NS SD40-2 LHF Issues

[MontanaRails]

Overall, I'm happy with the NS Coal District Route, but the SD40-2 LHF leaves much to be desired. I've noticed a number of things that indicate they just rushed this out the door without any quality control or testing. I do not recommend this addon if you're even mildly concerned about detail. The sounds are unchanged (aside from a odd P5 sounding horn). I'm glad I bought it bundled...if I had paid $20 I would contact my credit card and tell them not to process the payment.

UPDATED LIST 7/26/14
1) When headlights are off, forward headlight textures are missing. Appears to be a model issue - cannot fix.
2) Boarding handrails are not painted NS high visibility yellow. Should be able to fix this easily enough. Update: Cannot fix, see http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11805#p136126
3) Bell is in the right place, horn is totally wrong. Model issue, cant fix.
4) Ditchlights flash correctly, but do not light up the ground. Not sure how to fix this.
5) Brake sensitivity is way too high. One quick tap on the keyboard and it goes to 30% or so. It is set at "2" in the engine.bin file - changing it to 0.3 allows it to be at least driveable. See fix http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11805&start=15#p136485.
6) Brake strength is impossibly high. A small reduction results in a deceleration similar to if the train went into emergency! It is impossible to control descents. Cannot fix - see thread below.
7) *Updated* - Numberboards don't light up at night. Not sure how to fix.
8) *Updated* - Coupler settings are set to manual couplings, instead of automatic. Easy fix, see http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11805&start=30#p136728.
9) *Updated* - Plow on wrong end of locomotive. Model issue, cant fix.

So...first things first, does anyone know how to fix the brake strength? We need to reduce this by a factor of at least 5, if not more. Is this controlled by the engine simulation file?

Sorry if I sound overly negative...I'm just really disappointed by this addon. But, as we usually do, I'd like to work together to try to fix it.

Thoughts?

[thecanadianrail]

Oh another thing that I spotted that is incorrect is that the plow is at the wrong end of the locomotive, its set as if it was to operate short hood forward.

[MontanaRails]

Oh another thing that I spotted that is incorrect is that the plow is at the wrong end of the locomotive, its set as if it was to operate short hood forward.

You are correct! Somehow I missed that.

[MontanaRails]

Update: The overly effective brakes might have to do with the rolling stock included with the SD40-2, not the locomotive itself. Still investigating.

Update 2: This is what the texture for the handrails looks like. No idea why they'd make it so complex - each polygon/face has it's own texture...so I'm not going to do a trial and error mapping on that.

[Ericmopar]

Update: The overly effective brakes have to do with the rolling stock included with the SD40-2, not the locomotive itself. Still investigating.

I don't own this DlC, but yes the braking problems I've encountered are all over the place, it's never just one adjustment for an engine or piece of rolling stock.
Some of the settings work, despite what the RSC/DTG Wiki says.

A good place to start is looking to see if "TrippleValve" is set to "eTrue"
Same for "ProportionalBraking" and "GraduatedRelease"

Other settings are more complex.

[MontanaRails]

Thank you for the tips - I was actually reading some of your other threads on physics and freight car behavior - good stuff.

Unfortunately, I've given up on this DLC. I cant paint the handrails the right color because 1) the texture maps are insanely complex (see above), and 2) strangely, if I make more than one or two changes to the handrail texture, it causes the game to CTD during QD loading. Also, when I make changes to the .bin files, the game randomly CTD's. For example, when I modify the included rolling stock's rolling resistance and drag (as referenced here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10582&hilit=Power+curve&start=15 and here: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8831), it works ok as long as I dont modify the MaxForcePercentOfVehicleWeight variable. It's defaulted to "70," and modifying it to 71 or 69 or anything else causes the game to CTD. I think something is checking integrity of the files and if they're modified too much (filesize differences?) then it prevents loading.

However, I can modify the rolling resistance, brake force and drag of the Coal Cars included with the NS Mon route itself, no problem! Odd.

Here's the real strange part; with either the NS ES44AC from the Mon route, or the NS SD40-2 LHF, the new 'realistic brakes' are doing odd things. If I set the HUD train brake lever to "2" (which is the lowest application setting per the .bin files for both diesels), I get a somewhat rapid deceleration. Just didn't feel right. The locomotive brake cylinder indication reads 4 lbs. Sounds about right? Well, here's the strange thing - if you pull up the F5 menu to look at the 'raw' data, it shows 18 lbs to the brake cylinders! No wonder the braking was too strong!

So...it seems the more 'realistic' they make the simulator, the more convoluted and erroneous it becomes. I think I should stop thinking of it as a simulator and think of it as just a game - that way I might enjoy it more.

EDIT: I take that back. I'm going to run a few scenarios on the RW&A Lakeside Route. It's just the DTG payware that is troubled! The RW&A RS1 is fantastic!

[buzz456]

Me thinks they need to take the LHF SD40-2 back to the shop for a early overhaul.

[BNSFdude]

I think it's a total flop and shouldn't have been tabled, same goes for the GP38-2 High Nose.

[Ericmopar]

Wait... Watch... Listen....

Caveat Emptor

And... It's not entirely fair to say DTG products are the only ones with bugs.

If this keeps up, I may have to lock the thread.

[buzz456]

" shouldn't have been tabled" Huh??

[BNSFdude]

" shouldn't have been tabled" Huh??

Thought of as a DLC. But what do you do? I don't make the choices of what they make. You guys do with your wallets.

[buzz456]

Are you saying "should have been tabled"? Because if that's what you are trying to say I agree.

[BNSFdude]

Oops, that is correct.

[MontanaRails]

In all seriousness, has anyone been able to drive any of the new "realistic braking" locomotives without pulling their hair out? I get that they want to make brake application and recharge times more accurate, but it seems to be a the expense of insanely strong brakes. Just to be on the safe side, I removed all my testing mods so I could see what was happening from a clean, default perspective. In other words, the only file in the structure was the .ap file, as downloaded. And what I found is that what should be a minor application results in crazy high brake cylinder pressure, the reality of which doesn't even match what is displayed on the brake gauges in the locomotive.

For example - a seemingly normal brake application results in what feels like extremely heavy braking. When I pull up the F5 menu, I see why. If I make a minor brake application, about 6% per the HUD and also reflected by the locomotive's B.C. needle which rises to around 10lbs, but the actual application as seen by the sim is 18% travel, which results in 32.4 lbs of force to the brake cylinders!

So, about 14% brake application per the HUD is actually 65 lbs - full service. Makes no sense. I've reproduced this behavior with the NS ES44 that comes with the route, and the NS SD40-2 LHF.

I want to believe I'm doing something wrong, because this behavior makes all the new locomotives that use this system completely unusable. This cant be correct, can it?!

[Kali]

Could be the notch setup - unless they fixed the underlying sim issues most of the brake notch types simply don't work, or have problems. The SD40 simulation file seems without huge problems for brakes, if anything the engine's brakes itself are a bit weak ( 59% ) but that might be a workround so using dynamics doesn't immediately give you wheelslip given we have no working brake bailoff ( for SD40s with dynamics, obviously ). It does have a distributor when it shouldn't, but the distributor setup seems just like a triple valve would be anyway, so eh.

Right so I loaded the thing up, and it maxes brake cylinder pressure at ~30% brake lever movement. Can't do anything about that other than replacing the entire engine script I'm afraid. While I do one day want to throw out some reworked SD40 physics/scripting because they're ubiquitous and I want to drive them and enjoy it, there's no way I have time atm :S

- Much later edit.

Of course, you could try setting the max value for the VirtualBrake control to say, 0.5 instead of 1, that'd halve the input to the script... don't know what it might break elsewhere though.