How many locomotives are out there with the startup and shutdown script?

It should not be possible to move them when they are shut down, you might have had an out of date component.



They were SD70s and your statement is contradictory. You said you cant move them but can still move them.


I developed an intricate system for start/stop that was for a proof of concept. I never cared for the way it worked with regards to sounds since they required a special sound set and the way the doppler works in trainz made this impractical to use just for the effect of start/stop. This system also includes an isolation switch that allows a locomotive to be brought on or offline in a consist without shutting it down. You could find this system on some of the GP7/9 releases but honestly it never developed very far because of the issues it caused. I refused to make it part of the standard set of effects in a JR locomotive but anything using the TFX script can be made to use it. I too would rather a well implemented native solution (here is hoping).

All of JR locomotives do have sand and fuel consumption and have for many years now.

Oh, they were SD70s? I didn't remember because that was 4 to 5 years ago. The SD70s had a startup and shutdown script that used the driver command "startup and shutdown all locomotives" which is still in the game today. However, it cannot be used for anything because no locomotives use the old startup and shutdown script via the command. The SD70s that did use this could be moved through repeatedly clicking the DCC throttle forward or backwards when the loco was shutdown. The reason you have to keep clicking is because the throttle is contantly set to 0 while the loco is shutdown.
 
Last edited:
It seems it is very hard to find any locos with the startup and shutdown scripts. Does anyone know of any other locos that have the startup and shutdown script? I think this should be added to a lot more locos because it makes the game that much more realistic being able to startup and shutdown your locomotives.

How to start VL10 in TS2012

This tutorial shows how to start the Russian electric locomotive "VL10" in TS2012; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcCzA-STCHU (just shows ya what can be done, and yeah, I know it's an Electric loco). Quite an involved sequence...

Cheers, Mac...
 
Last edited:
How to start VL10 in TS2012

This tutorial shows how to start the Russian electric locomotive "VL10" in TS2012; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcCzA-STCHU (just shows ya what can be done, and yeah, I know it's an Electric loco). Quite an involved sequence...

Cheers, Mac...

How did you move around the cab? I know some of the locomotives I have gotten have a cab you can move around in but I don't know how. Is it with the WASD keys or with the mouse or something else?

That was neat by the way.
 
I can't for the life of me understand why this was never introduced in the first ever trainz,Now heading to a decade it still hasn't been programmed to shut down a engine.:confused:
We can open doors,windows and switch lights on etc. but still have that noise from all the engines POUNDING away in the background.

Come on if others have made trains/engines with the on/off switch why can't you...Lets get with the times N3V...this has gone on way to long
 
Last edited:
I can't for the life of me understand why this was never introduced in the first ever trainz,Now heading to a decade it still hasn't been programmed to shut down a engine.:confused: We can open doors,windows and switch lights on etc. but still have that noise from all the engines POUNDING away in the background. Come on if others have made trains/engines with the on/off switch why can't you...Lets get with the times N3V...this has gone on way to long

I can't remember seeing anything about start/stop on the KickStarters stretch goal wish list. I assume N3V where leaving it up to the individual loco content creators to include this startup/shutdown feature (or not) in their loco creations!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/426668601/trainz-simulator-a-new-era-create-drive-operate-sh

Maybe it was discussed under a sub heading in; Addition Train Physic's System???

Cheers, Mac...
 
Last edited:
While not locomotives, the EMU's by name ED4M, ED4MK and RZD ER2 all have start-up sequences.
Some are very complicated start ups that have to be learned from Youtube videos.
A different way of doing the "knife switch" for the battery, then isolate, then panto, then MA, Aux, Comp, Busbar and then the normal EMU prep.

I can recall the SD's for TRS2006 that had start up sequences. I remember purchasing an SD70 (I think) that had startup and fuel, sand check.
 
I really don't like that there are no standards for their games because the community makes about EVERYTHING. I wish they would give ALL content makers new minimum standards for locomotives and rolling stock so we could get good, quality locos instead of pretty cruddy ones most of the time. Just look at the UP Big Boy, it is from TRS2006 and it looks absolutely terrible and the only other one I know of is from the NARM (North American Rail Manufacturing). LOTS of content in the default game as well as add-ons really need minimum standards of some kind. I also think shiny the shiny diesels in the default game look deplorable.
 
I really don't like that there are no standards for their games because the community makes about EVERYTHING. I wish they would give ALL content makers new minimum standards for locomotives and rolling stock so we could get good, quality locos instead of pretty cruddy ones most of the time. Just look at the UP Big Boy, it is from TRS2006 and it looks absolutely terrible and the only other one I know of is from the NARM (North American Rail Manufacturing). LOTS of content in the default game as well as add-ons really need minimum standards of some kind. I also think shiny the shiny diesels in the default game look deplorable.

The UP 4-8-8-4 aka "Big Boy" was made for Trainz a loooong time ago. In its time it was actually pretty good, but now it's been 10+ years so yes, content that has been around since then is starting to become rather dated. At some point I think TrainZItalia made one although I think it is no longer available.

The reason there aren't any "standards" for content quality is because well, "good quality" content can be a very debatable and controversial topic. Basic requirements content must meet to function in Trainz do change as the years go by, as Trainz is improved and optimized, tighter validation standards etc. However they don't really control visual "quality", or the "features" they have, more along the lines of just making sure the asset functions in Trainz correctly without problems

Every content creator is unique, they all make things differently and since Trainz supports user-created content, there really is no real "standard" for content quality because again, really it's rather a gray area that constantly changes.

To sum it up, the reason why more engines in Trainz do not have startup/shutdown feature is because that was not a required element in the early days of Trainz, and thus it was not necessary to add it to any new engines created. Unfortunately, it is probably too late to include such a feature as a "minimal requirement" as it would likely break a lot of existing content and create problems for Trainz as it would be an entirely new feature the developers would need to implement into the game. For now, it is possible to script engines to have such features, and I think for now, that will suffice...
 
Last edited:
The UP 4-8-8-4 aka "Big Boy" was made for Trainz a loooong time ago. In its time it was actually pretty good, but now it's been 10+ years so yes, content that has been around since then is starting to become rather dated. At some point I think TrainZItalia made one although I think it is no longer available.

The reason there aren't any "standards" for content quality is because well, "good quality" content can be a very debatable and controversial topic. Basic requirements content must meet to function in Trainz do change as the years go by, as Trainz is improved and optimized, tighter validation standards etc. However they don't really control visual "quality", or the "features" they have, more along the lines of just making sure the asset functions in Trainz correctly without problems

Every content creator is unique, they all make things differently and since Trainz supports user-created content, there really is no real "standard" for content quality because again, really it's rather a gray area that constantly changes.

To sum it up, the reason why more engines in Trainz do not have startup/shutdown feature is because that was not a required element in the early days of Trainz, and thus it was not necessary to add it to any new engines created. Unfortunately, it is probably too late to include such a feature as a "minimal requirement" as it would likely break a lot of existing content and create problems for Trainz as it would be an entirely new feature the developers would need to implement into the game. For now, it is possible to script engines to have such features, and I think for now, that will suffice...

I just wish minimum standards could be better in some instances. Especially with older content like the UP 4-8-8-4. The thing looks like paper. A great point is why don't people change the look over their old models to make them look better? I mean you can change the ENTIRE look of anything through an update to it. You could make the UP Big Boy into a Shay through an update if you really wanted to.
 
A great point is why don't people change the look over their old models to make them look better? I mean you can change the ENTIRE look of anything through an update to it. You could make the UP Big Boy into a Shay through an update if you really wanted to.

If you REALLY wanted to, maybe. But it would be a lot of work, and I mean a LOT of work to take the old Trainz UP Big Boy and modify it into a Shay. The difference between the two are monumental and by the end, most likely there wouldn't be so much of the 4-8-8-4 left on the Shay, in fact, it would be far easier, and much less time consuming to just build the Shay from scratch.

The same would apply to the current Big Boy, the amount of changes that would need to be made to the existing model to bring it to current visual expectation standards, it would be a lot easier to just make a new one from scratch. Of course, there is nothing truly "easy" as far as content creation goes, but there is "practical".

The current one isn't "bad", it's just no longer up to today's standards. Maybe someday a new one will be made, but until then, we can simply enjoy what we have.

Now, for why people don't "upgrade" their old content, there are many, many reasons for that, many are justified. Some content creators simply do not have the time to go back and completely redo something they spent literally thousands (or even more) hours painstakingly making in the little spare time they had. Some have decided they have better things to do then spend their time making free content for an often thankless community of freeloaders, who have abused said content and sometimes even attack the author of said content, because they do not understand that content creation is not done overnight, is a time consuming process, and it seems, people are just lacking in respect. There are many other reasons but too many to list here.

I consider content creation is a hobby, something that is supposed to be enjoyable and fun. No one is obligated to do it, and if it becomes way too stressful and more like "work" than a "hobby", it's might be time to take a break.

I just wish minimum standards could be better in some instances. Especially with older content like the UP 4-8-8-4. The thing looks like paper.

I think many of us "wish" such things, but you should keep in mind, the Trainz franchise is about 16 years old. It's older than I am. And until T:ANE it used a game engine that IIRC dates back as far as the '90s. Back then, in the early days of Trainz, your average desktop PC was less powerful than the $20 Android smartphone I am using to type this post (no joke).

Trainz back then used the latest graphics and software capabilities at that time, but still it was very limited compared to what we have today. Auran (now N3V) have upgraded the software many times and have implemented new features and scripting capabilities, as software technology advanced they took advantage of it.

T:ANE uses some rewritten components from the old Jet engine but it's to allow for backwards compatibility, and so the Trainzers who have been using it for a longer time do not have to completely relearn everything. Since it does inherit features from older versions of the game, naturally as one can expect, it will inherit the limitations. Again, any features that were not implemented early on to be set as a minimal requirement, it would likely cause too many problems to encode into the game now.

The "Next Trainz" currently referred to as TRS2018, will to my knowledge be backwards compatible also, maybe that can include the feature you're talking about, although considering the issues that will almost undoubtedly arise from it, the fact that it already can be done by scripting, and the time and money it would take to implement it, honestly, while I don't want to "rain on the parade", I can't really see the developers at N3V going through that kind of effort to add something to Trainz that technically already is available.

Although I would not be unhappy to be proven wrong
 
I love the GP-38-2's that HP-Trainz do.....press #1 to start/stop in easy mode and all the flicking of switches in realistic mode.
It's nice to hear a train passing your yard when other engines are turned off
And best of all is when they're all switched off at the end of the day.... it's bliss.

Think ill spend sometime going through JointedRail and other Payware sites seeing whats on offer in this line of engines.

Regards,
Brad
 
I respect how long it takes people to make content. I know because back in TRS2006 I wanted to make a route and I immediately figured out that this was a monumental task. Same thing with locomotives, rolling stock, buildings, etc. They take a LONG TIME to make and code. I understand that the content in the game and the game itself is old, but its not older than me. I am as old as MSTS (that is 17) and the Trainz series of games really kicked off with TRS2004. I just don't understand why some content has not either been remade or updated after 12 YEARS. That is a little ridiculous to be honest. Just look at the Santa Fe F3, or is it an F7? That thing has been around since TRS2004 too and it looks terrible too. It doesn't even have animated wheels in TS12 like the Big Boy does. BUT Jointed Rail made a new one that looks fantastic! Now I know that every model is not going to be updated or even built new from scratch. It is inevitable with time. But when different models are updated it is great. Again, I just can't understand after 12 years that no one has updated, or built from scratch, certain assets.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top