Atomic Systems

Well its been a while since I was on this forum. Rather got frustrated with MSTS but since I have been away I have discovered MS Bin and now I am back again and enthused. Not least as I haev broad band these days.

So - I have been working on Cross Fell again. Now that I can get some sensible engine physics to test it with.

So far its mainly a matter of converting it to the lastest tsection.dat, adding in the xtracks textures etc and adding a whole bunch of sound to add curlews and the like in the moorland.

The engineers have also been at the sound textures for the track and got some mods there as well.

I suspect an new upload will occur sometime this week to address these issues. Also some of the dynamic track joins were just horrid and I have been sorting these out as well.

I'll post again as soon as its uploaded. Existing activities should still work although there has been a track plan change at the dam area...

Hi
Glad to here your back 'into' MSTS.
I would agree, since the Bin patch, it is the most 'useable' sim available.
I don't run much narrow gauge, but your route is one I do have.
Cheers
Jon

Great news - I'm struggling to get one or two of the original Cross Fell acts working but it'll be good to see the route updated as it's one of my favourites - I find the hillsides in particular are amongst the most natural looking I've seen in MSTS (or any other train-sim for that matter!)

Ash

One aspect of Cross Fell which I like is that it is a completely believable route. You cannot tell whether the actual route existed or not. It also is an opportunity to run narrow gauge stock not really suitable for many other routes.

Ah, activities.... I was playing about with this yesterday as i tend to use "explore" mode. The trick seems to be to make sure that the MAX VELOCITY parameter is set right. I reset all mine to MaxVelocity ( 10.7289 0.2777 ) which is roughly 16mph max I think using the calculator in conbuilder. Trouble is that you need to change it manually as both conbuilder and the defulat editor over write it each time you cahnge the consist.

The other thing is that I discovered that AI trains need seperate AI paths ! The various runround and passing loops at summit and low moor especially need to be configured for AI train paths as those alternative paths thingies that I can't remember the name of. I found that otherwise a train from the site would either hold for ever at Summit or get stuck at the entrance to Low moor if my train was already waiting at Low Moor. I can now get a run from Flaxenby to the Site Office as an activity, waiting at low moor for a down train to pass, passing a load of skips waiting at summit, and watching some shunting at the compensation relaese sidings when i get to the site office. This suggests that the signalling does just about work !

I done some pretty heavy mods of the .wag files for all my stock to get realistic physics. I ended up coming to the conclusuion that weights of 1 ton or below did some pretty horrible things to the internal workings of the physics model - esp the couplings ( possibly as 1 ton or less is maths that reverses the function for any equation, i.e 1/ 0.5 = doubling it) so I stick to real weights for stock as far as possible unless less than 2 tons when it just gets 2 tons - makes for heavy empty skips !! I have developed a spreadsheet for calculating the other parameters that I might upload actually as it seems to produce some pretty usuable results.

Trouble is I keep getting distracted. Also been getting into sounds and cabs. I might have to see if I can upload a vid to show you waht I mean.

OK I have just uploaded my calculating spreadsheet.

It just uses ratios and known facts + a little bit of real dat. Not sure when it will be available.

Partly its a test for uploading. There are a number of sets of parameters I use, in the spreadsheet for things like the Talyllyn locos, the alice class, wrens, alco, baldwins, decauville, bagnalls. Also the coach parameters for things like sizes and weights that I have collected.

I have been working at some more improvements, bined the night textures and moved to having HalfBright polygons for windows so that buildings fade in the light rather than switch ! Much, much better.

This then sort of led to experimenting with environment files to see what I could get for realism there...

So here is a lazy sunday in midsummer


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and mid summer night showing the much improved night windows and station interior


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at 11pm ( above ) and midnight (below)


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Not forgetting those april showers !


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or cloudy / windy summer days ( summer cloudy day assigned to the summer snow option )


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but I really do like the autumn days when it isn't foggy - last train home before bonfire night


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or what about deep and chrisp and even on a sunny xmas day ?


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More seaesons to go yet and some more lighting but V2 progresses apace.

I forgot this one... A grey and murky November day up at the dam


Click the image to zoom in

Looks really good

I keep saying it, but I really must reinstall Msts again, and try this and Andrews new models and route out

Cheers,
Kevin

Can we look forward to a complete download for this route with activities and suitable stock? It would be a great introduction to small ng lines.

I particularly like the murky day, with its very muted colours - nearly monochromatic.

Yes, I am still busy upgrading version1 ( available on here ) to the new version.

Sorted out how to get better rivers today. Grey and flooded in autumn low and blue/white in summer without that stupid "see through edge" that the original has.
Also been learning a bit more about ambiant light and its effect on stock ! Put the colour of highlight and ambiant too close together and you get detail washout on the stock. Been developing some better contrast to get the detail without having jumps in colour.

Also still finding errors in textures and position etc etc.

Patient please guys - it will be uploaded but I need to get the jobs done in a methodical way - and not keep getting into new stuff to mod !

Looks fantastic,looking forward to a play on this one.
I agree with Jefran also,the muted colours look spot on.

VERSION 2 IS NOW UPLOADED !

It should be live in the next couple of days.

Some basics.

1. Its in 5 parts as there are a lot of big textures. No autoloader or stuff like that. Traditional zip files. Just keep adding after unloading CrossFellv2 Part1.zip first

2. You'll need to get X-tracks and finescale I think as I have them installed along with the most recent Tsection.dat so although I don't think I use them i can't be too sure as the points do look a bit better

3. There are 3 different ttype.dat files. I have the railwaves sounds installed so I ave included a ttype that I use which is a mod of their .sms files to make things right for x2 narrow gauge trackwork. I have kept the default MSTS ttype.dat though as the "live" one so the thing will work for those without either that or the alternative sounds from the UK trackwork / 2 cylinder teams which I have included as well. see embarrassing error below

4. Some new sounds - curlew on the moors is a particular favorite,

5. Also included are some wagon and coach sound files to replace the generic ones that use the UK wagon/4 wheel stock sound series to replace the default ones. Again modified .sms files to reflect the lower NG speeds

6. All new environments. One catch is that the Summer Clouds is switched on by selecting Summer Snow in the game. The snow depth is controlled by the microtex file in the terrtex directory. I have one that I use that gives an even snow cover but I have included several sorts of snow for folks to pick one they like the best. trouble is the snow depth applies to all seasons.

7. This is important. Any activities used in version 1 are UNLIKELY to work. The track plan has changed a little as I have got rid of the stupid facing point at the Reservoir site, and also ironed out some of the kinks. I have also fully added siding names to every siding and that really does seem to have screwed up any activities I made.
But the good(ish) news is that I have included a bunch of paths so that explore mode will fire you to different places right away.

8. For this reason delete the old version/ or disable it in some way before you add the new version. Not least as some of the shapes have changed !

9. Nighttime action I have removed most of the night textures as they were not doing what I wanted. Now buildings gradully change colour at dawn and sunset. For my own models ( shape files ) I have added some lighted windows that will stay on as the buildings get dark but this is hard to do for models I have used from others. Nevertheless I think the amount of nightime lighting is about right.

10. At night it is dark ! The original files painted night in some kind of wierd electric blue. Depending on the season the middle of the night ( especially if it is overcast) will be pitch black ! However midsummer isn't.

11. Seasons - Summer is hot, and set at about mid June. Spring is sort of early april. Autumn is late Oct early Nov and the river is high. Winter is most definately around xmas time / new year.

Thats most of the stuff. Basically have fun and email me if you get stuck. Usual rules apply. Steal anything I made with no problems. Some of the other stuff is most definately copyright the authors.

I haven't tried to list all of the people who have got textures/sounds/files/buildings in this layout. Its way too complicated and some of the files go back along way. I have tried to credit the main inspirations. If you feel uncredited and a bit miffed then do have a go at me on the forum and I will post a most public and humble apology.

Phew...

Now shall I go and add my narrow gauge sound files / cabs for engines - thinks ? or have a beer ?

Beers.....

. ! No matter how hard you test something ...

Small error ( non critical ) found already. If you use one of the alternative ttype.dat files the number of lines is wrong. i.e

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0t1t______

11
TrackType ( "Default" "cfnarrowtrack0in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack0ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Concrete Supported" "europesteamtrack1in.sms" "europesteamtrack1ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Wood Supported" "cfnarrowtrack2in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack2ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "In Tunnel" "europesteamtrack3in.sms" "europesteamtrack3ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Steel Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack4in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack4ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Girder Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack5in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack5ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Under Bridge" "europesteamtrack6in.sms" "europesteamtrack6ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Concrete Bridge" "europesteamtrack7in.sms" "europesteamtrack7ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Crossing Platform" "europesteamtrack8in.sms" "europesteamtrack8ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Wooden Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack9in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack9ex.sms" )

should read "10" not "11"

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0t1t______

10
TrackType ( "Default" "cfnarrowtrack0in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack0ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Concrete Supported" "europesteamtrack1in.sms" "europesteamtrack1ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Wood Supported" "cfnarrowtrack2in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack2ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "In Tunnel" "europesteamtrack3in.sms" "europesteamtrack3ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Steel Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack4in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack4ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Girder Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack5in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack5ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Under Bridge" "europesteamtrack6in.sms" "europesteamtrack6ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Concrete Bridge" "europesteamtrack7in.sms" "europesteamtrack7ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Crossing Platform" "europesteamtrack8in.sms" "europesteamtrack8ex.sms" )
TrackType ( "Wooden Bridge" "cfnarrowtrack9in.sms" "cfnarrowtrack9ex.sms" )

damn, damn, damn

Its a simple text edit and the layout does start up ok in the default ttype mode.