Animated Two Tone Horn Levers

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:00 pm

Hi All, I was wondering if it would be possible to create a horn lever that can be clicked and dragged both ways, ie up for the high note and down for the low note ( returning to centre position ) to play single tones as with my two tone horn sounds which are operated with the space bar and B key ( two seperate .wav files ) as at present it only goes up and then back to the centre.
I believe it is possible with Raildriver? Could it be possible with the mouse?Is it a good idea? would it work? Please let me know
Cheers
Nelson

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:24 pm

it should be possible, as you can have an animation for the bell button.

How you would do it would be known by someone who makes cabs!

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:28 pm

Thanks for that Arabian, I hope so, I have already posted the same topic in the MSTS Cab Modelling forum.
Cheers.
Nelson

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:22 am

Please don't cross post the same thing in seperate forums as it gets confusing as to which one to add to and the replies can often get lost between the two threads.

Anyway, you pose an interesting question there.

Away from my MSTS setup, I can only guess, but from my cab-building experience I'd say it's technically possible, but would probably be a futile move.

Why? Well... The horn only has two positions in MSTS as does the bell switch. You could use the four animations that these two controls make to have a horn down and up, and two central positions. Exactly as you surmised.

However they would be two animation setups, one on top of the other. Unfortunately, MSTS only allows you to click on the topmost of any overlapping part of animations, so you'd need to make the bottom animation frames bigger than the top so you could select it.

Example? OK... You make the up-lever animation 50 pixels taller than the down-lever animation. You click on the middle of the horn lever to produce the down-lever sound, then move the mouse up to the 50 pixel extra area and then click there to produce the up-lever sound. No dragging with the mouse I'm afraid, and it could be fiddly as there would be no obvious click area for the up-lever animation.

It COULD be done, but would it be worth it?

Mind you... Have I just given away a great cab selling point now? Hmmmm...

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:13 pm

Hi Fodda, thanks for that, I'm sure a lot of people would find it an interesting change to the norm, such as people who enjoy a touch of realism to British trains, ie: DMUs now coming with 4 gears and
reversable lighting etc. It's great to see advances being made such as two tone horns and the brilliant Xtracks, remember when you bought your first copy of MSTS? Pretty dull by todays standards.
Sorry about the cross posting, I was excited about telling people, I think it's a great idea if it can be done.
Regards
Nelson

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm

I may have a quick experiment this evening to see just how useable it could be.

The only other fly in the ointment I can see is that a few of Chris Baily's excellent sound scapes (and of course the fantastic Small Shunter Sounds) use the 'B' key as a way of utilising engine start and stop sounds.

Of course, I'll try it with an engine that doesn't have these sounds.

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:29 pm

Brilliant, thanks for your time Fodda, I'm sure you've got better things to do than work on other peoples whims, I'd love to know if other keys could be assigned? I've had some success with the Z and V keys, if you don't mind horns being played when you switch the wipers on???

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:32 pm

Not sure what the keyboard shortcut is, but there's a switch for Cab Radio that I've never seen used anywhere in any engine. That would be the obvious one...

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:33 pm

Yes, I'll investigate, cheers for that, you're a star.
Nelson

MrHillingdon · Post by **MrHillingdon** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:42 pm

I don't know if I've missed the point here but the Hymek that comes with the West Somerset addon is two-tone, space bar and the B key and you can do one with or without the other and at a different tone.

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:50 pm

Hi Mr Hillingdon, yes we're on about the horn lever in the cab view, when you click on it it goes 'up' and plays the horn sound before returning to the centre. What I'm asking is can the horn lever then be made to go 'down' to play the other tone as in real life. At present the two tones can only be played using the space bar and B key as you rightly pointed out. I have now uploaded a few samples in the download area, they're not great but they're getting better now people are kindly sending me their recordings. I think they give a bit more variety and a bit more realism for British trains, the other possibility we are looking at is using another 'spare' key to operate the Bell or whatever. I haven't got West Somerset add-on yet, wonder what Santa's got for me???

Regards
Nelson

MrHillingdon · Post by **MrHillingdon** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 3:07 pm

Nelson, the horn lever in the Hymek goes forward for one tone and the other way for the other tone. A long press or a short press of the relevant keys gives a long or short blast. It's definitely an improvement, I wish you luck and one day we may be able to play tunes on our horns!

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:59 pm

Hi MrHillingdon, thanks, it sounds great I'll have to have a look at it. Hopefully this will be the trend for the future, real horn operation, wipers, lights etc
Maybe even conquer the FPS problem for internal wipers?
Looking good!
Cheers
Nelson

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:07 am

Well there we are. Seems the WSR has beaten us to it Nelson. I haven't got that route yet either, but I'll see about getting it for Christmas. Truth is I have two or three routes installed that I've not even seen 10% of yet due to being busy which is why I've put it off and put it off.

nelson · Post by **nelson** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 1:16 pm

Hi Fodda, me too, get all these routes and never been more than ten miles on them

Have to get the WSR. Thanks for your help anyway
Cheers
Nelson