Is there a SMART horn sequencer for Trainz?

[JonMyrlennBailey]

Is there a SMART "automatic whistle blower" on on the horizon? A SMART horn sequencer would time whistle blows so that they occur at the correct time as the train runs through a RR crossing. Train speed may vary regardless of the speed limit sign for speed zone the crossing is located. Trains may accelerate or brake through crossings. Trains might be running on reduced-speed signals. I would call it a horn sequencer with built "speed sense" which can calculate train speed, braking and acceleration to always time whistle blows just right.

 

[JCitron]

I don't know about "smart" but there's an invisible horn sequence asset that you place some distance down the track for the AI to blow horns for the upcoming crossings. It's a track object and looks like a green trackmark. You place the asset so that it points towards the crossing.

It's not smart like you want it to be and as far as I know, there's nothing like that and would have to be scripted. There's a lot of parameters that would need to be tracked in order to get this to work as you want it to. The asset code would have to search for trains on the current track, look at the speed, and calculate the time needed to blow the engine horn. While this sounds easy to non-scripters and non-programmers, it's probably more complicated than it's worth.

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

I don't know about "smart" but there's an invisible horn sequence asset that you place some distance down the track for the AI to blow horns for the upcoming crossings. It's a track object and looks like a green trackmark. You place the asset so that it points towards the crossing.

It's not smart like you want it to be and as far as I know, there's nothing like that and would have to be scripted. There's a lot of parameters that would need to be tracked in order to get this to work as you want it to. The asset code would have to search for trains on the current track, look at the speed, and calculate the time needed to blow the engine horn. While this sounds easy to non-scripters and non-programmers, it's probably more complicated than it's worth.

I've been using that green one for years now. It will NOT adjust for variable train speeds to get timing right at crossings. I can only monkey with it to get the whistle timed under normal train speed conditions under a green signal at best.

I found this one available for download and may test it out and report back here:



Whistle Sign W w/Horn Sequencer,<kuid:324956:101454> by chili46



This is an visible whistle marker with a horn sequence in AI mode. Long, long, short, extra long. I have added a computational section that adds a delay in the sequencer based on train speed verses speed limit. These distances are based on my configuration. Your actual distances may vary depending on type of computer, speed, etc:


Speed Dist/M Dist/Ft
25 111 367
30 133 440
35 156 513
40 178 587
45 200 660
50 222 733
55 244 807
60 267 880
65 289 953
70 311 1027



I don't even know if that content above has the smarts to compensate for varying train speeds. It would have to know the train's exact position on the map relative to the crossing and heading for each and every whistle blow. How does a human in the cab pulling the rope even time his whistle blows for differing train speeds? Real-world railways with automatic crossing whistles must have this advanced tech stuff figured out already.



A while later: I just tried this chili46 horn blower for the first time ever; forget it! It blows each toot one after another with little spacing between toots. It doesn't sound at all like an American toot sequence with much longer spaces between each and every blast. Until some clever content creator makes something even slicker to manage horns at crossings, I will continue to use the green wedge horn trigger as I have been doing all along. I will just have to put up with horn blasts that are not timed correctly for train speeds other than "normal" train speeds for the crossing. I will adjust the horn trigger position based upon green signal conditions and cruising speeds for the speed zone the crossing is in. That's all.