Test Ramps

  • by RobertS
  • 7 upvotes
  • Downloaded 382 times

This upload is meant to give an answer to a question many people in the TSW community had since the release of the official Editor with TSW4, back in September 2023. Because of some recent events and a started discussion on RailSim.de about it short before christmas, here now my answer to the question.

This is not intended to be a perfect route on its own. I created this in the last 3 days – although I just planned to just chill over the Christmas time - just for the purpose of finally giving an answer to the question and maybe give hope to anyone who was afraid their creations never could be used in the game.

What the hell is this?

My first thought was what could I offer, what the Training Centre doesn’t already. I ended up with the idea of a test route for inclines and gradients to test how the in-game locos and custom formations behave with the maximum amount of gradient allowed in Germany, which is 12.5 or 40 permille (dependent upon the circumstance).

Once I got these done, I couldn’t resist and ended up adding 2 more ramps with even steeper inclines. A ramp with a gradient of 60,9 Permille (as on a short section of the german Hunsrückbahn – the steepest adhesion railway section in West Germany) and a ramp with a gradient of 116 Permille (as on the Pöstlingbergbahn in Linz, Austria), one of the steepest adhesion railways of the world.

One important thing to say is that the value for Permille seem to differ between german and english documentation by the factor of 10 and is even depicted in the game. For example, the SFS Köln-Rhein/Main has a maximum gradient of 40 permille in german documentation (and even when laying track in the Editor itself) but in-game the value shown is simply 4. Funny thing is that both seem to be correct dependent upon the point of reference. I’m currently about to figure out more about that.

This is just an experiment for now and absolutely not meant to be super fancy. And yes of course can contain bugs. For example there seems to be one when spawning at a location via the markers. Spawning into the map was a big issue for a long time but even if not perfect, it should work now. However, spawning should always work with a service.

Unfortunately, we (the PC Editor community) still miss a lot of documentation, so please bare with me if there is anything not working as on the official DLCs. Many aspects of making this route possible just were copying the technique files and folders are created in the original DLCs as best as I can and not even following any documentation to create/mount a route by DTG as the community never got something like that unfortunately.

After my longer experience in the Public Editor, some features of the official DLCs still doesn’t work at all or doesn’t work properly when creating a route in the Public Editor. However… This upload is meant to be just a proof that it in fact does work (well at least on my system, see if it works on yours) and I’m very glad if this result of mine here would inspire more people to create routes.

And again, not made to be pretty.

Cheers,
Robert

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Installation Instructions

After downloading, copy or move the pak file "TestRamps_RouteMod.pak" into the DLC folder under (Train Sim World)\WindowsNoEditor\TS2Prototype\Content\DLC .

For Steam, this is (path to your steam library)\steamapps\common\Train Sim World 5\WindowsNoEditor\TS2Prototype\Content\DLC.

Additional Comments

1.) Does not require any additional DLC. All assets used are referenced from the Training Centre, which everyone should have installed by default.
2.) Works with TSW4, however since the BR 146 is not available in the TSW4 version of the Training Centre (my fault to select this one sorry but I liked it too much for that purpose), it is only possible via the markers to spawn into the world in "On Foot" mode or Free Roam.

Files

TestRamps_RouteMod.pak 60 MB · Added 30 Dec 2024 · Downloaded 382×

Comments

Avatar of Myron
Myron 30 Dec 2024

So this is the key to make the ICE 3 reach 400 km/h... This is a really simple but really REALLY great route for a LOT of stress tests, both upwards and downwards. This may have brought back my motivation on making a route similar to this, not necessarily with grass textures, foliage, and all that stuff, but a large track layout for a lot of fun test runs etc.

I love it!

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

Thank you very much, Myron. I'm glad that you enjoy it.

Avatar of Fizzbin
Fizzbin 30 Dec 2024

The value 40 is per mille (o/oo aka "per thousand"), the other value 4 is percent ( % aka "per hundred"). If the english documentation or the game uses permille but shows 4 than its simple: a false unit.<
https://www.johannes-strommer.com/mathematik-rechner/berechnung-steigung/

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

Thank you for the explanation. Yes, that makes sense now. I'm still wondering why the english documentation (and even the game) tends to use percent instead of permille - or vice versa - the german documentation use permille. I guess regional conventions/perferences is the answer.

Avatar of british146
british146 30 Dec 2024

can you add a third rail in the future please?

Avatar of Myron
Myron 30 Dec 2024

just enable universal electrification by putting ts2.dbg.CurrentCollectorSupplyAvailability=1 in your Engine.ini

Avatar of british146
british146 31 Dec 2024

Ok, thanks!

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

This is a good idea. While, I'm currently not quite sure how to do that properly (simultaneously having the OHLE catenaries for the rolling stock I intended to focus or different types of electrification at the same present - not quite sure if this even would be doable), but I maybe look into it. Any preference for the electrification system to be used?

Avatar of \owawa
\owawa 30 Dec 2024

did you just release the first route DLC ? :)

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

Kind of, yes. But I'm sure there will be more and better freeware routes around in a short while. :-)

Avatar of mjkcp
mjkcp 30 Dec 2024

Nice work, good to see custom routes are possible :)

If you plan on adding more things to it in the future, some track for testing superelevation could be interesting

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

This is indeed an interesting idea I also had when doing this. But doing easements properly is a pain and takes some time. That's why I avoided it here as it just were a test project. And I've seen someone on the tsw-modding Discord channel, who already made kind of an extreme helix to let the trains run onto. Looked like lots of fun. I hope that this might get released at some point. Any ideas for superelevation/easement values to be tested?

Avatar of Simdertrainspotter
Simdertrainspotter 25 days ago

ist es möglich eine version zu machen bei welcher die steigung langsam immer höher wird

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

Die 12.5 Promille Steigung ist die geringste von allen 4 Rampen und ich empfinde diese eigentlich schon als ziemlich
sanfte Steigung, wenn man jetzt nicht gerade eine riesige Formation hat mit der man den Anstieg hoch muss.

Wenn ich jetzt noch eine Version machen würde mit sanfteren Anstiegen, würde glaube ich der Sinn irgendwie verfehlt werden. Das kann man dann auch in den normalen DLCs auf bergigen Strecken ganz gut testen, denke ich.

Oder was meinst du genau?

Avatar of chunxia123
chunxia123 24 days ago

How did you export it as a pak file to share ?

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

You need install all required data assets in the route plugin such as RouteDefinition, Theme, ContentManifest and other things. Then cook the route (for example with Muff's cooking fix). Paking I did it with UnrealPak.exe and adding a ugc/dlc and creating the required folder hierarchy such like on every other mod. But paking also should work with Muff's distrubtion functionality, and might even be way easier.

Avatar of metroexodus0078
metroexodus0078 20 days ago

is it just only for tsw4 not tsw2?

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

In theory, it also should work with TSW2 or TSW3 as all objects are referenced from the Training Center.

However, since the BR 146 wasn't present in the Training Center at that time, you probably only be able to spawn yourself onto the map via the FreeRoam markers and then choose the rolling stock of your choice to test with.

Avatar of wunder99
wunder99 13 days ago

One important thing to say is that the value for Permille seem to differ between german and english documentation by the factor of 10 and is even depicted in the game. For example, the SFS Köln-Rhein/Main has a maximum gradient of 40 permille in german documentation (and even when laying track in the Editor itself) but in-game the value shown is simply 4. Funny thing is that both seem to be correct dependent upon the point of reference. I’m currently about to figure out more about that.

Der Faktor 10 kommt daher, da im Spiel die Steigung in % statt ‰ angegeben wird und der Umrechnugsfaktor halt 10 ist.

Avatar of RobertS
RobertS 6 days ago

Danke auch nochmal. Ich habe es jetzt verstanden. Bin trotzdem noch etwas verwundert, warum man das länderspezifisch so unterschiedlich handhabt (England nimmt Prozent, Deutschland Promille) und dazu noch es keine Möglichkeit gibt, den Steigungswert von Prozent auf Promille im Spiel umzustellen. Gibt nur die Möglichkeit den Wert in Prozent oder in Grad anzeigen zu lassen.

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About this mod

Created
30 Dec 2024
Updated
30 Dec 2024
Game
Train Sim World
Type of content
Other
Train Sim World compatibility
Train Sim World 4, Train Sim World 5