2 tracktrains and 1 trackautochange Created 18 years ago2005-09-08 12:10:16 UTC by ][R()N

I have 2 tracktrains using a trackautochange at the same time (a train and its windows) the trackautochange only moves the train body (not the windows). Is the func_trackautochange entity only supposed to be used with one tracktrain?

yeh, pretty much. use two (make one completely invisble, with same propeties/position of the first trackautochange execpt target of course) that might work

I'm trying that right now and triggering both trackautochanges is somewhat iffy. Although i suppose a multi_manager might do the trick. Otherwise each train will need its own set of path_tracks.

Edit: the multi_manager doesn't seem to solve this either. Unless I'm not using it correctly it looks like each train requires its own set of the whole track sequence.

Maybe this would work?

Make a momentary_button just in front of the trackautochange. Make it 1 unit thick, so that the bullet would go through it. Now make another trackautochange anywhere in the map, make it invisible. Name it e.g "trackchange2" and write the name in the momentary_buttons' target field...

How did you set this up, e.g. what entity triggers what other entity and when? Like, how did you trigger the track_autochance and such?

I got everything to work with 2 trackautochanges and path_track sets for both trains. Funny though that the train body lags about 1 unit behind the windows when in motion. I compensated for it by moving the windows 1 unit backwards from their origin.This is probably why vALVE didn't use windows in their train.

Trains are somewhat buggy sometimes, yeah. You could make those windows a bit larger then they really are and make them thinner as the train hull, so nobody notices both from the inside and outside...

Use null brushes for windows then you wont have to have two trains!

Yeah but then they don't even look like windows with the glass texture. Then they are just invisible.

Clip brushes, Elon. Null brushes cause the faces of the train that connect to them to disappear.

Clip brushes wouldn't require 2 trains. The tracktrain entity allows them to by tied to it with normal brushes. But that's not the point. The train is supposed to have glass windows.

And making the windows larger does help a bit. However, when the train goes around a turn or gets trackswitched the glass gets a few degrees ahead into the turn, thus popping the windows sideways out of their frames. Maybe the train has to move at like 2 units per second for it to look right lol.

I know, and that's the advantage of clip-brushes. Valve did it too. But I agree, glass looks better when it's not too visible. Disadvantage is, and I think that counted when HL was released (nowadays we have better systems), is the transparancy overlay. Multiple transparant faces cause the scene to be redrawn and using too much of them really gives you trouble.

And still trouble with buggy trains? I'd think of using models but that's more something for HL2... I guess you'll have to live with it, or throw out the glass if the synchronisation problem is really that obvious.

But aren't clip brushes aloud only as world brushes?

Nope. They can in fact be used with func_trains and func_tracktrains, etc.

I got the synchronization down nice and pretty by triggering the train body 5 hundreths of a second earlier than the windows. Not sure how the trains will behave on a different PC though.

I remember having tested clip brushes on trains once, and when you stand next to a wall and a clip train is coming at you, insteas of crushing you it pins you down to your position since it can't push you any further. You can't move untill the train is gone. Funny artifact and it might come in handy in some occasions?

Hmm...