BVE: making a night time version of a route.

[eswnl]

Whats the easiest way of making a night time version of a route. Can you change all the bitmaps to a black color?

[AngliaTrains]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

With Route
.LightDirection 40;230,
.DirectionalLight 35;35;45,
.AmbientLight 55;55;55,

I bve4

[call2]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

What Zane has posted will reduce the light conditions of everything, including the train cab. With all that hard work that the train makers have put in to make the cabs go dark when the train moves into a dark area it seems such a shame that you will no longer get that effect. The cab instruments do not light up enough either. You also need to remember that ALL of the building/train/signal/lampost objects will need to be modified no matter what arrangement you choose to darken the landscape.

I assure you, it's no picnic. There's a lot of extra files to make.

Tony H
Midlands 25kV

[AngliaTrains]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

Yes I know a Japense train where you can switch the cab light on independently which can easly be introduced into the english trains.

*goes off and trys to apply it to the 156*

Kind Regards,

[eswnl]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

Thanks, I am still working in bve2 and I am modifing each object/b3d file so it appears dark.

[lesjordans]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

where do you get this train?

[tydev417]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

same question

[Simon_G]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

Zane, the illumination of a BVE4 cab is governed by three factors

1 - what the day and night panel bitmaps look like
2 - the .brightness setting in the route, which causes BVE to 'mix' between the day and night bitmaps
3 - the overall illumination

If the overall illumination in the route is low, the cab will look dark regardless of the other two factors.

Unfortunately, you cannot override the .brightness setting from the train, which would be an obvious way of turning the cab light on. You will need to create a new panel bitmap showing the light on and layer it in front of the night cab, controlled by one of the ats variables that the plugin drives (I suggest ats23 - taillights - for experiments as this is switched on and off by the [5] key).

I think you might find integrating instrument needles and animated controls tricky as they will still appear dark wherever the .brightness is reduced. If you overlay them, of course, they won't be animated any more.

HTH
Simon

[AngliaTrains]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

This is what I mean, check the screen shots..

When you turn them on you get the 'Clunk' sound aswell.

[TomBeevers2000]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

A similar thing is included in the 1973 tube stock - but it's not perfect as the dials aren't affected (otherwise it would muck up the animation as said above).

[lesjordans]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

any idea what train this is though and what route it runs on?

[Simon_G]

RE: making a night time version of a route.

Duh, sorry - see what you mean now: the instrument lights have come on. I would guess it's done with an extra set of gauges that sit between the panel and the needles. The needles don't seem to have changed in brightness between the two pictures, but the train author has picked a shade for them that fits well in both cases so it doesn't matter. Nice one

Actually, Steve and I did something similar for the 158 so I should have realised what you were talking about! Have a look at it and you'll see the instrument lights come on when you move the reverser from 'off' to 'neutral'. We did this by hiding the gauges and needles when the reverser is in the 'off' position - look for files called instrumentsoff.bmp and instrumentsoff_n.bmp. Steve drew the darkened needles onto the gauges in the positions they'd be in with the desk switched off, which is ok, because the mask disappears before the needles start to move.

If you want to do this on the 156, UKSpt.dll sets panel variables:

ats0 = 1 when the master handle is off, = 0 otherwise
ats1 = 0 when the master handle is off, = 1 otherwise

Cheers
Simon