I'D LIKE TO REPAINT A CAR OR LOCOMOTIVE. WHERE CAN I FIND THE
ORIGINAL BITMAPS?
Look in this folder:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\SAMPLES
WHAT SCREEN RESOLUTION IS BEST FOR MSTS?
"Best" depends on your individual computer and preferences. Many
people are happy running in the lower resolutions while others demand
the greater detail of higher resolutions, but with the resulting
trade-off of lower frame rates. Experimentation is necessary to see
what works best for you.
One thing worth noting is how the cab interiors are made. There are
two bitmaps for the cab and the controls, one for resolutions of
800x600 and below and another for resolutions of 1024x768 and above.
The higher resolution bitmap is actually scaled up when used above
1024x768, with the corresponding stretching and distortion of the
image. Because of this you may find that 1024x768 is the ideal
resolution because your interior view looks best at this resolution.
WHAT COLOR DEPTH IS BEST FOR MSTS?
Both 16 bit and 32 bit color settings are available at all screen
resolutions. In practice there does not seem to be a great difference
in appearance but like all hardware issues it depends on each
individual computer.
IS MSTS COMPATIBLE WITH THE TRAINMASTER OR AURAN'S TRAINZ PROGRAMS?
Auran will provide a convertor to allow locomotives and rolling stock
from Trainz to be converted for use in MSTS. MSTS, Trainmaster and
Trainz are not compatible in any other way.
CAN AI LOCOMOTIVES BE CHANGED TO USER-DRIVABLE LOCOMOTIVES?
Yes, giving the limitation that they will not have their own unique
cabview or sounds. Most of the AI locomotives have already been
converted and are available for download in the file library.
Here are the basic techniques involved:
First, you need to copy the cabview and sound another locomotive.
The .eng file on non-driveable locomotives contain most of the details
needed to use the locomotive, but not all. The main things missing are
the inclusion of a cab and cab controls. Also, several calls for sounds
must be changed. It will take some experimentation if you want to make
similar changes yourself but this should help get you started.
1) Change the calls for generic sound effects, like this one:
Sound ( "GenDieselEng.sms" )
to instead use the sounds from the sound folder that you copied over,
like this:
Sound ( "Gp38Eng.sms" )
Note that there may be more than one place where this type of change
has to be made.
2) Add a call to include a cab view somewhere within the Engine definition
block, something like this:
CabView ( gp38.cvf )
You must correctly name the .cvf file in the cabview folder that you
copied.
3) Add engine controls. You'll need to compare a working .eng file with
the .eng file you are modifying. On the SD40-2 for example the throttle
controls were just a dummy section, so I copied the equivalent section
from the default GP38-2 to make the throttle work. Some experimentation
here may be required.
IS IT COMPATIBLE WITH MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR?
No. Although both programs are sold by Microsoft the two use
different technology and are not compatible.
HOW DO I DO I CREATE FREIGHT OR PASSENGER CAR REPAINTS?
Repainting existing freight cars is easy if you have a suitable
graphics program such as Adobe PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro. Each car
comes with a bitmap in the form of a Targa file (the file whose name
ends in .tga). Open that file and edit the parts of the car you want
to change. Most of the cars I've done I've simply dropped a new side
image over the old image and then changed the colors of the rest of
the parts to match.
You can find the bitmaps for default vehicles here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\SAMPLES
CREATING A NEW CAR TYPE
Creating a completely new, stand-alone freight car is a little more
work, but still not hard. Here are the steps:
1) Create a new folder under
\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\TRAINS\TRAINSET
with whatever name you want.
2) Copy all the files from another folder of a similar type of car into
your new folder.
3) In your new folder rename the files that end with .wag, .s and .sd to
a new name, otherwise Train Simulator doesn't recognize it as a new car.
Make all the prefix parts of the name the same, i.e.:
mycar.wag
mycar.s
mycar.sd
4) Load the .wag file into WordPad (this is important--don't use a different
editor unless you know for sure it will work).
a) Look for the line that starts with "Wagon" and give your car a unique
name
b) Look for the line that starts with "WagonShape" and change the file name
here to the name of your .s file, as you named it in step 3)
c) Save the file.
5) Edit the .tga file as desired to create your new car image. Be careful
not to lose the Alpha Channel that defines some of the see-through parts
of the car.
6) Convert the .tga file to a .ace file. You should use the original name of
the .ace file that you copied from the other folder. To convert, use the
"makeace.exe" program that is in the
Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\UTILS
directory as follows:
makeace mycar.tga us2freight7.ace
For people who have trouble running the DOS version of makeace.exe,
there is a Windows version called MakeAceWin.exe that gets installed
when you install the Train Simulator patch available from the
Microsoft web site.
Note: This is just an example, use the correct names for your .tga and
.ace file. You may find it convenient to copy makeace.exe to the directory
you are working in.
Your new car is now ready to use. Use the consist editor portion of the
activity editor to include it in a consist and start running.
HOW DO YOU CREATE/REPAINT A LOCOMOTIVE?
Repainting existing locomotives is easy if you have a suitable graphics
program such as Adobe PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro. Each default locomotive
comes with two images, one in the form of a Targa file (the file whose
name ends in .tga) and one in the form of a bitmap file (the file whose
name ends in .bmp). Open these files and edit the parts of the locomotive
you want to change, then use the makeace.exe utility to convert the
results to the .ace files that the sim uses. To find the bitmaps for the
default vehicles, look here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\SAMPLES
CREATING A NEW LOCOMOTIVE
Creating a new, stand-alone locomotive is a little more work. Here
are the steps:
1) Create a new folder under
\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\TRAINS\TRAINSET
with whatever name you want.
2) Copy all the files from another folder of a similar type of locomotive
into your new folder.
3) In your new folder rename the files that end with .eng, .s and .sd to
a new name, otherwise Train Simulator doesn't recognize it as a new
locomotive. Make all the prefix parts of the name the same, i.e.:
myloco.eng
myloco.s
myloco.sd
4) Load the .eng file into WordPad (not some other editor, unless you know
for sure that it will work!)
a) Look for the line that starts with "Name" and give your locomotive
a unique name; this is the name that will show up in the list of
available locomotives
b) Look for the line that starts with "WagonShape" and change the file name
here to the name of your .s file, as you named it in step 3)
c) Look for the line that starts with "Engine" and change where it says
"GP38" to the name you used for your .s and .sd files
d) Look for the line that starts with "Wagon" and change where it says
"GP38" to the name you used for your .s and .sd files; if there are
two "Wagon" lines in the file make sure to make the same change both
places
e) Save the file.
5) Load the .sd file into WordPad.
a) Look for the line that starts with "shape" and change the file name
here to match the name of your .s file, as you named it in step 3)
b) Save the file.
6) Edit the .tga and .bmp files as desired to create your new locomotive
image.
7) Convert the image files to .ace files. You should use the original names of
the .ace files that you copied from the other folder. To convert, use the
"makeace.exe" program that is in the
Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\UTILS
directory as follows:
makeace myloco.bmp us2gp38col1.ace
makeace myloco.tga us2gp38col2.ace
For people who have trouble running the DOS version of makeace.exe,
there is a Windows version called MakeAceWin.exe that gets installed
when you install the Train Simulator patch available from the
Microsoft web site.
Note: These are just examples, use the correct names for your .tga, .bmp
and .ace files. You may find it convenient to copy the makeace.exe file
into the folder containing your new locomotive while you're working on it.
Your new locomotive is now ready to use. Use the consist editor portion of
the activity editor to include it in a consist and start running.
DO I HAVE TO COPY THE CABVIEW AND SOUND FOLDERS FOR EVERY LOCOMOTIVE?
WITH A LOT OF LOCOMOTIVES ALL THESE DUPLICATE FILES CAN TAKE UP A LOT OF
DISK SPACE!
No, it's not necessary; you can alias the cab and sound from another
installed locomotive.
You can trick MSTS into using the sound and cab directly from another
locomotive. In the .eng file sound is called for in two different
places, one for the sounds heard in the cab and one for the external
engine sounds. Look for lines like this:
Sound ( gp38eng.sms )
Sound ( gp38cab.sms )
To alias these to use the sounds directly from the default GP38's
sound directory change these to:
Sound ( "..\\..\\GP38\\SOUND\\gp38eng.sms" )
Sound ( "..\\..\\GP38\\SOUND\\gp38cab.sms" )
Adjust the directory name ("GP38") and the file names as appropriate for
the locomotive you want to alias to.
The cabview is a bit trickier. You still need a cabview folder, but you
only need one file in it, the .cvf file which has the definition of the
cab view. This file requires some extensive editing. Each control and
gauge in the cab uses an .ace file and each call for these .ace files
must be changed. For example,
Change:
CabViewFile ( GP38Frnt.ace )
To:
CabViewFile ( "..\\..\\GP38\\cabview\\GP38Frnt.ace" )
Just as an example, the GP38 cab has over 20 instances of these and
each one needs to be changed.
HOW DO I STOP THE SIM FROM CRASHING WHEN I RUN IN SNOW CONDITIONS?
Run the MSTS trouble shooter from the Start menu, or directly here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\launcher.exe
There is a box to check for the snow problem. The trouble shooter is
handy for a variety of other problems too.
HOW DO I CONVERT .ACE FILES INTO TEXTURES THAT I CAN EDIT?
MSTS does not include a utility to do this.
However, developer Martin Wright has created a tool for this purpose, as
well as some other useful graphics tools, which you can obtain from his
web site:
http://fly.to/mwgfx
IS THERE A WAY TO INSTALL DIESEL ENGINES BACK TO BACK?
When creating a train using the consist editor you can reverse the
direction of the second or additional diesel locomotives by right
clicking on its image in the train set at the bottom of the editor
window.
HOW DO I RUN MAKEACE.EXE ?
The utility makeace.exe that is used to convert from .bmp and .tga image
files into the .ace files that Train Simulator actually uses is a DOS
program and that causes confusion for some people. Unless you are
comfortable dealing with DOS paths and such here's what is probably the
easiest way to handle this.
Note: For people who have trouble running the DOS version of makeace.exe,
there is a Windows version called MakeAceWin.exe that gets installed when
you install the Train Simulator patch available from the Microsoft web site.
Probably the easiest thing to do is copy makeace.exe into the directory
you are working in. You can find it here:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\UTILS
assuming you've done an install to the default directories. Just copy
makeace.exe and paste it into the directory you are working in. Then when
you want to convert something open a DOS window, use the CD command to
change to the directory you are working in. You might then want to use the
DIR command to confirm that the files you are working with really are
there. Then from the DOS command line run makeace.exe something like this:
makeace.exe myfile.tga us2freight7.ace
You will of course have to change "myfile.tga" and "us2freight7.ace" to
reflect the source and destination files you really want.
I NEED WORDPAD TO EDIT .ENG AND OTHER FILES, BUT SINCE UPGRADING TO WINDOWS
XP I DON'T SEEM TO HAVE WORDPAD AVAILABLE. WHAT CAN I USE INSTEAD?
In Windows XP NotePad has been upgraded so that it can handle the UniCode
text files that Train Simulator uses for .eng, .wag and other files so use
it instead of WordPad.
XP does apparently include WordPad too, and it also can be used to edit
UniCode text files.
RUNNING MSTS MY SYSTEM FREEZES EVERY 2 TO 10 MINUTES. HOW CAN I STOP IT
FROM FREEZING?
I had, until last night, a problem with MSTS freezing up at unexpected
intervals between 2-10 minues into activities. (I am running a Pentium III
800 MHz / 320 MB ram / ATI Radeon 6300 64 MB, 15+gig free space). This
usually occurred when I was running at high speed and changing views
frequently with high graphics definition (I am a frustrated model
railroader). The only way out of the freeze-up was to reset/reboot, losing
the activity.
Then, whilst reading the good old MSTS forum, I came upon a mention of a
utility called MaxMem at the www.analogx.com site. I went there and not
only found MaxMem for free, bur also an awesome little piece of kit called
CacheBooster, ditto. This is a configurable cache adjusting device,
complete with uninstaller and a howdyuzeme file. It comes pre-set with
various settings like"general purpose", "gaming", etc. I downloaded it,
installed it, and started MSTS using the "gaming" settings. After some
noodling around, my freezing problem appears to have gone away. If you
have a setup like mine, right now, here are my settings: Min 11859 kb, max
34554 kb, chunk 1301 kb, last 52 kb. I saved these settings in a custom
cache configuration called MSTS.
Result? Classic UK steam rides the S&C and the ECML again, uninterrupted
and at high speed!
- - -
Thank you for reminding me to check www.outertech.com for a Cacheman
update - version 5.1 is available and I upgraded from 4.1.
Everything you mention for the other utility and probably more than you
imagine is in Cacheman. I've been using Cacheman for about a year and if
you took away all the other utilities except one, it would be Cacheman
that I retain. Version 5.1 now has an extensive Help file and features
have been expanded to include memory recovery - it does a better job than
RamIdle from the prelim tests I've run, so there is a lot to gain by
having Cacheman.
Cacheman is freeware with an option to register for $10. US - I'd call
that the best bargain in software yet. But you can keep it as freeware if
you want, nothing will be disabled and so far as I know neither does it
expire.
The only difference I can see is that when Cacheman loads with Win98, the
registered version will not display a splash screen unless you want it to
do so - I paid my ten bucks and the splash screen no longer loads. Since
the splash shows for maybe five seconds then closes itself, its not a big
deal.
This is the only utility I simply could not be without. How can you lose?
HOW DO I FIX THE BROKEN COUPLER SYNDROME?
The information regards the 'broken couple' syndrome in MSTS. The problem is
specifically with the A1tPnt10dLft.sd file. The parameters for the bounding
box are incorrect. The flawed file is below:
shape ( A1tPnt10dLft.s
ESD_Detail_Level ( 0 )
ESD_Alternative_Texture ( 2 )
ESD_Bounding_Box ( 4.95455 0.199997 0 -2.49246 0.325004 40 )
ESD_No_Visual_Obstruction ()
)
The correct file should read:
shape ( A1tPnt10dLft.s
ESD_Detail_Level ( 0 )
ESD_Alternative_Texture ( 2 )
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -4.95455 0.199997 0 2.49246 0.325004 40 )
ESD_No_Visual_Obstruction ()
)
You will notice the difference in the negative sign, ( - ), between the two
examples. I studied the track section bounding box parameters for the type
10 and type 5 turnouts that came with MSTS. The type 10 left turnout was the
only bounding box to have the parameters be +, +, +, -, +, +. The other
seven all had -, +, +, +, +, +. The typical definition of a bounding box in
the Java software languages is: BoundingBox( point A, lower, point B, upper
), where points A and B are defined, lower indicates the "small" corner, and
upper indicates the "large" corner of the box. The original parameters would
draw the bounding box rather skewed. The only thing I can say is to draw the
two boxes out on X, Y axis's and you will see what I mean.
In addition, I was sure that A1tPnt5dLft.sd and A1tPnt10dLft.sd should be
virtually identical. They are except for the final parameter which is twice
as long, ( 80 vs. 40 ).
I have made this change and run through the turnouts at 5 mph increments
from 5 - 60 mph. I did not experience any 'broken coupler' issues. I have
run the entire length of Marias pass, (MSTS original version, not MP3),
without any 'broken coupler' issues. (TA Light Mountain with 13 mixed).
HOW TO FIX THE WHITE VOID PROBLEM
By Larry Friddle
Actually there are at least three white void problems. Each one has its
own fix or work around. White Void is defined as having no visible
terrain. Your world tiles are simply not there, even though you may move
around and actually place objects, they seem to be hanging in mid air.
1. The Great White Void Problem
This is the problem encountered most often. It is usually referred to as
"THE Great White Void problem" to differentiate between the other two
known conditions. This occurs when your route crosses a specific
North/South or East/West boundary. You will see it in the route editor
depending on where your Route Start Tile is located. If it is located to
the West of the North/South boundary you will see the white void on the
East side. If the start tile is located on the East side of the boundary,
both sides will be OK. The same thing happens at an East/West boundary. If
the start tile is on the South side, you will see white void on the North
side. If the start tile is on the North side of the boundary both sides
will be OK. When you run the route in the actual simulator you will
discover that any activity that begins on the East side of the North/South
boundary has no problem, but activities that begin on the West side of the
boundary will not display any terrain on the east side of the boundary
line. Your track and other scenery objects will still be there and appear
to be suspended in mid air. The same thing will happen if you have an
East/West boundary in your route and the activity begins on the South side
of the line.
This appears to be a true Microsoft bug in the program. The North/South
and East/West boundaries occur at predictable intervals. The simulator
uses boxes of boxes to keep track of each terrain tile. The smallest unit
is the very small box you checked when creating your route in the route
geometry editor. In the route editor these show up as the blue boundaries
and are further divided into a 16x16 grid that allows you to assign a
terrain tile to each one. Outside the editor, 4 of those boxes makes up
the next larger size box, and 4 of those make up the next higher box and
so on. By the time you have done this 6 times you have a rather large box.
It is the boundaries of this large box that mark where the problem
appears. It is at this point that apparently Microsoft started the number
all over again and if you cross the boundary your route will contain a
reference to 2 (or more) of these large squares instead of one. Note that
these boundaries have nothing to do with the UTM boundaries mentioned in
the editor help files. That is a totally different problem.
There is no cure for this problem at this time. Hopefully it will be
addressed in the next release of the simulator. If you are building a
fictional route, avoid crossing a boundary. You can eliminate the problem
while working in the Route Editor by always placing your Route Start Tile
in the most North/East tile of your route. For the activities in the
simulator, there is a work around. If you drive your train across the
boundary to the East, or North, save the game and then exit out. Reload
the saved game and all will be normal. It appears that you only have to do
this once so if a route winds back and forth across the line you only have
to do it one time. If you save on the West or South side of the line later
on, exit, then reload the saved game; you will have the problem again.
Apparently it only makes a difference as to which side of the line you are
on when the activity starts.
This map shows the locations where The Great White Void problem will occur
within the continental United States and Canada. The grid across the top
of Canada shows the basic tiles and how they expand out into ever-larger
boxes, until you end up with the large blocks marked in cyan. The problem
occurs when crossing from the West of a cyan line to the East or from the
South side of a cyan line to the North. If you live in another part of the
world, use the Route Geometry Editor to find where your boundaries will
fall. As you can see, these boundaries do not fall on even Lat and Long
values as some people think. Lat and Long lines are shown in gray.
2. The Elevation White Void Problem
This problem is seen less frequently than The Great White Void problem. It
only occurs if your route is in a very mountainous area and your maximum
height exceeds about 10,000 feet or around 3500 meters. You usually notice
it as soon as you process DEM data and it shows up in the editor as well
as in the simulator. You will also probably see mountains missing suddenly
pop into view as you get closer when working below the ceiling value.
The fix for this problem is relatively easy. Lower the height of every
tile when you process it to keep your maximum height well below the
ceiling. This should not impact the visual effect of your route. Take the
mountains in Colorado as an example. Your overall height would be from 0
to well above 14, 000 feet. However, the lowest point of your route likely
will not be below 5,000 feet. You can lower the actual height of each tile
by 5,000 and the effective visual effect of 9,000 foot drops will be
maintained. After all, you don't know the difference if you engine fell
from 14,000 feet to 5,000 feet or just 9,000 to 0. It looks the same! If
you build a route up Everest, you are out of luck!
3. The Dumb Newbie White Void Problem
Sorry. I admit I made up this title myself as it only happens to new route
builders. The symptom is that you use the Route Geometry Editor to create
a new route and get busy laying new track. When you run the route you
discover white void everywhere. Sometimes it comes and goes. It comes and
goes when in the editor.
This problem happens when you exit out of building a route without setting
the Route Start Tile at all, one of the steps clearly in the instructions.
The fix is simple. Go back into the Route Geometry Editor and set a tile
as the start tile.
SOME CARS COUPLE BUT STILL HAVE A GAP BETWEEN THEM. OTHERS ACTUALLY MERGE
TOGETHER BEFORE THEY COUPLE. HOW DO YOU SET THE BOUNDING BOX AND OTHER
SETTINGS SO THE CARS COUPLE CORRECTLY?
OK, here goes. Here is my procedure:
1. In the .SD file, look for the bounding box statement:
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -1.413324 -0.001219 -6.0 1.410107 3.992969 6.0 )
The length in represented by the third and sixth numbers, -6.0 and 6.0 in
this example. Set these two numbers to something small, ie -1.0 and 1.0.
In this example, the bounding box would look like this:
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -1.413324 -0.001219 -1.0 1.410107 3.992969 1.0 )
This is a temporary change that will prevent the cars from bumping
together before they couple. Note also, that it may allow cars to collapse
into each other, but we will fix that later.
2. In the .ENG or .WAG file, check the r0 statement. Make sure it looks
like this:
r0 ( 20cm 30cm )
3. Now, in the .ENG or .WAG file look for the size statement:
Size ( 2.80m 3.97m 12.1m )
The length is represented by the third number, 12.1m. This number
controls the coupling of cars and the spacing when they are coupled. Use
trial and error to fine tune this number so the cars couple properly. Note,
to test this, put two identical cars in a consist and run MSTS in explore
mode to check their operation coupling with each other. If the cars overlap
when they are coupled, increase the number. If they don't touch when they
couple, then decrease the number. When you get this number set right, go to
step 4.
4. Now, go back to fix the bounding box statement in the .SD file:
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -1.413324 -0.001219 -1.0 1.410107 3.992969 1.0 )
Take your final length from step 3, divide by 2 and subtract 0.1. In my
example:
12.1 divide by 2 equals 6.05
6.05 subtract 0.1 equals 5.95
Now replace the third and sixth numbers in the SD file with the newly
calculated number:
ESD_Bounding_Box ( -1.413324 -0.001219 -5.95 1.410107 3.992969 5.95 )
Don't forget the minus sign on the third number. Now test this number in
MSTS by bringing the cars together so slowly that they don't couple. The
cars should collapse into each other about 6 inches before they bump. If
they collapse too far, then increase the numbers a little. If they bump
into each other before they couple, then decrease the number a little.
OK, that is what I do. Assuming their aren't other problems with the car.
HOW CAN YOU ADJUST YOUR VIEWPOINT USING THE TRACKSIDER OBSERVER VIEW?
Not mentioned in MSTS literature is that you can "walk down the cars"
using the CTRL, left arrow/right arrow keys while viewing the train
in view 4, trackside observer and it will delay the camera pivot
until the selected car passes. By selecting, say the sixth car, the
view of the approaching engines is almost immediate, but a majority
of the train is viewed before sweeping the selected car and jumping
to the next position. It's also possible to repeatedly press view 4
and this will rapidily change immediate positions "randomly" to
different points of terrain in the same area.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO COUPLE AND DE-COUPLE CARS IN A SWITCHING ACTIVITY
LIKE MARIAS PASS WHITEFISH YARD?
A: DIESEL ENGINE FRONT COUPLERS DO NOT WORK PROPERLY in MSTS, and
they never will since there are no plans for MSTS version 2.
PROBLEM #1: Train Operations view (F9) will only show 6 cars from the
end of a consist when the engine is nose-coupled to it.
WORKAROUND #1A: Decouple six cars at a time, so that Train Operations
view works its way back towards the engine.
WORKAROUND #1B: Don't nose-couple more than 6 cars (counting the
engine(s)) if you can adjust your action sequence to avoid it. If
your activity does not include a section of track designed for
reversing engines (a "wye"), you may want to edit the activity to
reverse the engines from the start point; this involves a
hysterically unobvious and undocumented sequence of steps in the
Activity Editor to make a change to the starting Path.
1. Open the activity in the Activity Editor.
2. In the Player section, click EDIT on the "Player Service".
3. In the Service Editor, click Edit on the "Path".
4. In the Path Editor, click the "HIGHLIGHT" button to center the starting
point in the route window.
Zoom in on the start of the path until you can see red/green lines on the
track sections; these are the paths the engines can take if it goes
forward (green) or backward (red).
5. Right click this colored track section to expose a drop-down menu; click
"Toggle start direction" in the drop-down.
PROBLEM #2: You can't decouple or couple a car successfully to the
nose of the engine.
WORKAROUND #2: Apparently you can only manage this if the engine is
travelling BELOW 1 mph, which ain't too easy to do. Direct
observation of the coupler (F2/F3) is advisable so you can see when
the desired result is achieved and resume "normal" engine operation.
PROBLEM #3: There seems to be a generalized coupler-coding error in
all or most of the MSTS .WAG and .ENG files, although the impact of
the error is not immediately obvious.
SOLUTION #3:
What no-one has mentioned so far: Did you check all equipment in
your train and eliminate any error in the coupler damping line? The
old, old and often told story in brief (for the benefit any new users
entering the world of MSTS):
When Kuju released the original equipment, an error went undetected
in the .eng and .wag files of all stock of USA2/Marias Pass
(gp38.eng, dash9.eng, sd40.eng, all US2xxxxxx.wag). The use of a
wrong physical unit of measurement makes the coupler damping
inoperable, meaning that couplers will not absorb shocks properly
when going over track nodes at switches (the red poles in Route
Editor). The problem is further aggravated because MSTS calculates
the progress of your train by measuring the distance it travelled
from the last node (switch) you passed, with some rounding errors
accumulating the farther you go inbetween nodes. When you hit the
next switch a tad earlier than MSTS expects from its calculations,
each car of your train jerks into the new position, which is exactly
when couplers break if the damping line has not been fixed.
The default coupler section originally reads:
Coupling (
Type ( Automatic )
Spring (
Stiffness ( 1e6N/m 5e6N/m )
Damping ( 1e6N/m 1e6N/m )
Break ( 1.1e7N 1.1e7N )
r0 ( 20cm 30cm )
)
Velocity ( 0.1m/s )
)
The bold line is where the error hides, as this line should correctly read:
Damping ( 1e6N/m/s 1e6N/m/s )
The newer equipment in the download library usually has its coupler
section fixed, with the correct N/m/s in place. Many older downloads
however have the error and need to be adjusted by the user. Instead
of editing dozens - if not hundreds of files - manually, I recommend
EngMod and RouteRiter. Each of these tools allow you to do these
adjustments fleet-wise with a few mouse clicks.
Search the fora here for more information on "broken couplers", there
are probably over 100 posts on the subject. The coupler bug is an old
story, and one of the reasons why I check every .wag and .eng files
for common errors before installing.
Copyright © 2004 by Nels Anderson. All Rights Reserved.