Hello, I've been looking at purchasing the Dash 8 but I really can't bring myself to do it as I can't stand the default horn. I have a good mod pack to put much improved horns in the other 3 CSX locos but as far as I can tell there is no such mod for the Dash 8 yet. It might seem like a small thing but to me not having a high quality horn to make lots of noise with just kills the immersion. To the community, is anyone aware of a horn mod for the Dash 8 that I've missed? To the DTG team, I really wish you could ship your North American content with some prototypical horn sounds. These really shouldn't be that hard to get if you've clearly been able to access the prototypical locomotives so I'm not sure what the issue is. It was the same problem with the Oakville route. I want to buy your North American content but the awful default horns in most cases are a deal breaker for me. Incidentally I loved the horns on the Caltrain route. At least in TS2021 we can mod these easily ourselves, but that does not seem to be easily possible in TSW. Thanks
Do you mean modders can’t get access to the needed files or DTG can’t get access to an appropriate horn sound?
DTG has a problem gathering sounds for NA content nowadays. They have mentioned a possibility of cooperation with people from the community able to provide good (and I guess legal) recordings to improve the sounds. This was weeks ago and no update on the situation since.... hard to believe nobody contacted them though.
Thanks, yeah that’s what I was thinking they could do, quality horn samples shouldn’t be difficult to come by. Just look at the number of freeware horns out there for Train Simulator.
It would be better if they just purchase the horn device on ebay and record the sound themselves in an open area... For 30$ you can purchase real air horns kits and they are not subject to any legal constraints as the ones from branded locomotives. You can even find second hand ones as well if you look for particular horn models. DTG Protagonist, please check if that option is easier as it may help to solve the problems faster. Cheers
If something is published under a freeware license does not automatically mean that it can be used for profit.
Since DTG has a license from CSX,you might think that a polite request for a horn sound would yield a result. Personally, I can't tell one horn from another with US locos. I can hear them all day from my kitchen window, but I can't tell which one is which. But, of course, if you're a horn person, then it's important.
It's a bit of a shame they went for the comfort cab, it looks almost identical to the existing AC. Personally I would have liked to seen the older standard cab version Dash 8 for visual variety, but perhaps the comfort cab models are much more numerous IRL?
The internet says all the standard cab c40-8s were retired in 2016, It’s hard to find conclusive information but the c40-8w seems to far outnumber the original 70 c40-8s. Also it’s hard to tell which were rebuilt from the standard cab versions. Regardless I would have been much more interested in the add on had it been the standard cab instead of the wide cab.
Or they could've thrown in just a bit more work... and have both of them... they'd have the same services available, same performance, same sound (sadly) and you could choose which one you want to drive. A rather little change (only a cab) would come a looooong way.
I think that the artists and scripters would disagree that changing the cab is a "little change." I would not be surprised if designing and programming cab functions takes half of the time of actually producing the whole locomotive.
They COULD of also thrown in the Ex Conrail Dash 8's and the Dash 9's (Since the CSX ones are pre production models on modified Dash 8 carbodys) if they really wanted to.
No, but my point is that if many people can create quality horns as freeware, surely DTG should be able to figure out getting a few samples to use.
Maybe synthesising a horn that sounds like the real ones would be an option for DTG like they did with the TGV, there should be plenty of videos of the dash 8 horn online, maybe they are waiting for the audio engineer to be available.
https://mods.trainsimcommunity.com/...c20-sounds/i512-csx-dash-8-sound-upgrade-tsw2 For your delectation. Grab it quick as it may get taken down.
THIS!!! The sound is so much better, the locos rumble a lot more and sound so good. This along with a new horn and the DLC would be a solid 9/10
