Railworks America

It seems that RSC has released the Big Boy and the Challenger V2. They are also on sale right now for 50% off. If you buy both at the same time they are only 15 bucks!

Call my crazy, a blind sheep, what have you, but I think I may jump on them. Its pay day!

I'm tempted. It would be nice to see inside the cabs of the Challenger and Big Boy! And I'll still have the originals, with their scenarios, right? This will add another version, with hopefully better steam physics, and some new scenarios on the Sherman Hill. That seems like an okay thing for the price. I've been enjoying TS2013 and didn't pay any extra for it's greatly improved performance, so I can chip in a little to the kittie for their hard work.

Griphos wrote:I'm tempted. It would be nice to see inside the cabs of the Challenger and Big Boy! And I'll still have the originals, with their scenarios, right? This will add another version, with hopefully better steam physics, and some new scenarios on the Sherman Hill. That seems like an okay thing for the price. I've been enjoying TS2013 and didn't pay any extra for it's greatly improved performance, so I can chip in a little to the kittie for their hard work.

Your going to like it

Sadly I have little interest in steam locos (I know....blasphemy). Although in the real world they are more interesting to watch then electric locos. I'm ultimately a diesel man. But someday I might pick the Big Boy up along with the cab forward as I like both models. The NYC Hudson and the Southern Pacific #4449 are the other two I like cuz they look cool. But those 4 locos are as far as my interest in steam goes. I've yet to complete a scenario involving a steam loco in RW 2013. I'll get around to it some day.

$15.00 maybe OK, however other than the visuals and a few scenarios I'm not too excited so far. Oh yeah they fixed that god awful headlight on the original Big Boy.
Buzz

Yeah i bought the new version this morning, so far just run the intoduction, i enjoyed it, i also had the old version which i liked as well. Just an upgrade to me and i think it was well worth the price. I noticed other than the larger headlight and , lots of steam the horn now is different, so yu have more control over the length of the whistle blow. Pete

Seems like I missed some of the conversation!

I bought it quickly after my inital post, and it is a definite upgrade interms of visuals. There are some issues here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary for RSC. The one thing that does erk me is the horn, when you do not draw the horn out, the sound ends abruptly, the sound just cuts. 15 bucks for two upgraded locos? Im satisfied

That is how I looked at it, IHH is not going to update it and sold it to RSC. So say $7.50 for each the new model and other upgrades ok, I doubt I will be doing this all the time.

The visuals are definitely a improvement however I find it fascinating that they still didn't get the grey right. Fifteen minutes on the net show that Mad Mike and X got the color right in their presentation. X's sound, for those of you that didn't get it is way better than even the new version. Way better for all the snarky remarks that Sly made. Maybe he had nothing to do with this. Who knows.
Buzz

I got the Big Boy and Challenger combo pack and I love it! But! The only issue I have is on the challenger if you try to turn the headlights on with the H key they will only stay on while you have the h key pushed down. You have to use the mouse and click the light on the HUD to make them stay on. Does any body else have this issue?

buzz456 wrote:The visuals are definitely a improvement however I find it fascinating that they still didn't get the grey right. Fifteen minutes on the net show that Mad Mike and X got the color right in their presentation. X's sound, for those of you that didn't get it is way better than even the new version. Way better for all the snarky remarks that Sly made. Maybe he had nothing to do with this. Who knows.
Buzz

Alright, I'll have to hunt for them and check them out. I do like the horn on the new version, I just wish that it would have the "cut off" issue it has.

Thanks for the advice.

In case I offended him with my gnitpicking and criticism, I apologize Sly

Thisis much better. Even if there ARE problems, I'm downloading now. Does it come without smoke deflectors too? I was nervous, bt figured I could use the old model and transfer the steam effects.

I was going to replace the stock sounds with ones from XDriver, and when I looked at the folder structure I almost fell over. It is a tangled mess inside! There are empty folders everywhere, none of the sounds are in one folder. Who let this get out the door this way? Granted it runs fine, but geez. *facepalm*

I agree. I give it a loose, very general

Only remodeling I found would be the drive rods, that's all I see.

The non smoke deflectord one has a great shine to it, but the tender looks as dull as the original. (in honesty, I like the modified old version better.
Maybe the frontframes will work ok with the old boy...

Just got them in the sale as well, two for the price of less than one is a nice deal for these iconic UP engines.
New textures, with a little more weathering it seems, but no changes to the actual 3D model I think.
Big Boy seems to have frosted glass in the cab windows, Challenger's are clear.

These articulateds clearly show that the current simulation engine was not designed for big US team locomotives.
There is only one synchronized smoke emitter, aligned to the front stack. The rear stack just belches, puffy white smoke in RSC's incarnation.
These Challengers being oil burners, IHH's model had this fat black smoke that drifted nicely IMO.
Safetly valves emit steam, turbo generator emits steam, but not the way I like it. This can be corrected by tweaking the emitters.
Steam just escapes from the turret, there is no visual source. Ejectors and BB's stoker engine could have their own emitters, but these can be hacked into the models as well.
Steam escaping through the cylinder cocks should be synchronized with piston movement while accellerating, but none of RSC's steam engines has this, due to the same simulation engine limitation I think.

Too early to tell about sounds and physics, Big Boy seems very quiet and her (his?) whistle is odd, no decay in the loop.
Isn't Big Boy a 310 psi engine?

Will compare the new with the old engines to see what has really been changed on the inside. The IHH folder remained untouched, so both versions are available.
Big Boy's folder comes with freight cars, which seems unnecessary, since the scenario's are all for Sherman Hill, the new default US route.
All textures seem to have been hashed when peeking into them using RW_Tools 4.0.30.
All lua files have been encoded, making adjusting them a lot more difficult. Why, RSC, are you making it so difficult?
Will check out the couplers, esp. the the spring coefficient and damping values to find out if they are not unrealistic anymore.

All in all, a small improvement worth getting, I'd give it a 6/7 out of 10.

Edited: Big Boy still runs out of water using auto firman in the standard scenario BB on SH pt 1, just when the train entered Formosa. The water gauge still showed 0.83!
The scenario started with 15000 gallons of water and 56000 pounds of coal in the tender, so I do not know if it is an engine physics or scenario problem.
Also, the F5 HUD shows close to 300 psi boiler pressure, while the F4 HUD and control value parameter window shows 280 psi.