Hello. This may not be of interest for the most, yet I want to share some things that I noticed. I know the weather system went through two major updates. The old Railworks system was updated some 7 or 8 years ago (TSX). The second one was the introduction of Dynamic Clouds (SilverLining). Now some old routes suffer from a strange phenomenon. Strange because it only happens the second time you play a route after starting TS. The effect is a tilt of the skydome, which results in the sun and moon being stuck on the horizon even at noon and no shadows therefore. Overall a very grim lighting, this happens for example in the Cajon Pass scenarios. The tilt effect is visible very well in the AllAboard routes, which are the oldest DLC you can get for TS. You can see the error even on the Store page for Colton and Northern if you click through the preview pictures. Interestingly if you run them first after starting TS they look alright. Another issue is missing haze layer, you have rain and clear blue skies together. A workaround is editing the ScenarioProperties.xml and change the weather blueprint from "RW_Clear" to "SL_Clear" for example which gives a better overall lighting especially for distant mountains which are otherwise enshrouded in dark blue fog. Editing such old scenarios with the Scenario Editor is not recommended. There must have been a dispatcher update some years ago which screws up paths and timings when loading and resaving very old scenarios. OK, finally four screenshots with the effect demonstrated. Cajon Pass 1st run (OK), then second run (sun is gone, no shadows), then Colton and Northern. After digging deeper I found the handling of the skydome.GeoPcDx is the root of the effect.
The Colton & Northern issue doesn't need a restart, as far as I know, I am running one scenario per game for a very long while now, yet I remember this issue a lot, being an avid screenshotter. Your recommendation to choose another weather is correct anyway. I generally discovered that a lot of things carry over from one scenario to the other. Could be a side effect with the Cajon weather as well, which can also be alternating / circulating a few. My usual annoyances are the consist getting twice as heavy*, or brakes getting stuck (ran an HST with brakes hissing the entire distance between Oxford and Paddington, applying an average of 0.1 PSI - a side effect of having ran a Sherman scripted ES44AC before). My funny experience was running a train in rain, then starting another QD with the very same consist in clear sunny summer only to have the windshield fully wet, of course dries up, must pretend having had a car wash. * That's a funny one. I had to quit several Elphaba scenarios, because after running one train, during the second (different) scenario my set of SD45s couldn't pull the train up the hill, stalling like a boss. The other memorable incident is recording my very reproducible Sherman Hill consist break (Scenario 1 but happens virtually everywhere), normally that Scenario needs Notch 1-2 or so, but during the second run I needed 2-3 to ascend the 0.8%.
Yes There is definitely an issue with some variables not being reset after exiting scenario. I played the first Colton scenario and the sky kept tilting further until you only saw part of a giant sphere at the horizon. On replaying the skydome was at the exact same position where I left it. Changing to 3D weather is the only cure.
I wonder if changing that setting will also stop the "Black Wall of Darkness" issue in many (if not all) of the AllAboard routes. I find that one the most annoying.
I don't know. Noticed that, but I suspect it is a GeoPcDx of one of the vehicles moving along the road. A bit like the effect if you remove a _.sbn file and the vertices get messed up totally and you have huge polygon walls everywhere. Will have a look at the route assets. EDIT: Seems yes it is linked to the sky effect. On first start of first Kent scenario there was no black wall. On restarting it appeared...
Those are road vehicles. Maaaaaybe they fixed something about it specifically, so now they're invisible, but for me they did show up as huge 2D cards with a few textures (black, zebra). https://steamcommunity.com/app/24010/discussions/3/530646080856403387/
Yep. But the vehicles are standard Kuju assets. Seems there is no fix. But then I don't play that one often anyway. It's more of a complete-your-collection route.
I just found out how to fix the sky without touching the scenarios. The problem is indeed the RG_sky.GeoPcDx. This is referenced in the weather set in the templateRoute. - UnSERZ Assets/Allaboard/Trackplans/TemplateRoutes/Allaboard_template.bin to .xml - Find and replace "Allaboard</Provider>" with "Kuju</Provider>" - Find and replace "Trackplans</Product>" with "RailsimulatorCore</Product>" - Save and SERZ to .bin again and replace the old file. That's probably the easiest way. The problem was introduced way back in TS2014 which handled the skydome in a different way than Railworks. Edit: I'd rather call this a workaround than a fix. Still checking for unwanted effects...
I give this solution a shot on the weekend. I think I have all the All-Aboard routes except for Fort Smith which isn't available on Steam. Thanks!!!
Just an update for Cajon Pass. The skydome in the US Loco & Asset pack is responsible for the Cajon Pass issues (Sun is drawn only on first run). So far I've only come across the Allaboard routes, Cajon Pass and Castlerock Railroad using the US skydome. To fix it you want to edit Kuju\RailSimulatorUS\templateRoutes\SanBarst.bin. UnSerz it and in the <Skies> section replace RailsimulatorUS with RailSimulatorCore and the TimeOfDay must be changed from Summer.xml to Core_Summer.xml, same for the other 3 seasons. This way you have the default 2D weather sky which is fully compatible and used in most scenarios. (and has less nintendo-ish colours), and have the same look-and-feel as the other US routes. 1. Original US skydome (broken), weather "2. Cloudy" 2. edited SanBarst.bin to use Core skydome (working, sun is drawn and shadows are cast), same "2. Cloudy" weather Remember, the 3D weather blueprints use their own skydome no matter what the templateRoute specifies. (But only if Dynamic Clouds are activated in the game settings, otherwise scenarios will revert to 2D skies.) See this thread for more on 3D weather https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/just-found-out-that-scenario-date-is-important.51560/ And if you like more saturated sky colours you can edit them in the TimeOfDay season blueprints. I think I've gathered enough information now to create my own Sky Enhancement Pack. Edit (1): You can also redirect to a different sky with better cloud textures like Marias Pass or a template of an AP Weather & Sky Enhancement Pack route that it supports. Edit (2): Not sure why the <Skies> are also defined in the RouteProperties.xml, as the templateRoute overrides this. Edit (3): Interestingly Cajon Pass brings its own sky and ToD files which are not being used (in RSC\CajonPass) Edit(4): Checked (3). Looks crappy.
I've attached the sky fix for Cajon Pass and Castle Rock Railroad (Original and Workshop version). No more missing sun/shadows. Redirected template to use RailSimulatorCore skydome and seasons, as US skydome is incompatible and buggy. Also environment colouring matches the rest of TS' content. Install with Utilities.exe's Package Manager. Fort Kent / Ohio / Colton will follow.
Here's the sky fix for the Allaboard routes. Also has different daylight times now depending on the season. (Same TimeOfDay file was specified for all four seasons originally) Updates Fort Kent, Ohio Steel and Colton & Northern. Still an issue is the black wall effect in Fort Kent. As is uses default Kuju traffic, I suspect there is something wrong with the road elements (ScaleRoads)
