PRR K4 - Steam 8th February 2012

[styckx]

A pot of coffee later (and about to make more) I've reconsidered and will do the blueprint edits.. Just frustrating..

So.. In light of all that jazz.. Some 5760x1080 pics! Found changing the FOV kills off that stretching too

Available in fullsize


k4s by styckxx, on Flickr


k4s by styckxx, on Flickr

[SammytheShunter]

Anyway the sound cutting out is probably the same thing as the King class, the sound priority levels are lower than the sound domes and surrounding areas so they get pushed out of the sound channels when they encounter high priority sound domes/areas......

Thanks so much for posting on this, crumplezone. Really helpful for the willing furtler like myself who due to ignorance of the TS2012 architecture just needs a pointer where to start.....

[crumplezone]

I forgot to add in my earlier post (can't edit, boooo) but the files are located under

\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Assets\provider\DLCPACK\audio\railvehicle\steam\DLCPACK\

Where steam provider is, I believe it should be RSC nowadays, since I've not got the K4 pack I can't confirm, and the name of the DLC pack to, but its all under that area and in the proxyxml file.

As noted you can also edit the bin files, but I used to do these edits prior to having rw-tools so even average joe could do it without having to get rw-tools and go through all that, so should be relatively easy to do.

Ensure you open the proxyxml file also with notepad if your doing it without rw-tools as any others might disrupt the text struture setup for the code script, once again do at ones own risk, and make sure you backup so you don't have to do a long verified cache.

[Makeone]

Beautifull pictures of the monster in rails...well, all american steamers were quite large, in our european standards anyways. Strange how the wheels of the tender looks like they are not actaully on rails, but i think it's the shadows or something that is messing it up.

Ugh, i may need to buy that, will fit in HSC nicely, even tho it's a bit of lonely there, or does the scenarios have diesels too, i think they would fit the timeperiod, end of 1940's, begining of 1950's?

[Griphos]

You'll find the relevant files here: ..../assets/RSC/K4Pack01/Audio/Railvehicles/Steam/K4/K4_AudioControl.proxybin (or .proxyxml).

I edited the values (there are a LOT of them) from 50 to 80 and didn't have any cutout on the scenario I just played (Boxed In). Of course, there weren't any AI in that scenario either, but I suspect this will do the trick. I just edited the priority entries.

Thanks much for that tip!

And, yes, she's a real beauty, and looks so lovely on the HSC with a rake of old wooden boxcars behind her double-heading down the line!

[briyeo1950]

A pot of coffee later (and about to make more) I've reconsidered and will do the blueprint edits.. Just frustrating..

So.. In light of all that jazz.. Some 5760x1080 pics! Found changing the FOV kills off that stretching too

Available in fullsize


k4s by styckxx, on Flickr


k4s by styckxx, on Flickr

Fantastic screenshots Bill, thanks for those One for my list for purchase when there is a sale on.What does it look like with all the steam emitters operating though, looks almost like the fires gone out

[Griphos]

Has a nice little trickle of steam coming out all the time. Very nice.

[johnmckenzie]

There is another small glitch - look behind you on the footplate and the roof doesn't extend behind the cab!

[windberg]

If I start a scenario the stoker is running and I believe the stoker sound is everytime on. The nice side the stoker runs without opening of the firebox door.

[crumplezone]

Well besides my original misgivings and a few youtube videos later I decided to pop a purchase in, after editing the sound files via my method explained earlier there doesn't seem to be any issue with the sounds and interestingly enough it doesn't sound half bad all things considered and I'm normally a UK steam fan for the most part.

Its a nice steamer for me personally on the size front, I do have the challenger and the berkshires and I feel they are "to big" maybe that is because of riding UK steamers for so often, I think only the duchies come close in the size department to some of the smaller and medium sized US steamers.

Model wise the K4 is at a excellent standard and the livery is also pretty good from what I can see, though argueable it would have been interesting if there was maybe a different varient in the livery, maybe a more silvered smokebox then the dark colour it is. Personally I also feel the cab is pretty well done and is something which seemed to look less detailed on existing US releases though in general I feel the cabs on US locomotives could be brought up alittle in the detail area and start stepping away from a somewhat MSTS feel to them.

Its also got some nice exshaust effect and steam leaking from the upper boiler and the cyclinder cocks open ain't to overzealous in there representation which suits me fine when driving. The light on the front is also pretty awesome and projects really far infront of the locomotive like what I've seen them do in pictures and film. My only bug bear is that yet again the damned firebox glow has been added and it causes a performance hit when shadows are enabled, I don't know if its shadow casting or just the position its in clashing with surfaces but it mauls FPS whenever its projecting and its somewhat annoying that happens.

Driving wise, it relatively easy and smooth to drive and seems to have keg loads of power behind it, oddly enough, even though I don't have autofireman off I can open the firebox doors. It accelerates pretty smoothly and not to overzealous and braking seems to be alright, but I'm not expert on US steamers so it could be off or it couldn't be, personally I feel its relatively easy to control the braking and stopping of a train.

Sound wise the chuff beat is good, though as noted it seems to cut off but I don't know if this is incorrect or not, I've seen a few of the K4 vids on youtube and it seems quieter while at higher speeds but I'm not 100% sure, I might fiddle with the settings for how long the sounds remain into play (if it still works) and see if putting the chuff sound prior to going faster fits in right. Whistle is relatively ok, but its split in two parts when you hit the space bar, first half ends up looping if you keep spacebar down to long thus you get a erupt stutter changing to the second half. The bell sound could also do with being better, it seems the loop or recording it set to faster and its DINGDINGDINGDING rather than DING-DING-DING-DING-DING which would fit with a bell actually swaying back and forth on its bearing. Another interesting thing is cyclinder cocks sound only plays to around 18-20mph which is a nice touch.

So overall, its a good US steamer DLC pack with a high quality model and pretty decent sounds to boot and there not all terrible looped soundsets which abruptly switch from one set to the next without any sync'ing done.

Now all I'd like now is some single track mountain/valley area with forests and meandering river to sedately chuff along and maybe some mountainous area to as a US route to drive this one outside of the HSC.

[bigphill2]

Hi Crumplezone
On mine i can only open the firebox doors with the raildriver.The H4 hud loads the caol but wont open the door. Manually opening the door does not add fuel. Can you please check this for me?

Regards....Phill

[crumplezone]

Hi Crumplezone
On mine i can only open the firebox doors with the raildriver.The H4 hud loads the caol but wont open the door. Manually opening the door does not add fuel. Can you please check this for me?

Regards....Phill

I don't have raildriver, but the HUD as you mentioned, with autofireman off, you open the stroker lever to full and hit the firebox door icon, however that is not visually opening the firebox doors in the cab but is still giving fuel. Keyboard wise with F and shift + F and opening the firebox doors seems to produce similar results. I think the firebox door has been animated but not linked with the actual mechanism from what I can see, I don't particularly know how that can be fixed though.

[windberg]

I do not use the auto fireman and I can open the firebox door with F and close with Shift + F. The nice thing with the K4 is that it is not necessary to open the firebox door to feed the fire like at other stoker steam engines. If you press R the stoker feeds the fire with closed door like the real thing.

[SquidvT]

My only bug bear is that yet again the damned firebox glow has been added and it causes a performance hit when shadows are enabled, I don't know if its shadow casting or just the position its in clashing with surfaces but it mauls FPS whenever its projecting and its somewhat annoying that happens.

Yes I hate that too, have done since it appeared back with the RSC King release. Its a great effect but kills fps. So i did a little digging and found that if you delete the Fireglow.bin in the particles folder for that engine you get rid of the entire effect. I believe the King also had a ashpanglow.bin which i deleted as well.

I dont have the K4, but it works for the King and Woodhead 8F.

Im considering purchasing it, but I wonder if anyone can post the edited soundsbin to fix the stutters?

[Griphos]

Now all I'd like now is some single track mountain/valley area with forests and meandering river to sedately chuff along and maybe some mountainous area to as a US route to drive this one outside of the HSC.

What you need is Tori's C&O Alleghany: http://www.coarw.com

It's got the atmosphere just right and is just the route for what you describe above.