Missing sleepers cause bouncing?

[weezzah]

This is a follow up to a post I made a long time ago about strange oscillations happening on tracks east of Dabrowa Gornicza Wschodnia.

Original post:

What's new this time around is that I noticed when looking down on the tracks there was a sleeper missing every ~10 meters or so, and that's also where the bounces happen. Coincidence? This goes on for about 4 km on both tracks in this area. My initial thought was that something went wrong when laying the tracks making a gap between them, but I could be wrong of course.

Short clip showing the missing sleepers and bounces:

Close up showing missing sleepers on both sides:

 

 

[Fightdrug]

i guess the hopping is the reason for the 70 kmh speed limit there 🙂 not sure how the tracks look in real between the stations but i guess the hopping is simulating bad track conitions 🤔

[mluczak.kutno]

28 minut temu, Fightdrug napisał(a):

not sure how the tracks look in real between the stations

There is a cabview from EN57 trip from Sedziszow to Katowice. If I didn't mess anything with a link, you should start in Slawkow. This movie is from 2018, the same year as in the game.
https://youtu.be/e1e9iqS5uQw?list=LL&t=5937

 

[Fightdrug]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb mluczak.kutno:

There is a cabview from EN57 trip from Sedziszow to Katowice. If I didn't mess anything with a link, you should start in Slawkow. This movie is from 2018, the same year as in the game.
https://youtu.be/e1e9iqS5uQw?list=LL&t=5937

look the same jumpings we have in simrail 🤔

[weezzah]

If you watch the first 3 seconds of the clip from above (from the initial post) it's the: bounce-up, then-what-seems-to-be-half-a-second-airtime, then-drop-down-again and repeat... jumps I'm talking about. The reference video from real life has more of good shake than a levitating jump. Maybe the Unity physics are being weird with the EN96 suspension, but then again, I may be in the wrong 😄

 

[mluczak.kutno]

Well, cabin sway in SR is sometimes very strange. Tracks in qestion seems to be flat and rather smooth, just like all tracks in SR are. However train there behaves more like a boat on a calm sea. I have also noticed one thing. Look at the tracks- in real live cabview we have used, worn tracks, with grass between sleepers. Tracks ballast is dark, it looks just old and worn out. On the right track, sleepers are covered in ballast, so they don't stick out so noticeably. On the left track, you can see that some sleepers are noticeably darker than the others. Now compare that to tracks in SR.

[weezzah]

27 minutes ago, mluczak.kutno said:

However train there behaves more like a boat on a calm sea.

That's a good analogy, the jump is like a boat hitting a wave too I feel like. 

I agree, the area around the tracks would greatly benefit from more imperfections, and the grass in particular could be more wild and varied, which has been mentioned in other posts before of course. Regarding making the rides more bumpy, the truck simulator franchises ETS2/ATS recently added uneven roads emulation to get more movement in the cabs which I believe was implemented in a generalized way as in scripted, but still physical. For detailed noise like that it's probably beneficial to do it that way, but for larger unevenness in train tracks it may require the actual tracks to be modified. Could be generated probably, wouldn't have to be manual labor in the editor. Also a more ragdoll like physics based camera shake from emulated bumps and unevenness could also be effective as it would only require the camera viewpoint to be modified.

[Gazz292]

8 hours ago, mluczak.kutno said:

Now compare that to tracks in SR.

yes, IRL every single sleeper is different, every patch of ballast a slightly different shade, size of stone etc, every length of track a slightly different rust colour and amount of wear on the surface. 

But who it going to take on the job of walking the 500+Km's of tracks in SimRail and making individual textures for every meter of track, sleeper and ballast?    (also, SimRail is set in 2018, so you'd have to rely on photo's of what the track was like back then... a lot worse condition than today, hence all the low speed limits in SimRail)

And then imagine the performance hit for having to load new track textures all the time as you are moving, 

 

Sure it'll look amazing for those who stare at the tracks as they drive, but you have to call the line somewhere and use generic repeating textures to save computer resources.

[mluczak.kutno]

I dont't think that there is a need to create individual textures for every meter of the tracks. We can use clever algorithms to do that for us. Start with a couple of different textures for sleepers, add in some patches of grass, then apply all of that in randomised manner, controlled by track condition set in editor. Many game editors are using that method to deal with forrests and other areas full of vegetation. Just select area, choose some parameters, click "generate" and voila, forest came out of nowhere. Ps. Take a look at "Running train". It's a Japanese train sim, based on UE5 engine. Their tracks looks great, way way better than in SR.