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AlabamaRailfan (121 posts)
Jan-28-02, 11:16 AM (EST) "Distance Levels" Hey Guys,
Okay, some people told me I need to do "distance levels" on the ACF CenterFlow hoppers I am working on (http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID5/2384.html). Good idea, but I am not sure how to go about this. Is it as simple as reducing the distance that my car is able to be seen? Seems like the ideal thing to do, would be to only have the sim draw maybe the main body and trucks at any distance over, say, 500-750 meters. When I change the distance levels in TSM, it changes it for the whole object not any pieces.Any ideas how to accomplish this? Do the big boys (3DStudio and 3DCanvas) give you some control over this that I cannot get in TSM?Thanks, Guys! I really do appreciate your input!John D. Peterson
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Distance Levels troub Jan-28-02 1 RE: Distance Levels troub Jan-28-02 2 RE: Distance Levels AlabamaRailfan Jan-28-02 3

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troub (228 posts)
Jan-28-02, 11:31 AM (EST) 1. "RE: Distance Levels" I don't know about TSM, but 3DCanvas will create distance levels for you by phasing out objects that have their own frame (ie. not part of the "main" frame). So, I create my ladders, hatches, roofwalks, etc. in their own frame, and 3DCanvas will take those objects out after a certain distance (it does all this automatically, and I haven't checked the .s files, so I don't know what the distance is, exactly). Right now the only 3DC feature for MSTS that I would like to see improved is the distance levels--I'd like to have more control over it myself. I might ask over on their forums, Richard (the developer) is often pretty responsive I submit this information because you mentioned 3DC.With 3DStudioMax, I believe you would create a few different models (one for each distance level) with progressively fewer details. Then, when you run conv3ds, you specify the models you want used for each distance level. There is a particular syntax for doing this, so you'd have to check the TechDocs.troub
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troub (228 posts)
Jan-28-02, 11:36 AM (EST) 2. "RE: Distance Levels" LAST EDITED ON Jan-28-02 AT 11:36 AM (EST)>When I
>change the distance levels in
>TSM, it changes it for
>the whole object not any
>pieces. Ok, I thought about this for a moment, and I might take a wild guess. Does TSM allow you to define several objects, and then link them together into "frames"? I'm not sure the terminology they would use, but it's a hierarchy where you have a "frame" that contains several objects and may contain sub-frames which contain their own objects. If such a hierarchy is possible, you may be able to define the distance levels for each "frame" (or container of objects). The reason it does it for the whole model right now might be because all of your objects are linked under one frame. You might want to check the TSM documentation for information about hierarchical design, and see if there's anything that sounds similar to this.troub
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AlabamaRailfan (121 posts)
Jan-28-02, 01:49 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Distance Levels" Hey troub!
Thanks for the info! Well, I check the TSM docs and found one sentence that seems to pertain:"A project can be made of one or more objects. So Train Sim Modeler supports the concept of a current object. Each object is a different version of the model for display at a different distance."And that's it! Hahaha! Oh well, I think I am starting to grasp the concept and I will do some experimenting to see how to actually implement this in TSM. I will have to do some experimenting. I wonder if I have to have an exact copy of my car (minus the details) as one object, with the distance set to 2000 meters, then have a "full up" version with the details and a distance set to about 100 meters or whether just the details can be set to 100 meters and the body/trucks be set to 2000. I am at work now so I will experiment tonight.Thanks again for your help!John D. Peterson
Webmaster - AlabamaRailfan.com
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