[atsf37l]

Let me first say that you guys are doing some fantastic work. The texturing and quality of the graphics in this new release are exceptional.

Santa Fe's Super Chief, west of Dalies, NM on a bright afternoon:

Simply gorgeous work on the MSTS graphics. Great job.

But....and there's always a "But".... with certain equipment there seems to be a problem with .ace files showing up. Here's 346 switching the passenger consists for the San Juan and the Silverton:


Why do only some .ace files show up - like the FA parts on the boxcars and the ends and trucks on the San Juan cars - while other cars like the Silverton's combine and caboose are fully populated with their .ace files? And yet, while turning the passenger consists on the balloon loop I passed this sister of the boxcars shown above:


So why does the 3207 appear whole and the others do not? They all feature the same hierarchy of files.

Also, is there any instruction available on the use of the Driver Aid, the new Alt F11 key sub-screen? Alt F11 used to be debug signals but now it is the Driver Aid shown in the first screenshot above (actually it was there in v6.45 but there is no mention of it either here or in the OR manual). I can figure out that the 'speedometer' is just that and the red arrow marks the route speed limit along with things turning red when you exceed it, but what is the bar with '12' in it signify and what are the color bar scales on the left side?

And is someone working on the whistle/horn application to allow a 'short' sound to be played? It is so frustrating not being able to blow a proper crossing signal. And how about a lock for the bell? I know, never satisfied. :furiousPC:

Keep up the good work, guys. It just keeps getting better. ;)

[caldrail]

I've noticed that some shapes don't render properly, missing parts, or sometimes not at all. Also the sun at low elevation looks horrendous and artificial.

[longiron]

atsf37l, on 12 December 2011 - 02:30 PM, said:

But....and there's always a "But".... with certain equipment there seems to be a problem with .ace files showing up. Here's 346 switching the passenger consists for the San Juan and the Silverton:

Where can the team download the models that are not displaying correctly?

atsf37l, on 12 December 2011 - 02:30 PM, said:

Also, is there any instruction available on the use of the Driver Aid, the new Alt F11 key sub-screen?

It was an experiment that is not being developed at the present time. Please ignore it.

atsf37l, on 12 December 2011 - 02:30 PM, said:

And is someone working on the whistle/horn application to allow a 'short' sound to be played? It is so frustrating not being able to blow a proper crossing signal. And how about a lock for the bell? I know, never satisfied.

Will be corrected in the next release.

[atsf37l]

longiron, on 13 December 2011 - 05:17 AM, said:

Where can the team download the models that are not displaying correctly?


It was an experiment that is not being developed at the present time. Please ignore it.



Will be corrected in the next release.

Right here on Elvas Tower. Look for the D&RGW 3000 series classic era boxcars in the Narrow Gauge Boxcars section. Interestingly, they seem to show OK on other routes. This is Charlie Leveritt's not quite released yet Silverton Beta.

Too bad about the "experiment." That means there is no where in ORTS to tell the runner what the speed limit is for the track they are running and I notice there is still no information on the current gradient being assaulted, meaning that the runner on a new district is 'flying blind' at the controls. Employee timetables for a given district or division normally give a real railroad engineer both speed and ruling grade information. Since we don't normally have access to them (and the sim may not match the prototype should we have a copy) we need something to give us a clue other than the speeding up or slowing down of the train. By that time it may be too late to make the grade or hold back the runaway! Lineside speed limit signs are a possibility, of course, except that they are Alphas which don't show in ORTS. "Gee, I wonder what that sign said?" :oldstry:

Good news on the sounds.

:ireful2:

[longiron]

atsf37l, on 13 December 2011 - 12:35 PM, said:

Right here on Elvas Tower. Look for the D&RGW 3000 series classic era boxcars in the Narrow Gauge Boxcars section. Interestingly, they seem to show OK on other routes.

If they show correctly on other routes, than it's not the model, per se. This needs more investigation

atsf37l, on 13 December 2011 - 12:35 PM, said:

Too bad about the "experiment." That means there is no where in ORTS to tell the runner what the speed limit is for the track they are running and I notice there is still no information on the current gradient being assaulted, meaning that the runner on a new district is 'flying blind' at the controls. Employee timetables for a given district or division normally give a real railroad engineer both speed and ruling grade information. Since we don't normally have access to them (and the sim may not match the prototype should we have a copy) we need something to give us a clue other than the speeding up or slowing down of the train. By that time it may be too late to make the grade or hold back the runaway! Lineside speed limit signs are a possibility, of course, except that they are Alphas which don't show in ORTS. "Gee, I wonder what that sign said?"

All good things will come to those who are patient (to paraphrase) for a few months.

[atsf37l]

longiron, on 13 December 2011 - 12:44 PM, said:

If they show correctly on other routes, than it's not the model, per se. This needs more investigation


All good things will come to those who are patient (to paraphrase) for a few months.

Let me do more experimenting on other NG routes.

OK, that works. You guys are doing great things. :drool3:

[atsf37l]

There doesn't seem to be any consistency in which cars are 'grayed out' and which are fully painted with their .ace files. In Explore mode and on simple activities without high poly backgrounds or concentration of high poly cars all seems to be well. And it doesn't seem to be just the Silverton route. My RGS seems to run fine in most activities and all explores but on extensively involved activities with lots of poly rich locos and cars I seem to have the display issue as well.


41 is fine but 25 is grayed out.

This was done on my laptop. Since I'm having issues with my video card I wanted to eliminate that possible problem.

The San Juan looks OK on Cumbres.


And it looks OK on the Silverton in Explore mode.


I tried to open the passenger switcher activity on the Silverton, the activity where all those cars are grayed out above, but it won't run on the laptop. Out of video memory. I suspect that may be the problem with OR and the Durango activities, at least on the laptop. But the main PC with its GeForce 275 with 800+ MB of memory shouldn't be having that problem but last night it did. :drool3: