[engmod]

I am playing with the include file to try and get the AC machines to get more tractive effort in rain and snow.

Tractive effort over a DC is approximately 700/500 = 1.4 times tractive effort. ( using sd70ace ( 700 ) and sd75m ( 503 ))

I have changed the weight on drivers but that is not doing anything,
I will try changing the mass next.

[engmod]

changing mass does nothing either.

[ATW]

So what your looking forward to is for AC motors to go their max TE without the need of sanding in Snow/Rain?

ORTS does need a automatic sanding parameter implemented an AC motors do out here have slight slippages.

[ErickC]

I have to say, I don't quite understand why I was inititally so opposed to modular physics files. I managed to get my GP7 ENG files down to 54 lines each:

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0D0t______

Wagon ( SOO_GP7_375
	Type ( Engine )
	WagonShape ( SOO_GP7_375.s )
	Size ( 120in 174in 663in )
	Mass ( 246000lb )
	WheelRadius ( 20in )
	NumWheels (	4 )
	AntiSlip ( 1 )
    Sound (	"X_567BC-0.sms" )

	ORTS3DCab(
            ORTS3DCabFile ( SOO_GP7_375_VC.s )
            ORTS3DCabHeadPos ( 47.244in 137.273in 140.462in )
            RotationLimit ( 360 360 360 )
            StartDirection ( 0 0 0 )
	)

	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/AAR_Type-E.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_GP7_wag_gen.inc" )
	Include( "SOO_375_lights.inc" )
	)

Engine ( SOO_GP7_375
   	Name ("Soo GP7 #375 c. 1980")
	Wagon ( SOO_GP7_375 )	
   	Sound (	"645BC-0.sms" )
    DieselEngineMaxRPMChangeRate( 65 )
	
	Effects (
		DieselSpecialEffects (
				Exhaust1 (
					0.000 4.618 -0.880
					0 1 0
					0.1
				)
				Exhaust2 (
					0.000 4.618 -3.153
					0 1 0
					0.1
				)
			)
        )

	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_16-567B.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_GP7_62_15.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_EMD_PM_compressor.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_26L.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_vigilance.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_GP7_NDB_controllers.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/procedures_ndb.inc" )
	Include( "../NAVS_COMMON/INCLUDE/NAVS_GP7_description.inc" )
	)

At the risk of sounding a little too proud, that's one tidy ENG file. I even went so far as to move the lights to a separate file and treat it as an extension. I'll leave the light definitions in the same folder as the locomotives and only use multiple files when necessary. I've set the file up so that I can modify the more common parameters I might want to change, exhaust locations, operating weight, sounds, engine max change rate, et c. I'm probably going to move the size and other unchanging parameters at the top to the GP7 general include file as well.

[Genma Saotome]

> At the risk of sounding a little too proud, that's one tidy ENG file.

Yup. You will make revisons later on when you do other models, mostly on account of learning what is going to be used by many, many .wags and .engs (such as coupler data), what is going to be used by reskins of this model where the reskins properly exist in their own folder in \trainsets (e.g., different road names), and what is going to be used only by a handful of .wags or .engs in one folder. It took me a month or so to stumble thru the various trial solutions before I settled down on using \common.fleet, \common.model, and keeping the .inc files in the same folder as the .wags or .engs

Some feedback on your work, above, if I may: I use an .inc file I label as <something from the model name>_Mesh_defined.inc. In it I'll put those parameters that are essentially defined by the guy who made the model.. Stuff like length(), numwheels(), gauge() and so one. You are not going to fiddle with those values ever so there is no need to keep them in your .eng file... and they're going to be identical for every reskin of that model... one more reason to slide it over into an .inc file. You probably can do the same for the 3dcab parameters. I almost always leave the Shape() parameter in the main file, mostly because I've already gone and edited the .s file and some texture names (from the generic Loco.ace to SP3541.ace) so I can move all of the various skinnings from many folders to one (IOW the final folder might be named "RS_SFRD_Rr-40", a class name, and hold 6-8 uniquely named .wags, whereas before there were 6-8 uniquely named folders, each holding one .wag. This change reduces drawcalls because now all the shared textures are in one folder).

I agree with your thinking about exhaust, name, and sound as those things are frequently unique to one .wag or one .eng, so leave them in the main file where you can easily get to them.

[ErickC]

I am going to move more of the general parameters over to the general include file later on this week (before I start the next few units), similar to your "mesh defined" technique, but the cabs will actually all be specific to each unit. Some visible details will differ, as will the in-cab road numbers, and I'll probably change the weathering for each cab (honestly, just a simple matter of playing with masks). The cab textures actually fill up what would otherwise be unused space in the map! Each locomotive uses a single 2048 x 2048 pixel texture, but the exterior only requires half of it, so the two 1024 x 1024 pixel cab textures were moved in.

[Genma Saotome]

What are you trying to address in your path statement to the .inc files?

[ErickC]

What do you mean? All of my include files are in a subfolder of the same common folder where all of my sounds and other common required files are (just as I did when I was working with Great North Rails). I'm building everything on a common architecture that is specific to the content that I am presently developing.

[Genma Saotome]

ErickC, on 02 February 2018 - 07:33 PM, said:

What do you mean? All of my include files are in a subfolder of the same common folder where all of my sounds and other common required files are (just as I did when I was working with Great North Rails). I'm building everything on a common architecture that is specific to the content that I am presently developing.

I'm not familiar with any of your work and the path statement in the above examples did not provide any context... so I asked what you were trying to accomplish with that. That's all/

[ErickC]

Ah, that's what I sort of figured you meant. I've always used my own directory system because nothing I build is a la carte, that is, if I build a locomotive, I build the cab and sounds as well. It's just less confusing for me to keep my own things in their own little world. This is going to be particularly important now that I only build content for OR, because the sounds I am building won't work right with mixed-sim content (unless appropriate RPM curves are added), and my locomotives won't work properly with MSTS sounds (because they have correct RPM curves).