Greater Eastern - Thoughts

General MSTS related discussion that doesn't really fit into any of the other specific forums.

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expressboy1983
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

Overall i am extremely impressed with this add-on. The scenery is amazing, the stock is brilliant and the activities are widely varied. A job well done, and epic 'kudos' to MT for getting the job done virtually on time!

As people have already mentioned, there are a few issues with the route or stock, but with a bit of perseverance these are fairly easily overcome.

Where the DVT brakes are concerned, if you tap them up to continuous service then straight back down to suppression, you'll find you should have enough brake power to bring your speed down smoothly with some minor adjustments before stopping. If not, tap it up a bit more until you're slowing satisfactorily.

There are quite a few line side bushes which have wandered onto the track, which shouldn't have. These seems to be mainly restricted to the V1 branches between Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze, and/or Clacton, and the Sudbury branch also seems to have a few. They look to me as though they've been placed using the auto gantry feature and are just too long for the radius of curve they are supposed to be lining and the centre of them are within the 4-foot. Again, not a major issue and i can live with it as really, it's not worth losing sleep over.

Where graphics settings and such are concerned, my computers not up to much these days but can quite happily run GE2 with everything maxed out, except for the World Object Density, which i have sat on 6. With these settings i am averaging about 11 FPS, which for my lappy is good! I was quite surprised to see that lowering the WOD down to 5 seems to get rid of almost ALL the scenery, as i seem to recall being able to go as low as 3 on GE1 before everything would vanish, so i assume that's also bee changed?

The only thing that did disappoint me a little is the fact that there is stock included on the CD which is not drivable, this being the 56, 37 and the 47's. For my own personal use, this isn't really that much of a big deal as i'm fairly sure i know how to make them drivable, but it would've been nice to be able to use them 'straight outa the box'. Again however, not something i'll be losing any sleep over!

Well done to all involved, well worth the pennies and i look forward to more! :) :bday:
Kindest regards,
Simon.

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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

expressboy1983 wrote:Overall i am extremely impressed with this add-on. The scenery is amazing, the stock is brilliant and the activities are widely varied. A job well done, and epic 'kudos' to MT for getting the job done virtually on time!

As people have already mentioned, there are a few issues with the route or stock, but with a bit of perseverance these are fairly easily overcome.

Where the DVT brakes are concerned, if you tap them up to continuous service then straight back down to suppression, you'll find you should have enough brake power to bring your speed down smoothly with some minor adjustments before stopping. If not, tap it up a bit more until you're slowing satisfactorily.

There are quite a few line side bushes which have wandered onto the track, which shouldn't have. These seems to be mainly restricted to the V1 branches between Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze, and/or Clacton, and the Sudbury branch also seems to have a few. They look to me as though they've been placed using the auto gantry feature and are just too long for the radius of curve they are supposed to be lining and the centre of them are within the 4-foot. Again, not a major issue and i can live with it as really, it's not worth losing sleep over.

Where graphics settings and such are concerned, my computers not up to much these days but can quite happily run GE2 with everything maxed out, except for the World Object Density, which i have sat on 6. With these settings i am averaging about 11 FPS, which for my lappy is good! I was quite surprised to see that lowering the WOD down to 5 seems to get rid of almost ALL the scenery, as i seem to recall being able to go as low as 3 on GE1 before everything would vanish, so i assume that's also bee changed?

The only thing that did disappoint me a little is the fact that there is stock included on the CD which is not drivable, this being the 56, 37 and the 47's. For my own personal use, this isn't really that much of a big deal as i'm fairly sure i know how to make them drivable, but it would've been nice to be able to use them 'straight outa the box'. Again however, not something i'll be losing any sleep over!

Well done to all involved, well worth the pennies and i look forward to more! :) :bday:
In what way 'not drivable' ? Just no consists ? or not drivable for some other reason ?
We supply a big enough stock list that there is likely to be things which are not used in an act, and if they are not used, we may well not supply a consist for it.
There is enough testing to do with things which "matter" to worry about making consists we are not using and probably won't be exactly what someone else needs anyway.
Last edited by buffy500 on Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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expressboy1983
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

They're AI versions only Dave. Sorry, should've been more specific!
Kindest regards,
Simon.

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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

expressboy1983 wrote:They're AI versions only Dave. Sorry, should've been more specific!

We've not knowingly only provided AI versions. You sure you are not looking at stock which has only been used as AI in an Act and therefore only been supplied with an AI consist ?

The only pure AI stock I am aware of, is the DLR, Central line and 357's.
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

buffy500 wrote:We've not knowingly only provided AI versions. You sure you are not looking at stock which has only been used as AI in an Act and therefore only been supplied with an AI consist ?

The only pure AI stock I am aware of, is the DLR, Central line and 357's.
The pieces of stock i have mentioned in my post above only come with AI consists, and AI or 'Dead' versions are only available when selecting the stock in AE. There are no driveable versions of these pieces of stock, and i have just double checked this to make sure i've not missed something.
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Simon.

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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

expressboy1983 wrote:
buffy500 wrote:We've not knowingly only provided AI versions. You sure you are not looking at stock which has only been used as AI in an Act and therefore only been supplied with an AI consist ?

The only pure AI stock I am aware of, is the DLR, Central line and 357's.
The pieces of stock i have mentioned in my post above only come with AI consists, and AI or 'Dead' versions are only available when selecting the stock in AE. There are no driveable versions of these pieces of stock, and i have just double checked this to make sure i've not missed something.
Only having supplied AI consists is not the same as there being no drivable versions, such a version would not be drivable regardless of if there was a consist or not.
It's easy to build a consist to make it drivable, but I bet it'll not be the consist that some people would like for themselves.
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

Ok so, in my trainset folder i have:

MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602, in here i only have #MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602.eng. I can't drive that.
MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714.eng and $MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714.eng. I can't drive them.
MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810.eng and $MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810.eng. I can't drive them.
MT_DD_CLASS_56_56114, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_56_56114.eng. I can't drive that.

They are all AI or Dead engine files. :lol: So i drive them how? :drinking:
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by tubemad »

Yes you are right Dave, you can drive them. Looking in the GE2 stock folder, 47818 and 810 for example has a playable .eng file already rigged with sounds and a cab 'cvf' file. Anyone can create a consist with this and drive it with no mods needed.

Only one stock I found that's a bit out of place but is REALLY picky, is Class 57 007, which unfortunately uses MT's class 57 sounds, which would not be heard on 57007...but it really is nothing that makes me lose interest, and I understand it is impossible to get 57/0 sounds nowadays with no real booked passenger turns etc. That's about as picky as you can get really (oh and the SAB sounds like a pistol gun! I know it's 57007 but jeez.... :lol:)

Other than that, super hellfire route! Activities cometh...
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expressboy1983
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

tubemad wrote:Yes you are right Dave, you can drive them. Looking in the GE2 stock folder, 47818 and 810 for example has a playable .eng file already rigged with sounds and a cab 'cvf' file. Anyone can create a consist with this and drive it with no mods needed.
I'm confused, as James' installation seems to have driveable versions of all the stock which isn't driveable on mine. Going to look into this now, maybe re-install if necessary.
Kindest regards,
Simon.

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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

expressboy1983 wrote:Ok so, in my trainset folder i have:

MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602, in here i only have #MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602.eng. I can't drive that.
MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714.eng and $MT_DD_CLASS_47_47714.eng. I can't drive them.
MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810.eng and $MT_DD_CLASS_47_47810.eng. I can't drive them.
MT_DD_CLASS_56_56114, in here i have #MT_DD_CLASS_56_56114.eng. I can't drive that.

They are all AI or Dead engine files. :lol: So i drive them how? :drinking:
In my 37602 folder, I have .....
MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602
$MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602
#MT_DD_CLASS_37_37602

Same for 4747714, 47810, 56114

Now, I don't have a CD of the route yet, but it was formed from the files I have here. I'd be surprised if those files were removed before release.

You are looking ALL the way down the list of files are not just where the $ and # versions are I assume ?
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by expressboy1983 »

It confused me mainly as James, Julian (Techniquest) and myself all installed from the same CD, we all share a flat so there was no point all 3 of us paying for a CD each. However, not to worry i've found the problem.

After installing GE2 i did my usual, like i always do after installing a new route, and ran Train Store to load up only the activity i wanted to drive. All the files i thought were omitted are actually present, just stored in my Train Store folder as there are no used consists or services for the drivable versions. Which would explain why i couldn't find the driveable versions even after unstoring everything. It did it's job, and fooled me. :oops:

Apologies for the false alarm. :oops: :(

I'll get a mod to edit my initial post to remove the mis-guided information.
Last edited by expressboy1983 on Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

expressboy1983 wrote: all installed from the same CD, we all share a flat so there was no point all 3 of us paying for a CD each.
Apart from not breaking the law :-)
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by danielw2599 »

'tis a great addon to an already superb route! :)

Was suprised when it came to installation there was no CD/DVD key requirement...not used to that these days :)
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by buffy500 »

danielw2599 wrote:'tis a great addon to an already superb route! :)

Was suprised when it came to installation there was no CD/DVD key requirement...not used to that these days :)
Whats the point, it makes virtually no difference anyway, only make our lives far far more complex.
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Re: Greater Eastern - Thoughts

Post by gswindale »

TechniquestS482 wrote:Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to pop on over for the update then.

Hope no-one minds my posting the link to the relevant place on the MT forum (if so, please feel free to remove it):

http://forums.makingtracks-online.co.uk ... 5&start=15

EDIT: Done as suggested in that link, downloaded the .txt file and re-named it to .srv, putting it into the Services folder. I must have missed something, as it still doesn't work as it stands. :-?
Hmm, I'm a little puzzled by this - I've installed (from the final installer test as I don't have a CD yet) the route; discovered the file was missing some content. Located the original fully functioning file. Inserted it into the correct location. Checked the activity works. Had somebody independently verify it works (Thanks Ash!). Not sure why it's not working for you? You're not using Vista/W7 and encountering a file permissions problem are you?
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