Hi Flyboy559
The first important question is to ask if you are driving in Realistic Mode or Simple Controls Mode.
Values in the 'motor' container will set the Simple Controls 'physics', including the top speed. These only apply under Simple Controls and under AI control, but how quickly you reach the top speed will still vary depending on train weight and gradient. The exact top speed can sometimes vary a little as well, but should be very close. This value has no direct bearing on Realistic mode.
However in Realistic Mode, the values specified in the 'steam' container are combined to make the top speed. This can be
very different to the maximum speed specified in the enginespec asset, as the top speed is based upon a lot of factors both in the enginespec and how you are driving the train, as well as the gradients/etc.
Its worse than you think, broken for almost 2 decadesengine specs have never worked as originally designed (in 2001?)
in 2004 i worked a lot with german specialist Brummel, he helped me with the engine specs
returning in 2019 I find its not better, but worse than before...
there are over 84 parameters, yet only a few actually work
We rebuilt the steam physics system in Trainz Classics 3. Those made for Trainz Classics 2 and earlier will not run the same as they did previously. The only options here were to either completely stop those locos running entirely, or maintain a basic compatibility mode that allows them to run, but not necessarily as perfectly as they may have previously run.
From my personal experience, having built a lot of different steam locomotives in my spare time, the parameters in the 'steam' container do make a difference to performance of steam locos.
in cabmode, the throttle-power and dynamic-brake containers do have influence,
and a few more parameters work but (guessing) not even half of them.
Steam locomotives use neither the throttle-power or dynamic-brake, these are for diesel locomotives only. However due to the way that Trainz reads enginespecs, it still requires these containers to be present.
if Trainz wants to be a realistic trainsim, there is a lot of work to be done.
for now, its a lot of trial and error, with no idea what actually works.
maybe that new TNI will be a chance, for an external specialist to improve it.
greetings GM
There is definitely always work to be done, and that is part of why we have implemented the TNI system so that creators/programmers can have the freedom to design their own engine physics systems to expand upon this.
The short answer is that they are a black art known only to the initiated few, who meet in secret when Venus is in ascension and The Ides of March have passed. They chant ancient incantations and make offerings of dead animals in the middle of a moonless night. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I'm not a member.
I know we've covered this before. However this is a very unfair description of the enginespec system. Steam locos are inherently VERY complex machines (this comes from hands on experience with steam as well, albeit most recently with stationary steam engines), and this does mean that making them work realistically in a game requires quite a lot of work.
This also means that creating an enginespec requires a lot of testing, and tweaking, of the enginespec. This is time consuming, but so is making a steam locomotive in general. The alternative is to find a suitable similar enginespec to use on the locomotive.
As noted earlier, a very good start point for creating an enginespec is this guide:
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/HowTo/Tune_a_Steam_Locomotive_Enginespec
This is what most of us use as a start point. It outlines which values are intended to be adjusted, and which ones should be set based upon the real world values (ie would be 'fixed' values). This can take a lot of testing, and a bit of experimenting.
One thing that needs to be noted, is that currently we don't have support for dampers. This does mean that for the most part you need to make the boiler lose heat a bit quicker than you otherwise might want, and then use the blower to counteract this to some degree. However this isn't far off prototype, where generally the blower will be open to some degree most of the time (this can help even out the draft on the fire, and help keep the fire hot if you are having to alternate between coasting and powering).
Regards