- [WJ-R]: 1980s object removal (Castlethorpe/Hanslope area)
- [XCS]: Pending
- [UkTrainSys]: v0.3.2.0 released
- [Object Library]: Preparing...
- [Website]: Fifth version of website launched
My openBVE videos and other comments from users and
myself can also be found via my YouTube
channel.Blog and Progress Updates
6th December 2008
Animated, Segmented Objects
Posted by Anthony Bowden on 6th December 2008 at 10:00 pmWhile creating the swinging cable objects demonstrated in the recent openBVE Object Animation/X-City South video (see the 1st December 2008 entry below), I opted to keep things simple and just rotate each 50m length of cable around it’s Z-axis to create the swinging effect I wanted; this was appropriate and sufficient for the types of cables in question. However, it’s also possible to split such an object up into segments, which can each be rotated and translated individually, to create more complex motion, bouncing, or to create the impression of elastic properties. When I was thinking about how best to animate the cables, it occurred to me that there was a rather nice application for the segmented object approach, in the form of people with animated limbs and simulated joints. I’ve been working on a slightly more ambitious animated object this time, namely a walking person which appears to have articulated limbs (please forgive the temporary placeholder objects comprising the figure, this is just an experiment and an early demonstration):
Video: openBVE v0.9.1.15 and X-City South v1.4 (work in progress)
Animated, segmented bouncing cables; plus animated person with simulated articulated limbs (temporary meshes only)
Note: This video is now included as part of a compilation on YouTube.
« [YouTube “High Quality” version] | [YouTube “High Definition” version]
Each 50m long bouncing cable is comprised of 8 segment objects, each individually rotated and translated to create the overall movement shown. The animated person as a whole is comprised of 15 separate component parts, which means the upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, upper and lower torso, feet, neck and head can be manipulated individually to create certain animated movements. It would be possible to have the figure waving, or moving one of his/her arms to check the time on a wrist watch, for example. The tricky part now, will be creating more detailed geometry and textures for the animated people which I hope to include in Cross-City South v1.4.
Finally, if you find the above interesting, then I recommend you visit the » openBVE homepage « and download the latest version 0.9.1.15 of the program, along with the updated DemoRoute1. In another stroke of genius, Michelle has added both a working signal with a flashing aspect, and a working lower quadrant semaphore signal to the route, complete with lamp and damped semaphore arm motion. Highly impressive! As she mentions in her » Developer Log «, the .AnimatedObj command can now reference sections in a similar way to the .SigF command, and an animated object can get the state of that section, therefore the flashing aspects found on the signals approaching the New Ledburn and Hanslope Junctions on my Watford to Rugby route can now be implemented realistically. I’ll be having a play with this new functionality during the next few days.
Tags: Animated Objects, Cross-City South, openBVE, Videos
Posted in openBVE | No Comments »
1st December 2008
More Animated Objects
Posted by Anthony Bowden on 1st December 2008 at 10:00 pmWhile my favourite games are naturally openBVE and BVE Trainsim, another game which has also made a great impression on me is the first-person shooter Half-Life 2 and it’s follow-on episodes. I love this series of games because of the unfolding sci-fi story arc, mythology, characters, exotic technology, blend of elements of past, present and future, interactive environments and physics modelling; but they also feature some exceptionally high quality photo-realistic textures, lighting, atmospheric scenes, visual effects and a variety of nice touches which help to bring Half-Life 2’s dystopian world to life. Now that openBVE’s animation capabilities can be experimented with, I thought I’d bring a couple of the things I’ve noticed in Half-Life 2 to my own routes–no, not portal storms, teleportation devices or xenomorphic creatures wreaking havok in the streets of Birmingham, tempting though that is; rather animated birds and cables. Okay, maybe not quite as exciting, but anyway, Half-Life 2 features birds which fly past in places, and cables which sway in the wind:
Using openBVE’s animated object translation and rotation functions, similar effects can be created. I downloaded a Reverse Polish Notation calculator to assist me in understanding what some of the translation values being calculated actually are, and this helped me to create birds which move at the right speed at the right time, and have flapping wings to add a little life to them, although I haven’t figured out how to increase the speed of the flapping yet. The return conductor cables sway back and forth as though buffeted by strong gusts of wind, and I exchanged the sine and cosine functions in alternating objects so each cable length doesn’t sway at the same time as the next, making the overall movement look rather more natural. I’ve amended my previous video with some extra shots of these features:
Video: openBVE v0.9.1.7 and X-City South v1.4 (textures and scenery not finished yet)
Animated clouds, flying birds, falling rain, swaying cables, moving water, and a passing train
Note: This video is now included as part of a compilation on YouTube.
« [YouTube “High Quality” version] | [YouTube “High Definition” version]
Class 150 objects from » Network West Midlands «
I hope you like the effects. 
Note: Just to reiterate, openBVE will have built-in rainfall in future, so using animated objects to create this effect won’t be required eventually; but I was curious to see if such effects were possible with animated objects alone. The passing train is just a fun experiment, and animated objects aren’t really suited for this purpose as the animated object doesn’t follow any track, but rather a direction defined in the animated object file; I probably won’t include it in the final release route as there’s no sound accompanying the train.
Tags: Animated Objects, Cross-City South, openBVE, Screenshots, Videos
Posted in openBVE | 1 Comment »
26th November 2008
openBVE’s Object Animation
Posted by Anthony Bowden on 26th November 2008 at 10:00 pmIf you’ve visited the » openBVE Homepage « recently, you’ll know that Michelle has released openBVE v0.9.1.5 and DemoRoute1, and these introduce animated objects to the community for the first time. While the new animation capabilities are just a preview, aren’t supported yet and are subject to change, I’ve been playing with the new functionality to see what might be possible. As the animation capabilities may be altered in future versions of openBVE, none of these X-City demonstrations should be considered final.
In Michelle’s DemoRoute1 we can see an animated departure screen, clock, an A320 flying overhead, flashing level crossing light, moving cars and simulated interaction, and an escalator. These are the kinds of features I’d like to add to Cross-City South v1.4 as well, as they’re just brilliant–but rather than show you what Michelle has already demonstrated, I thought I’d start with something a little different. In the video below, I’ve used .PointOfInterest commands, and placed animated sheets of rain to create the effect of precipitation (achieved via texture shifting), moving clouds achieved via the same method, and animated water on the canal.
Note: openBVE will have built-in rainfall in future, so using animated objects to create this effect won’t be required eventually; but I was curious to see if such effects were possible with animated objects alone.
Video: openBVE v0.9.1.7 and X-City South v1.4 (textures not finished yet)
Animated clouds, falling rain, moving water, and a passing train
Note: This video is now included as part of a compliation on YouTube.
« [YouTube “High Quality” version] | [YouTube “High Definition” version]
Class 150 objects from » Network West Midlands «
A note on the passing train–this is just a fun experiment, and animated objects aren’t really suited for this purpose as the animated object doesn’t follow any track, but rather a direction defined in the animated object file; I probably won’t include it in the final release route as there’s no sound accompanying the train. However, the technique is suitable for trains passing over or under bridges for example, like in the » IIYAMA Line 2060 « route, where the train is some distance from the player, moving across the screen (Lichfield Trent Valley on the Cross-City North route could also be a suitable location for such an effect):
The moving water in the above X-City South v1.4 video also needs some work, but involves a static canal object with ordinary texture, and then two animated, texture shifted alpha-enabled surfaces overlaid; one moving left to right (to match the cloud’s direction of movement), and the other moving along the Z-axis. When combined, they make the water appear to ripple slightly if you look closely for a few seconds, particularly where the tree reflections are visible on the right.
Tags: Animated Objects, Artwork, Cross-City South, openBVE, Screenshots, Videos
Posted in openBVE | No Comments »
Cross-City South v1.4 Update
Posted by Anthony Bowden on 26th November 2008 at 9:00 pmThe Cross-City South v1.4 update has been in progress for the past few days. To start with, I’ve rearranged all the files into a less complicated directory structure, and removed the seasonal variations for the time being, with just Summer remaining for now. I’ve also removed all but two route files from the package, which I’ll work on to create a new foundation on which other route files can be created in future; this makes maintenance much easier and the updated route quicker to check for problems. I’ve also been removing all .X format objects, which I’ll replace with .CSV versions, with surface illumination achieved via openBVE’s new extended commands instead, along with day/night texture transitions achieved using single objects rather than seperate day and night objects, as was the case in Cross-City South v1.3 for BVE4. This helps to save some disk space, along with making the route much easier to maintain.
Along with openBVE’s error reports, I’ve also been using Oskari’s » BRR.NET « utility to check for other issues, to ensure that the new “template” route files are as trouble free as possible. I’ve also been updating the route with new vegetation textures and track objects, taken from the Watford Junction to Rugby route; here’s how it’s looking so far in the openBVE Route Viewer tool (the reported errors are temporary, due to missing textures which I haven’t relocated yet!):
The shadow effect used for the bullhead rails is based on an idea which Simon Gathercole came up with a while ago. The next time consuming task will be updating all the pointwork, which I’ll start work on soon. I’ll also be exchanging the terrain and grass textures for new versions, making the scenery look better when using the external views, adding backfaces to various objects so the route can be viewed in the opposite direction without needing to hit F11 in openBVE, and adding soft shadows to various objects, which together with the new textures shown above, should improve the appearance of the route considerably. Due to popular demand I’ll be creating a new diagram which starts from the Longbridge reversal siding rather than Redditch, and I’ll also be looking into more animated object possibilities; I have a few ideas already.
Tags: Cross-City South, openBVE, Screenshots, Software, Trackwork
Posted in openBVE | No Comments »
20th November 2008
Lighting, Shading and Contrast
Posted by Anthony Bowden on 20th November 2008 at 9:00 pmIn this first entry, I’m going to talk about shadows, contrast and realism. Recently, I’ve been playing around with improved shadows and lighting effects, which are now possible thanks to » openBVE’s « support for daytime/nightime texture transitions, as well as support for alpha-enabled PNG images which can be used as textures. Michelle and I briefly discussed time-of-day texture transitions and headlight glow effects recently, and it occured to me that not only could a glow effect be achieved with openBVE’s extended commands, but soft shadows could also be created. In these two screenshots of the Class 323 EMU on Cross-City South, you can see how these openBVE capabilities facilitate a rather nice effect in-game, which I feel adds to the visual quality and immersiveness considerably:
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A while ago, » Daniel Beardsmore « and I were discussing my Watford Junction to Rugby screenshots, and that while they looked good, there was just something… not quite right about them. He hit the nail on the head when he mentioned contrast–which is simply too low in my textures–resulting in a somewhat washed out appearance to many of the scenes:
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While helping with some of the » now resolved « openBVE plugin compatibility issues recently, I spent some time enjoying… sorry, testing… the rather stunning Japanese » ATS-Sn/P Test Route «, and afterwards, the deficiency in my own textures became even more obvious, as the ATS-Sn/P Test route’s textures have greater contrast and more shading, creating a much richer and more realistic and compelling visual experience, despite both routes using photo-realistic textures:
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The effect of shadows and contrast is also shown to good effect in the Joetsu Border and South routes (available here: » http://gri.s60.xrea.com «):
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Adding better shadows to Watford Junction to Rugby helps considerably, although I need to up the contrast further still, particularly in the vegetation textures, and add more shading to the track textures:
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Tags: Artwork, Cross-City South, openBVE, Screenshots, Watford Jn to Rugby
Posted in openBVE | No Comments »
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