cjakeman, on 07 January 2022 - 12:25 PM, said:
Although I've suggested ways to notify and prompt users, I can't think up a way to notify/prompt users that this is a feature they could benefit from. Unlike some other extra WAG file parameters, the absence of the parameter does not indicate a missed opportunity.
I am not 100% sure what you mean by this? Are you suggesting that OR should advise users if they are not using a possible feature?
cjakeman, on 07 January 2022 - 12:25 PM, said:
It would be much better if Open Rails could detect automatically that the user's content is "old MSTS stock". Does anyone know what might be different about "old MSTS stock" in this instance?
I would suggest that a check of all cars is done at startup, and if the train has a mix of retained and non-retained cars then a message is displayed in the log file indicating this. This message should be able to be turned on/off with the "Verbose Message" option. Cars with retainers fitted will be able to be identified because they will have "Retainer_4_Position" or "Retainer_3_Position" in the
BrakeEquipmentType statement. Thus it is possible to differentiate between cars with and without it the retainer.
Once notified, the user can then make appropriate adjustments if required to their stock.
cjakeman, on 07 January 2022 - 12:25 PM, said:
Graduated Brakes - It would be much better if Open Rails could detect automatically that the user's content is "old MSTS stock". Does anyone know what might be different about "old MSTS stock" in this instance?
This could be be set up with a similar notification system as above, ie where the train has a mix of graduated and non graduated cars then it could make a notification. It uses the "graduated_release_triple_valve" token so this could be used to check for cars with/without it.
For this feature, given that there are also a number of brake control tokens, such as "TrainBrakesControllerGraduatedSelfLapLimitedHoldingStart", possibly an information message could be provided to the user if they are running a locomotive with this type of token, and no cars with graduation triple valves fitted.