HowTo/WagonX - Browser Properties Examples and Basic Tutorials

Please note: Much of this page still needs some validation. If you find issues then please contact PCAS1986 in the Trainz Forums or in the Trainz Discord Server.

Document Structure

The WagonX Tutorial set is written over several pages. This page contains some example WagonX config containers and basic guidance for setting up those containers. Other pages in the series are listed below:

1. HowTo/Use the WagonX Library
   
2. HowTo/WagonX - Technical Reference
   
3. HowTo/WagonX - Locomotive Tutorial
   
4. HowTo/WagonX - Traincar Tutorial
   
5. The asset author's documentation

Browser property tutorials

This tutorial takes you each step of creating a simple mesh toggle example. It is for a handbrake mesh, including animation, that the user may want to show (make visible) or hide (make invisible). We will add each property tag and explain its purpose. It may be useful to have the WagonX Technical Reference page open in a browser to examine details of the various tags.

Creating a basic mesh toggle Start with an empty browser-properties container like this: browser-properties { } Add an empty property container and name it "0". The names are not used but should be unique. When we add more properties, you should name them “1”, “2”, “3”, etc. browser-properties { 0 { } } There is no order required for each property, but using a standard order makes it easier to follow. Each tag is hyperlinked to the browser-property, so you can see more information about it. The first tag to add is enabled. This determines whether or not the property is activated. Set it to 1, since we want our property to work in-game. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 } } Set the visibility of the property using property-visibility and make that 1. Note this value is an integer and doesn't require quotes around it. A value of 1 makes the property visible in both Surveyor and Driver. See the reference for other available values. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 } } Set the name of our property. The name will appear before the display-values, which we will get to in a moment. You also will want to add a space at the end; otherwise, the property name and display-value will appear as one word. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " } } Set the property-id, which can be anything as long as it is unique and doesn't contain restricted characters. Trainz will use this to identify this property. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_meshToggle" } } Set the description. This will appear as the tool-tip when you hover over a browser-property. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_meshToggle" description "Toggles the mesh" } } Set the property kind. Since we want a mesh-attachment kind, we must also specify the mesh-attachment-type which for this application is mesh-toggle. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_meshToggle" description "Toggles the mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" } } Now add a meshes tag to specify what mesh we want to toggle. The mesh name must exist in the config mesh-table. We will use the script author's prestwins handbrake lever for this demo. Here is part of the config mesh-table: handbrake-lever { mesh "mesh/handbrake.lm" anim "mesh/handbrake_scene.kin" auto-create 1 att-parent "default" } browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" } } Add the values tag. This determines what the state of the object will be at each index. The values tag varies depending on the kind, but looking at the values tag page, we see that for kind mesh-toggle, we set it at 0 to hide the mesh, and 1 to show the mesh. Each index is comma separated, so we will set the first one at 1, and the seccond one at 0. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" values "1,0" } } Add the default-index. This is an integer value starting from 0 and which indicates the position in a list. 0 is the first in the list, 1 is the second, and so on. (The reasons for this are somewhat historical but also based on how computers find things in memory.) If we set it to 1, it will start at the second comma-separated values tag which is "0". If we set it at -1, it will pick a random index within the size of the values tag. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" values "1,0" default-index 0 } } Add the trigger tag. We want our property to activate when a user presses a button on the properties page, so we will set it to user. If we set it to event, however, we could make it activate based on an event within the train or in the world, such as handbrake apply, or enabling it when it gets dark, and disabling it when its daytime again, but for now, we will leave it at user. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" values "1,0" default-index 0 trigger "user" } } Specify the display-type. Looking at the options, we see that link is what we want. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" values "1,0" default-index 0 trigger "user" display-type "link" } } Finally, the last tag we need is the display-values tag, which we talked about earlier. Since we have two states for our property (specified in the values tag), we will create two comma-separated values for each state. We will call the first “Enabled”, and the second “Hidden”, which corresponds with the numbers we set in the values tag. browser-properties { 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle Mesh: " property-id "p_handbrakeMeshToggle" description "Toggles the handbrake mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "handbrake-lever" values "1,0" default-index 0 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Enabled,Hidden" } } And that's it! Run the asset into trainz, and when you view the properties, you should see your property appear: And when you click on the underlined part of your property, the property should change to “Hidden”, as we specified, and the handbrake on the underframe should disappear.

Browser-Property Examples

User-Triggered Properties

Here are a number of examples for user triggering - i.e. in the View Details property browser. Detailed information on the property browser tags can be found on the WagonX Reference page.

Mesh-toggle property This property allows you to show or hide a mesh that is in the config mesh-table. { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Toggle: " property-id "p_toggle" description "Hide or display the roof mesh" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-toggle" meshes "roof" values "0,1" duration 3 default-index 0 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Hidden,Visible" }

texture-replacement property This allows the choice of a texture from either local texture files (i.e. contained within the asset), or from a texture group asset, to retexture or reskin a mesh. You could use it for swapping between clean, dirty or weathered textures, logos and also entire liveries.

Texture replacement using local texture files For fx-replacement-type texture-replacement-texture, the comma and/or semicolon-separated values are the names of the files (ideally without the path or extension) to be referenced at that index. The values tag will contain a list of texture(.txt) files including a folder name if used. This is an example of three textures. values "images/congleton.texture,images/burntisland.texture,images/buxton.texture,images/none.texture" If you have the same path (and same extension) for all your files, you can greatly reduce the clutter by just specifying the path and extension once using the files-path tag. See the files-path and values usage below. Note that the display-values tag contains similar information but that is for the user to see. 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Workflow Text: " property-id "p_workflow" description "Sets the Workflow" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement-texture" consist-property-sync 1 meshes "null" effects "texture-extra" asset "null" files-path "images/,.texture" values "congleton,burntisland,buxton,none" default-index 0 trigger "user" display-type "list" display-values "Congleton,Burntisland,Buxton,None" }

Texture replacement using a texture-group library asset You will need to specify the texture group asset in the kuid-table and give it a name such as "texturelib" or "gwrtexturelib", The name should not have any spaces or other special characters. This property container is set up to allow for three different variations of the the material used for the asset. They are named in the "display-values" tag as Skin 1, Skin 2, and Skin 3. Since it is a PBR material there are three textures used in the materail: the albedo, parameters, and normal. The normal texture is common to all three versions so it need not be changed. The "values" tag contains six numbers which are the numbers of the textures in the texture-group asset. For Skin 1 the "12" refers to the albedo texture, and the "15" refers to the parameter texture. "13" and "16" are the pair for Skin2, and "14" and "17" are the pair for Skin 3. The "effects" tag contains the texture effect names for meshes in the mesh-table. { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Weathering: " property-id "p_skin" description "Sets the weathering type" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement" meshes "null" effects "texture-albedo,texture-parameter" asset "texturelib" files-path "null" values "12;15,13;16,14;17" default-index -1 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Skin 1,Skin 2,Skin 3" }

Event-Triggered Properties

loading-doorsProperty The ‘meshes’ tag references a mesh-table asset named ‘loading-doors’, and sets the frame to 30 when begin-load is called (to open the doors), and 0 when end-load is called (to close the door). The default index is 0 (the animation frame will be at 0), and the animation duration is 1.5 seconds. { enabled 0 property-visibility 0 property-id "p_doors" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-animation-frame" meshes "loading-doors" values "0,30" trigger "event" events "end-load,begin-load" duration 1.5 default-index 0 } An alternate way to do it is use mesh-attachment-type "mesh-animation-state", and set a bool int (0 or 1) for the values tag. { enabled 0 property-visibility 0 property-id "p_doors" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-animation-state" meshes "loading-doors" values "0,1" trigger "event" events "end-load,begin-load" default-index 0 } If you want two doors to open at the same time, instead of creating another property, you can use a semicolon split in the values tag to change two in a single property: { enabled 1 property-visibility 0 name "Handbrake State: " property-id "p_handbrake" description "Toggle the handbrake" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-animation-frame" meshes "door-1,door-2" values "0;0,30;30" events "handbrake-release,handbrake-apply" duration 3.0 default-index 0 trigger "both" display-type "link" display-values "release,apply" }

Weather-Based Texture Replacement The texture effect will change based on the weather. It will display a snowy texture when the weather type is 6 (medium snow), a wet, rainy texture when the weather type is 3 (rain), and a dry texture when the weather type is 0. { enabled 1 property-visibility 0 property-id "p_weather_skin" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement-texture" effects "texture-weather" files-path "images/,.texture" values "texture-snow,texture-rain,texture-dry" default-index 0 trigger "event" events "weather-6,weather-3,weather-0" }

Using semicolons to set multiple values in one property When assigning values for a certain property, you will specify the mesh/effect/sound, etc that needs to be edited, and specify how you want to manipulate it (fx-replacement-type, mesh-attachment-type, etc), and set the value for a certain index. For example, In a texture replacement where a texture is being replaced by an external texture-group asset, the property would look something like this. 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Skin: " property-id "p_skin_parameter" description "Sets The Texture" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement" effects "texture-albedo" asset "texturelib" values "1,2,3,4" default-index -1 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Skin1,Skin2,Skin3,Skin" } As you can see, the comma-separated numbers in the “values” tag indicate the index in the texture-group asset to find the texture; here are the first few lines for that. Texture indexes 0, 1, 2, and 3 are referenced for the albedo texture types, since we have 4 weathering types. kuid <kuid2:661805:500009:0> username "BR GrainHop Texture Group" kind "texture-group" trainz-build 5.0 category-class "JO" author "dundun92" contact-email "jbvector93@outlook.com" description "A texture group for my GrainHop wagons" textures { 0 "270cgo/0albedo.texture" 1 "270cgo/1albedo.texture" 2 "270cgo/2albedo.texture" 3 "270cgo/2albedo.texture" 4 "270cgo/0parameter.texture" 5 "270cgo/1parameter.texture" 6 "270cgo/2parameter.texture" ......... } We specified the texture-group library in the kuid table, and referenced it in the “asset” tag. kuid-table { acslib <kuid2:60850:89100> meshlib <kuid2:661805:500002> texturelib <kuid2:661805:500009> lamp <kuid2:661805:500003> enginespec <kuid2:368699:50064> bogie <kuid2:661805:400003> } And then we specified the effect we wanted to change, (currently just the texture-albedo), inside the “effects” tag (this is not the effects tag below in this mesh table asset, but rather the one in the browser-properties at the top of this section!). body { mesh "mesh/body.lm" auto-create 1 att-parent "default" effects { texture-albedo { kind "texture-replacement" texture "covhopp-1_albedo.texture" } texture-normal { kind "texture-replacement" texture "covhopp-1_normal.texture" } texture-parameter { kind "texture-replacement" texture "covhopp-1_parameter.texture" } } } But say you want to replace the normal map as well. You would probably just create another browser property and specify the proper index for the normals. 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Skin: " property-id "p_skin_parameter" description "Sets The Paramenter Texture" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement" effects "texture-albedo" asset "texturelib" values "1,2,3,4" default-index -1 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Skin1,Skin2,Skin3,Skin4" } 1 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Skin: " property-id "p_skin_normal" description "Sets The Normal Texture" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement" effects "texture-normal" asset "texturelib" values "7,8,9,10" default-index -1 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Skin1,Skin2,Skin3,Skin4" } But we can't forget the parameter map… that will require a third property. What's worse, we will now have three different properties in the view details page that will each have to be clicked on to change each map! Assigning properties this way can get tedious and create extra clutter in the config. Thankfully, for properties that share the same kind and type, it can all be done in a single property using semicolons: 0 { enabled 1 property-visibility 1 name "Skin: " property-id "p_skin" description "Sets the weathering type" kind "fx-replacement" fx-replacement-type "texture-replacement" meshes "null" effects "texture-albedo,texture-parameter,texture-normal" asset "texturelib" files-path "null" values "0;4;8,1;5;9,2;6;10,3;7;11" default-index -1 trigger "user" display-type "link" display-values "Clean,Weathered,Dirty,Rusty" } Take note of the three tag entries above: the effects, values and display-values tags. The display-values tag is what the user sees and can choose from. Our interest is in the remaining two tags as shown below: effects "texture-albedo,texture-parameter,texture-normal" values "0;4;8,1;5;9,2;6;9,3;7;11" There are four user options and, since each option requires three textures, the total number of textures is 12. The values tag contains a string of four groups of texture numbers separated by a comma. Within each texture group the texture numbers are delimited by a semi colon. To clarify, we can list the three textures associated with each user choice: 0;4;8 -> Clean 1;5;9 -> Weathered 2;6;10 -> Dirty 3;7;11 -> Rusty The first column of 0,1,2,3 identify the albedo textures. The second column of 4,5,6,7 identify the parameters textures, The third column of 8,9,10,11 identify the normal textures. Note that the numbers do not need to be in sequence or even consecutive. All those numbers do is to identify the correct texture in the texture-group asset. This system works for other kinds of properties, too. In this case, we are setting the animation frame of both the handbrake-lever, and braking system at the same time using the same property (triggered by the same event). 1 { enabled 1 property-visibility 0 name "Handbrake State: " property-id "p_handbrake" description "Toggle the handbrake" kind "mesh-attachment" mesh-attachment-type "mesh-animation-frame" meshes "handbrake-lever,braking-system" values "0;0,30;30" events "handbrake-release,handbrake-apply" duration 3.2 default-index 0 trigger "both" display-type "link" display-values "release,apply" }

Naming ACS mesh-table attachments Please refer to this page on the ACS coupling system for setting up the “active-coupling-standard-60850” extensions container (which will be required for the ACS coupling to work): ACS Coupling System These are the mesh-table naming conventions you must use for the beginning of the name of each ACS attachment mesh. The others will vary depending on the “animated” property above. You must spell them exactly as shown below. coupler gangway airbrake vacbrake multiworking heating rch If the “animated” tag in the acs container (see acs) is set to 1, then the naming is quite simple. It's one of the 7 callbacks above + a dash + “front” or “back”. The anim tag must be present to specify the animation for it. Frame 0 is the uncoupled state, and the last frame is the coupled state. This setup is shown below: coupler-front { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "coupler-screwlink-animated.lm" anim "coupler-screwlink-animated_scene.kin" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } coupler-back { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "coupler-screwlink-animated.lm" anim "coupler-screwlink-animated_scene.kin" auto-create 1 att "a.couple1" att-parent "default" } vacbrake-front { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "vacbrake-single-animated.lm" anim "vacbrake-single-animated_scene.kin" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } vacbrake-back { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "vacbrake-single-animated.lm" anim "vacbrake-single-animated_scene.kin" auto-create 1 att "a.couple1" att-parent "default" } If, however, you do not want to use animations, but want to use separate meshes for each state (coupled and uncoupled), it gets a bit more complicated. The naming will follow the same as above at first, but you must add a third piece to it to specify the exact type of ACS attachment this is. The information on what to put there is originally from the ACS page, but the 7 callbacks have been added plus the sub-callback here to make it easier (the third callback options are the ones with a delta symbol Δ ). And for the uncoupled state, the third callback is “non” (e.g. coupler-front-screwlink, and coupler-front-none). coupler front/back Δ "hook" -- connects to screwlink/instanter/3link/hst-emergency-bar. Δ "3link" -- connects to hook. Δ "instanter" -- connects to hook. Δ "screwlink" -- connects to hook. Δ "hst-emergency-bar" -- connects to hook. Δ "bar-full" -- connects to "bar-none". Half of a handed pair for when one vehicle has the entire bar coupling. Δ "bar-none" -- connected to by "bar-full". The other half of the handed pair. Δ "bar" -- connects to self only. Used when both vehicles have half the bar coupling. Δ "knuckle" - standard knuckle coupler. Δ "tightlock" -- different from a standard knuckle, refers to a knuckle style coupler often fitted to multiple unit trains that also include electrical connections. Δ "wedgelock" -- London Underground coupler. Δ "bsi" -- Found on Sprinter DMUs and derived designs. Δ "dellner" -- Also compatible with Scharfenberg coupling. Δ "scharfenberg" -- Also compatible with dellner coupling. Δ "(other string identifier)" -- Any string that is not recognized from the above list is assumed to be a symmetrical meet-in-the-middle type of coupler. Δ “none” Examples: coupler-front-instanter, coupler-back-none gangway front/back Δ rubbing-plate Δ gangway Δ none Example: gangway-front-gangway airbrake front/back Δ twin Δ single Δ none Example: airbrake-back-none vacbrake front/back Δ twin Δ single Δ high Δ none Example: vacbrake-back-twin multiworking front/back Δ "(color)-(shape)" -- e.g. "blue-star" or "red-diamond", etc Δ "AAR" -- as used on GM locos Δ "SR27" -- bagpipes Δ "(other identifier string e.g. classname)" Example: multiworking-front-blue-square heating front/back Δ "none" Δ "steam" Δ "electric" Δ "dual" Δ "southern-electric" Example: heating-back-steam rch front/back Δ "high" Δ "low" Δ "none" Example: rch-back-high And an example how it would look inside a config.txt. The back attachments have been omitted for brevity. coupler-front-screwlink { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "coupler-screwlink-coupled.lm" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } coupler-front-none { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "coupler-screwlink-retracted.lm" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } vacbrake-front-single { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "vacbrake-single-coupled.lm" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } vacbrake-front-none { mesh-asset <kuid2:661805:500002> mesh "vacbrake-single-retracted.lm" auto-create 1 att "a.couple0" att-parent "default" } Copyright Notice Much of the content on this page and child pages was derived from Dundun92's original Google Docs document. Permission was granted to use that information here.