[ATSF3751]

Hey everyone,

I know I have not been on the forums for some time but I am still active and have been thinking of a few ideas that could be implemented into Open Rails in the future that could ultimately make Open Rails more realistic.

Weather Improvements

1. Dynamic Weather- This has been implemented in games for years so why should Open Rails be any different?
2. Rising and lowering of Lakes and Rives during flood season/times of year.
3. More realistic looking water
4. Thunder and lightning during heavy storms
5. Accumulating snow the more it snows.
6. Ice on top of water during the winter months in cold climate areas
7. Falling leaves/leaves on the ground during the fall.


Locomotive Improvements

Steam Locomotives

1. Different fuels and how different types effect the locomotives performance- Wood, Coal, Oil
2. Better smoke/steam
3. Smoke affected by the fire
4. Smoke affected by the rotation of the wheels
5. Able to blow multiple whistles/air horns on one locomotive- Many steam locomotives that run today have multiple steam whistles and air horns. This could be achieved by hitting the Alt key to scroll through the different whistles/air horn. The Sander Key is just not cutting it any more after playing the game for over 22 years!
6. Able to quill the whistles on a steam locomotive. Steam Whistles have multiple chimes and are able to be played simultaneously depending on how you pull the whistle cord.
7. Changing class lights from green, red, white.
8. Steam and Smoke being effected depending on weather, air quality and the cold.

Double Heading

1. Able to control multiple steam locomotives while running two or more on a single train. This could be achieved by hitting the F9 key and then hitting the locomotive you want to control. This could be used for whistle, bell, cylinder cocks, blow downs, and other odds and ends. Same could be done for refueling as well. You click on the tender you want to fill in F9 and then Open Rails allows you to fill the tender you clicked on.

2. In Multiplayer having the ability for people to control one locomotive in the consist- This would give it a much more realistic feel and be much more challenging to the ones controlling the locomotives in the consist.

Diesels

1. Changing class lights from green, red, white
2. Able to use just one engine on a locomotive with multiple prime movers in it. Example- E, units and DD40X.
3. Having the turbo go out on you along with wear and tear on other locomotive components.

Feel free to add anything else that you may think of or that I may have missed. I do know some of this stuff has been talked about in the past or are already a work in progress but figured I would mention it anyways.

Brandon

[NickonWheels]

Welcome back!

Dynamic weather is acceptably implemented to a certain degree I would argue, but it needs improvement!

No rain = traction good
Any amount of rain = traction bad... same for snow and anything in between!

Steam locomotives are definately a can of worms!

No smoke updraft (similar to how diesel fumes look in ORTS)

And the constantly-overlooked problem (at least if you drive steam a lot) of no fuel (coal, wood, you name it) being subtracted from the tender when the throttle is closed i.e. you can idle indefinately when it comes to fuel. Though I guess water consumption is a bit fuzzy as well; if the engine has no auto stoker & no generator then steam usage (and correspondingly water consumption) is also non-existent. The fuel issue may be remedied if ORTSBurnRate tab would take fuel level into account.

Otherwise good points!

[ATSF3751]

Thank you! Here are a couple of good examples on what I mean by the controlling of Steam Locomotives separately from each other when on one train along with the different whistles on the locomotives. This is a video of CP 2816 and MILW 261 double heading back in 2007. The CP 2816 has 2 different whistles on it and the Milwaukee Road 261 also has 2 separate whistles along with an air horn and it would sure be nice to be able to blow all of them while running them together. I was personally on the trip and it is one of the best trips I had ever taken behind steam.

Brandon

https://www.youtube....ZBQjHV8s&t=143s

https://www.youtube....9WBOMMK4&t=390s

https://www.youtube....9WBOMMK4&t=390s

[Jonatan]

On future ideas for Open Rails, I honestly think some work on multiplayer would be needed also. Especially as there's so much potential for an immersive teamwork experience with friends as we've seen in other games and sims lately.

I had this idea of players being able to hop on any train as a spectator "guest", the spectator would have full ability to move around POV and camera views in the cab, passenger and headout views.

Additionally the "owner" of the train could delegate controls to the "guest", e.g.: all fireman controls and bell. Two friends could then co-op as engine crew.

The host could also delegate certain global powers to any players, such as manipulating switches using the F8 window or Alt + mouse click. Together with the engine crew, we'd now have switch crew along with the dispatcher.

[Weter]

Excited with this idea: You have described that in so attractive way!

[ATSF3751]

I like that idea of Multiplayer Jonatan! Yes Multiplayer is there but it has a long ways to go and so much potential like you said!!

Brandon

[Traindude]

Some other ideas:

1. Variable environmental sounds depending on the time of day (example: birds chirping in the daytime, and crickets chirping at night).
2. Variable CarSpawners (minimum traffic between 1 and 5 AM and maximum traffic on weekdays between 6 and 9AM and 3 and 6 PM)
3. Scenery objects that only appear during certain activities (I've seen it done in TS20xx)
4. The ability for fueling facilities to serve more than one track at a time (example: water column placed between two parallel tracks)
5. Multiple dispensing points for fueling facilities (example: multi-track coaling towers)
6. Adding *.sms options to dynamic loading parameters so rolling stock can alternate between "empty" and "loaded" *.sms files (example: livestock)
7. Use of road traffic signals as rail signals (particularly useful for traction & streetcars, which regularly share their ROW with automobile traffic and thus have to also obey road traffic signals)
8. Pickups and set-outs at locations other than sidings (example: station platforms, entrances to yards with no siding markers at the entrance point)
9. Ability for locomotives to be refueled by two facilities at the same time while sitting in one spot (example: oil-fired steamers being filled with water and oil at the same time)

Other than these, as well as those I've suggested in the past, then that's all I can think of!

[pschlik]

Ah why not, I'll throw in my random thoughts too. Some stuff I've been interested in and might try to implement myself some day (not that I'm claiming these ideas, I'm not currently making any changes to code)...

• Proper brake pipe leakage simulation (each car individually leaks its brake pipe, lower temperatures lead to more leakage)
• Additional wagon brake behaviors to more fully simulate ABD, ABDW, and ABDX brake valves (specifically quick service and accelerated application)
• Better handling of dynamic brake amps (make dynamic brake amps correlate to dynamic brake horsepower, rather than tractive effort)
• For the love of everything, stop locking the dynamic brake handle in the 'setup' position while dynamic brakes are setting up, the handle does not get locked in real life
• Diesel electric transition simulation (field diverts, motor group transition, generator transition are all important aspects of DC diesel electrics)
• More in depth wheel slip protection simulation (automatic sanding, systems with hysteresis, slide protection in dynamic braking)
• Generator field simulation to have finer control over the rate at which (diesel) electrics load/unload (power output influenced by both engine and generator, ability to give gradual reductions in effort, option to run diesel engine at constant RPM without having weird side effects)
• Similarly, some options to control the rate of change of dynamic braking (as opposed to instantaneous)

I dare ya to guess what type of locomotives I'm usually driving

[Weter]

Hello.
Scenery objects that only appear during certain activities
Lifehack from our route builders: warning signs for snow plough have opaque winter and 100% transparent other-seasonal textures.

stop locking the dynamic brake handle in the 'setup' position while dynamic brakes are setting up
Since MSTS times, the parameter "dynamic brakes delay before engagement" is available for specifying the timeout, including zero seconds.

It's possible now to refer traction motors type - AC in ORTS.

These are very expected additions to DC diesel-electric behavior, thanks for vocalysing them: in one word - joint rpm/power output governor of DGU.

[cesarbl]

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Proper brake pipe leakage simulation (each car individually leaks its brake pipe, lower temperatures lead to more leakage)
Additional wagon brake behaviors to more fully simulate ABD, ABDW, and ABDX brake valves (specifically quick service and accelerated application)

This is in my TODO list. It's a straightforward implementation.

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For the love of everything, stop locking the dynamic brake handle in the 'setup' position while dynamic brakes are setting up, the handle does not get locked in real life

Absolutely thanks for this information. I was refactoring the dynamic brakes and was suspecting that such interlocking does not exist. But as always, there might be some locomotives with such a locking, is that the case?

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More in depth wheel slip protection simulation (automatic sanding, systems with hysteresis, slide protection in dynamic braking)

Currently the slip control system works for traction and dynamic braking. We are working on enhancing adhesion, which should allow more variants of slip control. Also, it will be possible to have different engines for each axle, with independent tractive forces and amperage for each.