy!!!! Will that be the exporter or do I need to look else where.

Dick

The exporter could be partly to blame.
I did notice a slight difference in the group names I export over the old exporter (which the IA export also probably uses)

All my group names get converted to lower case on export. The .IA export probably doesn’t do this so the two may not match up.

I’ll get my exporter fixed – in the meantime try changing the animated group names to all lower case and re-export the .IA file to see if it fixes the problem.

I’ve sorted it. It was my problem not the exporter. I can’t tell the difference between sw_wipers and sw12_wipers!!!! Put it down to senility.

Another question. Is it possible to make moving crew members like the default ones. I have made a couple but using the normal animation techniques. OK from a distance but get a bit closes and the gaps between the limbs appear!!!

Dick

Bone animation will have to wait for 3DC 7.2
7.1 has a few problems with bone export – I tried it for FSX/TS2, Richard knows about it.

So it will be possible eventually.
Start looking for those free motion capture files.

One minor difference from the old exporter that I have noticed is that the new one no longer warns if the exported model has untextured faces. I already fell foul of this and the result was a crash to desktop when I tried to export from the blueprint editor.

Its not a serious problem as it should probably be matter of practice to check for untextured faces with the material information plug-in, but I thought I should mention it.

Certainly I find that StencilShadow.fx works much more reliably now.

BFM

Peter

Grab the sample wagon [img:10op4hbt]http&#58;//cid-06b528339820717e&#46;skydrive&#46;live&#46;com/self&#46;aspx/Rail%20Simulator/sample%7C_wagon%7C_source&#46;zip[/img:10op4hbt]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://cid-06b528339820717e.sk…e|_wagon|_source.zip">http://cid-06b528339820717e.sk…e|_wagon|_source.zip</a><!– m –>

and look at the material custom parameters of the numbers and soft shadow object under the wheels.

basically I have the hierarchy
Freight
– WagonType
– – Livery (location of IGS)
– – – Textures
– System
– – Textures

The blob.ace file goes in ….systemtextures relative to the igs file and can be used by several wagons.

I also created the texture set blueprint for the numbers in freightsystem and referenced it from the wagon blueprint.

The default value for texturepath is textures i.e. the textures folder directly under the IGS.

Yes – the export to the assets folder keeps the alias.

My model appears to export ok, I get no error messages from 3DC or RS, but when I run preview it seems that none of the sub groups have exported.
[img:3ktr55a4]http&#58;//www&#46;atomic-album&#46;com/showPic&#46;php/116277/canopy&#46;jpg[/img:3ktr55a4]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.atomic-album.com/sh…hp/116277/canopy.jpg">http://www.atomic-album.com/sh…hp/116277/canopy.jpg</a>&lt;!– m –>

Is there an object limit or something else that may be responsible?

Phil