Slovenska Strela M290 Slovakia Arrow... need help .eng

[CurlSnout]

I spent some time playing around with the headlights and taillights - adjusting positions (x, y, z coordinates) and rendering them controllable in ON/OFF fashion, depending on condition. Still subject to change, but for now I have this set up:

1) all lights are off by default



2) forward reflector (P) is on in the DIM condition



3) forward reflector AND headlights (white light) are on in the BRIGHT condition



4) tail lights (red) come on in the BRIGHT condition



I don't know how close this might be to the way it works in the world. But it works for me for now. If anyone else is interested I can post the *.eng file entries that make it so.

Peace,

Sam

[rudedog97]

I spent some time playing around with the headlights and taillights - adjusting positions (x, y, z coordinates) and rendering them controllable in ON/OFF fashion, depending on condition. Still subject to change, but for now I have this set up:

1) all lights are off by default



2) forward reflector (P) is on in the DIM condition



3) forward reflector AND headlights (white light) are on in the BRIGHT condition



4) tail lights (red) come on in the BRIGHT condition



I don't know how close this might be to the way it works in the world. But it works for me for now. If anyone else is interested I can post the *.eng file entries that make it so.

Peace,

Sam

Sam,
This looks great! My graphics friend will hop on here and as soon as I get the latest version from him, I'd love to implement these changes into the model. With your mod together with his new texture it will rock. I think you will like what he has done too. I will add in the reverse view that you made. I am still battling the cab sounds. Then that leaves us to work on the wish list. Is there a newer cab editor utility out there somewhere? I would love to get some stuff done on the controls.. One of those is when the reverse is forward to get the two lights on top by the reverser to come on. Then when you put it in reverse, have the other lights to come on.

The other thing I am stuck on is building two working speedometers and a functional brake gauge. Also, since we have the lights working thanks to you, I'd like to wire up the light button.

You have really helped us and I appreciate your help to polish this up.

[rudedog97]

Try this frequency curve the original 22200 I cut to 5550 and it sounds better . The rest of the curve is left as it was, but depending on sounds could be manipulated also.
FrequencyCurve(
SpeedControlled
CurvePoints ( 15
-23.50 22000
-19.00 21000
-15.60 20000
-15.59 5550
-7.80 5550
-7.70 24000
-7.40 5550
0.00 5550
7.40 5550
7.70 24000
7.80 5550
15.59 5550
15.60 20000
19.00 21000
23.50 22000
)

I just used find and replace on the entire sms file.

Thanks for the feedback. What does the curve points changes that you made do? Did you do this to all of the CurvePoints (15s? and did you do that to both the MSTS cab and the OR Cab file versions?

[CurlSnout]

I will add in the reverse view that you made. I am still battling the cab sounds. Then that leaves us to work on the wish list. Is there a newer cab editor utility out there somewhere? I would love to get some stuff done on the controls.. One of those is when the reverse is forward to get the two lights on top by the reverser to come on. Then when you put it in reverse, have the other lights to come on.

The other thing I am stuck on is building two working speedometers and a functional brake gauge. Also, since we have the lights working thanks to you, I'd like to wire up the light button.

Hello Rudi,

I didn't have anything to do with the reverse cabview - that was Ged's doing (see post #107 on the previous page).

I can't help with the list of things you want to accomplish inside the cab; I have no experience with any of the cab editing utilities. One thing I might suggest is for you (or PeskyDingo?) to actually model the headlights and taillights. The way they manifest now is simply as flat discs that share the same black texture as the bumpers, axels, and undercarriage. They only look like 'lights' when it's dark and you turn them on. Even if you can't model them in 3D, if you simply assign them a texture of their own then they could be painted a color other than black - which is not very light-like.

Hi-Ho,

Sam

[rudedog97]

I am still having issues with the sounds. It seems like the sounds are being played at a faster speed. You can tell the diference when you press the space bar for the horn. How it sounds in the cab and how it sounds in the passenger view. Is there something that is speeding up my sounds? Is it even reading my cabview sounds?

[CurlSnout]

In case you missed it, here is what I posted above (post #93 on page 7 of this thread):

Regarding playback speed:

Are your sound files stereo or mono? If mono, this might have something to do with it:

If a Stereo() line is present within a ScalabiltyGroup, and a mono .wav sound is called, MSTS will play the sound at double speed. In order to have it play at the correct speed, a frequency curve halving the speed has to be inserted. OR behaves the same as MSTS in this case.

(from the Open Rails online manual):

14. Open Rails Sound Management — Open Rails Manual (open-rails.readthedocs.io)

In your M290strelacab.sms you do have a Stereo() line (Line 19) within ScalabiltyGroup( 5.

[rudedog97]

The stereo line is there line 19, I did check it but I checked it again now. I am not sure what scalabilityGroup( 5 is? Here is what it looks like and I am enclosing the file as well. Something is doing something very strange with the cab sounds..the horn seems to be at a wrong higher pitch. I tried it in open rails and not sure on the entire sound set but, the horn is also high pitched
)
Stereo ()
Volume ( 0.5 )
Streams ( 17
Stream (
Priority ( 6 )
Volume ( 0.5 )
Triggers ( 2
Variable_Trigger ( Speed_Inc_Past 0.30 StartLoop ( 1 File ( "rychlomer.wav" -1 ) SelectionMethod ( SequentialSelection ) ) )
Variable_Trigger ( Speed_Dec_Past 0.30 ReleaseLoopRelease () )
)

[CurlSnout]

Not a true solution in the sense that it fixes whatever is wrong with your sounds, but possibly a temporary fix while you continue to try to get your sounds sorted: Take the existing (broken) sounds out of your package and refer people instead to this freeware pack of sounds for motor cars:

Jacek - website about MSTS (jacek-modely.cz)

These are the sounds that I am using (for now, until you get the 'real' sounds fixed) and they work fine - in the driver's cab, outside the railcar, and inside the passenger cabin. Just a friendly suggestion.

By the way, my understanding is that the 'Scalabilty' groups have to do with 1) whether a train is a player train vs an AI train and 2) how the user has designated audio quality in the options that are available in MSTS. I'm not running MSTS so I don't know what those options look like.

Looking forward to seeing your updated model - with or without sounds.

[slipperman]

Hi Sam,
Many thanks for the link to the motor sounds.

I don't know much about the technicalities for sound files, but I've found the following, which might be useful :-

From the 'motor sounds' pack :
The in-cab horn sound (M251.2_houkacka.wav) is Wave PCM signed 16bit, 11025 Hz, 352kbps, stereo
The external horn sound (x_M251.2_houkacka.wav) is Wave PCM signed 16bit, 11025 Hz, 176kbps, mono.
These appear to be the 'standard' parameter values for MSTS.

Compare the above with the sounds from the M290 pack :
The in-cab horn sound (strela horn with echo.wav) is Wave PCM signed 16bit, 8000 Hz 256kbps, stereo
The external horn sound uses the same file.

Note that the Hz and kbps values are quite different and may account for the incorrect sounds being heard for the M290. Sorry, I don't know the correct terms for these particular parameters!

Cheers,
Ged

[CurlSnout]

Hello Ged!

That's an interesting observation - is it possible that the frequency of the sound(s) in the M290 pack is/are outside a preferred range?

An experiment that one could attempt: Make bakup copies of the M290 horn sounds. Then copy the horn sounds from the 'motor sounds' pack into Rudi's sounds directory and rename them so that Rudi's train calls them up.

Will they play, and how will they sound?

Sam

[slipperman]

Hi Sam,
I don't see any reason why not, EXCEPT that both the cab and ext sound .sms files call the SAME .wav file. A better plan would be to copy the two horn .wav files from the 'motor sounds' folder into the M290 SOUND folder then modify the M290 .sms files to 'call' them instead of the original horn .wav file.

It's getting late here, but I can try that tomorrow - on the other hand, it's not that complicated so, if you're happy to, you can try it yourself Take a copy of the two original .sms files as a backup first, then, if anything goes wrong, you'll be safe!

Cheers,
Ged

[CurlSnout]

Hi Ged,

I no longer have MSTS installed, so I can't perform an adequate test on my machine. Back when I DID have MSTS running (I installed it specifically to try and help troubleshoot Rudi's sound problems), I never had ANY working horn sounds - even after making all of the changes detailed throughout this thread - and the engine sounds were something like garbled radio static noises. I spent a fair bit of time trying to solve the horn issue, but it turned out to be an exercise in frustration (is it really necessary to have 13 different *.wav files representing the Strela Horn?). Anyway, installing the 'motor sounds' pack made the frustration go away.

Sam

[CurlSnout]

Experimenting with some alternative floor tiles in the passenger compartment:

[slipperman]

Hi Sam,
If you want to try the 'Motor Sounds' M290 horn in the CSD_M290_Slovenska_Strela, do the following :
1. Copy M251.2_houkacka.wav and x_M251.2_houkacka.wav files from the common.snd/sndMlok folder into the CSD_M290_Slovenska_Strela/SOUND folder.
2. Backup M290strelacab.sms and M290strelaeng.sms files
3. If present, remove the duplicate external Sound entry from CSD_M290_Slovenska_Strela.eng (line 499) - it is already present on line 509.
4. Unpack the modified .sms files from the attached .zip file
5. Copy the modified .sms files into the CSD_M290_Slovenska_Strela/SOUND folder, allowing overwrites.

The Frequency Curve values have been removed as they are not present in the 'Motor Sounds' entries.
ONLY the space-bar operated horn sounds have been modified - those activated by the 'B' key have not been changed.

I agree with you regarding the number of horn .wav files in the original!! I suspect they are there because the author has been working out which is the best to use

Cheers,
Ged
M290Strela-modified-sms-files.zip

[CurlSnout]

Thanks, Ged. I spent some time last night playing around with swapping horn sounds between sound sets but none of that resulted in any great revelations. I will leave it to Rudi and his crew (and/or others) to sort out the sound issue(s) with the M290.

I actually tried re-installing MSTS (again), but for some reason the MSTS that resulted is corrupted/broken. I don't think I'm going to chase that particular rabbit any further down the hole - at least not for now.

Peace,

Sam