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I know this is a little off topic but I was wonderring if it was possible to use MSTS loco sounds on a DC powerred model railroad. My idea is to somehow monitor the voltage going to the rail with a spare computer that I have(this computer can handle MSTS) and use this variable instead of the manual throttle on the simulator. Either that or I could assign a certain amuouint of voltage to each throttle notch (i.e .0-2 V = 1st notch; 2-3.5V=2nd notch; etc.) Then hopefully I could match the loco sound files to the loco consists on my model rr(alco, emd, GE, etc.) and vary the sound with increases or decreases in voltage of my power pack. Is this viable? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if this topic has been coverred already please direcr me to those posts if possible. Thanks in advance.MT
Hi mt,I am not a sound expert but I am experienced with model train control.What you suggest is possible but next to impossible to interface. Raildriver had to read the HUD from the screen to be able to work their controller.The voltage you are going to read from the track is not at all related to the knotches. In a real diesel, you will knotch up to 8 by the time you are at 10kph, and run 8 will take you up to 100kph.Not a bad idea though.Derek derek@sgrail.org if you would like to discuss further.
Wow! That's a pretty ambitious undertaking there.As Derek mentioned, the trick would be creating an interface that could interpret voltage changes and convert them to, Umm... Let's say keystrokes since that's what is needed to run MSTS.This would require both hardware and software to accomplish what you want to do. The hardware would be fairly easy since voltage controlled switching is pretty common. The software is another story. You would need to write something that would look at whatever voltages your hardware converter is sending and then tell your computer what to do with this info.Which brings us to...How do you intend to play these MSTS sounds? The only logical way I can think of would be to use the sound engine within MSTS. Otherwise, you would also need to devise a way to accomplish the looping and triggering of the various sounds. Since MSTS already does this, it makes sense to take advantage of it. So, how can you get MSTS to play these sounds from an external trigger? I don't think there is a way to use the MSTS sound engine seperate from the application. So you would need to have MSTS running in order to hear anything.The only way I can think this might be accomplished easily isn't quite here yet. I don't know if it's even possible when it becomes available.Raildriver is making an analog control module that allows you to drive your DC model trains using the Raildriver cab console. This could possibly negate a huge stumbling block! If it works as I think it might, you wouldn't need to mess around trying to get a voltage change to keystroke interface working, but the other way around. Raildriver would convert the lever movement on the console to DC voltages to run your trains. This would simplify things immensely!The big question here is if you could make the console run both MSTS and your model trains at the same time. I'm not sure how they are planning to interface it, so this is all conjecture.It seems probable that they are still going to use USB to interface with their analog module since the only other connections on the Raildriver unit are DC in, USB and audio in/out. USB seems the most likely way to get controller movements to the analog module for conversion to DC.This would be good news!If they're still using USB to interface with the analog module, then I can see no reason why you couldn't run both MSTS and your layout at the same time. You would just need to get the single USB connection from your Raildriver to both locations. (the analog module and your computer) Since you would need to keep swapping the USB cable whenever you wanted to use the console for the two different applications, I'm hoping Raildriver realises that many people would like to use the console for the sim as well as their model layouts. So hopefully the analog module will have a USB loopthrough connection. Even if it doesn't, it's no big deal because you could still use a multiport USB hub to send USB to both places. Then you could create a very basic circle track in MSTS so the train in the sim just goes around and around for as long as you want to run your model. Simple no? -Jeff
actually, you can (sort of) get at the sound engine through the sound test interface. run train.exe with the command-line options /vm:w /soundtestThe first tells it to run windowed instead of full screen, and the second makes the sound test function active. Once you're into the actual sim (not just the menus), you can bring up the sound test using Shift-T (IIRC). you can then load different .sms files and activate triggers/set variables with the buttons and sliders.