Metro-North Railroad Kawasaki M8 EMU

[ex-railwayman]

I recently acquired the New York - New Haven route and saw this EMU as an extra add-on, but, was a little unconvinced as to how authentic it is to you American Railworks experts, I have seen fanrailer's physics and sounds modifications in the library, but, is it worth obtaining, I know all about the locomotives that RSC put out over the last few years, and can I run this on other routes as well as the New Haven, I also have the NEC layout, I believe in trying to get value for money from DTG's offerings......

Thank you.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[mrennie]

I recently acquired the New York - New Haven route and saw this EMU as an extra add-on, but, was a little unconvinced as to how authentic it is to you American Railworks experts, I have seen fanrailer's physics and sounds modifications in the library, but, is it worth obtaining, I know all about the locomotives that RSC put out over the last few years, and can I run this on other routes as well as the New Haven, I also have the NEC layout, I believe in trying to get value for money from DTG's offerings......

Thank you.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

I've read that it suffers from terrible frame rates, that DTG said a long time ago that they were going to patch it to address that issue, and that so far no such patch has appeared.

[peterhayes]

Mike
The patch is imminent - next week supposedly.
Strange I saw minimal fps effects when running the M8.
pH

[DrewG]

Put 5or 10 out, my gtx780 and fx8350 eight core monster can't get over 5 fps with a couple m8's on the route.

[drivertime61]

I have it. No issues here with frame rates affecting running the route, even with a long consist, but would strongly recommend a higher-end computer setup, especially when on the frame rate intensive NY-NH route. I normally get between 30-60 FPS on most routes, with NY-NH coming in at the low end of that range. I also have run the M8 on the NEC Philly to NY. I run the sim with all settings maxed.

My specs: Windows 8.1 64 bit, Intel Quad 4770 processor, 24gb RAM, AMD R9-270 graphics card, 225gb SSD, plus 2tb data hard drive. 23" hi-def. Dell Touch Monitor @ 1920x1080.

I can't speak to how authentic DTG's M8 is, but IMO it has a beautiful, sharp, detailed look. It's one of the better locos I've got, with respect to appearance. No issues with how it runs, but again I'm no expert on how authentically it's set up regarding physics, etc. Other folks here would know better than I.

I do have a problem running it in Expert Mode with what purports to be the authentic signaling system on NY-NH. But that's more due to operator inexperience than the loco itself, I think. So most of the time I run it in Simple Controls. Gives me more of a chance to get out of the cab and get a good look at the details of the route. Please don't tell anyone I do this!

Screen shots attached, if I did it right.

[ex-railwayman]

Thanks a lot for your responses Gents, especially drivertime with his screenshots, I will probably get it in the next Steam sale then, which will possibly be Thanksgiving next week, all being well.
I also have a good computer now that I've upgraded it as I needed a 64 bit Quad Core to run the heavy resourceful German routes on offer, coupled to the 16GB RAM, i5 3.5GHz CPU and a 2GB graphics card, everything is fine and dandy on my TS2015 now and I have already run this route a couple of times using diesel locos and it was so unbelievably smooth, in fact, I would congratulate DTG as it's one of the best American DLC layouts that has been recently released to the community, which is something we aren't used to.
Onwards and upwards.

Cheerz. ex.

[trev123]

Yes I had frame rate issues with it until someone on UKTS made a sort of fix for it. You got increased frame rates with the fix but it also introduced a small stutter, but still driveable.

[rlbomber]

Just downloaded this yesterday and it absolutely has horrible frame rates. I normally get over 38fps but with this add on I'm only getting 15fps at the most.

[ex-railwayman]

I understand a patch is being released by DTG within the next 24 hours on Steam for this, probably after the Sales has finished, to address several issues on the M8 after numerous complaints by customers, people power does work then......

Cheerz. ex.

[ex-railwayman]

Patch received and installed this morning, UK time.
I had a look at the manual that DTG provided and I think they've made a mistake in their illustration of the cars.
They have the same picture for both A and B, but, surely, the A car has the pantograph, the B car doesn't which is not what is shown. I assume these units operate in pairs, how many pairs run in a train, does it matter, do they add extra pairs depending on rush hour services, etc, etc, there is nothing in the manual, it seems that DTG haven't a clue as to how these operate in real life.....

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[cor726]

I try not to be one of the people who complain constantly about DTG, but I have to say the M8 was one of the bigger disappointments I have seen lately. I find it pretty much unusable due the frame rate issue. I hope they get that resolved with the patch. Terrible horn too (I know it can be replaced but I think that would be one of the easier things to get correct).

[FanRailer]

I try not to be one of the people who complain constantly about DTG, but I have to say the M8 was one of the bigger disappointments I have seen lately. I find it pretty much unusable due the frame rate issue. I hope they get that resolved with the patch. Terrible horn too (I know it can be replaced but I think that would be one of the easier things to get correct).

The sounds are definitely easy to correct, which is why I'm surprised that DTG didn't update them with the patch that was released yesterday, considering they've had half a year to work on those sounds. Hell, I'm pretty sure I released the RS2M horn pack for the M8 not a month after the train was originally released.

[ex-railwayman]

Hello FanRailer,

May I ask you, are the physics and soundpack you did in the library OK to use on our patched up M8's now please?

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[FanRailer]

Hello FanRailer,

May I ask you, are the physics and soundpack you did in the library OK to use on our patched up M8's now please?

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

No, not yet. The M8 mod packs in the library here are still not updated. I did upload the updated packs, but they have not gone live yet (I can't say when they will either). If you don't want to wait, just troll around my recent YouTube videos for the alternative download links.

[ex-railwayman]

OK, no problem, I think Bob is busy working 25 hours a day and can't update the download area just yet, I can hang on and wait, thank you for your packs anyway.

Cheerz. ex.