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I am looking for either an existing object or info on how to create a realistic looking rain cloud. For those familiar with the area near San Francisco, the kind of cloud that so ominously lingers about Mt. Diablo.Of course, If I knew how to make it in gmax, I would likely ATTEMPT to animate some movement and lightning too. Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/tcmrrc/
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The easiest way to create a cloud is to start from a picture of the sky and turn it into an ace file for use by the MSTS environment. You can see examples from me in Jeff Bush's Environment Control (they come from my Albula Line): I mainly used sky pictures downloaded from the web.You can make clouds move across the sky through the
world_anim_shader_frame_uvscroll ( -0.01 0.005 )
statement in the *.env files, where the first number controls the speed component to the west, the second to the north; negative values reverse the direction of motion.Lightning is a bit trickier: I drew lightning myself and made it move very rapidly across the sky so it shows up at random (it is also available in Environment Control). But there must be a better way!
Michael Vone
Step by Step Guide to Route Building for MSTS - http://trainsimulatorworld.com/catalog/b506.htm
Albula Line 2.1 Route
Arollercoaster Route
Rocky Islands Route
Cliff Hanger Route
http://avsim.com/hangar/utils/mvchallenges/
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Note: Michael's lightning sky is not yet available for Environment Control. I'm working on packing it up right now, and getting it uploaded to the library. Should be another few days. But it is an awesome effect. The new pak of environments from Michael's Albula Line 2.1 also includes raindrops on the water and snow drifting (in motion) across frozen water.For great sky textures, check out this site:http://www.ransomactive.com/products/textures/start.phpThe textures are payware, but for me the investment has been well worthwhile. The critical problem for achieving a good sky with a sky photograph is modifying the image so that it "tiles", in other words, bottom wraps around to top, and left wraps around to right, with no visible seams. The textures of this site are all "tileable". I've made the Sea View skies with them.And on that subject, plans are afoot to upload a package of Sea View environments as well. They'll include the environment of Sea View 3, plus at least 2 new environments planned for Sea View 4, including Stormy Weather (which uses Michael's stunning lightning), and Quiet Rain (both environments also using the raindrop concept that Michael devised).We'll be uploading them because there's the strong suspicion that they'll work great with lots of other routes as well. You won't require Environment Control to use them, but EC will make the job much easier.Jeff
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Looking forward to the above.Although, I am not looking for an 'environment' setup, but rather for a cloud object that seems to hover in one area independant of the rest of the world around (kinda like the dark cloud that follows Charlie Brown around ).It would need to appear transparent to translucent around the edges (in 3 dimensions) and placed over a mountain peak so that from a distance, the peak shows above.Just not sure how to build a great big fluffy shape like that in gmax.Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/tcmrrc/
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