Sunken Heavy Rail?

[woodb3kmaster]

I'm very impressed! What was thought impossible until now has been demonstrated to have serious potential. Well done, buddybud! I'd give you a k-point if I could...

[Diggis]

I'm very impressed! What was thought impossible until now has been demonstrated to have serious potential. Well done, buddybud! I'd give you a k-point if I could...

I can and did for you.  Looks great guys.

[buddybud]

Well i had no more luck last night. but i feel like trying again today. Essentially every change in the material settings makes different aspects of the game appear in front or behind my models. sometimes trees sometimes buildings, props, overlays etc. So there's reason to believe it's just a matter of settings. Also i might want to try to using some s3d network props via t21 to see if a combination works.....Anyways i'm intrigued since it seems so close...again...when i get all the overlays working then the automata won't appear....when i get the automata to appear there are overlay issues....argh very frustrating. I'm going to have try different texture types also plus check out other existing model texture settings....hmmmm

anyways a bit of detail.

im using a standard network model built in reader overwriting the el
the model is comprised of four groups, ceiling, wallx2 and floor.
the ceiling is transparent and at 0.0 ground level.
walls and floor are not transparent and extend 8.5 meters below grade as do the paths.
essentially i'm just playing with the depth settings in unison with others for each of the groups texture material settings.

thats it.

if anyone has any ideas or knowledge please pm me or post etc
Bud

[Jonathan]

This is great 
But it's hard to follow, but there's 2 things I've noticed. You seem to have the model below ground? Are you trying to remake your old set, because in that all the models would have been above ground? (though this seems like something you would already know, so I guess you not trying to remake your old set?)

In this image you have not ticked the Depth Test box.

Maybe that helps or maybe it insults you (hopefully the first)

[buddybud]

sorry it's so hard to follow.....this stuff at the bottom is all new. It is below ground....and is not a remake of my old stuff...completely different.

Im trying to make a real network below grade using the el as a template and that s3d model seen above....with an additional wall. Right now its draggable because it overwrites the el straight piece.

Essentially i wanted to try to make a below grade nam puzzle piece like what nob did with his below grade glr. i might be remaking the wheel here since i'm not familiar with how this all works and i've yet to go through the private boards.

In this image you have not ticked the Depth Test box.

yes, thats how i've been getting results is by trying different combinations of the depth settings

Maybe that helps or maybe it insults you Wink (hopefully the first)

not at all....i'm in over my head 

edit...this pic makes more sense...in this screen shot the automata does not appear and props get hidden....but you can see it's below grade. I added Batted Wall Props to see if they can be seen below grade and that worked, i think because you are viewing them through the transparent top of the model...


Edit heres how it looks with the automata (train) showing.....see how it now overlays across the hydro wires and the below grade walls that should be hidden arent. i removed the wall on the visible side by the way.



another update.....i transformed the network model into a network prop and placed it via t21. It worked the same way. Network props don't bend so there's gaps on slopes...the interesting thing is we can see how its the model allowing the automata to show.....here's a pic to explain...


Don't know what it means but there ya go.

[buddybud]

a little update.

first it seems simply having a model below ground with texture with a depth function set to "greater" allows the automata below ground to be viewable against it. If the texture has alpha enabled the automata only appears when it crosses over non-transparent parts of the texture. The problem is that the texture and the automata appear overtop all other projections that should be infront of them.

i changed the model by using a network prop with the depth function set to "greater" inside an identical network model that is slightly bigger and has the depth function set to "less than or equal" the network model serves as a lod and works somewhat. It's the best i can come up with so far but there are still overlay issues though atleast it doesnt bleed over into the adjacent tiles now.




and heres a test dat for anyone who wants to play with it as seen above. Maybe someone can figure out more....place it after all loads. plus i did not have nam loaded when i did this. It replaces the straight el piece.

Cheers

edit....most interesting results so far, and ill stop here for now. Everything paints over the below grade model properly. But the ground texture returned. Of note is the train below grade is still fully visible....but still it insists on overlaying across items.

[miggoycor]

Interesting. I will be sure to follow this project! 
Beautiful!   

A bit of a pity that those sunken roads will never be released...   
They look so pretty. 

[JoeST]

this is fantastic!

Joe

[sim-al2]

Would removing the back face of those walls help?

[buddybud]

actually i'm sorry i didn't update here sooner...the above attempt proved to be a dead end as far as i could figure it. It was a merely an experiment that failed. The persistent problem is the ground texture...oh well.

However the sunken road pictures i posted a page back will work if changed to flups, though some one would have to make models and do the necessary modding since my example were long lost.

Bud

[woodb3kmaster]

Interesting, buddybud. It's unfortunate that a network reskin isn't feasible (or so I think you mean), but there's still hope. It sounds like we would be able to make sunken rail workable if it's puzzle piece-based. Thanks for working so hard on this idea!