Railworks America

I have been using RW Enhancer for some time now and am pretty happy with it however I have seen comments here in the past and on other forums talking about Armstrong weather 2 and the cloud pack and am wondering if any of you tinkerers have done both and come compare or just comment in general on one or the other of these?

I have them both, but I prefer AP Weather. I just prefer what it does to the look, and lighting, colors, skies, fog, random clouds etc. I think RW Enhancer has some features around sound and scenarios but I don't use them and have uninstalled RW Enhancer.

Just my personal opinion

Wayne

Wayne,
Does AP require a lot of special installation to work on US stuff? I know that they are euro-centric on their stuff.

> Does AP require a lot of special installation to work on US stuff? I know that they are euro-centric on their stuff.

You have to manually replace the route's TimeOfDay files for the AP equivalents - its a simple copy and paste into the route's asset folder. But if the route doesn't use the conventional naming for files there can be more to it.

Then, scenarios that use Kuju weather ( including Quick Drive ) will just use AP weather instead. ( AP replaces the Kuju\RailsimulatorCore\Weather )

For other scenarios and routes you have to add AP to the asset browser list and edit the weather to use AP equivalents.

Wayne

buzz456 wrote:Wayne,
Does AP require a lot of special installation to work on US stuff? I know that they are euro-centric on their stuff.

Yes, for the best results it requires a change in the sun position settings. There have been several discussions on this as well as a patch to install to correct this. Here is a link to only one of several discussions.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/ap-weather-extension-adjusting-the-azimuths-guide.56087/#post-500538
Also look for discussions by Spikee1975. He is quite knowledgeable on many things TSC. There is a download link for the patch somewhere in one of the threads that you substitute for the one supplied with AP. When set up properly these only affect the routes it is installed on. You use the AP supplied ones only for the routes located farther North (European). There are also discussions on how to adjust for our friends in Australia and New Zealand. There is quite a lot of information on AP weather and making corrections different effects.

How to Apply to Other Routes
DISCLAIMER: This advice is given on a no-support basis and assumes some prior
knowledge. We recommend you only attempt this if you are confident in your
knowledge of Train Simulator folder structures.
1) Go to the assets folder for the relevant route and find the folder called
‘TimeOfDay’. If there is no folder called this, find the ‘template’ blueprint for
the route which is usually in a folder called ‘TemplateRoutes’. Open this
blueprint and see where the TimeOfDay blueprints are located and go there.
2) Go to your RailWorks directory and navigate to
Assets\AP\WeatherEP\TimeOfDay.
3) Copy the four .bin files in this folder named after each season and paste them
into the TimeOfDay folder of your chosen route. If the naming convention
differs for the relevant route, re-name accordingly so the new files match the
naming of the old.
Please note that we cannot permit the distribution of these TimeOfDay files. If you
wish to distribute a route, or a patch for a route which uses these files, you must edit
the template blueprint to point to the AP\WeatherEP\TimeOfDay folder and enable
the AP>WeatherEP blueprint set in the route editor.

AP is not euro-centric.
They are UK-centric.

Re time of day accuracy, have a look at this program - been using it for a while, haven't tested on US routes but it makes a load of difference on UK ones. A lot to read and take in on the page but it is definitely worth considering in conjunction with the AP weather & clouds - both of which I use.

https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/ ... ime-of-day

Rod

august1929 wrote:Re time of day accuracy, have a look at this program - been using it for a while, haven't tested on US routes but it makes a load of difference on UK ones. A lot to read and take in on the page but it is definitely worth considering in conjunction with the AP weather & clouds - both of which I use.

https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/ ... ime-of-day

Rod

Thank you for the heads up.
I have had the Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 1.0 for some time now and your post and the AP Sky Accurate Time of Day app has made me acquire the version 2.0.