Matt's PCC

[richb]

Thank you Matt for the great PCC car! Only problem I had was getting the sound right, I had to fiddle a bit to get it going. Also you have to ride the brake a bit, or the PCC goes too fast.

For those that are unaware it was released- The PCC car is available for download at:
http://fastmodel.com/models/

Rich

[Stooopid_person]

Which one do you download?
LightWave, 3dStudio, SoftImage, TrueSpace?

[richb]

>Which one do you download?
>LightWave, 3dStudio, SoftImage, TrueSpace?

Hey, Stoopid, :) you go down to the bottom of the page and you'll see an orange/cream PCC and it says below the picture "MSTS model files download".

"Seek and ye shall find....."

Rich

[delamate]

Rich,

I have also had trouble with the PCC sound. The bell and horn sounds do not work. What did you do to get the sound to work?

John

[mharter]

Good to hear some fedback, I will look into the sound issue tonight. I did not include the sounds with the .zip because it would make it too big. Copy the Acela sounds into there for now.

Anyone want to make some PCC sounds?

Matt

[richb]

>Rich,
>
>I have also had trouble with the PCC sound. The bell and
>horn sounds do not work. What did you do to get the sound
>to work?
>
>John

Hi, John, what you need to do is use the Acela sound files. If my memory serves me right, Matt in the PCC.ENG file used pcceng.sms and pcccab.sms there. You will have to use wordpad and change those two files to read acelaeng.sms and acelacab.sms. The easy way to find these file in the .eng file is to use the FIND in worpad and look for sound, that will bring you to each of the lines that need changing.

The acela sound files are nothing like a real PCC would sound, they had no horns and the bell was different. But the acela sounds work in a pinch untill someone comes out with a better sound.

Rich

[dchagar]

Sorry, couldn't resist throwing this factoid in: the PCC's in Minneapolis/St. Paul had both horns and bells.
Dave

[richb]

>Sorry, couldn't resist throwing this factoid in: the PCC's
>in Minneapolis/St. Paul had both horns and bells.
>Dave

Hi Dave, as I remember from my New York childhood the PCC's there had a buzzer (not a horn) and the bell sounded something like the short burst of a wind-up Big Ben alarm clock (remember those gadgets?) San Francisco (where thay still run 'em) used the bell only.

I guess different cities modified their PCC cars as they saw fit.

Rich

[dchagar]

The Twin City PCC's had a real horn, sounding much like today's asian imports, single tone, but much louder.
Dave

[delamate]

Rich,

Thanks very much for the help.

John

[davereage]

Here's a link to a streetcar bell from Toronto. The website doesn't specify whether it is from a PCC or a CLRV (with replaced the PCCs in Toronto), but I'd imagine they might be similar.

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/audiovisual/streetcarbell.wma

Dave

[norm1034]

I've got about 25 hours of San Francisco Muni PCC's on videotape. Am going through, looking for:

PCC Bell
MG Set
Wheels on rails - straight
Wheels on rails - turn
Power off accelerator (PCC's have a unique sound there; but there may be no way to incorporate it into MSTS; we;ll see.)

After I find the cleanest sources I can, I'll work with them in Sound Forge, and hope I can come up with something.

Matt, I noticed there is a horn lever, but no bell lever; at least not on the version I downloaded; maybe it's an old version.

Also, I've emailed you some emails and some not-the-greatest dash photos, but haven't heard any response back. Maybe I have the wrong email address? I got it from the readme text file in the PCC zip file.

Norm

[mrmike]

Norm,
See my post in Sound Design.

[norm1034]

I've posted some sound files on one of my websites. Maybe this is something for starters, anyway. I am still going through things (hardly started, really), and in another week or two, will probably get some more.

Here is the link:

http://www.normanspaulding.com/msts.htm

I hope nobody minds that I posted the files offsite. I figure, might as well help save the bandwidth here.

I also posted this message to a thread in the Sound forum.

Norm

[norm1034]

I have a working PCC bell in Matt's PCC1 now.

If you go to the link I posted just above, you can download both the .WAV file, and an updated acelacab.sms file. Just copy both of those into the Sounds folder of the PCC1 trainset, under the Trainsets folder of MSTS. You might want to make a backup copy of your existing acelacab.sms file first, just to be safe. You can always go back if you want.

I hope to get a slightly better PCC bell in the next week or 3. This one does repeat continuously, as long as you hold the bell button down.

Norm

[msavianney]

Hi all,

How hard is it to do sound file work? I've released a number of cars, none of which have authentic sounds, as a 1920s interurban car or an 1890s breezer sound nothing like an Acela, but it is all I have. I'd like to work out realistic sounds, but don't know where to start. Any info would be greatly appreciated. I do have some access to sounds, I could record some at the nearest tramway museum here, but the whole SMS thing is too scary to work out!

Cheers,
Matt A

[delamate]

I have been operating Matt's PCC on the Modern City Tramway (MCT) MSTS route. It looks very nice, and the genuine PCC gong adds a nice touch of realism - keep up the good work, Norm!

Problem: I started running two-car PCC trains over the weekend. I have discovered there are at least two curves where a two-car train stalls. One is the inside (inbound)curve where the branch from Croyden Central joins the main line. The other is the first 90 degree turn entering the Airport on the outbound track. In both cases, the train stalls about two-thirds of the way around the curve. It will not go forward or backward in response to commands, although it will roll a little if the brakes are released. I am not sure whether this is a problem with the PCC or with MCT, but I would like to solve it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John

[dvdhoven]

Hi,

See this thread for the coupler - tight turn problem:
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/DCForumID12/82.html

I propose this as replacement for the Coupler section of the Pcc:

Coupling (
Type ( Automatic )
Spring (
Stiffness ( 1e6N/m 2e6N/m )
Damping ( 1e6N/m 1e6N/m )
Break ( 3.2e6N 3.2e6N )
r0 ( 10cm 40cm )
)
CouplingHasRigidConnection (0)
)


The changes are in red
I changed the coupler type from Bar to Automatic. This way it is possible to couple and uncouple in the game. With the original setting "Bar" this isn't possible.
CouplingHasRigidConnection (0) does the trick for tight curves.

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif

[delamate]

Thanks very much. I'll give it a try.

John

[mharter]

new controls for the PCC (non-Acela) are on the way, but I notice that if a control is not included on the main screen, it's functionality is gone. When I deleted the Acela throttle controls, the trolley would not move anymore. I will either add invisible controls for the pedals, or create an overlay for them. It's proving quite difficult to create a realistic PCC that works well in MSTS because most PCC controls are pedals or levers not visible from the dashboard view.

Are other tram/trolley developers experiencing this problem? Is there a good tram/trolley cabview out there that I can reference?

[delamate]

Dick,

I followed your instructions for revising the .eng file. I added the changes in red. When I tried to boot MSTS, I got the "Error reading PCC1.eng" box. I made a number of format changes in an effort to resolve the problem. I mimiced the spacing and formatting of other commands in and near the Coupler series, but was unsuccessful. I am missing something; do you have any suggestions?

John

[pirpen]

Hi Matt!

The other trolleys and the trolleybus at Fastmodel.com, are you gonna make them work in MSTS?

Can 3ds files be imported to Gmax?

[pirpen]

Hi Matt!

The other trolleys and the trolleybus at Fastmodel.com, are you gonna make them work in MSTS?

Can 3ds files be imported to Gmax?

[dvdhoven]

Hi,

Most of the time when MSTS reported Error reading x.eng file it is caused by the fact that the .eng file is not saved as a Unicode file.
You need Wordpad or a Unicode sensitive editor.

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif

[dvdhoven]

Hi,

Matt, so far I know one tram that has a Cab with working pedals. It is the KT8D5. A Chjech (I know I spell it wrong) tram, that is in fact a nephew of the PCC.

http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d402a114447428a.jpg

http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d402a5044f803c3.jpg

You can download it from http://www.trainsimworld.de/Frames/Downloads_D.htm

Choose Loks and scroll down, it is the Tatra KT8D5

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif

[delamate]

Dick,

Thanks very much. I think I have been using Notepad to edit .eng files. No wonder it doesn't work!

John

[delamate]

Dick,

I opened the revised PCC1.eng file using Wordpad. The file consisted entirely of nonalphaberic characters. I then clicked on "Save as " and selected Unicode file. I substituted this file for the original PCC1.eng file in the PCC1 folder. When I tried to boot MSTS I again got the Error reading PCC1.eng message.

John

[dvdhoven]

Hi,

John, I think that you must start with the .eng file from the download. Try to open that file with Wordpad. I think things are mixed up and screwed up by the Notepad actions.
For me it is somewhat difficult, I never use Wordpad. I use EditPad Pro. A lite version, that can do Unicode files too, is aviable from www.jgsoft.com. It is free.

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif

[mharter]

This is very cool, I will download that tram tonight and look at how they put it together.

I plan to do more trolleys after I get through the whole process of making the PCC work right. I'm glad I posted the beta PCC, all this feedback is very helpful. Those sound files are great, I will work on that later if no one has gotten to it by then.

Has anyone played with the Illustrator file yet? Does anyone else use a vector drawing program to create paint schemes?

I can't wait to make the Boston Kinki Type 7 (my favourite).

Matt

[norm1034]

I was going to see if your Illustrator 9 file will load in my Illustrator 7... Dunno if there were format changes or not.

I got sidetracked this week -- will probably try this coming week.

Norm

[Thirdrail70]

I'd love to see you do the Kinki-Sharyo type 7 model also Matt. I believe of all the modern day streetcars, it's my favorite also.

[Stooopid_person]

Can you give me direct link?

[dvdhoven]

>Can you give me direct link?
Hi,

I don't understand this question. The link, I provided, is a direct link. When you click that link, you come on a download page. Now only click the button with the caption Loks. Wait a few seconds until the page is loaded. Scroll down this page and you will find the KT8D5 and the CabView. Click on the image to start the download process.

The guys at this website don't appreciate it, when I provide a link to the file itself.

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif