Charlie Sibaja cabs... LOTS of bugs!!!

[davebridges]

I just downloaded all of the new "SHR" series of cabs, excited to see that the same person did cabviews for every type of locomotive in my fleet, for uniformity in appearance and style.

However, these appear to fall short in several ways:

1. The number fonts on the gauges are way too large. There is a file included that is supposed to change this (a replacement gui_fnts.dat file to go in the GUI folder), but.... it is identical to the original in EVERY way, and so has no effect on the situation. What parameters in this file need to be changed, and by how much?

2. The throttle position indicator is fixed on "run 8", and the reverser position indicator always says "forward" regardless of what position the controls are actually in.

I followed the instructions to the letter in installing these, including adding a "combined control" line to the .eng file if called for in the instructions, if this line was not already present. Is there any way to get the gauges in these cabs to function correctly?

Thanks!

[conductorchris]

I have not so far run into these issue with Charlie's cab's. Hopefully someone else can help on that.

I do want to put in a plug for *not* having uniformity of appearance and style. In my experience working on short-lines, locomotives feel very individualistic and noticeably different from one another. For example, one GP9, an SP rebuild, was a noticeably stronger puller (it would lurch when run in MU with another unit because it loaded faster and pulled harder). Cabs all had their quirks too. This is even more so on older units that have been around for awhile and on a shortline that sourced units from many different predecessor railroads.

I am very much a fan of Charlie's cabs. They have increased my enjoyment of the sim considerably. There are others out there that are at that level, or close (especially those done more recently) . . . but many (especially older ones) that feel like fingernails on chalkboard in their unrealism and send me scurrying to swap them out with Charlie's.

Oh, and one more thing on the subject of uniformity and the advantages of diversity. Different engineers sit differently and most engineers sit differently at different times . . . which means that *both* Charlie and Brad's cab designs are appropriate.

[davebridges]

The cab looks great... I just wish I could get all of the gauges to work as they should. I read through the cvf file and all of the code looked correct to my eyes. I'm just totally baffled at why the throttle and reverser position indicators don't respond to the actual control positions.

I should mention that I'm running Open Rails and not MSTS, and using a RailDriver... does OR source the font sizes from somewhere else besides that GUI config file?

The cab in questions is fro the GE-SAFE2 pack, and being used on a BNSF AC4400CW.

[apco25]

Charlie's wide cabs are decent. I like his ICE/FIRE system SD70 cab that no one else has ever done. However, he really, really need a new pic for his spartan cab EMD's. The picture is horribly taken and skews the view and look of the cab.

I run Brad's cabs, the stock SLI cab with repainted handrails and noses all the time and a limited amount of Charlie's cabs.

[davebridges]

I did look at Brad's cabs in the library and they look wonderful! Except I don't see where he's done a high-nose verson of the EMD Dash-2 cab; the only high-nose one I see is for an SD9. And what one do you use for a 3-window SD60M, or the 4-window Canadian cab?

[EricF]

The number fonts on the gauges are way too large. There is a file included that is supposed to change this (a replacement gui_fnts.dat file to go in the GUI folder), but.... it is identical to the original in EVERY way, and so has no effect on the situation. What parameters in this file need to be changed, and by how much?

Are you sure you didn't accidentally duplicate your original gui_fnts.dat file? Try dropping in the copy for Charlie's cabs again, after making a backup of the "big fonts" file. To simplify things, I have a couple of batch files set up that use the XCOPY command to copy and overwrite the gui_fnts.dat file. One batch file overwrites it from a folder containing the small fonts, the other from a folder containing the large fonts. I makes it so I can "refresh" the fonts to the size I need any time because I always have one copy of each that just gets pasted over whatever is in the MSTS folder.

As for the controls you mentioned, not all .eng files need the modification; some are good as-is. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully and look over the .eng file you're working in carefully. Also, have you installed the MSTS-BIN patch? Charlies cabs may need it, or at least benefit from it.

[mantonio131]

I have not so far run into these issue with Charlie's cab's. Hopefully someone else can help on that.

I do want to put in a plug for *not* having uniformity of appearance and style. In my experience working on short-lines, locomotives feel very individualistic and noticeably different from one another. For example, one GP9, an SP rebuild, was a noticeably stronger puller (it would lurch when run in MU with another unit because it loaded faster and pulled harder). Cabs all had their quirks too. This is even more so on older units that have been around for awhile and on a shortline that sourced units from many different predecessor railroads.

I am very much a fan of Charlie's cabs. They have increased my enjoyment of the sim considerably. There are others out there that are at that level, or close (especially those done more recently) . . . but many (especially older ones) that feel like fingernails on chalkboard in their unrealism and send me scurrying to swap them out with Charlie's.

Oh, and one more thing on the subject of uniformity and the advantages of diversity. Different engineers sit differently and most engineers sit differently at different times . . . which means that *both* Charlie and Brad's cab designs are appropriate.

Stated like a true railroader. Charlies cabs have indeed magnitized my attention in their authentic and prototypical look and feel, and may I add I have been aboard many a locomotive cabs throughout my career which I am now retired. And I concur, many engineers may positionally sit different ways especially when doing 12 hour runs which is common operations for the UP freight engineer. Hats off to great cabview artists like Charlie and Brad.

Moe
RRFL

[mestevet]

If the O.P. is still following this thread, what screen resolution are you running with in MSTS?

Steve

[Railfan727]

I'm actually running Open Rails... latest version seems to fix all of the problems I'd had; all the gauges and controls work exactly as intended!

Only minor issue is that the GUI mods included in the instructions aren't any different from the originals... the size of the digits on the displays is not affected. Does anyone know what the correct settings should be by any chance?