Coal District NS ES44 - Dynamic Sounds (See also for Cab Screen Fix)

[MontanaRails]

Ok, so we already know that the train brakes are all sorts of messed up on the Coal District Norfolk Southern ES44 (and for that matter, all the recent North American DLC - just like the numberboards are inexplicably no longer lit at night), we know we can't fix them easily. We already know the on screen indications for power vs. dynamics are backward (yellow vs green). I haven't investigated how to fix that one yet. I've been working to consciously ignore these glaring faults so I can attempt to enjoy the route and locomotives. But one thing that's really annoyed me is the fact that the dynamic brake sounds constantly loop with the NS ES44.

In the Class ES44.proxyxml, this is what I see:

Capture.jpg

Something doesn't look right...something looks like a very sloppy copy/paste error. But I'm not entirely sure how to fix it, since copying the relevant sections from a different, working ES44 (say, the Stevens Pass unit) causes more issues than it solves.

I think it's safe to say I will never be buying another DTG branded DLC. Just like many others, I feel the pull to "that other sim" getting stronger and stronger.

[buzz456]

Go check it out and when you come back you can tell us why you are returning.

[MontanaRails]

Well, seeing as I'm much more interested in the "simulation" part of things, and not so much the eye candy, I very much doubt I'd return if I made the jump over. A focus on realism is a big difference between them and those sailing the good ship TS2014 blindly through the fog. Some aspects of their community are comparable, though, such as their forum administrators propensity to be short tempered and dismissing of their members.

The only reason I've stuck around in this game is because of the hundreds of hours of work of research, planning, and development time into my Baltimore & Ohio Lake Subdivision route. I guess I dread the day I end up deleting the unfinished route I've worked hard on for the past 3 years, but at this point it seems to make even less sense to invest more time in something that I wont enjoy myself, and likely wont be appreciated.

In other news, in my quest to try to fix yet another of DTG's mistakes, I just discovered I cannot copy or paste in RW_Tools anymore, (yes I've tried a re-install) so I guess I'm just giving up on this game for now.

[plethaus]

The "other sim" has its fair sure of shortcomings, as well, like a totally absent single player experience (outside of driving trains around for the heck of it.)

Don't get me wrong, I COMPLETELY understand your frustration with TS2014. Unfortunately we are in such a gaming niche that we have to deal with problems with any current offering. Thanks for trying to look into the NS ES44's issues, though. I've been working my way through fixing horns on various locos, which almost universally have awful, awful sound quality or scripting.

[MontanaRails]

Thanks for that, plethaus. It can be frustrating, for sure. But what's even more frustrating is when some of the members here seem to want to dissuade those who are trying to help fix things, and get them to join them in blindly accepting DTG's mediocrity.

For those who are interested, I'll leave you with this fix, for now.

It's a fix for the NS ES44 on-screen amp bar indications. Basically, there's supposed to be a green bar for "power" and a yellow bar for "dynamic". There was no yellow bar on the default screen texture they made, so instead of just painting one on in an unused area, it seems someone had the bright idea to use another "yellowish part" of the texture to map the yellow bar to. But...then in the process, they accidently got them backward, mapping the power bar to the yellow and the dynamic bar to the green.

So...I identified the yellow part they used, (which was an LCD screen over the train brake handle), and I gave it a greenish tint - but not too green so it wouldnt look neon and stand out like a sore thumb. I then painted the default green sample spot yellow, effectively reversing their error.

I also changed the railroad code on the screen from "UP" to "NS", and added some "Help Menu" text (referenced from a photograph of a real ES44 screen, and yep, the formatting errors are authentic!).

For those who know how to do this, place the attached file called "es44ac_cab_6_7.TgPcDx" in Assets\RSC\PennCoal\RailVehicles\Diesel\ES44AC\Default\CabView\Textures (you'll have to make some of the folders unless you've upacked the .ap file).

If you dont like it, just delete the folders you made and the game will revert back to the .ap file.

Screenshot_Norfolk Southern Coal District_40.03019--79.88177_17-32-46.jpg

No, the screens are not perfect, but I think they're a little better. Ok. I've had enough of this game for now. I'll check back in after TS2015 is released to see if anything is addressed.

[HankySpanky]

...such as their forum administrators propensity to be short tempered and dismissing of their members.

Try to be more understanding. Heck, if you lived in Sycamore, IL you'd be short tempered and dismissing too!

[MontanaRails]

...such as their forum administrators propensity to be short tempered and dismissing of their members.

Try to be more understanding. Heck, if you lived in Sycamore, IL you'd be short tempered and dismissing too!

Perhaps. Sorry Buzz! DTG frustration got the best of me.

Edit: I was born in Elmhurst, Ill. Now I'm in Montana. It's not by accident. Just kidding.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Ok. I've had enough of this game for now. I'll check back in after TS2015 is released to see if anything is addressed.

Don't leave, Montana! It is people like you who notice, fix and share things that constitute the good part of our community.
I'll happily incorporate your fix in the list of fixes to my Railworks install.

[Chacal]

Capture.jpg

Something doesn't look right...something looks like a very sloppy copy/paste error. But I'm not entirely sure how to fix it, since copying the relevant sections from a different, working ES44 (say, the Stevens Pass unit) causes more issues than it solves.

I'd say you probably just need to replace "Sander" (in yellow) with "DynamicBrakes", which is probably the correct name for the control.

If you can get your copy/paste back in RW-Tools, that is.
I seem to remember this problem with RW-Tools may be caused by read-only files.
Usually when you extract a file from an .ap archive it is flagged read-only.
RW-Tools has a function for removing this flag.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Ok, so we already know that the train brakes are all sorts of messed up on the Coal District Norfolk Southern ES44 (and for that matter, all the recent North American DLC - just like the numberboards are inexplicably no longer lit at night), we know we can't fix them easily. We already know the on screen indications for power vs. dynamics are backward (yellow vs green). I haven't investigated how to fix that one yet. I've been working to consciously ignore these glaring faults so I can attempt to enjoy the route and locomotives. But one thing that's really annoyed me is the fact that the dynamic brake sounds constantly loop with the NS ES44.

In the Class ES44.proxyxml, this is what I see:



Something doesn't look right...something looks like a very sloppy copy/paste error. But I'm not entirely sure how to fix it, since copying the relevant sections from a different, working ES44 (say, the Stevens Pass unit) causes more issues than it solves.

It looks a little suspicious, but since this is a loudness modifier, it could very well be correct that the Sander control influences the dynamic brakes' loudness? It references loundess curve 11242, which is defined in the <Curve> section as belonging to the Sander control. If you look just below your marked lines, you'll see the Sander loudness is modified by both the Sander and AbsoluteSpeed control values. AbsoluteSpeed is an internal game engine controle value, not defined in the <ControlValues> section of the engine.bin.

I believe all dynamic brakes sounds are looped with this audible start - whine - decay - silence sequence. I'll have to decode the sound sample 11167 which points to T-ES44_DynamicBrakes.dav to listen and find out if it is a continuous whine or not. Sound sampe 11627 is defined in the <Loop> section and is played as a continuous loop when the DynamicBrake controller is positioned between 0.1 and 1.0. So it should play continuously when the controller is above 0.1.

Lower down the proxyxml you'll find the <OneShot> section with the clicks you'll hear in the cab when the DynamicBrake controller is moved from 0.0 and back into 0.0. The clicks use sound samples 11181 and 11195 respectively.

The soluction would be to cut the dynamic brakes' whine sound loop into separate attack, sustain and decay samples, and hook these up to the dynamic brakes controller going into "Setup" (attack), being moved past Setup into actual braking (sustain), and being moved back past Setup into traction (decay). The attack and decay samples should fit in the fixed amount of time required for the switchgear to make the transition and the prime mover to spin down.

Or one could increase to volume of the whine depending on resistor grid current, making the sound more dynamic?
I believe the prime mover should also rev up whilst the locomotive is in dynamic braking to provide excitation to the traction motor-generators and to provide ventilation, but don't know if modern AC units work the same. The old GP/SD units would rev up to notch 4 in full dynamic braking.

[buzz456]

I apologize to one and all once again if I appear dismissive to some however when the forum which is a huge treasure trove of information gets used for a "FaceBook" page or littered with folks who are to lazy or ill informed to bother to do a basic search before asking the simplest question it gets rather annoying to those of us who have been around for a while. I will help anyone with a problem with anything however when you try to help someone and then they just disappear on you or they don't answer the question you asked trying to determine what their problem is or the worst ................help my what won't run. Help me?????? .

Sigh,
Rant off.

BTW Sycamore Illinois is a beautiful little Midwestern town in the best tradition.

[MontanaRails]

Chacal,

Good idea - I tried that but unfortunately it didn't help.

Kanawha,

Some of the DLC actually do seem to work correctly when it comes to continuous fan sound in dynamic, like the Stevens Pass ES44. It uses a different setup and notch setup in the engine.bin file...not exactly sure how to move it all over correctly. I've tried the obvious Cut/paste job and it doesn't seem to work.

And...still having issues with RW Tools on pretty much any file. It appears (through windows explorer "properties" window) that none of the read only flags are set on these files, so I'm not sure what's wrong. I've updated to the latest version of RW_Tools, and have run the "Make all RW files read/write" option as well. I'm running windows 8.1 if that makes a difference. I suspect that one of the recent windows updates did something....

BTW, Buzz, it might help us all out if there was a "age" notation next to each poster's name? I suspect there's quite a few young people here and we might need to give them more leeway when it comes to that behavior.

EDIT: Apparently, even though the files in the Railworks folder "appeared" to not be set to read only, they were. I fixed it by selecting the entire steam folder and noticed that it showed all included files as read only. Changing global permissions fixed it.

[buzz456]

Perhaps they should learn to respect their elders if that's not too far out of fashion.

[MontanaRails]

Perhaps they should learn to respect their elders if that's not too far out of fashion.

Agreed.

[Chacal]

Don't touch Buzz's Gran Torino.

Apparently, even though the files in the Railworks folder "appeared" to not be set to read only, they were. I fixed it by selecting the entire steam folder and noticed that it showed all included files as read only. Changing global permissions fixed it.

♪ Told you so ♫

That's why I said to use the function in RW-Tools.