Have they fixed the steam locomotives yet?

[Xenithar]

I have purchased Trainz over the years, even back when MSTS was the best around, and one bug that has seemingly been ignored was the configuration for steam locomotives. The stock versions build steam WAY too quickly and you get a constant hiss sound that kills your ears. This also means no need to manage anything as you have ample steam at all times. Back when I bought the last game (TANE) it still was not fixed, which was a MASSIVE letdown. My great-grandfather worked on The N&W (I have a black and white photo from something like 1918 on my living room wall of him and his crew finishing a new trestle) and either TANE or the previous game featured that area and even the bridge my great-grandfather built. I even own a cane that he got out of the old Radford station when they closed it and moved it closer to town.

Either way, I want to operate steam locomotives. Anybody can operate a diesel-electric. Have the steam locomotives been fixed yet? It's only been what, twenty years?

 

[Forester1]

I remember running out of steam on the steam tutorial in T:ANE. I realized too late I was coming up to the hill, and shoveling coal and adding water just cooled things down. I got stopped on the hill and had to figure out how to very gradually get started again. I don't know if it is specific to each steam loco and its config file, but in that case, it definitely required correct management of both coal and water.

 

[Xenithar]

I start in the yard where you have to fill some coal hoppers and then begin moving down the route. Before leaving the yard I get the emergency hiss of doom and it continued the one time I played for thirty minutes. Never stopped. I had to quit due to a headache. Somebody here told me it was the engine config or something and you had to find a good one or delete the hiss sound file or something.

 

[Forester1]

I did a search of the forums for steam hiss and got quite a few results. The answer may lie in those somewhere. It sounds like it is often the safety valve popping off.

 

[KotangaGirl]

So which locomotives are these that are causing problems and when was their engine spec made? I drive Uk steam locomotives from the footplate all the time in Trainz and most of the engines I drive have recently upgraded engine specs. I enjoy engines that make me work for a good performance, but despite that I'm not seeing or hearing any of the problems you've mentioned.
My grandad drove Ab Pacifics for the NZ Government Railways and a lot of my other relatives worked on the railways as well.

 

[Xenithar]

I'll look. I was also mistaken. The route I was thinking of was in TS12 (I own it on DVD), not TANE. In TANE I get the hiss on the route I mentioned above. I'm downloading the TANE installer (why have 4TB in RAID10 on NVME drives if you can't install anything?) now and will give it a shot, but I got aggravated with the last three versions I owned (TANE, 12, and I think 10) doing it. Everybody kept mentioning finding a good engine spec but I never could, plus I shouldn't need to if it's factory content. I'll report back after I give it a shot.

My only other issue was framerate. It was always low, no matter what. Ark Survival Evolved in 1440p at 90fps with v-sync on? No problem. Cyberpunk in 1440p, maxed out, v-sync on, at 60~70fps? Sure. TANE or TS12 above 30fps? Nope! I believe this was due to the engine being 32bit IIRC. I assume the new stuff is finally 64bit and can take advantage of my RAM (64GB) and GPU?

 

[on30gn15]

Before leaving the yard I get the emergency hiss of doom and it continued the one time I played for thirty minutes. Never stopped. I had to quit due to a headache. Somebody here told me it was the engine config or something

Although some health things have made my extra sensitive to sounds, seems I've luckily avoided this with the steam engines I'm using in TANE.
Question - what is the potential it could be a sound effect for the turbo-generator on steam engines which have electric lights?

I've run in to videos of real ones where the generator exhaust was prominent enough that the speakers had to be muted.

Has been almost a decade since being around a real steam loco actively steaming, so there isn't memory in that setting.

 

[KotangaGirl]

Everybody kept mentioning finding a good engine spec but I never could, plus I shouldn't need to if it's factory content.

'Factory content' isn't made by N3V it's made by members of the Trainz community and co-opted under the terms of the DLS agreement by N3V for the DLC that they sell. Chances are if it's older content for TS12 or TANE it's never been checked by N3V to see if it works properly.

 

[amigacooke]

'Factory content' isn't made by N3V it's made by members of the Trainz community and co-opted under the terms of the DLS agreement by N3V for the DLC that they sell. Chances are if it's older content for TS12 or TANE it's never been checked by N3V to see if it works properly.

It’s N3V who are selling the product so it’s their responsibility to make sure the product is of merchantable quality.

 

[frogpipe]

I have to agree that regardless of its realism the safety volume and tone is really grating to listen to.

But that aside, you might want to have a look at K&L Trainz and their locomotives, they are MILES ahead of anything I've seen from N3V.

Much of it is payware, but reasonably priced I think, and there are a few freebies IIRC that you could snag to get a feel for their products.

 

[KotangaGirl]

It’s N3V who are selling the product so it’s their responsibility to make sure the product is of merchantable quality.

Ha ha you told a funny.

Seriously, - I know very well that what is being sold should always be of merchantable quality, but we both know how often that simply isn't true.

 

[amigacooke]

Ha ha you told a funny.

Seriously, - I know very well that what is being sold should always be of merchantable quality, but we both know how often that simply isn't true.

Doesn’t change who your beef is with, if you bought it from N3V they are the responsible party.

 

[wreeder]

Doesn’t change who your beef is with, if you bought it from N3V they are the responsible party.

Well, that may be true but I believe the creator receives 60% of the selling price and N3V gets 40%. So it does indicate that the creators really bear some of the blame for poor quality.

 

[amigacooke]

Well, that may be true but I believe the creator receives 60% of the selling price and N3V gets 40%. So it does indicate that the creators really bear some of the blame for poor quality.

That may be true, but you're not buying from the creator.

I guess steam locos never made it to test track either.

 

[SirGreg]

I have to agree that regardless of its realism the safety volume and tone is really grating to listen to.

But that aside, you might want to have a look at K&L Trainz and their locomotives, they are MILES ahead of anything I've seen from N3V.

Much of it is payware, but reasonably priced I think, and there are a few freebies IIRC that you could snag to get a feel for their products.

I will agree about K&L products whatever i have bought so far worths more for the price you pay. I was surprised also to see locos that i bought for Tane to appear in Trainz 22 with no problems, many grats to K&L for this. Now as has to do with the main subject of the thread, from my experience not all steams engines work the same way. The British steam engines for example as mentioned above in a previous thread are far more silent and in extreme rare occasions, i remember a br9f one of my favorite steam engines to produce the safety valve sound. From what i have known so far the bigger the boiler of the steam engine is, the more possible for the safety valve to start (singing). Another thing i have noticed is that when you drive a steam engine and you are close to the limit of pressure, the more fast you accelerate from stop position to speed limit and keep the forward position to 75% and the throttle to 100%, soon the steam will be reduced inside the boiler and you can drive a great distance without hearing the safety valve. Sometimes also to add more water fast will give you drop to boiler pressure. I will repeat again that not all steam engines behave the same way, some are more sensitive and you can keep pressure hardly down the limit as others seem more patient. However if you focus working inside a railyard with a big boiler, driving slow and giving no time to the pressure to drop from the safety limit, no matter how much water you will add after some fills it will have no sense furthermore.