Making tunnels dark....how?

I have several tunnels in my layout that are all running underground. I am using the cement/round tunnel. I have seen other tracks that have tunnels and they are all "dark" when you get into them a bit. Some of mine are quite long underground and should be almost totally dark, but this is not the effect in the simulator. They are quite bright...which would be fine if there were lights in them. How can I make my tunnels dark like others I have seen? I am not seeing any settings for this.

Thanks,

Greg

[mkingy]

Without being at a NL computer I believe there is a check box with the style settings that says "dim as if in tunnel" or similar right at the top - does this solve the problem?

That's an option under Scene Object Instance Properties..... but I don't see how you would turn it on for a tunnel object. Tried selecting the tunnel track and that didn't give the option. Hmmmmm

[mkingy]

Ah yes, my mistake.

Would you be able to give us some sort of visual comparison of the dark tunnel against your tunnel Greg? It may be that they have different environment settings with the shadows set too a darker colour

[herman116]

As far as I know NL2 makes the track in the tunnel already darker automatically... If you want to make it look like it's darker, maybe you could color the track inside the tunnel black.

The 1st pic is MY tunnel. This tunnel happens to be about 40 feet underground at this point and about 400' into a 700' tunnel. Should be NO light really... Oddly enough, when I am running the sim...the tunnel looks way lighter than it does in this picture.


The next 2 are from a video on youtube. I have message the creator but have not yet heard back. You can quickly see the difference..his are perfect (though the track being darker as well would be really cool but not sure that's possible.)

[herman116]

I've tried some things in the editor but couldn't get the tunnels this black either... I think he might uses a custom object to do this. Something like static black fog which is placed in the lower parts of the tunnel. The entrance of the tunnel looks just as bright as normal.

Maybe it's the type of coaster you are using? or maybe you could make some lights black and put them in the tunnel section?
Another idea is to keep the environment in the night time.

The only thing I can really conclude from the image is that since youtube videos often appear darker it may just be that coming into play. Their tunnel is most likely the same brightness as yours but it looks darker on video. They could also have their brightness down?
It's likely just down to perception rather than a specific method to make a tunnel darker so I the best solution is just a custom 3d object that is pitch black and changing the track colour to black whilst it's in the tunnel.

Bouncypip11 wrote:

The only thing I can really conclude from the image is that since youtube videos often appear darker it may just be that coming into play. Their tunnel is most likely the same brightness as yours but it looks darker on video. They could also have their brightness down?
It's likely just down to perception rather than a specific method to make a tunnel darker so I the best solution is just a custom 3d object that is pitch black and changing the track colour to black whilst it's in the tunnel.

I am starting to think the same thing as I have watched his video and he simply makes the tunnel just as I have made mine. So I am thinking it is just the video that is making it that dark.

That said.... maybe that's something they should think about...A dark tunnel once you are past x feet/meters into a tunnel with more than x feet/meters before the end of the tunnel. Sounds simple...but as a programmer....I know that something that sounds simple can take 1000+ lines of code to do one little thing. LOL

Greg

Thanks all for the thoughts......They got me thinking....

Hi,

I have the same problem! Do you have any results meanwhile?

It will be looks much better, when the tracks in the tunnel are invisible, when no light is coming in (and reflects).

Thank you for your answer!

Greetings

Hi Greg,

are there any news about this topic?

I have exactly the same problem. I want my tracks be dark / invisible in area's without light (like in tunnel).
But e.g. in a tunnel I always see the track, without any light coming in.

Thank you!

Greetings

I have found nothing new on this since I asked. Hoping they will add this sometime soon...