Railworks America

I recently purchased RW2 and have been running different routes just to become familiar. I must admit graphics
are superior as is the graphics. As I've gotten more involved I've noticed some things that I found to be peculiar
which I've listed below:
1. Why at night while you have exterior illumination say the headlights on an engine there's actually no beam
of headlight in front of the engine illuminating the tracks ahead. I was curious so I did a You Tube search for
RW for night and found a video of this and sure enough the engine had realistic looking headlights but as
the train was going down the track it was completely dark in front of the engine. One curious thing at a crossing
there were vehicles stopped the headlights were realistic looking but also the beam from the headlights were showing
on the ground like you would expect at night. So if vehicles can be simulated to have correct lighting at night
it seems the same should be for engines of a train.

2. Environmental effects for example of trees they are simulated as stationary versus branches moving
in a breeze or windy situation which would make it realistic.

Just the wonderings of a newbie to the RW2 world, maybe on the next upgrade version environmental changes
would be incorporated.

First of all: Welcome to Railworks and the Forums.

Garyator wrote:1. Why at night while you have exterior illumination say the headlights on an engine there's actually no beam
of headlight in front of the engine illuminating the tracks ahead. I was curious so I did a You Tube search for
RW for night and found a video of this and sure enough the engine had realistic looking headlights but as
the train was going down the track it was completely dark in front of the engine. One curious thing at a crossing
there were vehicles stopped the headlights were realistic looking but also the beam from the headlights were showing
on the ground like you would expect at night. So if vehicles can be simulated to have correct lighting at night
it seems the same should be for engines of a train.

Well, it's the old problem of Railworks and probably it's the thing people complain about the most.
At the moment there is no working projectiong light in Railworks.
What you've seen is a trick. These lights are some kind of object/texture that are attached to the emitting object.
It's no real light and it also shines at day as strong as at night. Not very realistic.

However, there is the Technical Update which RSC works on at the moment.
There will be major improvements to the game physics and also to the lights.
Fingers crossed, we'll get working projecting lights by the end of this year.

Garyator wrote:2. Environmental effects for example of trees they are simulated as stationary versus branches moving
in a breeze or windy situation which would make it realistic.

A nice idea, but I think we'll never get sth. like this in Railworks.
This game mainly concentrates on trains and their simulation, not on environment.
In addition, I think they had to use a complete new game engine to make sth. like this work.

Garyator wrote:2. Environmental effects for example of trees they are simulated as stationary versus branches moving
in a breeze or windy situation which would make it realistic.

You don't even wanta ever go there. Ask us guys who use Trainz. Yes, some of us are Trainz'ers because there is 1870's equipment that will never be available in Railworks. Their frame sucking "Speedtrees" was probably going to be the death of that franchise.

One of the Payware guys in Trainz used the Billboard app in "Speedtrees" and we Trainzers now have forward facing flora:



There is hope in every circle.

Yeah, I like Railworks

Harold

EDIT: I also play with Open Rails because there are routes and equipment that will never be done as well in Railworks.

hminky wrote:because there is 1870's equipment that will never be available in Railworks.

And you're saying this with 100% knowledge and assuredness?

Hawk wrote:And you're saying this with 100% knowledge and assuredness?

Yep! I doubt if any creator in Railworks is interested in that era and not enough people to justify it in payware. Luckily, Carson Car Shops exists in the Trainz environment or there would be no 1870's. The 1870's is a niche area in any genre.

Harold

Edit: Also Carson Car Shops has the correct stub switches. I don't think that works in Railworks.

Hawk wrote:And you're saying this with 100% knowledge and assuredness?

My question, too.
Did you ever hear of Golden Age of Railroading? - http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1813

I'm sure Michael will do some rolling stock from that era someday.

hminky wrote:Yep! I doubt if any creator in Railworks is interested in that era

Interesting.

I guess these two files don't exist then.

http://railworksamerica.com/FileLibrary ... ight=4-4-0

http://railworksamerica.com/FileLibrary ... ight=4-4-0

I am not bad mouthing Railworks. I have all the 1900's Golden Age equipment and the 4-4-0 and 2-8-0.



None of that is 1870's equipment, sorry, just because it has truss rods doesn't make it 1870's.

Sorry I brought this up. I run Railworks because it has BritKits USRA and the "golden age". There isn't one sim that does everything.

Harold

I didn't mean to imply that you were bad-mouthing RW. I didn't take it that way.
I was just pointing out that you may have been painting with a broad brush.

I do know the The General was a 4-4-0, and that was in the 1860's. Maybe the model in the library here isn't exactly what you call a 4-4-0, but it is from that era.

Hawk wrote:I do know the The General was a 4-4-0, and that was in the 1860's. Maybe the model in the library here isn't exactly what you call a 4-4-0, but it is from that era.

No the 4-4-0 is late 1880/early 1890's. There are miles of difference between the General and the 4-4-0 in the library. I have been trying to model the 1870's for over 50 years. The era is not very popular in any genre. Tried modeling in HO:



Even had a website discussing the virtues of the 1870's but no one is interested.

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/

I tried the 1870's in various scales with stuff on my model train website and there is very little interest. That is why I say with certainty there will be no 1870's Railworks. I live in a world of Gp-9's.

My original point is that there should be no dash toward moving trees. Talk about a death knell for frame rates.

Harold

I'm confused now. What was it that Rogers started building in 1840?
If The General wasn't a 4-4-0, what was it.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything. I'm genuinely interested.

This is 'The General' I had known about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_(locomotive)

Hawk wrote:I'm confused now. What was it that Rogers started building in 1840?
If The General wasn't a 4-4-0, what was it.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything. I'm genuinely interested.

I didn't say the General wasn't a 4-4-0. When I said "No the 4-4-0 is late 1880/early 1890's." I meant the one in the library was a later era 4-4-0.

Harold

Ah! Got'cha.

I suppose that none of you have noticed that GreatNortherner is bulding a 4-2-0 Norris? definatly earlyer than the era in question!