Railworks America

Let me begin with two screenshots taken during the Ice and Snow scenario:

1. Head out of right side cab window:


2. Head out of left side cab window:


What excites me about these images is that the engine's mirrors reflect! Oddly enough, they reflect clear sky rather than the hazy conditions present at this point in the scenario, but let's ignore that for the moment and concentrate on the fact that they do clearly reflect. Given that fact, it seems that were it possible to move the mirrors (which is possible on many TS engines, where the mirrors do not reflect), the cab personnel would be able to see what's behind their train without having to crane their heads around (okay, use their mice) to have that view. The code for moving the mirrors exists in TS2017, the reflective surfaces (such as the cab's metal exterior) exist in TSW.

Please, DTG, put one and one together!

If you move up to the sunvisor above the mirror and click it, it moves. Then the mirror hot spot will show up. While your in heads out mode.

Good find, Bob.

The mirror turns matte, just like in the beta.

One for the manual additions?

As with other things, I stumbled across the mirror control, but thanks for the information anyway. I wonder why the images on the closed and open mirrors differ?

OldProf wrote:As with other things, I stumbled across the mirror control, but thanks for the information anyway. I wonder why the images on the closed and open mirrors differ?

Because it's not an actual mirror but instead a "mirror" material.

bnsfsubdivision wrote:

OldProf wrote:As with other things, I stumbled across the mirror control, but thanks for the information anyway. I wonder why the images on the closed and open mirrors differ?

Because it's not an actual mirror but instead a "mirror" material.

No kidding?

Seriously, I received the following reply from DTG:

Many thanks for getting in touch about this.

Currently the mirrors only work at 90 degrees due to the way reflective surfaces are shown in Unreal Engine 4, what you can see here is called screen space reflection and can be achieved without hitting the frame rates.

We’ve also disabled the ability to fold the mirrors out in the game as we can’t deliver the reflections this way yet. It is our ambition to have them fully functional in the future though.

If you're intersted in learning more about this subject here's a link to an interesting article https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/IN ... eflection/

Best regards

Dovetail Games

Interestingly enough, however, as I previously noted the mirrors do fold out, which I discovered when that dash-lined circle with a dot inside it popped up within a mirror's activation zone -- which is quite large, by the way. I looked at the link in DTG's message, but didn't learn anything from it.

OldProf wrote:

bnsfsubdivision wrote:

OldProf wrote:As with other things, I stumbled across the mirror control, but thanks for the information anyway. I wonder why the images on the closed and open mirrors differ?

Because it's not an actual mirror but instead a "mirror" material.

No kidding?

Yup I currently have the exact same material set up on my model. There is a way to make proper mirrors though, it's just that it requires a lot of computer power because the game engine has to render two seperate frames only for that mirror.

How many active viewports does UE4 allow? Are there any car racing games with proper rearview mirrors in UE4?

When the power needed to reflect a view in the mirrors is dependent on their size, why not make them smaller?
I've seen locomotives with a clear glass wind deflector and only a small, slightly slanted, rearview mirror at the bottom of the fold out, near the armrest.

In this configuration one can drive with the deflectors folded out and not have the view obstructed, and only needs to glance down to look back along the consist.
Need to find a pic to explain: https://www.dayton-phoenix.com/productCategoryDetail.php?categoryId=48

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:When the power needed to reflect a view in the mirrors is dependent on their size, why not make them smaller?

It really isn't on the size but rather the amount. Two mirrors on one locomotive will already take up significant power necessary to render them. Now add all the other locomotives in your train or just the current scenario for that matter and there goes your fps.

Of course you could trigger the mirrors to come on and off depending on whether the player is actually in range but guess this feature along with many others came short.

bnsfsubdivision wrote:

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:When the power needed to reflect a view in the mirrors is dependent on their size, why not make them smaller?

It really isn't on the size but rather the amount. Two mirrors on one locomotive will already take up significant power necessary to render them. Now add all the other locomotives in your train or just the current scenario for that matter and there goes your fps.

Of course you could trigger the mirrors to come on and off depending on whether the player is actually in range but guess this feature along with many others came short.

As I understood DTG's reply, the folded back mirrors display "passive reflection', but without the fog and rain effects.
Folded out mirrors need to be actively rendered as a viewport.
We have to wait and see what they make of that. I don't think working mirrors are that important, but then I'd rather have clear glass in the "windshield wing".

Let's let them keep working on optimization for now.

How many forum members does......................

OldProf wrote:Let's let them keep working on optimization for now.

I wholeheartedly agree!

They are on our road map.
Currently sat under a title (want)
My broad brush importance buckets.

1 - Need
2 - Want
3 - Would like

:)
cheers
d

buzz456 wrote:How many forum members does......................

......................it take to bump the off topic thread?