Train wagon realistic position relative to curvature

[FR3D]

I manage to find a realistic way to position a train properly on a track. (see file attached)

Wagon cannot simply be copied on an animated point on a curve as the centre is offset-ed in turns realistically.

A path deformer is out of the question because of the deforming geometry

 

This is my solution.

 

1) I created a 2 point line for each wagon

2) I path deformed the result

3) created a single point for each of those deformed line to copy each wagon onto, with proper vector for the wagon alignement

 

I feel it is very complicated and i am curious for a better solution.

If anyone interested to give his input.

train_realistic_track.hip

[PixelNinja]

Here's a quick approach I came up with.

It assumes all carriages are the same length. I also measure carriage length along the curve, rather than in world space, so it becomes more inaccurate the less straight the track. This should do fine for most purposes, but if I find the time I'll see if I can implement a more accurate measure.

 

train_align_v001.hiplc

[PixelNinja]

More accurate version. Also supports a length attribute for varying carriage lengths.

I left a toggle for the simple calculation as that might be desired in certain circumstances.

train_align_v003.hiplc

[PixelNinja]

Made a cute little render with this technique

 

toy_train_cam03_v001.mp4

Edited December 23, 2019 by PixelNinja