WHL South from DTG and Milepost Simulations

[gptech]

How about a 3 sided coin?...

should they have just produced Glasgow Queen Street to Helensburgh?...as that seems to be the bit many want instead.

[spellow3010]

I am not intimately au fait with the route to be fair, having only travelled over it a handful of times. But those handful of times left an amazing impression on me. So I purchased this yesterday evening.

Loved the Class 37 physics and skins - though would like to have AP sounds on it!! I would put money on the real class 37s being quite throaty in the climb of a 1/196 gradient with load 4 or 5 at 50% throttle? More throaty than I currently get at least. I used the 'initial' brake application quite a bit to help manage speeds on the up and down thrashtastic gradients. Made for an enjoyable challenge indeed.

Like the Mark 1 sleepers...

The route reminded me why I hate the generic flange squeal noises.

I'm not getting any track reverb sounds or echo inside key lineside features e.g. bridges, cuttings or tunnels. I did 'verify cache' but still not getting it. One for DTG support to retort.

Grabbed some nice screenshots too - it makes me feel as though I am in Highland Scotland and convinces me (from my vague, long distant memories - never done it on a sprinter). So, to the Dev, I like it. Glad you chose this era... I wouldn't have fancied Sprinter days I'm afraid. JMHO.

Not perfect - but then, nothing ever is (even WCML TV isn't perfect, believe me).

[tluamiani1]

Given how different the line from Helensburgh in to Glasgow is, and how detailed it would need to be, I actually reckon it would have been about at least the same amount of work again to have included it in to Queen St.

[Alicatt]

Given how different the line from Helensburgh in to Glasgow is, and how detailed it would need to be, I actually reckon it would have been about at least the same amount of work again to have included it in to Queen St.

Well I can start my journey on your North Clyde Lines and do a joined scenario at Helensburugh Upper and continue my way on up to Ft. William and then do another joined scenario from Ft. Bill to Mallaig that way I can have the densely packed urban sprawl from your route and transition into the bleak highland moors with the WHL it sounds like win win to me

[jimmyshand]

After having spent a bit more time on this route I have now revised my initial negative review to a largely positive experience. Spending my childhood growing up in the area in the 1980's I have extremely detailed knowledge and memories of the WHL between Helensburgh and Garelochead.
Helensburgh Upper station is disappointing in this route. Considering it is the start/end point for this particular DLC then I think more attention to detail here would have made all the difference to my initial impressions. I spent years of my youth on the platform at Helensburgh Upper watching 37's and so the fact that on first load up I couldn't even recognize that I was standing at that very station then it really hacked me off! A quick look around soon got me my bearings, the general layout is correct, the unique covered walkway down to the platform is there, but other than that I was disappointed. I also wish they'd continued the line the 2 miles down to where the West Highland Line actually begins at Craigendoran Junction. My old house and my former primary school were both lineside between Helensburgh Upper and Craigendoran Junction so I was gutted they left this part out! Continuing to Craigendoran would have made more geographical sense to me and also would have provided a link to the electrified Glasgow run thus opening up the chance for 'route extenders' to work their magic.
The rest of the run up from Helensburgh as far as Ardlui is actually very good. Technically spot on and even the scenery is growing on me. It is a very claustrophobic line with dense foliage on all sides and after a few runs I've decided that this route does provide a reasonable simulation of this and the in-game foliage is growing on me. Zooming through the dense trees at 40mph is actually quite a rush.
All the key features, bridges, landmarks etc are correctly placed and well made. The loch's look fabulously rendered as still, calm, dark waters when viewed from high up on the line. 'Secret' spotting locations I know of along this part of the line were also instantly recognisable which brought a smile of memories flooding back.
Another bonus is that AI passing services are fully working on this route, which was not the case with the JT Kyle Line.
This is a long route offering 100 miles of contrasting scenery between the forests and lochs of the southern end to the barren wilderness of the northern end. Over 3 hours of running with glorious scenery along the way.

I've changed my mind completely and look forward to exploring this route in greater depth.

[gptech]

I'm not getting any track reverb sounds or echo inside key lineside features e.g. bridges, cuttings or tunnels. I did 'verify cache' but still not getting it. One for DTG support to retort.

Has the route actually been produced with occlusions under bridges etc and differing track rumble sounds?
Bit silly to dive straight in and verify without checking whether there's anything left to download.

[driverden]

I've just had an exploratory drive to Tyndrum Lower, it's as good as the rest of the route. If only it continued to Oban I would happily lose the Crianlarich to Helensborough section, what a must buy route that would be then.

[spellow3010]

I'm not getting any track reverb sounds or echo inside key lineside features e.g. bridges, cuttings or tunnels. I did 'verify cache' but still not getting it. One for DTG support to retort.

Has the route actually been produced with occlusions under bridges etc and differing track rumble sounds?
Bit silly to dive straight in and verify without checking whether there's anything left to download.

Silly lol?

It was only a verify cache using the in game tool - the one where it just seems to restart the game. I thought that was the magic wand that solved a lot of isms in this sim... Now looking for the thread to unpack .AP files. Must be a thread somewhere... I want to edit some scenarios.

[gptech]

Silly lol? It was only a verify cache using the in game tool - the one where it just seems to restart the game

Definitely very silly if you've edits to default stock--AP soundpacks for example--as it re-downloads default versions of any altered files it finds.
It does solve a lot of issues, but it's very much a "next to the last resort resort" because of the work it can involve post verify. We're guilty of promoting it's use too much in the past so that it appears to be that 'magic wand'.
Whichever method of fixing things you use is silly if there's nothing to fix, hence why I wrote you need to find out if anything is broken/missing first.

Now looking for the thread to unpack .AP files

OPTIONS:
1) RW Tools does the job---possibly the easiest way.
2) WinRAR/7Zip and most other archive managers will open .ap archives, but you may have to manually ensure that the extracted files are read/write. (For Rw Tools to be able to edit them)
3) Copy the .ap to your desktop, rename it by changing the extension to .zip to allow Windows to open it.

I want to edit some scenarios.

Simply open the scenario in the in-game editor, add a loco and save. This will now create a new instance of the scenario outside of the .ap archive, which the game will read in preference to the archived copy. Now you can use RW Tools to swap as much about as you want.

[almark]

I think there's some confusion here,I get the impression that what Spellow means is that he "Cleared Cache" from the in game menu and not a full "Verify Cache" via Steam?

Cheers,
Mark

[gptech]

Ahhh....so "verify" means "clear"....the new "of"?
spellow, If you've just cleared the cache it only means that a new cache is created the next time you start the game, no missing files will be reacquired nor will it add sounds if sounds aren't there. You'd normally clear the cache after installing reskins to ensure that the game rebuilds the cache (think in terms of it being the games "index" of installed assets) so that it recognises that you have new versions of already installed base models.
It's something many don't do, preferring to simply delete the blueprints.pak file associated with whichever model has just had a reskin for added (these blueprints.pak files collectively make up the cache)

I have now revised my initial negative review to a largely positive experience

jimmy, I for one appreciate your honesty there, maybe enhancing Helensburgh Upper station could be a wee project for you?

[Drogba11CFC]

I'm playing the "Autumn over Rannoch Moor" scenario and am using a combination of throttle and brake to control my train's speed on the descent from Corrour summit. Was this a real life tactic or was it frowned upon?

[almark]

Which direction from Corrour? Never known any throttle usage on all the loco hauled trains I've been on once over the summit going towards Tulloch,going the other way they seem to let them roll most of the way,I think with units they use throttle on some of the sharp uphill bits but vid only been on a 156 a couple of times along there.

[spellow3010]

Yes, I was silly not to use the correct phrase for what I did - I did indeed 'clear cache...' Deffo was not very silly and verify files via Steam lol

Thanks for the steer about .AP files though Gary... I managed to unpack the route last night using some similar advice given by Mike Simpson in a different thread I searched.

#supergaz

[spellow3010]

Which direction from Corrour? Never known any throttle usage on all the loco hauled trains I've been on once over the summit going towards Tulloch,going the other way they seem to let them roll most of the way,I think with units they use throttle on some of the sharp uphill bits but vid only been on a 156 a couple of times along there.

I would be interested to see how using the coasting tactic would work with the career scenario timings. Fort Bill to Corrour on the sleeper with 37039 is very hard to make the timings. Lose a lot of speed on the 1/59 climb with the poor tractor getting the full hammer. Real challenge.