Stroudley Coaches Progress #1

I am making good progress on the LBSCR Stroudley coaches pack, after a long break due to other commitments. In a series of posts I will highlight some of the features I have added as the coaches are developed. 

Random Roof Variation

We often associate the pre-grouping period with fresh white canvas roofs, however photographs from the time reveal this isn't the case. For this pack, I have made 4 roof colour variations which will be randomly selected depending on the livery. Earlier liveries are more likely to have freshly-outshopped white roofs, whereas later ones will be greyer. 

 1. Outshopped but used in service:

2. Lightly weathered:

3. Weathered:

4. Heavily weathered:

As you can see, the weathering applies to the oil lamp chimney pots. It will also be applied to the gas lamps when these are developed.

The colours can be set via the railvehicle number (RVN), using ;RT=[1,2,3,4]. If you want to set the whole train, you can use ;RTA=[1,2,3,4] on one coach to set the whole continuous rake. Here, [x,y,z] means you select one of the numbers in square brackets.

Oil Lamps at Night

The early versions of these coaches, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s, were illuminated by oil lamps. This required a member of staff to climb onto the carriage roof, remove the bung, and place the oil lamp in the roof aperture. This form of lighting was rather dark and dingey according to contemporary accounts, an effect which I have tried to replicate.

1. Oil lamp in use

2. No oil lamp in daytime

To reproduce the lighting effects from an oil lamp, I have developed a script which simulates the flickering of the flame. Additionally, there is a small animated flame for added realism. Here is a short video demonstration of the carriage interior at night. 

Note how dark it is! Later developments in carriage lighting, such as gas lamps, will be included on later liveries, with adjusting lighting parameters to represent the differences between these modes.

Carriage lighting is automatically applied if the start time of the scenario meets certain criteria, depending on the season. It can be forced on/off in individual coaches using the RVN flag ;LI=[0,1]. As of right now, the lights won't come on at a certain time of day (as in reality the lights had to be manually lit and placed in the carriage).

It should be noted that the lights are not shadow-casting, but will still have a very small performance hit on older machines. No more so than yard lamps, for example. 

Thank you for reading. Please remember all content here is work-in-progress.