I ran #95 out of Boston to Providence tonight and I left the second station at full speed and managed to get in front of the service that I think I was meant to get stuck behind. I had a 5 minute wait at Route 128 and while I was waiting look what came into the platform behind me, right up to my train. Anyway, I've now made ten successful trips with ATC, ACSES and the Alerter all turned on and I'm convinced that its working pretty well. None of the instant stops I experience on the FP40.
Why does the train behind you have his position lights on? Shouldn't they be the dipped headlights? By the way, what poor lighting at the station I will never tire of saying that this needs to be improved.
Very cool! I drove one NE regional service because of a longer running time, thinking that would get me stuck in traffic. However, it just got me a longer wait at route 128. Does train number 95 behave differently if you don’t push it out of the first stop? I wonder what the service is behind you; it would be cool to play a service where do you wind up squeezing up on a platform behind another train. I look forward to driving 95 soon.
#95 departs at 6.09am and there does not seem to be comparable departure from Boston so it must be one of the AI services the originates off route JustWentSouth I'll have to give #95 another go to answer your first question. erg73 it did have headlights on when it cruised in behind me - I don't know if the camera angle means they're not drawn of they turned off
erg73 In one of the streams Matt was saying the night lighting is a limitation of the Unreal engine and what they can do with it. So I doubt you'll see much changed in the immediate future.
Thanks! I drove number 95, left Back Bay as soon as the doors closed, and arrived early at Highway 128. The MBTA service pulled up right behind me. I tried to take it over, but it was AI only.
I don't buy that UE limitations. Sure, each engine has limitation, but Assett Corsa Competizione is also a UE game, made by a small studio, and the night lighting, we lighting on general, is on another level when compared to TSW. In general, when you compare games that use similar approach - PBR with deferred lighting, TSW general is one of the weakest lightingwise. Lighting has been one of the weakest parts of TSW since day one, and has been all over the place.
I agree. From what I've seen, night lighting can be much better with the Unreal Engine than it is in TSW2. It's a weakness that spoils several excellent routes, notably CRR and CCR. I'm early into the timetable with Boston, so I've yet to see it there, though I've already seen problems with train headlights and other exterior lights. The F40PH has good headlights, but the other locos do not. Go figure! There are problems with AI train lighting and "late blooming" headlight flares on all AI trains. I hate to see otherwise excellent routes spoiled by these elementary features. I wish DTG had devoted the same development time on lighting effects that was, in my opinion, wasted on an unnecessary update to the UI. The new passenger features are nice, but, again, not as much of a priority as the lighting effects. Eye candy or tinsel seems to have the highest priority these days. Just my take.
By the way, if we want to discuss lighting, we really should have started another thread rather than hijack Paul's original topic.
So, I have questions about the operation of the ACS-64. I am setting up a chaos run where I take over an ACS service that is stopped on the main. When I get in the cab, it looks like I need to put the reverser in neutral, panto down, MCB open, panto up, and MCB close to get it to power up. Then I need to have brakes in full service before I put the reverser in forward so that the parking brake clears as I release the train brakes.* 1) Is this true or have I made it more complicated than it has to be? 2) Once I got everything running, it is an ACSES fest. Sometimes when I stop at a signal, the parking brake will come on and I can't release it. Is there a button for to release it somewhere? How should I release the parking brake? In the tutorial, it just comes off with the reverser in forward as you release brakes from full service. This doesn't seem to work when the parking brake comes on during the run. Also, why does it come on? I don't think I have incurred a penalty. I am loving the locos on this route! But this has me baffled! Thanks for any help. * I found this out the hard way starting on a hill with my train sandwiched between two MBTA services; I lurched back into the one behind and then lurched forward into the one ahead creating a three train Amtrak sandwich.
Having tried ACSES on the ACS64 on Boston Sprinter, I've decided that it is definitely a form of cheating. PZB feels like it should be a form of cheating but then it puts the emergency brakes on and is like a friend that has a laugh with you but then kicks you in the shins when he feels like it. ACSES is the one that lets you copy his homework when you forgot to do it. More seriously, I drove a service on Boston Providence earlier and there were a couple of times when the speed limit shown on the ACSES display in the cab was higher than the max speed shown on the HUD. (And I don't think it was just shortly before/after a change). Is that a bug or expected behaviour? I ask because it almost feels like with ACSES and ATC on, I could turn the HUD off. Thanks.
ACSES is supposed to incentivise drivers to learn the line and signal speed limits. If ACSES is warning you of an upcoming speed restriction, it means that you have already messed up, hence the need for Suppression braking. ACSES will display increased speed limit changes at the front of the train, but per FRA rules you still must wait for the rear of the train to clear the slower speed block before you may accelerate. This is expected. You should be able to drive with both systems active without the HUD on, except that ACSES currently warns of upcoming speed restrictions too early, before the driver could ever see the upcoming signal for example. It is still possible, just with a very aggressive braking curve. Cheers
If the locomotive is shut down completely the brakes should be in "handle off" - in real life the handle wouldn't be there at all, that's what Handle off means - you can remove it like you remove the reverser. Paul
Like LIRR I always drive this one with the HUD off to avoid confusion. So I definitely agree with you here. Just do what ATCS and ACSES are telling you Paul
You mean positive train control even though it's scheduled to have one by 2021. NEC Boston Providence has positive train control for the European routes its called European Train control system ETCS if made. The closest one we have to an American and Canadian positive train control are German PZB LZB French TVM-430 KVB
