JTraffic Screensaver

Snow

[SNOW: Parameters ]\
[BS: ]\
[BEGIN_SNOW]\

Parameters:

BASE = <Integer> ;

B = ;

BOTTOM = ;

HEIGHT = <Integer> ;

H = ;

TOP = <Integer> ;

T = ;

SPEED = <Real> ;

V = ;

INTENSITY = <Real> ;

I = ;

START = <Real> ;

S = ;

STARTTIME = ;

AX = <Integer> ;

Start of falling snow

The snow falls in a separate layer - in front of all the other layers - in the whole width of the line. The parameter BASE= ; specifies the bottom line of the area, to which the snow falls. It is measured from the rail line; positive numbers mean upwards.  Therefore, usually you will use a negative number here. The default value is your actual value of the BELOW=;, so, if you omit this parameter, the snow will fall through the whole area under the track line. If you want to use a part of this place for writing descriptive text there ( see the TX=; parameter of the movements ), perhaps you do not want the snow  to fall in front of this text as well.

The top line - where the falling snow enters the screen - is specified either by the TOP=; or by the HEIGHT=; parameter. TOP=; determines the absolute position of the top line, HEIGHT=; determines the height of the snowing area, which is relative to BASE=; . Do not use both parameters; Traffic uses only one of them (at the moment HEIGHT=; has precedence over TOP=; , but these is no guarantee that it will remain so in the future versions).

The default value for the HEIGHT=; parameter is the whole area of the line ( the sum of the actual values of BELOW=; IMGY=; and ABOVE=; ), so, without specifying the upper line the snow will fall from the top line of your line area.

The SPEED=; parameter gives the time ( in milliseconds ) the snow falls one pixel lines down. The default value is 60.

The INTENSITY=; parameter controls the strength of the snowfall. It is a percent value, how much area is covered by snow. The default value is a strong snowfall with the value 5 - meaning, that about each 20th pixel will be covered by the falling snow.

The START=; parameter controls the initial phase, when the snow begins to fall. The intensity of the snowfall will be grow continuously from 0 to the given INTENSITY=; value during the start time. The value is given in seconds. Default value is 10 seconds.

The [SNOW: ] action doesn't wait for the end of the snowfall, nor for the start phase. As with other animation actions, it starts the animation while Traffic continues to analyse and obey the actions contained in the <WaitTime> or <ActionList> parameters.

Usually you will start the snowfall in the TB=; parameter of the movements.

[ENDSNOW: Parameters ]

[ES: ]

[STOP_SNOW: ]

T = <Real> ;

Finish the snowfall

The snowfall will need to stop. The T=; parameter specifies the time (in seconds) of how long it takes for the intensity of the snowfall to be lowered to zero. Default value is 5 seconds.  After that, the snow pixels already falling need some time until they fully disappear from the screen.

You can also finish the snowfall in the TB=; parameter of the movements - do not forget, the [SNOW: ] action doesn't wait, so if you want to see the snowfall you will need to specify some wait time too, for example:

TB=[SNOW:2.3],40,[ENDSNOW],10;

the snow will fall for 40 seconds, then finishes, and after some seconds the train enters the screen ( it all was inside the waiting time before the movement starts ).

Of course, you can stop the snowfall every time you have to possibly specify an action. The parameters:

TB=[SNOW:2.3],15;TE=[ENDSNOW],10;

will start the snowfall before the train enters the screen. During the whole movement the snow will fall and will stop after the train has left the screen.

You do not need stop a snowfall, the movement can finish with falling snow - in that case the line will disappear from the screen full of snow.

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