[railguy]

In the last few days, I have been adding Gerry's V2 OR Include files to some of my locomotives. Up until today, I've had no issues, but today I hit a brick wall. I added the V2 ET44C4 include file to an ET44C4 engine that I have. When I run the loco in an activity, it fails to show up in the sim and the log file has an entry indicating that loco has an I/O issue. The loco runs fine without the .inc file line. I also tried a couple of other .inc files with this loco and it runs fine with those. I've looked at the ET44C4 .inc file for about 3 hours now, comparing it to known files that work. I can not see where the problem is. I'm stumped. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[R H Steele]

There is an extra bracket in this comment line: Comment ( Mass 416000lbs = 188.694t == metric, Adhesion Factor = 34.61% ) )
Remove that and see if it fixes the problem --- if it doesn't make sure you check the OR log when using the file.
If the locomotive doesn't load in OR there definitely should be something in the log.
Are you using the include file in the OpenRails folder or pasting it into the MSTS default engine file? OR can be very picky about the order of data.

If all else fail please PM me the exact file that is causing problems and I'll look at it.
Cheers, Gerry

[railguy]

Thank you, Gerry! Removing that extra bracket fixed the problem! I had gone through the whole .inc file with Context to check for any extra or missing brackets, EXCEPT that I didn't check the Comment section. Dumb me. To answer your other question--since I no longer use MSTS, I put the .inc file in the engine folder because I like to slightly vary parameters for each locomotive--things like exhaust, RPM change, etc. That way the locos vary just a bit in the sim, just as they do prototypically.

One other suggestion about the ET Tier 4 .inc files that I would make--on those, I set all the exhaust parameters to 0, as the Tier 4 locomotives are not supposed to have visible emissions other than heat waves when they are operating correctly. If I could figure out how to have the exhaust emulate heat waves in the sim, that would be neat.

[R H Steele]

 railguy, on 12 April 2020 - 06:37 AM, said:

Thank you, Gerry! Removing that extra bracket fixed the problem! I had gone through the whole .inc file with Context to check for any extra or missing brackets, EXCEPT that I didn't check the Comment section. Dumb me. To answer your other question--since I no longer use MSTS, I put the .inc file in the engine folder because I like to slightly vary parameters for each locomotive--things like exhaust, RPM change, etc. That way the locos vary just a bit in the sim, just as they do prototypically.

One other suggestion about the ET Tier 4 .inc files that I would make--on those, I set all the exhaust parameters to 0, as the Tier 4 locomotives are not supposed to have visible emissions other than heat waves when they are operating correctly. If I could figure out how to have the exhaust emulate heat waves in the sim, that would be neat.

That's good --- problem solved, it does highlight the point about the order of the data -- while the files are intended for use in the OpenRails folder, they can also be used in other ways -- one of which is the way you are using the files. It might be useful to look at Peter Newell's pages on physics and engine file configuration and experiment with placing the OR diesel engine block in different places in the eng section of the engine file. Apologies for the extra bracket -- it slipped through my error checking.

Regarding the exhaust parameters...I have purposely made no attempt to adjust them for various locomotives...I leave that to the individual user. For my own use, I adjust them accordingly- like you do.
From the "About Exhaust" doc in the readmes

Quote

Within the ORTSDieselEngines block you will find the following lines: (identical for all engines)

IdleExhaust ( 1.2 )

MaxExhaust ( 2.3 )

ExhaustDynamics ( 2.2 )

ExhaustDynamicsDown ( 0.8 )

These are the defaults I use. I have made no attempt to adjust them for the different exhaust characteristics of the various locomotives.

Increasing the numbers increases smoke and exhaust activity (dynamics). Decreasing produces less. Adjust to suit your preferences.