Default Wag File Flaw

I don't know if anyone has ever noticed this but for those of you who may have wondered why a specified sound file won't work in some of your wag files, here is the reason why. You will likely find an extra <close bracket> at the end of the Lights (FRED) section. I have discovered that this extra bracket is present in the original KUJU default wagon (US2BNSFCAR) and used as a template, may be the reason why so much new rolling stock has been uploaded with the extra bracket included in their wag files.The problem section of example US2BNSFCAR.WAG file: States ( 2
State (
Duration ( 0.35 )
LightColour ( 40ff0000 )
Position ( 0.0 3.26 -10.542 )
Azimuth ( -180 -180 -180 )
Transition ( 0 )
Radius ( 1.0 )
)
State (
Duration ( 0.35 )
LightColour ( 00000000 )
Position ( 0.0 3.26 -10.542 )
Azimuth ( -180 -180 -180 )
Transition ( 0 )
Radius ( 1.0 )
)
) <--- DELETE ONE OF THESE BRACKETS!
)
)
) BrakeEquipmentType( "Handbrake, Triple_valve, Auxilary_reservoir, Emergency_brake_reservoir" )
BrakeSystemType( "Air_single_pipe" )
MaxBrakeForce( 50kN ) MaxHandbrakeForce( 35kN )
NumberOfHandbrakeLeverSteps( 100 ) TripleValveRatio( 2.5 )
MaxReleaseRate( 15 )
MaxApplicationRate( 25 )
MaxAuxilaryChargingRate( 5 )
EmergencyResCapacity( 6 )
EmergencyResChargingRate( 5 )
BrakeCylinderPressureForMaxBrakeBrakeForce( 70 )
EmergencyBrakeResMaxPressure( 90 ) Sound ( "GenFreightWag1.sms" )
)There should only be 4 closed brackets, not 5 which will signal end-of-file to MSTS. Nothing will be read after that point including the car braking data and the SMS sound file. A default wag sound is used from the SOUND directory.As I said, many contributors have uploaded their models with these flawed wag files and since I like to use my own custom wagon sounds, this one really had me going until I finally counted the brackets. I hope this information will be useful to some of you if you weren't already aware of the problem.
Hugh

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RE: Default Wag File Flaw, heffed, Apr-11-03, 11:21 PM, (1) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, IcyFire, Apr-12-03, 00:16 AM, (2) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, sniper297, Apr-12-03, 00:25 AM, (3) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, niknak, Apr-12-03, 03:16 AM, (4) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, hughrr, Apr-12-03, 06:24 PM, (7) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, Swissie, Apr-12-03, 08:17 AM, (5) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, sniper297, Apr-12-03, 03:06 PM, (6) RE: Default Wag File Flaw, eko, Apr-12-03, 09:41 PM, (8)

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The latest release of EngMod does a bracket check.-Jeff

Union Pacific is my drug.

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98% of train sim is a flaw, The game fresh out of the box sucks totally, If it wasn't for the generous contributions of the community, very few people would be running train sim still, the other 2% thats not flawed is the fact that the box is square and the CD's are round
Sincerely,
Shawn Kenselaar
ShawnSSK@Yahoo.com

Train-sim.com Lifer and Screen Shot Forum Mod
Repainter for YLW & TKW

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Now that's what I like, a man with a positive attitude. "the box is square and the CD's are round", anyone can gripe about what's wrong with MSTS, Shawn actually managed to find two things they did right!

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e9795305e9852a7.jpg

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Hugh, Thanks man!!! (Or, as I'm from UK - Jolly good old chap.) Thanks to you I now have rail joint sound on my NKP hopper cars and cattle mooing in my cow wagons. I found about 9 or 10 wagons affected. Cheers!Nick (UK)

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Nick,You're welcome mate! Glad the reminder helped. Even though this problem was known, as Swissie pointed out, I was surprised to see that it is still included with some new model and repaint releases. At least half of the cars I downloaded recently (mostly box and hopper) had to be corrected but I won't use them without the clic-clac, brake squeal sounds, etc. Cheers.Hugh

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LAST EDITED ON Apr-12-03 AT 08:32 AM (EDT)

Thanks Hughfor the reminder: This flaw has been detected and posted a few times already. Sorry to blow your enthusiasm about being the first to find it a bit, but still: It's a nice proove of your detective & software skills to find that error on your own.Search the fora for "missing bracket" and you'll get quite some hints.Use the latest engmod to find all the cars affected. This utility will "count braces" and tell you in a separate file which files have an uneven number of brackets and therefore might have a problem. Not all reported cars actually do have this severe form of bracket problem, sometimes an uneven number stems from a bracket in a comment or name line which is of purely informative nature to the user and of no bearing to the sim.Still, it is estimated that inbetween 10% to 20% of all .wag files have the error of being terminated too early by this bracket error you refer to. And this error does not only take away the sound from your wag's, it also disables their brakes - much worse an effect than the missing sound, once you're in charge of that 80 loaded coal hoppers down Marias Pass!A lot of affected files concern the ubiquous 40ft boxcars (those using the aar40... skins), most coal hoppers, and so on.Only thing I do not understand in this entire story: That error is known since about January 2003, and still there are repainters around that release new cars that still have the error in it. I don't believe it, as I always thought that repainters were more careful about reading the latest findings on the fora, but it turns out we all are only human!Therefore, as we are close to the topic once more, I'd like to repeat a favourite appeal of mine. Before you release anything:- check the .eng or .wag file manually and with a tool like engmod or Engbuilder. - check the .sd file for the correct size of the bounding box of the engine or wagon. The bb must encompass the car, but the couplers must stick out of it (use ctrl and the plus key on your numerical keypad to display the bb). Failure to check the bb is a sure ticket to various kinds of problems...- Inspect couplers visually in the sim. If the cars are too far away or too close form each other then the dimensions in the .wag / .eng, file are wrong, also a cause for problems when coupling / uncoupling.- load your download into a virgin copy of MSTS (no custom changes) and see if it runs perfectly. Sometimes a car / engine calls for another custom file, e.g. a sound file or cabview modification you are not even aware of. And the previous repainter might not have noticed the reference either.- Include a jpeg with exactly the same name as the .wag or .eng file into your download. Conbuilder users will love you for that little extra courtesy. Note the word "exactly", or Conbuilder will not tie the jpeg to the correct eng / wag.I still hope it helps to repeat those rules from time to time. Alas, I have to admit having overlooked some flaws myself, despite those checks. In a recent upload of mine (trolley MOW cars in stsworks.zip), I didn't check the lights on one car because I never ran it at the end of a consist (spool car). Already got a kind and helpfull e-mail telling me that the lights on that car are completely offset, probably because the original .wag file came from a different type and size of car. And that means for me: Update to correct my flaw will have to follow in a day or so...Lukas a.k.a Swissie

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LAST EDITED ON Apr-12-03 AT 03:09 PM (EDT)

One thing I haven't seen a lot of discussion on is the light count limit bug. Running default engines and cars as loose consists, AI trains, or player trains all over the route doesn't cause any problems. At some point in the past, many people decided the lights were boring, and added truck lights, bogie lights, step lights, marker lights, and assorted other glitter to engines. That made them look great by themselves, but a certain number of them in an activity would cause the signals to eventually go dark. Keyword here is "eventually", you might drive the new engine in an activity for 15 minutes or 2 hours before suddenly having the signals go dark, which is why the original testing didn't catch the bug - they didn't test long enough. There are still quite a few of those in the file library, and all the reskins based on them will trigger the bug. I'd post links, but I think all the discussions on that topic went into the black hole of the server crashes.

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QUOTE:
"98% of train sim is a flaw, The game fresh out of the box sucks totally, If it wasn't for the generous contributions of the community, very few people would be running train sim still, the other 2% thats not flawed is the fact that the box is square and the CD's are round"Heh... I wonder how many contributions the community would have been able to make if all they had in their hands was a piece of cardboard and an empty jewell case.Yeah, the game out of the box sucks sooooooo bad, that I haven't been able to do anything in the last two weeks except run train-sim <g>. Sheesh, some folks just simply forget that the "prime mover" is always the basis of it all.Is the game MUCH richer thanks to add-ons? ABSOLUTELY. But to call the "base" of all that add-on work a complete flaw is such a gross overstatement, it leads me to question just how many cylinders are firing in your attic engine.

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