QuickShadows Tutorial.pdf

Tools for Asset Repair by PEV Image by Alberte Zato

QuickShadows for TS12

This is an amended version of an article originally written

for John King's Trainz Resources Newsletter.

temp.XML file which is then converted to IM by Auran's

TrainzMeshImporter program. Auran's policy of having

their own software make all game content is thus

maintained. The TMI is included in the installer program.

Introduction

The shadow mesh (“shadow.im” or any other name set by

the user) is created in the same folder as the parent mesh

and requires no textures. It uses the "m.notex" material

that takes its colour from the light settings in the material.

The “m.notex” material is made two sided by default so

that all planes of the “Simple Shadow” mesh are always

visible when viewed with my Trainz Mesh Viewer tool.

The QuickShadows tool is provided to the Trainz

community for the generation of shadow meshes without

having to use 3DSMax, Gmax or Blender.

Many rolling stock items downloaded into TS2009 and

later show errors caused by missing shadow meshes, and

now TS12 has a runtime device that checks the polygon

count of shadow meshes. If a shadow mesh has more

than about 1300 polygons it is ignored and a crude box is

substituted, much to the annoyance of many users.

No 3D modelling or image manipulation programs are

required to make the shadow. The shadow mesh may be

moved within the asset folder structure (eg to a shadow

folder) and, of course, the shadow mesh will need to be

specified in the shadow container in the mesh table of the

config.txt file. Refer to the Content Creators' Guide for

Trainz Classics for advice on asset folder and file layouts.

CCGTC can be downloaded from the Auran web site.

The original QuickShadows was conceived to provide a

box shadow or a full black-only copy of the original mesh.

With this limitation set by TS12 it seemed appropriate to

try to provide a method to build a simple shadow mesh

that could still be a reasonable representation of the

shape of the parent object, in most cases some piece of

rolling stock. Some method for maintaining some detail,

yet utilising a reasonable degree of polygon reduction

needed to be found.

Using the QuickShadows Program

Installation

The new process in QuickShadows looks at every triangle

outline (its lines) and establishes a profile on a grid, and

then applies a poly reduction technique to the result. This

process is repeated for a number of planes (up to 6) to

create an inside-out shadow mesh; meaning the side

nearest the cast shadow does most of the work. A

completely different approach to the normal shadow

construction. The shadows made with this method have

no top plane (or roof) .

If you don't have this program, please download its

installer program (PEV_QuickShadows_setup.exe) from

my PEVSoft Download page.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm

Run the installer and the QuickShadows will be loaded on

to the Program Files area of your C: drive, along with a

desktop icon and an entry in the PEVSoft folder of your All

Programs menu.

Shadow meshes for average sized locos and wagons with

reasonable detail can be made with less than 1000

polygons.

TrainzMeshImporter.exe is included in the setup program.

It may require a further download from MicroSoft (See

below)

The above method makes the new “Simple Shadow

Mesh”. The original “Box Shadow” and “Full Shadow”

options are still provided. If used with AssetX a fourth

option of an invisible shadow mesh is also available.

If you have TS2009 or later, QuickShadows will create

'OpenWith' macros for Content Manager 2 and 3 to allow

you to run QuickShadows directly from the Content

Manager for each Trainz version

For all its options, QuickShadows.exe creates a

Making a Box Shadow

On first launching QuickShadows it will check that the

OpenWith macros for the Content Managers have been

set up. The program generates these automatically if it

finds TS2009, TS2010 and/or TS12 installations in the

default locations. Once done this process is not repeated,

until the user selects Open With from Setup in the main

menu.

When opened from a short cut, the program will await a

file open instruction from the user.

If you choose Open With, the program scans your PC for

Trainz installations. If it finds any in the default locations,

the OpenWith macros are automatically installed.

If a default installation is not found, the program presents

you with a Find Folder dialog. If you do NOT have the

Trainz version requested then press the Cancel button.

Otherwise locate the TS2009 or TS2010 or TS12

application folder as requested and select it. The

OpenWith macro will be automatically placed into the

selected Trainz installation.

Click on the File menu. Click on Open and the open file

dialogue box will be displayed. The file extensions are

filtered so only PM's or IM's will be visible. Select a mesh

to make a shadow for.

Opening a File

The program will confirm your mesh choice and show a

notice suggesting you press the Make Shadow button to

proceed.

The program can open .pm and .im files only.

To Open a File, start the program and click on the File

menu. Click on Open and the open file dialogue box will

be displayed. The file extensions are filtered so only the

correct types can be opened.

When a file is opened the program shows a notice

suggesting you press the Make Shadow button to

proceed.

Before doing so you need to select a shadow type from

the Action List at the top right of the program window.

If the "Box Shadow" option is selected from the Action List

then the program will make a box shadow mesh. (as in

the figure to the left)

For a shadow mesh to be successful it needs to not

protrude through the skin of the parent (or default) mesh.

For the box mesh, independent scaling factors are

provided for length, width and height. Because the

shadow mesh box size is created from a bounding box for

the parent mesh it is highly likely that the mesh will be too

large. Use the scaling factors to reduce the size. A

Scaling factor of 1.0 is full size.. Use decimal fractions (eg

0.8) to reduce size.

To make a shadow press the Make Shadow button.

The Exit option closes the program.

A hidden scale factor is included so that the shadow of a

rectangular object is slightly smaller than the object, This

is intended to prevent any rendering conflicts that can

cause the dreaded phasing effect in the game.

Making a Simple Shadow ** NEW for TS12 **

When opened from a short cut, the program will await a

file open instruction from the user. Click on the File menu.

Click on Open and the open file dialogue box will be

displayed. The file extensions are filtered so only PM's or

IM's will be visible. Select a mesh to make a shadow for.

Press the "Make Shadow" button and shadow.im mesh

will be created. When completed the program will tell you

that the shadow.im file has been created.

The program will confirm your mesh choice and show a

notice suggesting you press the Make Shadow button to

proceed.

Choose the Simple Shadow option from the Action List at

the top right of the program window.

If the shadow mesh is offset from the main mesh when

you view it in Trainz, the box shadow can be moved using

the X, Y, and Z Displacement values. These values are in

metres.

The simple shadow can consist of up to six (6) shaped

planes.

An Example

Let us now make a shadow using Paul Hobb's excellent

LNER Gresley A3 steam loco as an example.

For example, if the shadow is too low, you can move it up

by entering a positive value into the Z Displacement box.

This is common where the parent mesh has a small

portion that is higher than the remainder of the mesh, eg a

post. Note that this feature is only available for the box

shadow.

The "Zero All" button can be used to make all

displacements zero. Note: the displacements default to

zero when ever the program is opened. These values are

not stored for later use.

From the file open dialogue select the mesh with the

highest level of detail and open it. It doesn't matter if the

parent mesh has a huge number of polygons.

QuickShadows creates a fixed number of polygons for

each plane it generates and then does poly reduction on

that plane as it is drawn.

Files opened by double clicking in Windows Explorer can

automatically have a shadow mesh created if the "Auto

Make" option is SET (checked). The program will close

automatically after a short pause if the "Close on Done"

option is SET.

Turn off all the plane “Use” options and press the “Make

Shadow” button.

The shadow mesh is created in the same folder as the

parent mesh. It does not require any textures.

The floor plane and longitudinal centre line plane form the

backbone of the shadow, as shown.

Here we have the shape of the back of the cab and cab

steps at the back extremity.

To get closer to the true shadow shape we also need to

enable the Side Planes and re-make the shadow.

Note that in this example the floor plane offset is 1.6m

above the lowest extremity and no front, back or side

planes are used.

If we now enable the front plane we can move it to the

correct location. Press the Make Shadow button again

and the mesh will be rebuilt.

The shadow cast to the side to the loco will now show the

cab correctly.

In the Mesh Viewer rotate the shadow mesh around to

ensure that there are no gaps between the planes. In this

case we will have a gap at the rear of the cab as below.

Here we have the front plane with zero offset; just

showing the buffers and coupling or hose. Now we

change the Front Plane Offset to 1.65m, and make the

shadow again.

Adjust the Back Plane offset to 0.4m and re-make the

shadow.

The two views above show the front plane now in the

shape of the front of the boiler located just where the

boiler shape commences. With the sun behind the loco it

will now cast a shadow of the boiler correctly.

Now we enable the Back Plane with zero offset and make

the shadow again.

It is advisable to have a small offset of say 0.05m for the

Side Planes. This ensures that any gaps caused by the

point sampling method are closed up.

Scaling factors are provided to adjust the overall size of

simple shadow meshes. It is recommended that the width

and height scales be less than 1.00 ( I used 0.95 in the

example above) to prevent any rendering conflicts that

can cause the dreaded phasing effect in the game. In

most cases it is better to leave the length scaling at 1.00.

These scaling factors are different from those for box

shadows and are stored for later use.

In this case the cars have bellows passageways

connecting them, so the roof of the car commences about

0.4m from the ends. Set the Front and Back Plane

Offsets to 0.4m.

This completes the shadow mesh for Paul's A3. Poly

count is 659 in this case.

The checking of the progress of your mesh build can be

done if you connect Trainz Mesh Viewer to

QuickShadows. (see Setup section later). If you have set

up the mesh viewer to check the shadow it will be opened

immediately on completion provided that the Close On

Done option is NOT set.

The Side planes can now be enabled (again with the

0.05m offset)

Another Example

Now let us build a shadow mesh for a regular shaped

passenger car. I have chosen the BR MK1 Crimson and

Creams for this example.

The BR MK1 shadow mesh is complete.. poly count 480.

Footnote: The MK1 cars have roof ventilators that put little

bumps in the top of the profile. This raises the poly count,

as shown below:

Again we start with plane options all off and we get the

following.

Because the car is symmetrical we can turn on the Font

and Back planes together.

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