[B & O GUY]

This is a good discussion here. Some stuff about what your talking about.

(http://www.elvastowe...moke-looks-odd/)

I did a search here at ET for the search word "smoke".. You will find all kinds of ideas on how smoke should look.

You've got oldies like me here who are old enough to remember how steam locomotives looked and operated with huge columns of black to dark gray in the lazy hot day's of summer to the billowing white plumes of white on those zero day's of winter. They weren't always maintained to the highest standards of today's excursion locomotives. Flues got dirty, water was not always the greatest (minerals in the water cause buildup of deposit's on the inside of the boiler causing hard and excessive firing to maintain pressure), missed schedules, and a pile of other reasons. And smoke in my day was no big deal except in some cities. And we had no DEC to contend with. Life was good.

Then you've got the new generation who have seen steam locomotives in excursion service and those excursion locomotives under the watchful eye of management and the DEC. They dare not show any real smoke for fear of retaliation from their employers or the DEC. People now day's are smoke conscious and any little bit of extra smoke gets their dander up. These locomotives are maintained to the highest standards. Water is checked for PH acidity and mineral content and the appropriate chemicals are added. Flues are punched, oils and greases are applied and there ready to go.

So. You have 2 camps. Those who want the look of the old day's of steam, soot and billowing black and the other side who want pristine little puff's of light gray to white smoke and very little volume.

I wish the OR team could make it both way's. A little check in the box of which ever way you want it. Down and dirty or white and clean.

Allen

[ATSF3751]

It also depends on firing aspects too. The Open Rails team doesn't seem to interested in steam locomotives and only reflect on diesels and or other aspects of the game like Allen pointed out. I understand that there are a lot of request and it takes time to figure these things out but would sure be nice if someone sat down and started working on steamers a little more and how they perform and look in the game. I do agree with a previous post that the smoke column does need to be raised higher as in most of my modified steamers the smoke hangs low just above the locomotives. Here are a few clips that I found of some good steam action.

https://www.youtube....iPEOTer4s&t=77s

https://www.youtube....xsULQ8fg&t=657s

https://www.youtube....h?v=jFZlQTRED1w

https://www.youtube....h?v=xqr-F6yOHjA

https://www.youtube....h?v=9fxYut4MXgI

https://www.youtube....npdYJjCg&t=416s

https://www.youtube....h?v=_tNQoWp9F_c

https://www.youtube....h?v=nQELRyPSEwA

https://www.youtube....h?v=5G9RQYlltWs

https://www.youtube....h?v=oU-OFmhxg-w

https://www.youtube....h?v=pl-QVxHIq6o

https://www.youtube....h?v=8VtSguBs-l0

https://www.youtube....h?v=BY_iCND1pRY

[copperpen]

The amount of steam thrown from the chimney ( stack ) of a moving steam locomotive depends on the settings of two controls, reverser and throttle. The colour is controlled by the firing of the fuel.. Unfortunately in ORTS none of those three conditions are met. The colour is being controlled by the controller positions with no real velocity added to produce the high stack effects. In fact there is no velocity added to simulate draught or blower when the engine is at rest either which is why the front of the engine is always smothered with low lying smoke when resting.

So the requirement for proper smoke/steam visuals while moving are for the velocity and amount of steam/smoke to be controlled by throttle/reverser positions which actually produce the steam pressure used at the cylinder, and for auto-firing to be modified to allow time for the hydrocarbons which make the dark colour to burn off before adding more to the fire. MSTS actually made a very good job of this aspect of steam operations.

For engines at rest the requirement is for an element of velocity to be added to the exhaust to simulate the draught from the fire and use of the blower.

[thegrindre]

That's all fine and dandy, Copperpen, so let's put this info to use and go and put some real prototypical smoke in ORTS as it is in MSTS as ATSF3751 has shown it to be. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/pleasantry.gif

 vince, on 21 September 2017 - 09:07 AM, said:

Rick,
Those engines are in serious need of smoke adjustment!
None of my engines look like the effects I see from yours . . . or some of them DID before I adjusted them.
Have you adjusted any of your engines?
regards,
vince

Have I adjusted them? You bet I have! I made them look as I posted them with lots and lots of smoke just like the prototypes. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/good2.gif
Just click on a couple links ATSF3751 has posted and see for yourself. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/good.gif Lots of beautiful smoke. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[ATSF3751]

Thought I would try and show different steamers as they all act a little differently but virtually all of them have the same kind of response when it comes to smoke on how it looks. I feel like the Open Rails Teem could do a much better job on how it looks and acts. Just having it linked to chuffing along with having the blower actually work while at a stop and the wind speed a little tweaked would make a huge difference I think.

Brandon

[ATSF3751]

So this is my example of what the smoke looks like on my MILW 261 even after I have modified the file. This is at Full throttle with 30 passenger cars behind it and you would Think the smoke would be high in the sky blasting out of the stack but wait only wisps of steam and what smoke there is gets carried away by the wind effect. Not very realistic if you ask me.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[vince]

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_oops.gifAS the smoke is controlled by the eng file I'd guess you got something wrong.

The example I posted in this thread of a K4 also needed the smoke values adjusted when first run in OR.
The problem with the K4 was too much smoke. Now it looks good, changing color with load and speed.http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/derisive.gif

I'd suggest looking at a steamer that does look ok and setup your 261 and see what happens.
How quickly we forget that MSTS required LOTS (TONS) of tweaking and experimenting when it first came out with some problems never getting fixed by MS.
OR is a WIP. There have been threads here (ET) on this subject (smoke).
I researched all those threads and got the ideas for the K4 smoke tweaks.

regards,
vince

[ATSF3751]

Thanks Vince. I will play around with it and see what I can come up with.

Brandon