Variable 1 question

[ChckHbrt]

Hey my fellow sound file geniuses

Does anyone know how to get variable 1 to work in backing or reverse movements? I am working on a project using a converted steam .eng file with diesel sound waves. Variable 2 does not work properly due to the steam file does recognize throttle position changes. The "speed" designation works in forward and reverse movements, but does not shift the waves at the designated mph increments. It wants to shift them at 10 mph increments using vehicle speed.

Variable 1 works well at shifting the waves at the designated mph increments using wheel rotation, but does not play the waves in reverse movements.

I have tried various methods for getting variable 1 to work in reverse movements, but no luck yet.
I have gotten around this problem by laying down a set of variable triggers using variable 1 for the forward movements and another set of variable triggers using "speed" for reverse movements.

I would like to use variable 1 for both directions as it is a lot more accurate and controllable.

Any ideas?

Chuck Hebert Chuck@jarc.biz
MSTS Special Effects Creation

[SP9800]

RE: Variable 1 question

I think you have to think of it in terms of negative wheel rotation. For example, you would need to have a trigger for increasing past 0.050 AND one for decreasing past -0.050.

[ChckHbrt]

RE: Variable 1 question

Hey SP9800

That was one of the things I tried, using negative wheel rotation. I laid in another set of variable triggers placing negative notation at the mph increments and reversed the Inc. and Dec. notations on the second set of triggers where the decrease starts at the top and works down to increase.

This method seems to work fine for steam engine sound waves, but does nothing using diesel engine sound waves. This dosen't make sense to me at the moment, in my mind a wave is a wave and should play in reverse no matter if it's a diesel wave or steam wave.

Thanks

Chuck

[SP9800]

RE: Variable 1 question

What kind of engine are you using this on? Steam or diesel? I know that the different variables are linked to different functions on different types of engines; I don't remember what Variable1 does for diesels.

[ChckHbrt]

RE: Variable 1 question

Hey Sp9800

It's actually not a locomotive. It's Rick Lamps' wedge plow. I adapted a steam file to it for the snow effect a while back and adapted the sound files to play diesel sounds while using a diesel set as pushers.

Everything worked out fine as far as all the typical diesel sounds go, including playing while in cam 5 view while in the pusher diesel. The problem has been getting the diesel sounds to play while backing the set down the track.

As mentioned earlier, diesel variable 2 does not work on a steam file because the steam engine does not recognize throttle positions. Variable 2 is used for throttle position as on a diesel, Variable 1 is used for wheel rotation or RPM, (not needed if using a diesel engine file), Speed is used for increases using vehicle speed. I have not played with variable 3 to much, it appears variable 3 is used as another timing source for playing other sounds using variable triggers.

Using variable 2 with a steam file will cause the diesel sounds to ramp up and stay at one wave. So variable 1 seems to be the best choice for this application to shift the diesel engine sound waves while using a steam engine file. It works well except for playing the waves in reverse. Laying another set of variable triggers and using "Speed" works in reverse.

Using a set of triggers with variable 1 for forward movement and another set of triggers with "speed" for reverse movement is working OK and does not create a conflict with the previous set of triggers. But the shift timing is not what I want while in reverse.

Chuck

[scefhwil]

RE: Variable 1 question

Try placing your negative Variable1 triggers in a separate Stream to the positive ones. That's what I found to work on a previous project of mine. I have always thought that the units for Variable1 in the sms file was metres per second, not miles per hour, where 1 m/s = 2.25 mph. It seems to be the velocity of the perimeter of the wheel, it's value changes with the WheelRadius value set in the related .eng file.

Variable2 does work for steam engines, but has a range of 0 to 1 so unless you change the 'speed' values you end up always at 1.

Variable3 is used in the ?????cab.sms files to control the coal shovelling sounds. It seems to be the rate of adding fuel.

[ChckHbrt]

RE: Variable 1 question

Hey Stuart

Thanks for the suggestions, but I got the problem fixed. It was my volume curves that were messing things up on the diesel waves playing on reverse moves. It seems the volume curves I had for the forward or positive stream didn't like the reverse or negative stream.

I re-did the volume curves and it worky good now.

Chuck