[ATSF3751]

steamer_ctn, on 02 January 2023 - 01:46 PM, said:

From time to time some new models maybe required (having said this some of the existing models could be rebuilt to facilitate features not currently available on them (for example dynamic movement of coal loads in the tender).

My Milwaukee Road 261 4-8-4 model has a animated coal load that goes down the longer you run the locomotive and depending on your load and how much throttle you use.

Brandon

[darwins]

I have built locomotives with coal and wood loads that go down. This was possible in MSTS. The problem with going down, given the shape of many tenders on hand fired locos, is that before the top of the coal pile reaches the bottom of the tender, the bottom of the coal pile becomes visible underneath the tender!! It would be a big step forward if we could animate the coal in such a way as to allow it to change shape as coal is consumed = perhaps 4 or 8 animations would be enough for OR to model the shape of the coal as it is used up.

On a different note, I am very pleased that we now have cylinder exhaust puffs from the chimney. I think it would be a good idea for these to be a default part of StackFX for all existing locos. There are very few exceptions - compounds normally exhaust only from low pressure cylinders, but this makes no difference to the visual effects of a 4-cylinder de Glehn compound. (3-cylinder Smith compounds have a 2-cylinder exhaust). Turbine locos do not have puffs of steam exhaust, but so far OR does not support turbine locos. Locos with condensing apparatus, exhaust less steam, but still need to exhaust some to create draught. So including in StackFX seems easier than adding the additional effects to all our existing locos.

[Weter]

Hello.

Quote

Locos with condensing apparatus, exhaust less steam, but still need to exhaust some to create draught. So including in StackFX seems easier than adding the additional effects to all our existing locos.

1. There were locos with ventilator-propelled draught (while those ventilators themselves were propelled by small steam turbines outside smoke boxes, and used steam was then directed to tender-condenser.
2. I find this offer very reasonable, good idea!
http://www.12mm.ru/base/parovoz/parovoz-sok/bigfoto/1big.jpg

[steamer_ctn]

darwins, on 03 January 2023 - 12:53 PM, said:

I have built locomotives with coal and wood loads that go down. This was possible in MSTS. The problem with going down, given the shape of many tenders on hand fired locos, is that before the top of the coal pile reaches the bottom of the tender, the bottom of the coal pile becomes visible underneath the tender!! It would be a big step forward if we could animate the coal in such a way as to allow it to change shape as coal is consumed = perhaps 4 or 8 animations would be enough for OR to model the shape of the coal as it is used up.

Can you provide a couple of screenshots to demonstrate the issue that you are experiencing.

darwins, on 03 January 2023 - 12:53 PM, said:

On a different note, I am very pleased that we now have cylinder exhaust puffs from the chimney. I think it would be a good idea for these to be a default part of StackFX for all existing locos.

Would others be happy to see this new smoke treatment become the standard (default) treatment in OR?

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Yeah - I've noticed the problem - too - with hiding the Fuel Load shape within the shape of the tender. I can see Wood Fuel being a big issue and Vanderbilt Tenders present a similar problem. Also - there's no way to animate Fuel Loads on Forney locomotives. I've thought similar to Darwin - we need a process to swap Fuel Load shapes at different points in the animation sequence - with the final empty state being the deleted Fuel Load shape.

Re: StackFX - perhaps I'm doing something wrong - or - just unobservant - - - I tested Peter's Atlantic with the new stack effects and I didn't notice much improvement. I thought I saw a couple puffs of white mixed in with the black on startup.

Regards,
Scott

[darwins]

steamer_ctn, on 03 January 2023 - 08:42 PM, said:

Can you provide a couple of screenshots to demonstrate the issue that you are experiencing.

With 100% fuel you can see the logs on the footplate
https://i.imgur.com/MBcvVZ5.jpg
As the fuel is used up, the logs go down through the footplate and you can see them underneath the loco!
https://i.imgur.com/fjLICsE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MgqbPN8.jpg

Quote

Would others be happy to see this new smoke treatment become the standard (default) treatment in OR?

If it is default then there will be a few cases where it needs to be changed like the one that Weter has shown above. Perhaps ORTSCylindersDoNotExhaustThroughStack ( 1 ) would cover those few examples. It must be easier to remove the effect from one loco in a thousand rather than add it to 999!

[Jonatan]

Loads simply move up and down a vertical axis, but perhaps what would be a better and yet simple option is the load collapsing on the vertical axis until finally disappearing at 0%

I'm wholly against consolidating functions and options, it gives less options for customisation and fine-tuning individual aspects. But since I'm in minority and all my suggestions are dumb, darwins smoke suggestion sounds reasonable.

[ATSF3751]

Just did a little test with Peters new Smoke effect with Milwaukee Road 261 and here is my conclusion. Reverser was all the way up and throttle was at 50%

1. Yes it does work but only for a very short time and feels it needs to be in effect for a lot longer.
2. Once that effect goes away there seems to be hardly any smoke that appears and it is only a little white puff here and there that comes out of the stack. Even without changing or upping the throttle.
3. I feel the puffs of smoke need to be a lot more frequent and be dependent on the throttle cutoff.

to put it into perspective a little bit here are some videos I have shot of the 261 at different speeds to give you an idea of what it should look like.

https://www.youtube....h?v=SHCZi-DFMEY

https://www.youtube....h?v=sJo_2DeeYzI

https://www.youtube....h?v=1Jjgvhjffbg

https://www.youtube....h?v=eMAXF_WQ2XQ

https://www.youtube....h?v=XWy8ST19G8g

https://www.youtube....1EfArrYQ4&t=72s

Here are a few photos of what I have come up with. These photos are all in order and in the span time of only about 3 to 4 min.

Attached thumbnail(s)

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[darwins]

The steam and smoke effect definitely needs further development, but with folk on here complaining for many years that we need steam and smoke to be separate things, then surely this is a good start. I really want some graphics developer to pick it up and enhance the appearance now. I feel Peter's talents are better directed towards developing the physics. Though at some point in time I hope that he can be persuaded to look again at smoke colour related to primary and secondary air and combustion.

[Weter]

Off top, but... Lovely screenshots, Brandon!