Coming soon: New OR Diesel Exhaust Effects

[rdamurphy]

SD40-2 and Dash 9 have MSTS stock exhaust settings. GP38-2 has been given much higher exhaust settings to show what is possible. Exhaust effects vary by engine RPM, not throttle settings. And - the exhaust effects are fully customizable in the MSTS .eng file.

Robert

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[seagoon]

Cool!

Bruce

[apco25]

Eh, something doesn't look quite right. Has anyone thought of some type of effect to disperse the exhaust more?

[Komachi]

Yeah, agreed... It looks too 'funneled' so to speak IMO. Real exhaust doesn't stick together in a 'tube', like the screenshots show. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-9yqzPDZR4

Hope dispersion is part of the 'tweaking' that can be done. Also will this fix the BLW "Honorary Steamer" title?

[defect_detector]

Agreed, still looks completely unnatural, diesels don't put out exhaust the way that steam locomotives put out vapor.

[James Collins]

Interesting, but is there any documentation on how to edit the exhaust in OR to what you'd like? I agree with the others that the exhaust looks too much like a funnel, or tube. I didnt know the effect could be manipulated in OR. Makes sense now though.

[UP_4848_Thunder]

I think he's using a default or darker diesel smoke ace.

[baldwin]

ORTS does not use a diesel smoke ace. It uses particle emission and assigns one of two colours according to the RPM state.

[defect_detector]

ORTS does not use a diesel smoke ace. It uses particle emission and assigns one of two colours according to the RPM state.

Is that a new thing? OR used to use the default diesel smoke ace file, I know because I keep a totally alpha'd out one in my folder for when I decide to use OR as it removes the exhaust completely instead of having diesels look like steam engines. A simple swap back and forth between the alpha'd one and the one I use for msts does the trick.

[geepster775]

One thing that I never liked is the angle of the smoke trail when the train is at speed. Usually, the diesel engine puts out exhaust/smoke with such force, that there usually is a vertical column above the exhaust hatch. There will be such an expulsion force that the exhaust will come out nearly vertical before the wind or speed of the train changes the angle of the exhaust a good 3 feet above the stack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEETEOcQW90

Pay attention to the 3rd unit's exhaust



Here is the same train shot by 2 different videographers. Pay attention to the exhaust of the GE unit, which had shut down and was restarted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlgnx7UiI0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ty8YbrcrbM

[rdamurphy]

OR does in fact use the smoke.ace, but does vary the color of the smoke at the same time. I'm waiting for this to be released so folks can take a look at it, but yes, I would like to widen the smoke a bit and slow it down, but the system doesn't quite allow it to be done that easily, so that will require more work. Also, it would be nice to have the smoke plume flatten out a bit at speed, something else I'm working on.

Adjusting the smoke works exactly like it does in MSTS, there are several parameters in the .eng file, the Offset, which places it at the stack, the location, which determines direction and height,DieselSmokeEffectInitialMagnitude, DieselSmokeEffectMaxMagnitude, DieselSmokeEffectInitialSmokeRate, DieselSmokeEffectMaxSmokeRate.

Thanks for the comments!

Robert

[baldwin]

I stand corrected. I was just running through the various .cs files and came across the particle and colour calls. Obviously something to be implemented at a later date then, maybe.

[rdamurphy]

No, not wrong, baldwin, it uses both. It uses the smoke ace for the shape and transparency, but can still change the color. With the parameters in the .eng file you can also change the volume and intensity. You can also change the size of the "plume", but I'm thinking I'll go back in and make it larger by default to more closely mirror the MSTS appearance.

Robert

[apco25]

The exhaust needs to be more random...its too predictable right now, too funnel shaped and too intense when moving. Throttle up and down is great, good effect, but its still a long way to go.

[GoGoran]

The exhaust needs to be composed of two components, which have to be programmed separately:

1.) The smoke column exhaust coming from the stack or exhaust pipe, which needs to be adjusted to fit exhaust diameter and location. It`s height and contrast should vary with the engine state:

I. Idling, little or no smoke
II. Revving up or accelerating, lots of dark smoke, thrown high into the air
III. Pulling steady under full load, little/medium/heavy smoke according to engine type and maintenance/health state (dirty air filters vs. clean ones, broken injectors and piston rings vs. intact ones, etc.)

The smoke column also needs to be adjusted i.e. angled with the driving speed:
a) Standing still = smoke going straight up,
b) loco is moving = smoke angled back, the more speed, the greater the angle - and actually it should be a curve, not a straight, angled line.

2.) The second component of the exhaust smoke, in addition to the smoke column, needs to be the smoke cloud, i.e. the cloud into which the column gets dispersed once it is in the air and away from the exhaust pipes.

This smoke cloud needs to start right at the end of the smoke column, and it needs to grow longer with speed. It also has to start mimicking the color of the exhaust column smoke, and then fade out into clear air at its end.

The cloud should whirl around in the air and be composed in an uneven, random-looking way.


PS: At a later point in time, and in combination with Kosmos weather, ambient wind speed and direction could be implemented, so if the wind was blowing with 50mph from behind and the train was going at 25mph, the smoke would go forward and move faster than the train. Or the wind could blow from the side, and the smoke would go sideways ... and every time the train would go thru a bend or turn, the computer would factor that in and the smoke speed and direction vs. the train would change accordingly.