TURN ON WORD WRAP

The sound and steam files contained in my richardmaxted/NarrowGauge directory can be used for all sorts of Narrow Gaugelocos.

**** Sound Files *****

These read the sounds largely from the default Black 5.  However these sounds are then modified to change their pitch and volumes.  There are seperate sound sets for fitted and unfitted stock so that the "air files" are not loaded if not needed.

All you need to do to use them is to refer to them at the various places which define sound sources in the .bin file which lives in the /engine directory.  There are "chuff", "engine" and "cab" sets - the "occlusion" set is not altered but is included for completeness.

The chuffs and all other sounds like pistons and movement clanks respond to the loco speed (in m/s) - I have pretty extensively reworked all these speeds including all the overlaps to get the loco to respond as close as I am able to see to the sorts of speeds and sounds typically seen on Utube etc.

The "chuff" sounds are a function of wheel size, getting the wrong one makes little difference at low speeds but things go very wonky at more than 5mph or so.  

There is also a "background" reworking of the wagon and loco bg_steam type files. Using this file controls the various track sounds for locos and wagons.  I think it a marked improvement.

I have faded out the sounds at about 500m or so. This seems to be roughly the distance in videos I have seen.


***** Steam Files ********

These are pretty much a complete reworking of previous steam files.  Steam files are a nightmare to do and very hard to get right without compromises.  They also need to have the right xxxxEngineScript.lau file to control them.

The steam files I have created do largely provide a less dense smoke for narrow gauge locos.  They also provide a nice "simmer" when stationary.  There are problems with having a good simmering effect in that if the regulator is opened rapidly from rest a single "bubble" of smoke is produced before the effect settles down.

Try as I might I have not been able to resolve this without losing the "simmer".

Again, to add these effects to your loco you will need to find the relevant sections  in the .bin file which lives in the /engine directory.  I would also strongyl advise looking ( copying and renaming ) the .lau script in the engine files.


Bottom line with all this is that you need to back everything up first and take it gently.  Use the Hunslets in this package to see how I have done it - it should work for your loco.

If anyone has any comments I would be most grateful.  This is all a very steep learning curve.

Richard Maxted. July 2012
