Class 390 pendolino by nexusdj - problems in TS2009 SP4 Native mode

[NikkiA]

Isn't the spark effect based on the power usage of the vehicle it's attached to ?
If it is then that vehicle wont be using a lot of power since it's been changed to a non powered vehicle .
The original script could of been set up by Jivebunny on the basis that this vehicle is powered which would mean the locomotive entry in the script was correct (or botched that way to get it to work )?

It gets the power usage from the frontmost loco (the 'the_loco' variable that needed fixing), so it shouldn't be affected by changes to the non-power cars.

It does however function differently in DCC mode and Cab mode, and on AI trains it'll always be DCC mode. In DCC mode it pretty much directly uses the throttle level as the power, it probably needs some scaling.

 

[zuluking]

Car 9 is giving a script error "couple.gs" in 2010.
Yet car 1 is the same and gives no errors. The car was reversed , updated with AssetX and tested on Midshire basic session route.

 

[NikkiA]

Ok, got a changed car #3 to how I like it, and restored bloodnok's intention of sparking being stronger in very-wet and snowy conditions (and it looks very nice in heavy snow, IMO).

But since it's a change to config.txt AND the script, is it ok if I send a CDP to both of you (shane & nexus) to try it, and if Nexus wants to base any other changes from my changes before uploading... ??

(And of course, the same changes would need to be made to car #7)

 

[shaneturner12]

Sounds good to me.

Shane

 

[NikkiA]

Btw, this is how sparking should look in cold (snowy is the best we can do in trainz) conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE7HI8In370&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLCBA9063644BC79FC

 

[shaneturner12]

Sparker script seems to be working fine now - only thing missing with the pendolino now is the nightmode (lit windows), as I sometimes run Trainz in night mode.

Shane

 

[nexusdj]

Thanks for the up date and it's working fine on car 3 but car 7 is hardly generating any spark with the new script and pendo's generally run with the rear most pan up .
Also in the dark in heavy snow I'm seeing a small spark above the car 7 pantograph even though it's down and car 3's is up and sparking normally

If you look inside the bodyshells of both cars you'll find an additional pantograph , this was my work around so that car 3 was pantograph 0 and car 7 was pantograph 1.
As I didn't have access to the original meshes to change the attachment points I had to add attachment meshes for the new attachment points . Car 7 has both pantograph attachment points on the attachment mesh as the original was provided for a dummy pantograph (a.dummypant) and is not correct for use with a working pantograph .

This system is set up so you raise the pan and up comes car 3 , you raise the pan again and up comes car 7 , click pan button and car 3 lowers leaving car 7 up , click again and car 7 lowers . Trainz wouldn't accept a single attachment point for pan1 on a vehicle without pan0 . Had I used pan0 on top for both cars then both pans would of raised and lowered at the same time . The system works easily on a loco but not when spread between 2 separate vehicles .

Car 3 has pan0 on top and pan1 inside
Car 7 has pan1 on top and pan0 inside .

 

[stovepipe]

Okay this is what I did to get the 390 fully working with sparks in Native mode.

Cars 2,4,5,6 & 8 I changed the script to "isclass Vehicle" as discussed above.

For cars 3 and 7 with the sparker script, I made them "engine 1" in the config file to match the existing script "isclass Locomotive".

Because it is now a locomotive, it requires an interior - the lack of one causes the script error. To do this - I opened the existing attach mesh and added an attachment point "a.cabfront", at 0,0,0. Then I modified the config file pant mesh-table entry to recognise the new attachment point:

  pant
  {
    mesh                                "390_car_3/attach_mesh.im"
    auto-create                         1
    
    effects
    {
      0
      {
        kind                            "attachment"
        att                             "a.cabfront"
      }
    }
  }
}

Because a Loco needs an enginespec, an interior, and a hornsound I then added/changed :

enginespec <kuid:45317:100629> [390 pendolino espec]
hornsound <kuid:2512:54002> [pikkabirds silent horn, on the DLS]
interior <kuid2:116035:22209:1> [peterdhicks 222 interior, on the DLS]

I used the 390 pendolino enginespec rather than a non-powered one to avoid the "half-speed" problem you get with AI. If 4 "locos" are declared but only 2 of the enginespecs have entries in the throttle-container, then it will trundle at half line speed.

I might have modified the espec to stop the unit from being too powerful - I can't remember. That's about all.

I hope I can be forgiven for my unauthorised fiddling......

 

[NikkiA]

Thanks for the up date and it's working fine on car 3 but car 7 is hardly generating any spark with the new script and pendo's generally run with the rear most pan up .

You probably didn't change car 7's config to match car 3's (ie, change the 0.1 for the corona size to 0.5).

As for the issue of the sparks appearing above the car 7 panto while it's down, I'll have a look at it, I have a feeling I know how it can be fixed...

The AI always seems to run with the front panto up though, which is annoying, but I guess livable.

 

[NikkiA]

Also in the dark in heavy snow I'm seeing a small spark above the car 7 pantograph even though it's down and car 3's is up and sparking normally

Ok, here's the fix for this, as I suspect it's easy enough...

In the script at line 69 we have:

      if (pantos_up) {

We need to change this differently on car #3 and car #7,

for car #3 it needs to read:

      if (pantos_up == 1) {

and for car #7

      if (pantos_up == 2) {

Of course, this means that you need to be careful that you don't copy car #7s script into some other locomotive at some point, thinking it'll work as a general purpose sparking script.

That said, the script configured this way could be useful on other overhead line EMUs that have 2 pantograph pickups on a consist.

Edit: hold on, there's another place where pantos_up is used that causes a script error....

Edit #2 : ok, line 142 needs to read the same as line 69 in each script (ie, '== 1' in car 3, and '== 2' in car 7)

Edit #3 : sorry, car 7 doesn't generate sparks this way unless you swap lines 157 and 165 in the car #7 script.

 

[adrian19]

Hi All,
I am working on an improvement for the Pendo sparker script, can someone tell me if they start British OHLE trains like they do in France. In France they start the train with all pantos raised, supposedly to prevent the panto from welding itself to the catenary due to the high currents drawn, using both pantos evens out the current draw at each point. Once the train is underway they drop one of the pantos and continue with one only.

If Pendolinos do the same thing, I can adapt the script to do just that in both Driver and AI modes as well as inhibit them in drag mode i.e. with a 57/3 T-Bird up front or behind.

Regards,
...............Adrian19