Re: Re-skinning for beginners (that's me)
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:15 pm
Got something else figured out. I think WPandP had a minor point wrong in his Rolling Stock skinning ideas thread.
Having done a couple of quick checks of the coordinates from these files, I found that with an Atlantic the points correspond to where the two pairs of drivers hit the rails, and with a tender they correspond to roughly halfway along each tender truck. This makes perfect sense, which is always nice.
This is also potentially useful for things like Garratts and multiple-segment car mods. If the actual track attachment points can be defined to any forward or rear position, there is a lot more scope for getting better geometry around curved track.
For example, if the track points for a Garratt central unit are placed to coincide with the centres of the chassis pivots, then on a tight curve the body should appear to hang inside the track slightly, just as it should. There will still have to be some small amount of fudging (to balance chassis pivots with centres of driving wheelbases, which are slightly different) but it should be fine in the game after a bit of tweaking.
Similarly, it should be possible to use this to help the geometry of multiple segment cars. By placing the track points roughly halfway along each segment of a two segment car, the length points that the game thinks it has for a single car should be less of a problem around curves. That would still need some fudging too, to deal with truck attachment points to the body, etc, but it's better than nothing.![thumbs_up !*th_up*!](./images/smilies/ok.gif)
Having looked into file structure, the bit I underlined doesn't make sense. There is an additional file called *****L_TrackPoint.3dp (for locos) or *****T_TrackPoint.3dp (for tenders) or CaboA_TrackPoint.3dp (for caboose A skin) with similar files for cargo cars. It seems that these are what really define the attachment points to the tracks.WPandP wrote:Update on Cuts of Cars:
I've done all that I can think of, but it appears that there is some sort of hard limit to how much a truck can flex or rotate, when tracking around a curve. The wheels aren't really attached to the rails, as they would be in real life; rather, the wheels are attached to the truck, which is attached to the body, and the body attaches to the track at its center point.
Having done a couple of quick checks of the coordinates from these files, I found that with an Atlantic the points correspond to where the two pairs of drivers hit the rails, and with a tender they correspond to roughly halfway along each tender truck. This makes perfect sense, which is always nice.
This is also potentially useful for things like Garratts and multiple-segment car mods. If the actual track attachment points can be defined to any forward or rear position, there is a lot more scope for getting better geometry around curved track.
For example, if the track points for a Garratt central unit are placed to coincide with the centres of the chassis pivots, then on a tight curve the body should appear to hang inside the track slightly, just as it should. There will still have to be some small amount of fudging (to balance chassis pivots with centres of driving wheelbases, which are slightly different) but it should be fine in the game after a bit of tweaking.
Similarly, it should be possible to use this to help the geometry of multiple segment cars. By placing the track points roughly halfway along each segment of a two segment car, the length points that the game thinks it has for a single car should be less of a problem around curves. That would still need some fudging too, to deal with truck attachment points to the body, etc, but it's better than nothing.
![thumbs_up !*th_up*!](./images/smilies/ok.gif)