Silverlining 3d Snow Patch

Discussion in 'Technical Reports' started by Spikee1975, Jan 8, 2024.

  1. Spikee1975

    Spikee1975 Guest

    Heya.

    Think with the increased amount of snowflakes visible in 3D weather, DTG have overdone it. To me it looks like the MSTS snow now.

    I've made the Snowflake texture more transparent. (changing the SilverLining.config does not seem to make a change at all)

    Before (+ MSTS Marias Pass)
    2024-01-08 14_18_02-Train Simulator (x64).png
    2024-01-08 14_23_13-.png
    After:
    2024-01-08 14_12_48-Train Simulator (x64).png

    Patch goes into the RailWorks folder, naturally. :) Backup of the original texture is included.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 8, 2024
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  2. triznya.andras

    triznya.andras Well-Known Member

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    Nice after :)
    I noticed the change recently on a Köln-Koblenz run (scenario 4 or so, winter morning to Remagen).
    I wasn't sure but it did look unfamiliar.

    I like your approach. It keeps the busyness of the storm, yet doesn't dominate too much.
    Real life flakes are smaller, but they aren't light sources either.

    My issue with this is its toll on fps. I had 15fps for the first 10 minutes or so - while not seeing any of that expensive scenery or trains anyway.
    Of course I didn't test by forcing 2D weather (or cloning the scenario), so I might be wrong. KK is quite taxing to begin with.

    Fluff: with the screws on the dashboard, at first glance it's like it snows inside :)
     
  3. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    One thing I've always hated is the doily tissue paper cut out snowflake effect that TS and Farming Sim adopt, have they never seen snow? I'd understand if the developers were from Africa or Australia but one's from the UK and the other is from flipping Switzerland!
     
  4. Spikee1975

    Spikee1975 Guest

    Depends again - 3D weather uses the Snowflake.tga I have modified, and for 2D (TimeOfDay) you can customize everything. Rain sleet, snow, sun, moon per route. It's not TS itself, it's just displaying what it gets fed.

    Bad TimeOfDay example: RSSLO Tauernbahn.
    Look how big (and dark) they made the sun "disc". This is not TSC's fault. It's the blueprint data ;) They scaled the image file by 3.5x. (The ToD sun is three things: a lightsource, an image file for the sun disc itself, and a defined glare radius around it that can vary for eight times of day from dawn till night)

    Often I see too big moons in ToD, but it's actually very easy. The moon has the same apparent size as the sun, visible on a solar eclipse when it exactly covers the sun. But we're used to overly exaggerated moons

    2024-01-08 22_05_10-Train Simulator (x64).png
    2024-01-08 22_07_04-.png

    And RSSLO use a very simple snowflake texture, a stretched pixel. Again, TSC offers full customizability, it's what you make of it.
    2024-01-08 22_09_21-Train Simulator (x64).png

    Time to switch to AP Sky for that route. (In fact all RSSLO routes have mediocre TOD blueprints)

    What makes TSC unique that you can choose between the "hardcoded" 2D TimeOfDay weather and sky, with preset lighting values (it basically says: between this and that time: a pixel shall be tinted in this colour if it is lit), and the SilverLining environment which does all of the work for you as a developer and automaticall gives you endless summer days in the north, or high over you head sun near the tropical region, just based on where your route is located.

    Switching to "3D Cloudy" - much more vital colouring (leaving more room to adjust contrast) and a nicer sky colour grading
    2024-01-08 23_40_17-Train Simulator (x64).png
    2024-01-08 23_44_04-Train Simulator (x64).png
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 8, 2024
  5. OldAlaskaGuy

    OldAlaskaGuy Well-Known Member

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    Nice addition. The snowflakes look a lot better. Thanks.
     
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