Railworks America

Can signals actually have a beam projecting from their lenses and certain flare/scintillation effect to make them better visible from a distance?

Can the locomotive headlight flare be put on signals?

AFAIK the default BNSF signals don't have any projection as there a no emitter child objects in their bins.
It seems that the lighted lens and faint glow are coming from the shapefile node and textures.

I suppose one can add three emitters (red/yellow/green) and script them to light up with the proper indication.

Some of the RCAP signals were given lens flare.

PapaXpress wrote:Some of the RCAP signals were given lens flare.

Thanks, Papa, I'll check them out. Searchlight signals probably benefit most. I've found some different lens flare textures on the web, stars and halos and coronas.

Experimenting with locomotive headlights showed me it is not so much the projection of light over a distance, but rather to be able to see the source of the light and the scattering of the beam over the distance. So I think it is more a problem of the light emitting node's texture and "luminance" characteristics.

K
This does not answer your question but in TS2014, TSX ON straight track, no dense trackside foliage the signals come into view at about 0.6 mile but is at about 0.4 mile that you can see if it is green or red (flashing signals show at 0.6 mile). With TSX ON this is greatly reduced possibly due to FXAA/FSAA being applied.
As I say it does not solve your issue but may be of interest.
PeterH

Just a side note, Ded Mozaj's C36-7i has a headlight beam that you can actually see from a side view at night - which is very cool to me. Do any other locos do this?

Older RW2 engines used to have this, it a visible texture protruding from the headlight, not an actual light projection.

Peterhayes' observation is very valid, it might well be the shaders and other postprocessing that "blur" distant headlights and signals.

DTG: one step forwards, two steps back. Wonder if the new game and graphics engine is going to fix all this?

Finally achieved a projecting signal for the COARW using the obsolete SMMDigital assets.
There is also a subtle lensflare, but that needs to be tweaked to get a more piercing effect.

My question is, the far distant flare rings don't seem coloured but remain pearly white. Do I need to create coloured flare textures?



I would like to achieve effects like these: