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Lab / Preview: Diurnal Lighting for T:ANE
https://forum.transdem.de/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=380
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Author:  geophil [ 22 Aug 2015 17:09 ]
Post subject:  Lab / Preview: Diurnal Lighting for T:ANE

Currently I am working on the lighting values for T:ANE routes in TransDEM 2.6.

Some of us have seen this:

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It turned out that I was using an older format for encoding the diurnal settings, unchanged since the days of TRS2004. Previous Trainz versions could still read and understand that format, but the most recent T:ANE builds appear to get confused.

With a few mouse clicks we can reset the blue menace and get T:ANE's defaults:

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So, the first objective is to produce the very same settings in TransDEM:

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No real difference here, but nobody had to click the reset button to achieve this. Before we go further here, I tested the newer diurnal encoding for TS2010 and TS12. That's what should have happened for a TransDEM 2.5-generated TS12 route. T:ANE surveyor now shows this:

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The older diurnal settings did not have a fog value per entry, but T:ANE automatically adds a generous helping for each. We also notice that in T:ANE the older default settings look a bit warmish, almost like light bulbs illuminating an indoor model railway layout. And, for the statistician, the older table had 7 diurnal entries, while there are 9 now in T:ANE, one more around midnight and one more at dawn.

Unfortunately, the default settings are less than optimal for route building, just too much mist, both for the now correctly imported TS12 route and for the T:ANE route. The mist affects visibility and we do not benefit from the increased viewing distance that the T:ANE E2 engine supports.

So, next step, switch off fog:

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Much better. The little village "Borg" is about 4km away.

On the cosmetic side, even with the fog off, we still feel like walking under an overcast sky. So I made midday lighting a tiny bit warmer and also moved the default time-of-day from 10 am to 12:20 pm:

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It's a compromise between the "indoor" appearance of the TS12 route and the cooler T:ANE default.

What do you think? Have your say.

In the end, TransDEM shall offer an option for either T:ANE defaults (= "default fog") or a specific TransDEM preset:

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And that's the route I have been using for these screenshots:

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