New ES44!!

[buzz456]

OK, thanks. The complete horns and bells sound pack is available from the RWA file store. Credit to Boeing737 of course.
Link http://railworksamerica.com/cgi-bin/RW3 ... l?file=443
The Leslie Supertifon sounds great as well, but on other roads.

I live about 10 north of the UP main line going into Chicago so with 71 trains a day and I cross the tracks almost every day I hear these horns a lot. Again .

Buzz

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

*noms on his keyboard while others do things for me, trying his hardest to look cute to make up for it*

oh I have a better ebell btw, at least thats how it sounds to me.

Never mind, I want to learn all the tricks of the trade to personalize my Railworks. This was a quick and easy hack, just a few new paths. No fancy effect chains and controlvalue aliases.

Boeing, how do dynamic brake fans sound? Shouldn't they run constantly to cool the resistor grids? The Railworks engines all have the same dynamic brakes sounds that go up and down.
How loud are they in the cab if the grids are over the radiators at the rear of the hood?

I am correct in assuming the prime mover revs up and down according to dynamic braking power i.e. resistor grid current? It says so in the locomotive operation manuals I've read and the numbers on the dynamic brake handle indicate the notch, that is r.p.m., the prime mover goes into to supply braking power.

Coming down a steep hill in full dynamics is pretty loud also, I think. Any good videos with this?

[simer4]

*noms on his keyboard while others do things for me, trying his hardest to look cute to make up for it*

oh I have a better ebell btw, at least thats how it sounds to me.

Never mind, I want to learn all the tricks of the trade to personalize my Railworks. This was a quick and easy hack, just a few new paths. No fancy effect chains and controlvalue aliases.

Boeing, how do dynamic brake fans sound? Shouldn't they run constantly to cool the resistor grids? The Railworks engines all have the same dynamic brakes sounds that go up and down.
How loud are they in the cab if the grids are over the radiators at the rear of the hood?

I am correct in assuming the prime mover revs up and down according to dynamic braking power i.e. resistor grid current? It says so in the locomotive operation manuals I've read and the numbers on the dynamic brake handle indicate the notch, that is r.p.m., the prime mover goes into to supply braking power.

Coming down a steep hill in full dynamics is pretty loud also, I think. Any good videos with this?

Here is a YouTube video showing what it sounds like on the inside.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Cool video: winter, dry rails, lots of squealing going through those tight curves, trestles without walkways or railings, rock slide detector fences, concrete portals leading into natural rock tunnels and more. Cab ride video is always great.

Now, hop in your favourite ES44, take the fireman's seat, press the UP arrow and you have the same view as in the video, sand filler hatch, grab iron and all.

[BNSFdude]

Thanks B7.. I only recorded the Bell static with no other noises around, but you know. I guess it isnt good enough for some people.

[MontanaRails]

The dynamic brakes are still pretty powerful. More than 7% and you stop 80 loaded tankers (with adjusted weights) and 5 es44s in about 50 feet on a 0.8% grade on Sherman Hill.

I too have to disagree with this. I've run several stock scenarios so far and going down the long grade toward Cheyenne, its common to have to crank up the Dynamics up to maintain speed. Its pretty much in the 40% to 60% the whole way down. Even going to 100% dynamic braking and 10 pound reduction on the train brakes slows it down, but not really fast. Maybe something didnt get updated in your copy? I think the dynamics are pretty darn good now.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

I second Montana, for I concluded another small test: Slow Climb South with just two of the new ES44's and the cement hoppers loaded. The default scenario has them empty.

Going down Cajon on the Frost "high" track one really needs to work the dynamic brakes to keep the train's speed in check.

Will tomorrow try again with just one ES44. The engine will probably struggle going uphill but I expect a larger amount of dynamic braking will be needed. That way I hope to prove to myself that all units in a lash-up assist in dynamic braking.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Thanks B7.. I only recorded the Bell static with no other noises around, but you know. I guess it isnt good enough for some people.

Don't be offended, BNSF, if you provided the new ES44 sounds for RSC you did a pretty good job. It is markedly better than the old Kuju model.
Many users just want to give their kit some personallity of their own and start tuning and decorating it themselves as soon as they opened the box.
And of cousre different roads used different appliances on their locomotives.
One problem still hasn't been solved: when you lash up many units together, their sounds interfere with eachother. It would be great if each engine was slightly "out of tune" so one could still hear them separately.

Did you also supply RSC with some new car sounds? When coming to a stop there is a very prototypical screach with the new SH cars.

One think eludes me so far: how to get an EOT device on the last car. I thought it was either done by automatic script or by selecting an asset in the scenario editor.
I presume it only works with the new SH cars so perhaps it has to be set in the scenario editor by actually clicking on the last car. Will try tomorrow and work it out.
However, the EOT has no identifier and is therefor unselectable and the SH cars have no script component.
So I think it is a node to the car's shapefile that is controlled by some scripting elsewhere.

[Machinist]

Notice that Bob said with weight "adjusted" (not with the usual wrong/unknow default settings). I took the Slow Climb South (same Kanawha is mentioning, not the SH ES44 though) and could stop the train in the plain from 50mph in 0.15mile with full DB (no auto brake), and from 30mph in just 0.05mile (no auto brake also, only DB), in both cases after DB effectively started to work (after the "set off" delay time). In the down hill over the pass with 50% of DB (remarking: with no Auto Brake, should have at least 15psi reduction on BP) the speed was 35mph, and applying full DB speed reduced from 20mph to 5mph in less than 0.1mile. If all of this is not an over powered DB.... I don't know what more to say! *don-know!*
In RW3 the train would derail, so the DB is far better than default RW3 ES44, a progress no doubt. I also noticed that the same train reached 15mph in less than 0.1, and further was going up the hill at 50mph in the 1.5% grade in notch 8 with 275Amps, or Notch 5 at 45mph (same 275AMps), ie throttle over powered also. I guess is not worth to mind too much about physics in this game, just relax and have fun moving trains forth and back. That's the reason it's designed for: entertainment, only. And there is a lot of new excelent improvements: sounds (of engines, under bridges, inside tunnels, the bumps from track joints), the new F3 not that obstrutive, better fps performance, really awesome visual, Quick Drive, game pad (poor of my RailDriver!) etc.

[BNSFdude]

Thanks B7.. I only recorded the Bell static with no other noises around, but you know. I guess it isnt good enough for some people.

wait i'm confused, you did the e-bell for the new ES44AC?

Most of the sounds are indeed my work.
Can't blame you for the horn though, it didn't turn out quite how I liked it. It sounds much better on my truck than it does in game.

[GaryG]

I tried the "old" Cajon Pass "Don't Stop Moving" scenario, ES44AC's and SD40's.

Power - At full throttle all the way up the hill, the maximum speed reached was around the 20MPH mark and much was at about 15MPH. If I'm remembering correctly, I used to need to reduce throttle in the 30 MPH track section so I wouldn't exceed the track limit. Much closer now to how I would expect this train to behave.

DynamIc Braking - Heading down the other side of the pass, I felt the settings used and train responses were quite reasonable.

Train braking - Lots of room for improvement here still. I don't think much was changed here. It still takes a 30% setting before anything happens.

Couplers - Still stretch and pull out of the pockets. Fixable by replacing fifteen or so files with the fix Kali posted some time ago.

I feel definite improvements have been made but it's still more of a game than a simulator of railroad physics, at least for North American railroading but that won't stop me from letting it raise my graphics card temperature and work the power supply a bit harder (about an extra 100 Watts). ;-)

GaryG

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Will continue "testing" some more today. "" are there for a purpose because both Bob and Doc are right: of course it is more of a game than a simulator. I don't think the typical bloke or gal who is used to playing XBox has the patience and understanding for a real railroad simulator. This means both accelaration and braking are to be much faster otherwise the kid holding the controller might get bored and go hyperactive on the buttons.

I noticed the lading only adds an extra 36.1 tons to a cement hopper that supposedly weighs 27.4 tons empty. These are supposed to be 100 ton hoppers, so could take around 30 tons more lading.
Will substitute values from Bob's NERW equipment and try yet again and notice the difference. Also 70% of vehicle weight for air braking power is way too much, US stock is typically around 12% IIRC from a thread here. Won't touch the new ES44 for now, for its inner workings are more complicated. Its mass is 188.3 tons, its dry friction is 100% (!), sanding multiplies the TE, max force pulling is 198 something DB max force is 117 something. Then there are value vs speed and throttle setting curves to be taken into account also. How all these parameters and many more are equated is still a mistery, the simulation engine has many secrets still.

I want it to be as simple as this:
TE = Max Value * Throttle% * Throttle vs Speed * Friction at the rail * Sand
DB = Max Value * Handle% * Braking vs Speed * Friction at the rail * Sand
AB = Max Value * Brake Cylinder Pressure% * Brake Shoes vs Speed * Friction at the rail * Sand
The above values times the number of units in a lashup. It really shouldn't be more complicated.

Problem here is, if you change vehicle weights that drastically, big chance the standard scenario doesn't work anymore because the timings get calculated differently by the "AI dispatcher". But I think if I swap the cars using RW_Tools, and leave the TS2013 scenario editor alone, the program won't know the difference. If I so much as touch the test train in the editor and try to run the scenario, none of the opposing AI trains can find its path anymore.

So now I am running a single new ES44 pulling 40 100 ton hoppers and certainly do notice the train is a lot slower and more sluggish. TE pulling away from start was 880 in the ControlStateDialog window. So I assume that is the max starting TE of a single new ES44. Anybody knows the prototype value for comparison and calibration?
Really need to lean on the throttle to get the train up to track speed before the ascent to Summit starts. Max TE in run 8 at 25 MpH around 180.
Train maxes out at around 40 MpH after 30 or so minutes steadily going up 1.5% grade, TE 130, 340 Amps continuous before I reached Summit and eased off on the throttle.

Now going down the Cajon North track to test the dynamic brake. Minimum brake cylinder pressure using keyboard at 3% handle position is 17-20 PSI, which is rather high. Prototype values are lower.
Slowly increading DB handle to 55% because 60% makes the wheel slip indicator come on. Still doing over 37 while the allowed speed is 30 MpH down that >2% track.
Speed is slowly dropping so next time should start the descent at a lower speed or make that first speed reduction using air brakes only.
Challenge now is trying to find the sweet spot of dynamic braking: max effect and speed without wheel slip. Down to 50% DB still doing 33 but holding. Speed fluctuations in the F4 HUD indicating some slack action. Dynamics seem to hold, 50% handle, 30 MpH at around 600 Amps resistor grid current with 17 PSI on the cars.
Of course the notch numbers don't correspond, but my Kuju ES44 dynamic brake handle hacks don't work yet on the new ES44.
Easing up on DB, down to 40% in the 35 MpH section so speed slowly increases, 475 Amps current while coasting through the canyon. I read the San Andreas Fault runs exactly beneath the tracks.
When the speedo touches 34 MpH, up to 45% DB, 530 Amps, passing the oil train.
Controlling the speed by moving DB between 40-55% all the way down to the start of the 15 MpH siding leading into San Bernardino's freight yard.
... then the board went down and I was already working on something different when it came back online 3 hours later ...
I conclude with saying that I think the new ES44 is sufficient for me now.

[Machinist]

As we have been discussed along the last year, the physics to work must be right not only in engines but in every car as well. I've recently learned that realistic physics are also hard coded and it takes a lot of research, which is not for sure the case of RSC products. For example we know that all engines in game are in fact over powered, once the 4400 in the blueprint is in Kw which is equivalent to 5800HP, not counting the losses. Looking into wiki it seems the suggested values for throttle, for example, approach an arithmetic curve (1=12.5%, 2=25.0%; 3=37.5%; 4=50.0% etc.) when they should be exponencial (1=6.3%; 2=12%; 3=25%; 4=36.0% etc.) which favours slower starts. And also TE should vary for a given amperage. There are some information on here, you can use the formula in the document to check how close or far from the real thing your tweak is:
http://www.republiclocomotive.com/tract ... tions.html

Good look,
Doc.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Can we at least find out which of the values of the engine and simulation blueprints are actually taken into account?

Gamemanager.dll?

It must be possible to patch this file, just like MSTS bin?

[Machinist]

I have no idea about .dll or .exe files, and how they work. I was used edit the Railworks.exe with "HxD Hex Editor" to hack the screen size for the game, but didn't try it yet with TS2013.

About simulation values for ES44AC, for example, you will find them here:
...\railworks\Assets\Kuju\RailSimulatorUS\RailVehicles\Diesel\ES44AC\Default\Simulation\ES44AC Engine Simulation.bin

You can edit it with RWTools, of course you are already aware.