[Weter]

I think, single control for switching between 32/64 would be enough.
Year back, Engmod advised to me never use LAA in my w7-32 with 2GB

[cjakeman]

Weter, on 05 January 2022 - 09:54 AM, said:

I think, single control for switching between 32/64 would be enough.
Year back, Engmod advised to me never use LAA in my w7-32 with 2GB

It would be nice to have this entirely automatic, with a single Any-CPU executable so a 32-bit OS runs the executable in 32-bit mode and a 64-bit OS runs it in 64-bit mode.

[cjakeman]

Weter, on 05 January 2022 - 11:03 AM, said:

This might mean "auto-detect"?

Yes.

However, it's not Open Rails but the 64-bit O/S that checks whether an executable can be run in a 64-bit mode. If not, then the O/S runs it in a 32-bit mode.

[cjakeman]

The next control on the General Tab is:





and the Manual entry is:




I don't think the General Tab is the best location for this control, which has to do with the behavior of the train.


Currently this behavior is always applied for cars which have the appropriate parameters in the WAG file and the control turns the behavior on using default values for the other cars.

What I find interesting about this control how it fits with James' recent post about compatibility.

James Ross, on 05 January 2022 - 04:05 PM, said:

So there are three possible states for a given feature when using default values in a piece of content:

• Operational: The default values are good enough and the feature runs well
• Degraded: The default values are deliberately unrealistic but the feature is still active (and can still affect gameplay)
• Disabled: The feature is turned off entirely because no useful default values exist

According to this guideline, the control should be always on and the code should be changed to implement the most appropriate choice from the 3 above - Operational, Degraded, Disabled.

[gpz]

I think the purpose of this oprion is to save people from adding the corresponding setting to all their wag files. The option is correctly off by default, because the missing setting from the wag normally means that the car is not equipped with a retainer valve.

[Weter]

I think, this causes different styles of train brake's behavior, but more exact - modes for plain/mountain operation.
Maybe it's checkbox is misplaced, but obviously needed.
We can't switch this mode for every car now (as we can do it with a bleed valves, for instance) so let it be.

[cjakeman]

gpz, on 06 January 2022 - 01:37 PM, said:

I think the purpose of this oprion is to save people from adding the corresponding setting to all their wag files.

I'm sure you are right about that, though I am less sure that it's a good idea.

But isn't this a different kind of situation from, say the Derailment feature? That feature applies to all wagons because they are all liable to derail and the extra parameters are there to guide the derailment calculation.

In the case of retainers, we might be simulating a real train which consists of a mix of fitted and unfitted wagons, or am I misunderstanding the realities of freight operation?

[Weter]

Some USA freight cars have separate devices with 3 or 4 steps, other-don't: some other cars have combined "distributors" (not, what meant as ECP brakes in MSTS), which combine triple valve, retainer and load compensator, so they have two levers: Plain/Mountain mode (almost same as USA retainer) and Empty/Loaded modes. Other have autocompensation for the weight of load (autoregime).

[steamer_ctn]

cjakeman, on 06 January 2022 - 02:27 PM, said:

In the case of retainers, we might be simulating a real train which consists of a mix of fitted and unfitted wagons, or am I misunderstanding the realities of freight operation?

I believe that the retainer is fitted on a car by car basis, so as you suggest there could be some cars in the train that would not have them.

My personal preference would be to see this option removed, and then applied on a car by car basis as it would most likely be in a real world situation.

[Genma Saotome]

My understanding is the function of retainers in North America is pretty much equal in its effect to turning the brake wheel and fixing it in place. It provides a basic level of applied braking so when the engineer feels the need to set the brakes it is "on top" of what he retainers are doing. Perhaps this has something to do with helping the engineer keep the air pressure up.

AFAIK it was the only thing that could be done before all cars had safety brakes and being an extremely conservative industry* the practice lingered for a very long time. I have no idea if or when it was phased out.

I will ask some people I know who may be able to provide more useful information. I'll gfet back to you with what they tell me.

* Many roads were still using a straight pin to "staple" multiple sheets of paper together into the 1960's because that's the way it was always done.