Do framerates affect physics + what does flashing yellow steam chest/cutoff mean?

[BraselC5048]

I'm busy updating a bunch of British steam locomotives from TC3 and TRS2009 to actually working in TRS2009. However, in the current locomotive I'm getting a problem of the slack repeatedly bunching up and than going out again, the cars behind the engine banging back and forth. These some wheelslip around the same time, assuming that's what the throttle flashing yellow means, but there's no wheelslip sound played (compared to my usual experience of pulling heavy trains up very steep grades). Two questions - first, could really low framerates be the cause of the problem? I've got a gigantic number of engines (maybe 12-20) within a single baseboard, as well as a bunch of buildings on an adjacent baseboard. (Just a route to test locomotives I'm updating and see what buildings I just downloaded look like in-game; no intention of actually making a finished route out of it.) Framerates are really low, I would guess well under 10, you can see each frame fully sometimes before it goes to the next one. (For that matter, it could be 2-3 at some points, now that I think about it, in fact it might be.) Does that affect the physics, and could that be the cause of the problem? Also, the steam enginesound is noticeably looping at some speeds, with a different sounding chuff at even intervals every 1-2 seconds. Problem with the enginesound?
(I used a spreadsheet to write a new enginespec for this engine, since the existing one doesn't produce enough steam to haul a train no matter what you do. It's worked fine every other time I used the spreadsheet, for American engines at least.)

Second, in the 'dumb question' category, what does it mean when the steam chest is flashing yellow? (Or it might have been the cutoff. Can they both flash?) It's doing that a lot on this engine, and some others. And for that matter, what does the pressure in the steam chest mean in the first place? I've never seen it explained, and just ignored it.

 

[Falcus]

It would be the cutoff, and thats the sign for Wheel Slip in the outside Cab Camera Views.

If you're playing with the scripts at all while you're doing this, the reason the sound isn't playing could be anything from "The wheel slip isn't constant" (Which fits with your accordion-ing of the Rolling stock behind the locomotive), to "Gee, the script or Eng File is screwed up and the game no longer recognizes exactly whats going on". Theres alot of factors there to my mind. I'm more likely to think the previous rather then the latter though.

After that, 2things I would suggest:
1: DELETE THOSE OTHER ENGINES! Having multiple assets out while you're playing with tinkering with a Config or an E-Spec is a great way to ask for problems. On that score, No, FPS cannot affect game Physics, BUT, LACK OF SYSTEM RESOURCES CAN.And low FPS is generally a great indicator of Low System Resources for what you're trying to do. This can also cause things like sound file delay....

2: Get TANE and do this in TANE (If You can)..... TANE comes with a Test Track utility built right into the CM so you can edit Especs right there.... If you're dead set against it, thats your call, and I respect that, but right now you're "updating" outdated content to a recently outdated state..... You won't even be able to load em up to the DLS unless you go through the effort of updating their Build Numbers to 3.2 or whatever TS12 Stock was. Though once they're '09 I've heard it isn't too hard to knock em up to TS12 depending on how the script & E-spec was done.

Finally, I encourage you to start asking many more questions. Though probably you want to organize your threads better. You asked about 4 different things (Wheelslip, Engine Sounds, E-Specs, and Route building) in a thread titled for Physics, Framerates, and Wheelslip....

After that, hopefully someone with some E-spec experience further then my own will find you (Or vice versa),
-Falcus