Union Pacific FEF-3 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotive, by Smokebox

[TheTeenageFoamer]

I did look into doing the N&W J-Class, no. 611, but it was going to be prohibitively expensive.

Why? Because of copy right reasons?

The cost of the drawings and royalties on sales.

Ok, understood

[UP3985]

I don't know how many steam locos you've ever been around, but the new effects are definitely more realistic. I'm not equipped to judge their gracefulness.

Thanks for all the hard work Mike. Wonderful stuff.

I've ridden the locomotive in question across Nebraska, and it's not to say they aren't realistic, it's just that a constant black stream that looks like a caterpillar inching behind seems a bit obnoxious for an oil burner. You don't want constantly thick black smoke, you want very little. Idk, I'm gonna play around with it more. Maybe it'll grow on me.

[UP3985]

Also: the shield is back on the floor in the black advanced version.

[mrennie]

Also: the shield is back on the floor in the black advanced version.

Oops! Thanks for spotting that. I'll add it to the hotfix I'm sending to DTG.

[mrennie]

I don't know how many steam locos you've ever been around, but the new effects are definitely more realistic. I'm not equipped to judge their gracefulness.

Thanks for all the hard work Mike. Wonderful stuff.

I've ridden the locomotive in question across Nebraska, and it's not to say they aren't realistic, it's just that a constant black stream that looks like a caterpillar inching behind seems a bit obnoxious for an oil burner. You don't want constantly thick black smoke, you want very little. Idk, I'm gonna play around with it more. Maybe it'll grow on me.

I'll see if I can address this with a mod exclusively for the file library here at RWA. Before doing so though, I'll try to explain what motivated me to change the smoke in the first place. The smoke is a one of those "Marmite" things (Marmite, for those who don't know, is a gooey substance that we in the UK spread on slices of toasted bread, and you either love it or you hate it). Some people liked the old smoke, but many people said that they didn't. That made me look at it more closely, and when I did, I saw more and more flaws in it and that convinced me that it needed to be re-worked. The most obvious flaws (obvious to me, at least) were:

1. The wind speed bug, especially bad when using dynamic clouds, caused the smoke to be spread out too thinly and to shoot off in the most absurd directions (sometimes at 90 degree angles to the loco even when the loco was going along at 100mph).

2. That same wind speed bug also played havoc with the different "external forces factor" values I'd used for the various emitters (which I'd done originally in TS2014 as a way to get different amounts of movement, or simulated swirling, in the steam emitters). It meant that you'd often see each emitter sending it's particles in very different directions, which looked silly.

3. The stack smoke emitters, when the loco was moving at some speed, caused the particles to bunch up into a cloud, of a darker colour, at the end of the smoke trail, which to my eyes resembled a bushy tail (like on a rabbit) and really detracted from the visuals. I noticed this in lots of screenshots and it always bothered me.

4. The smoke trail was long, but it was also too straight (this is true of practically all other steam locos in TS, because the Connie and FEF-3 are the only ones to have addressed the issue by introducing scripted turbulence). That's because the emitter blueprints alone have nothing in them to simulate air turbulence or the way that smoke billows, but they do have something that can be manipulated via LUA script to make them change direction when they leave the stack.

5. The "chuffs" of smoke from the stack at low speed weren't distinct enough for my liking - the smoke seemed to come out too evenly and you couldn't really see the chuffs synchronised with the exhaust beats.

6. I've looked at hundreds of photos of the real 844 in motion, and dozens of videos, and in the vast majority of them, the smoke is dense and billowing, and often with a wavy shape to the smoke trail, partly because of the swirling, turbulent air in the train's slipstream.

That's what I wanted to fix with the patch - I wanted to see thicker smoke, not the feeble amount that you usually get, and I wanted it to billow out of the stack and for it to look as of the air were moving it around in the smoke trail.

These two photos give an idea of what I had in mind:

11218512_439338439561470_924377604914807201_o.jpg

10989471_439338296228151_2965212081291149475_o.jpg

Of course, in those photos, 844 was pounding up a grade (Soldier Summit), which would explain the thick smoke. With my patch, the smoke does revert to the thinner trail of "idle" smoke when the loco is coasting with very little exhaust pressure, so it's not always that thick. I also adjust the emitter rate according to the exhaust pressure, so the smoke density does vary depending on what the locomotive is doing.

Anyway, what I'll do with the mod is to experiment with using the old smoke textures and emitter blueprints, but keeping the script as it is (the script controls the emitter rates and the simulated billowing and turbulence). In fact, I could send you the mod in a pm so that you can try it out and then we can make adjustments until it's as close to your liking as we can get it.

[UP3985]

That sounds wonderful, the scripting and new effects are awesome, but so much smoke even when running light looks obnoxious to me. The thickness of the idle smoke in my opinion looks amazing for a regular running thickness, thicker for heavier grades, even thinner for sitting idle on spot fire.

Just thoughts, I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[mrennie]

That sounds wonderful, the scripting and new effects are awesome, but so much smoke even when running light looks obnoxious to me. The thickness of the idle smoke in my opinion looks amazing for a regular running thickness, thicker for heavier grades, even thinner for sitting idle on spot fire.

Just thoughts, I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

Thanks, it might just be a simple matter of changing the threshold value of average exhaust pressure at which it switches between the idle smoke and the thick smoke.

[UP3985]

Is there a reason why the keyboard commands no longer control the brake levers? (Sorry to sound like a knit pick, I'm just used to the keyboard controls for brakes)

[mrennie]

Is there a reason why the keyboard commands no longer control the brake levers? (Sorry to sound like a knit pick, I'm just used to the keyboard controls for brakes)

That's strange. Mine work. Are you sure the levers don't move when you press the keys? They'll drop into the detents on each key press, so to move farther on, you have to release the key for half a second.

[UP3985]

I'll try it again.

And nope, nothing, even when only pressed once. Both the independent and train brakes.

[mrennie]

I'll try it again.

And nope, nothing, even when only pressed once. Both the independent and train brakes.

Is it still the same? It's working for me, so I can only assume you need to verify the files. Maybe try going to the DLC tab and untick it to uninstall it, then reinstall it.

[Mp5a4]

I'll try it again.

And nope, nothing, even when only pressed once. Both the independent and train brakes.

Is it still the same? It's working for me, so I can only assume you need to verify the files. Maybe try going to the DLC tab and untick it to uninstall it, then reinstall it.

I am having this issue as well. I'll try reinstalling and get back to you.

[mrennie]

I'll try it again.

And nope, nothing, even when only pressed once. Both the independent and train brakes.

Is it still the same? It's working for me, so I can only assume you need to verify the files. Maybe try going to the DLC tab and untick it to uninstall it, then reinstall it.

I am having this issue as well. I'll try reinstalling and get back to you.

OK, thanks. Make sure it's a clean install, i.e. no other files alongside the .ap files.

[Kirito]

Ever thought of makin a weathered version? Its so rare to see weathered locos in RW.

[buzz456]

It's not so rare if you spend some time looking through the library.