MSTS-2 Wheel Flanges

[oakpalms]

In the photo from the Stevens Pass track level crossing which gives a very good closeup of the wheels it appears that the flange is set for the outside of the wheel instead of the inside. It certainly looks like there is no flange on the inside. Is just a bad image or is this an oversight?

Bob Edwards

[Driverman2008]

I also noticed that the bottoms of the wheels on the SD40-2 were green.

[stonelance]

The flange is on the inside, and the wheels are green because they are really shiney and the global environment map has trees in it.

[Driverman2008]

The flange is on the inside, and the wheels are green because they are really shiney and the global environment map has trees in it.
So, is that how it's supposed to be in the real world? I never saw a train from that angle before.

[rdamurphy]

You'll probably never want to either!

Robert

[jchaisson]

Good answer!!!!

[Turbo Bill]

Good one Robert, I actually chucked out loud on that answer. It's what I call the Possum Cam view.

[SCrails]

railroad kill.

[Dirty Boy]

Lord, please make the wheels brown n' rusty. Train wheels are never cared for, therefor, it's not quite possible to see terrain from a "mirror".

[stonelance]

It is my understanding that the contact surface of the wheels are often quite reflective because they are constantly getting ground against the rail. For the same reason the top of the rails are also reflective. That said, it definately is too reflective in that picture. They were still tweaking textures as far as I know, and I was kind of annoyed that they chose to pick such bad angles for their shots. Oh well!

[shortbart]

Your understanding is right, Steve, they are reflective at this point. Well of course it´s too much, but i think it will be better after fixing :)

[keber]

So, is that how it's supposed to be in the real world? I never saw a train from that angle before.
I did, and wheels certainly don't look green. They are not rusty too. ;)

Usually it is too dark under wheels because of shadows to notice anything except at last or maybe first wheels, which reflect track gravel and rail, therefore they are mostly grey. I took this picture of a freight train on some cloudy day on railway inside dense lush forest (so much about global environment map with trees :D). It is not ideal presentation of wheel reflections, but the best I have, other pictures have wheels way too dark.
http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=6795&d=1222114071

[Portergraphic]

The wheels are still being worked on. There is going to be a specific wheel reflection map that has a darker top and bottom to it.

When making demo builds for shows, sometimes what you want to get in there is not able to make the build.

Rest assured, I am on it and it won't ship like that.

[Skoaler]

Here is an Idea,,If this train sim 2 is based on the FSX engine then the wheels could change (Like Flight sim aircraft wheels) from (r_tire_still_key) to (r_tire_blurred_key).. This would allow train cars sitting in sidings to have a rusted rail contact point look (Still)..but when the cars get pulled the wheel would change to the reflective mirror material look(Blurred) or slow r_tire_slow_key and then the blurred. We do this in FS9 and FSX for airplane wheels and if you wanted to you could actually change one wheel part into another according to its movement..All you need is for the car modeler to provide 3 sets of wheels for each car -Still-slow-blurred with the correct animation tag name and your done..Also effect attach points could be attached to the -slow- wheel making a fine mist of rust as it starts rolling..but that would probably be too much:cool:

[TrirailF40PHL]

Here is an Idea,

Lots of effort for something that won't be seen much and will take up processing power that could be put towards a better frame rate.

That said, how would you be able to specify what equipment should have rusty wheelsets?

Obviously, wheelsets wouldn't default to a rusty state the moment they stop moving, and to have all static consists defaulting to rusty wheelsets at the beginning of the game would not make any sense either - equipment does get used too.

Take care,

-Kurt

[oakpalms]

Mike,
We are confident that the sim will have appropriate looking wheels when it ships. There is one payware builder who has some great looking cars with a high gloss looking wheels that are sold above price than his normal cars with less defined wheels. It would be nice if we could get wheels as nice as this builder has done for MSTS-1. I've forgotten which websigtes has them for download, but you might want to at least see what they look like. I am sure one of the other guys will know which webpage I am referring. I am away from home using a borrowed computer and don't have my links with me.

Bob Edwards

[rdamurphy]

www.tigertrains.com (http://www.tigertrains.com)

He does good work.

Robert

[krausyao]

I was recently taking close-up photos of wheels, trucks, and couplers. Here is one of the wheel photos.

[Erick_Cantu]

Remember, kids, green reflections on wheels are impossible.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=6839&stc=1&d=1222332783

[oakpalms]

That looks like mashed weeds sticking to the wheel picked up from the very weedy track--something very temporary. It can't be classified as a reflection. I hope WOR does not have a lot of such tracks!

Bob Edwards

[Erick_Cantu]

Mashed weeds that are in perfect shape, show perspective distortion, and clearly defined (and not mashed) patches of dandelions?

It's a reflection. Trust me - I was kind of there.

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=6858&stc=1&d=1222468837

[TrirailF40PHL]

Concur with Erick.

-Kurt

[bessemer]

Ditto...

[rdamurphy]

What I fail to understand is why this entire discussion is continuing? After all, it's been posted that they were temporary environmental maps for a test of the game, that's all. And at any rate, if you do any modelling at all, you know you can spend hours on one tiny detail, only to run out of time and say "forget it."

Robert

[shortbart]

I totally agree with that, robert.

[Skoaler]

Lots of effort for something that won't be seen much and will take up processing power that could be put towards a better frame rate.

That said, how would you be able to specify what equipment should have rusty wheelsets?

Obviously, wheelsets wouldn't default to a rusty state the moment they stop moving, and to have all static consists defaulting to rusty wheelsets at the beginning of the game would not make any sense either - equipment does get used too.

I guess my real question was--Is TS2 based on the FSX engine? And if so then are the cars in MDL format like FSX aircraft? and if so then do the wheel animations automatically go from still/slow/blurred to smooth out the wheel animations? If so then Processing power has (Nothing to do with it) as each wheel state is removed from memory as the other takes over--still-slow-fast...Of course you are right that a wheel will not instantly appear rusted the moment it stops--Boing! another impossible thing you cannot do with FSX..Just make them all reflect map mirrored (All the time)mode. :cool:

[Erick_Cantu]

What I fail to understand is why this entire discussion is continuing? After all, it's been posted that they were temporary environmental maps for a test of the game, that's all. And at any rate, if you do any modelling at all, you know you can spend hours on one tiny detail, only to run out of time and say "forget it."

Robert
You're crazy. I only spent 58 minutes on that bolt.

[Portergraphic]

Here's a pic of the updated environment map. This is a step in the direction I want to go, however I may tune it later.

http://portergraphic.spaces.live.com/

I added a picture there.

[Driverman2008]

Here's a pic of the updated environment map. This is a step in the direction I want to go, however I may tune it later.

http://portergraphic.spaces.live.com/

I added a picture there.
Looks great, Mike!:)