Revisiting old routes

[seagoon]

Recently I updated OR to the latest stable version and, as I hadn't used the program for some time, I have, over the past week, spent some very pleasant hours wallowing in the deep end of the nostalgia pool.
In other words, I've been running along some of the older, what were favourite, routes.

One of those is still a standout today, a decade after its initial release, and that is the Feather River route, by 3DTrains (Marc Nelson).
The quality of the graphics and depth of detail still hold their own against anything else currently available for not only MSTS/OR but also for any of the other sims and, in my opinion, the TS2019 version of this route is a second-rate offering when compared to the original for MSTS.

There are other old favourites which I've revisited but none of them rate as highly as does Feather River.

And that makes me hope that Marc eventually returns to his computer and completes the Sherman Hill/Cheyenne route for Open Rails.

[scottb613]

Recently I updated OR to the latest stable version and, as I hadn't used the program for some time

Hi...

You should see it in it's real glory - with Monogame ORTS and ReShade...

Then take a tour from behind the wheel of Derek's exquisite WP Mallet - what a beast - doesn't get any better than that...

Regards,
Scott

[seagoon]

....with Monogame ORTS and ReShade....

I can't really be bothered going down that track (pun intended!) unless I really have to, Scott.
I can live with the original quality of the graphics in any of the routes I revisit and when they are as good as they are in Feather River, then that's okay by me.

[Curt C]

And that makes me hope that Marc eventually returns to his computer and completes the Sherman Hill/Cheyenne route for Open Rails.[/QUOTE]

You and me both...

[Curt C]

And that makes me hope that Marc eventually returns to his computer and completes the Sherman Hill/Cheyenne route for Open Rails.

You and me both...

[NorthernWarrior]

Closer to (UK) home, I've been driving the original North Wales Coast route (V.2 currently on order from UKTS) and it looks stunning. Part of that is the care that went into producing the route by the authors and of course the included loco and rolling stock assets which cover a wide range of classic UK diesel traction.

The only downer at the moment is the inability to restore a saved game if you have debrief evaluation enabled which I believe has been recorded as a bug. I assume saving without evaluation is okay and hopefully the team are looking into what changes to the code have wrought this problem.

Oh and how diesel exhaust displays still needs some work - generally UK traction did not project black smoke like a Mexican Alco or in a thin plume that rises vertical for about 10 feet then immediately tails into a horizontal trail!

[baldwin]

Diesel smoke display in OR needs a small amount of work from you the user. The eng file parameters

DieselSmokeEffectInitialMagnitude( 1 )
DieselSmokeEffectMaxMagnitude( 3.4 )
DieselSmokeEffectInitialSmokeRate( 2 )
DieselSmokeEffectMaxSmokeRate( 5.0 )

are the controllers, experiment with lower figures for lower smoke density, and also adjust the exhaust nozzle size and direction in the special effects section.

If you really want to "get under the hood" there is also the ORTS diesel engines data block although very few are publishing any results from that so far.

[plainsman]

Also, many files have the exhaust nozzle way too narrow. In Open Rails, 34-37 works best.

[seagoon]

@Baldwin and Bob
Thanks for those tips....I'll have a play with the settings in some of my locos.

[R. Steele]

...
If you really want to "get under the hood" there is also the ORTS diesel engines data block although very few are publishing any results from that so far.

Here's my defaults: I have no spent much time tinkering with them, too busy learning some other stuff - admittedly these produce too much smoke for modern diesels

IdleExhaust	( 1.2 )	
	MaxExhaust	( 2.2 )
	ExhaustDynamics	( 1.6 )	
	ExhaustDynamicsDown	( 0.8 )	
	ExhaustColor	( 20161819 )	
	ExhaustTransientColor	( 40212324 )

For something like an ES44AC -- modern exhaust is almost not noticeable, OR does not ( at present ) have the ability to animate a realistic heat plume.

IdleExhaust ( 0.15 )
			MaxExhaust ( 0.05 )
			ExhaustDynamics ( 0.05 )
			ExhaustDynamicsDown ( 0.05 )
			ExhaustColor ( 20161819 )
			ExhaustTransientColor ( 40212324 )

Exhaust color ( HEX ) is another I've not spent any time looking at. I do prefer the 3DTrains Diesel Smoke download: 3DTrains_DSmoke_v1.0.zip
Available here - http://www.3dtrains.com/downloads/misc.shtml

Perhaps, this bit of information may not be known to some folks:

There is a known OR bug that affects Diesel Exhaust.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/or/+bug/1745005

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/ind...hl__%22idle%22

OR parses both the Diesel Special Effects block in the OpenRails folder "include" engine file and the Diesel Special Effects block in the default MSTS engine file.

Consequently there are two plumes of smoke produced, one with the diameter as set in the OpenRails "include" eng file ( 0.15) and another plume with the diameter as set in the default MSTS engine file, (usually anything up to 0.7).

Since there is no single exhaust diameter value that satisfies both OR and MSTS, this is a problem for the dual platform user. You must choose something that satisfies your preferences.

For the dedicated OR user there are two solutions:
1. Adjust the MSTS exhaust dia. to 0.0, effectively turning off the MSTS diesel exhaust plume.
2. Adjust the MSTS exhaust dia. to a number less than the OR default of 0.15 - for example 0.12. This creates a slightly more complex dual exhaust plume.
Either way works, user choice.

I'm also starting to feel that my default exhaust dia. (nozzle size )of 0.15 could be a little small.

[NorthernWarrior]

Excellent, I'll give those a try.