Railroad Crossing

[tomkat41]

I know this is an unusual question. When the crossing gates come down,
is there a way for it to keep going around until the train has gone by?
Would this be set in the *.s file or is this built into trainsim
program?

Tom

[jovet]

"It to keep going around" ? I don't follow; care to elaborate what you're referring to, please...?

[lenglel]

Keep going around? What are you trying to say?

On another note, I watched the videos at your
site, all look and sound excellent, except
the crossing bells seem too loud. I was
wondering how you made the movies and how
you got the camera to stay in one place
while the train went by. Or did you
just park your locomotive, switch to an
outside view and watch the ai roll by?

[tomkat41]

What i'm trying to do is get the crossing signal lights to work
when the train approaches. The lights will come on when the train
approaches, but when the gate comes down and stops the light will
stop blinking, then when the train leaves the gates go back up and
the lights start blinking again until the gates are fully up. I need
the animation to keep going so the lights stay blinking and when the train leaves it stops the animation. I did go into the signals configuration window and slowed down the animation, but if the train stops at the crossing for a certain time the lights will go off.

Lloyd,
The crossing bell that was loud, i don't know which video it is, but
the camera was right beside another crossing. The two crossings are
about 150 - 200 feet apart.
What i used for the video was Fraps99 than converted it to Flash video
which is a software called Coffee Cup which converts avi to flash video
for use on the internet. The view was in Yard Cam mode.

Tom

[jovet]

I think we'd all like to know how to do that.

However, never having seen any crossing signals in MSTS work prototypically like that, I would rekon it's not possible. I have been busy lately making my own crossing signals and resarched this before starting. I didn't find anything. There really isn't much wrong with having the flashers be a separate shape object and having them blink all the time, anyways.

And I don't think the bell was too loud. :) The train itself sounds spectacular, horn and all. I don't have anything with sounds like that, but I need to!

[lenglel]

Tomkat

I think others have solved the problem you are having by
implementing the flashers and gate as seperate objects.
It's not something I've experimented with myself.

I thought the yard view was strictly overhead. That's
the number 7 view, isn't it? Your videos look more
like the 3 or 4 view, but without following the train.

I really liked your train sounds, too. Are they in the
file library here somewhere?

Good luck with your flashers.

Lloyd

[jovet]

A modified camcfg file lets the yard cam behave as the camera in the Route Editor. :) Being able to fly all around the route while the sim is in progress has many advantages!

There are many replacement camcfg files in the library, but to execute this change requires just one small modification. Backup the camcfg.dat file in your Global folder and open it in a Unicode-aware editor. Find the "CamTypeYard" section and modify the approprite line in that section to this:

CamType ( CamTypeYard CamControlFull )

And have fun. :)

[tomkat41]

Hi Lloyd,
Yes, the sounds is in the sound section in the file library
the file name is sd45snd.zip. Also the camera view is 7 the yard cam.
If you want to use the yard cam view, go into the global folder and find
the file camcfg.dat make a backup copy of the file. Now open the original file and find this section:

camera ( CamTypeYard
CamType ( CamTypeYard CamControlFull )
Fov ( 50 )
ZClip ( 0.1 )
WagonNum ( 0 )
Description (Yard_Cam)
)

copy this over the exsisting one and save it.
Providing you have the yard definition box in your route, go ahead and
start train simulator, if your train is in a yard or someplace else
and you have a yard definition box press the 7 key, once your over head, Hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse around to you get the hang of it. While the right mouse button is down press the
the up arrow key to move forward and use the mouse to steer it, make sure the right mouse button is always down. Pick a place you want to
go then start running your train. This is really important, once you start moving with the yard cam view, your engine sounds will stop working and the only way to get it back is to restart train simulator.
To fix this, go to the tainset folder and select the engine you are using and find the sms file Example(SD45eng.sms) make a backup copy first, Find the sms file and open it, at the top you should see
these lines:

Activation ( ExternalCam () Distance (2500) )
Deactivation ( CabCam () PassengerCam () Distance (2500) )

not sure what the default values are, it doesn't matter
enter the new values as:

Activation ( ExternalCam () Distance (150000) )
Deactivation ( CabCam () PassengerCam () Distance (150000) )

These values will cover most routes, It will be realistic the sounds
will get louder as it gets closer the sounds will fade in and out as
it goes around bends like tall hills and as the train leaves, the sound will fade away as in real life.

If you try this, Good luck

Tom

[CGW409]

Pretty much you need to do the gate as a seperate item as the gate animation is built in to MSTS.
I built a set of the older wood A frame type gates and had to do the gate as 1 item and the flashers as a second item that you'd mate to the base in the RE.
Unfortunately there's not much you can do to have the lights shut off because at least on my gate set up (and most others I've seen) the flashing "light" is actually an animated piece made of bright material that is hidden inside the light housing behind a dark or "off" lens.
By setting an appropriate frame setting and by building a "dome" on the lighted lens it appears to slowly come on and go off ( if you can still find one go check out a crossing signal with the incandesent bulbs, there is a noticable fade in/fade out as the bulb lights as opposed to the rapid it's lit/it's dark of the LED lights)as the dome moves through the "dark" lens.
Due to the constraints of MSTS this is the only way I know of to do flashing signals, the same holds true for wig wag signals, they are always wagging though most times you don't notice it because you're moving with the train.

[jovet]

I've never had locomotive sounds stop working "permanantly" with the yard cam. Getting too far away from the train will cause them to cease, but switching back to another cam (1/2/3) and they will work fine again. Be sure to be in view 2 or 3 when switching to the yard cam for the sounds to work right. If you're in view 1 when switching, you'll still hear the cab sounds even though you're no longer in the cab and they'll stop abruptly with much shorter range.

I have yet to get railroad crossing bells to be heard properly with the yard cam unless I switch from a view 2/3 with crossing bells in hearing distance and near enough to the control cab. Keeping the camera in that hearing distance, I can hear the bells go on and off repeatedly.

Hope that helps....