East Coast Mainline scenarios

[Yan003]

Can anyone please confirm whether or not they have the following scenarios in the East Coast Mainline add on......

(HSTB) It's snow good!
(HSTB) The Grander Central.
(MKI) Race Special

[gptech]

I don't have them, but he first 2 are from the buffered HST pack and I believe the third from DT's Mk1 coaches so if you're missing them just re-install them from those packs.

[Yan003]

Thanks.....I had forgotten I had the buffer HST.

The thing is the in cab view has graphical problems so not sure if it's an issue with that or my graphic card drivers.

[Makeone]

Thanks.....I had forgotten I had the buffer HST.

The thing is the in cab view has graphical problems so not sure if it's an issue with that or my graphic card drivers.

The buffered HST uses older model of the HST and therefore has messed cab. OoVee and/or RSC should fix it...well, time will tell.

[Yan003]

Yes I've just found some older posts regarding the problem.......appears it will work with TSX turned off.

[gptech]

You could swap .Geo's and edit .bin files if you're confident enough, the buffered version is really no differant to the default, just has the buffers added as a child object.

[Yan003]

You could swap .Geo's and edit .bin files if you're confident enough, the buffered version is really no differant to the default, just has the buffers added as a child object.

I'm afraid I'm not confident enough but I appreciate your input.

[gptech]

I'm sure there'll be somebody in here who's done it.....let's hope they stumble across this and can help.

[spellow3010]

Yeah, I came across the buffer HST issue last night for the first time. I've had it in my stock list for a while now, but only played it for the first time last night and got the same in-cab graphic issue you describe. So, I drove it unprototypically from the cab door looking forward!

I'm not really confident enough to start swapping files around willy-nilly as I am a bit of a noob... That said, to get the best out of the download library for this site, one has to learn and practice. If someone can create a simple procedure for sorting this using existing files, I would be grateful. Would I be right in assuming that if I backed up the original files before I did anything, if I did something wrong, I would be able to just re-install the asset? <-------- Noob!!!

[gptech]

I'm not really confident enough to start swapping files around willy-nilly as I am a bit of a noob... That said, to get the best out of the download library for this site, one has to learn and practice. If someone can create a simple procedure for sorting this using existing files, I would be grateful. Would I be right in assuming that if I backed up the original files before I did anything, if I did something wrong, I would be able to just re-install the asset? <-------- Noob!!!

Nothing wrong with being a 'noob' and asking 'noob' questions, the most knowledgeable in here started off just like you. Of course at some point you'll ask a question that had been answered a day or two earlier and some old so-and-so will post a reply such as "Learn how to use the search facility", but the times I do that are becoming less frequent
Back to being serious, you've set off on the right footing by considering the implications of when (not if) you mess something up, and life's so much easier if you can quickly and easily revert any changes.
In this case, simply using Windows Explorer to find the HST folder and copying it somewhere safe is as good a method as any, but once you get properly bitten by the editing bug you'd want to set up a full backup strategy as you'll be tweaking this that and the other and sometimes even playing the game!
You'll need the right tools to do the job; RW Tools fits the bill nicely (http://www.rstools.info/rw_tools.html) and for the price of a pint it's a steal. There are other methods, but RW Tools does mean you don't have to convert a .bin file to .xml and then load another program to edit it, and RW Tools automatically creates a back up of the file you've edited---if you edit loco.bin it'll create a file called loco.bin.bak in the same folder so if it goes wrong a simple delete of the duff file and a rename of the .bin.bak to .bin gets you back to where you started. If you make multiple edits to the file, you'll get more backups named loco.bin.bak1, loco.bin.bak2 and so on.

The in cab problem with the buffered HSTs can be fixed by using the newer .GeoPcDx (model shape) files and adding a small section to the .bin file which tells the game how to deal with the windscreen.

The rest of this is mostly theory, I don't have the buffered stock to check how the .bin is set out but it should get you on the right wavelength (says he, hopefully)


Make your back ups, fire up the game and place ONE of the buffered HST power cars into a free roam scenario, fly round it a few times and note how it looks, where the numbers are, get a feel as to how it should look.
Exit the game, and fire up RW Tools and load the .bin file for that particular model, and then click on 'File' in RW Tool's menu bar. click on 'Open 2nd window', click on the file option in thr menu bar agin and this time select open 2nd bin file. Navigate to the corresponding un-buffered RSC file in the game and you'll be ready to go.
I find clicking the 'Highlight XML' button makes reading the files easier.

Click in the lower window and scroll down till you get near the bottom and see a section that starts with

<WiperPairs>

You need to copy this snippet of the file and add it to the buffered one so select the whole chunk:

<WiperPairs>
<cControlContainerBlueprint-cWiperPair d:id="70813088">
<SlaveToAnimationA d:type="cDeltaString">wipers</SlaveToAnimationA>
<SlaveToAnimationB d:type="cDeltaString"></SlaveToAnimationB>
<TextureID d:type="cDeltaString">Kuju\RailSimulator\RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Default\CabView\Textures\[00]hst_cab_wiper_mask_nm</TextureID>
<NormalsTextureID d:type="cDeltaString">Kuju\RailSimulator\RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Default\CabView\Textures\[00]hst_cab_glass_normals_mask_nm</NormalsTextureID>
</cControlContainerBlueprint-cWiperPair>
</WiperPairs>

and paste it into the SAME place in the file that you've opened for editing in the top window.
(At this point it'd be a good idea to also paste it into a .txt document, so you have it easily to hand when doing the others)
Save the file, which will create that important back up for you and that's the hard bit done.

Now using Windows Explorer find the right .GeoPcDx file in the default HST folders, not having the buffered pack I can't say exactly which it'll be but RW Tools can give a huge clue as to which it is...
Scroll up in the edited .bin file you have open in the top window and look for

<GeometryID d:type="cDeltaString">

This will give the name of the geo thats's been used, for the default unbuffered RSC versions you may see Kuju\RailSimulator\RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Default\Class43\[00]class43
or
Kuju\RailSimulator\RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\BR_IC125\Class43\[00]class43_ic
--the part we're interested in is the file name after the [00] so in this case you'd look for files called
class43.GeoPcDx
or
class43_ic.GeoPcDx
respectively. Once you've found it, use Windows Explorer to copy it into the buffered versions Class43 folder.

That should be it, honest!

Fire up the game, clear cache and once it's reloaded test your edited HST in a free roam. If it works we've cracked it, if not it's not the end of the world as we could still use the default .bin and .geo and just edit that to place the buffers.---bit more complicated, but of course that means it's a bit more fun too!!

Once again, don't be scared to ask 'noob' questions, anything in there that I've made a pigs ear of explaining just ask for clarification, any other questions--just ask. This forum is full of folk with the answers, and if they don't have those answers they'll have a pretty good idea of where to find them.

[Yan003]

Thanks for taking the time to post that gptech.

Be interested to hear how you go on with it spellow3010

[gptech]

Be interested to hear how you go on with it spellow3010

I'd be more interested to hear he could understand my ramblings.....

It's actually much easier to do than explain, once you get the hang of what bits of a .bin do what, and which bits are the right ones to edit and which to leave well alone it starts to make more sense.

[spellow3010]

Wow! Yeah, I will give that a go. I certainly intend to get hold of the RW Tools program - I think changing consists will be the first thing I try.

Thanks for taking the time to post all that Gptech - a veritable mine of information. And point taken - will commit to the mysterious 'search' option hence

[gptech]

No, you misunderstand---I wasn't having a dig with the search bit, was just an attempt to keep the post light-hearted.

[Sillo]

Gents
I was following this thread & recognizing myself as a "Noob" decided to have a go at sorting out the HST buffer screen anomaly using gptech's tutorial (thanks for taking the trouble gptech btw)
Using RW_ tools, I identified the engine files used for the "Its Snow Good" scenario drivers train with a view to backing up the folder I intended to tamper with (as per the tutorial). For this scenario the HST buffer ICS livery is used & the extract from RW_tools below shows 6 possible choices of which file no's 3 & 5 are used.

1: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43\class43_ic.bin
2: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43-DVT\class43_ic.bin
3: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43-DVT-2\class43_ic.bin
4: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43-DVT-2\class43_ic-nd.bin
5: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43-DVT\class43_ic-nd.bin
6: RailVehicles\Diesel\HST\Intercity_swallow_buffers\Class43\class43_ic-nd.bin

I don't quite understand why a choice of all the above files is available but I added files 3 & 5 to a test track scenario using RW_tools to (according to tutorial) familiarize myself with the shape file. Sure enough the cabview in engine 3 above was corrupt but not engine 5. Using RW tools, I swapped around all 6 engine files above in the test track scenario & only file 5 produced an uncorrupted windscreen view. So again using RW tools I placed engine 5 at both ends of the consist in the "Its Snow Good" scenario & hey presto a working HST buffer scenario.
Although I went about it the long way, I guess swapping cabs in the offending scenario would quickly show whether the fix would work for you.
Like any good scientist, I found a solution by accident but still don't understand why & would like to be enlightened. Any offers? The fix don't work for the GC engine btw.

Regards
Keith