Editing/Replacing Cabviews - Train simulation software - Trains.com

So just how do you edit a cabview? I've got a locomotive that I downloaded (mentioned in another thread) that didn't have much of a cab. The dials, a couple handles, and the bell and sander buttons are visible and everything else is invisible. Oh, it all works, you just can't see it. No fun.

I thought I could replace the cab with another one but it's not that simple. The message will say "cab not found" and if you mess with the sound you'll get a message that says "SMS file not found" or somthing like that.

I'm gonna guess that these programs were written specifically to look for specific cabs files. Perhaps if I copy a cab and then rename files to match the origionals?

Also, one loco didn't have a horn sound. It wasn't as simple as copying a horn sound and pasting into the sound file. Either the system crashes or there's no effect (no horn sound).

So what do I do? (I'm accident prone when it comes to software. Last time I monkied with trainsim's routes I screwed some files up and had to reinstall the whole thing). If someone knows what to do please write it in simple step-by-step terms, not vague desprictions.

Bascially, is it possible to swicth the Dash 9 cab with the GP38 and vice versa? Maybe if I knew how to do that would that help to understand how to fix my messed up downloaded locos?

HELP![%-)]

OK, after much experimenting I've finally figured it out and am including step by step procedures in a much detailed description here. I've looked through it and I think I've got all the typos out. I've got the process figured out, now if something doesn't look right it's probably because I left it out by accident. If you have any questions on clarity of what's written below I'll try to re-explain it or something or maybe someone can come up with a better way to put it.

Besides posting this as an answer to my own initial questions in the first post I'm putting this here for the benefit of others and maybe get some feedback of if there are other ways other than what's described below on how to edit these cabviews and sounds. I think I've hit the nail on the head with this one because I've tested it out for myself, but if someone has other ideas or ways, then let me know, please. Thank You.

SOUND:
FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE SOUND FILES:
I also found some really cool sounds in the GP38 and HHP not used in the game. Go into your GP38 folder and then into the sounds folder. All sounds preceded with and ‘x_’ is the sound heard externally. Sounds that don’t have an x are heard inside the cab.

GP38 HORN:
Click on gp38_horn1, x_gp38_horn1, and x_gp38_horn1_alt to hear those sound files. I changed all my internet downloaded GP38s to the x_gp38_horn1_alt. All you do is rename the alternate to the default and the default to the alternate. Also, I found the GP38 has 2 whistles. Why, I do not know?

HHP HORN:
Next, go into your HHP’s sound folder. There you’ll find 2 types of horns: the hhp_hornh (the default) and hhp_hornl as well as their x_files. I guess the h stands for high and l for low? Same thing in the ACELA folder. If you so desire you can change the defaults to the alternates. There are also 3 bells in the GP38 and HHP. I also changed the bells in my new internet locos just to make things different, to distingui***hem from the default.

THE PROBLEM OF TRADING OFF HORNS:
All that’s important to understand for aliasing sounds. I wanted my default HHP horn for my F7s and E8s. This is a more realistic sound for these locos than the GP38 horn. The problem was is only 1 of my E8s had a sound folder and all my F7s didn’t have a sound folder (the F7s from www.3dtrains.com). It wasn’t as simple as copying the HHP horns and pasting them into my only E8 with a sound folder. I did that and renamed sound files and dumped the original GP38 horns into new sub folder and it still didn’t work.

HERE’S THE SECRET: go into your .eng file and edit certain lines to get certain things to work. No matter what locomotive file you open you .eng files are always there up front, not tucked away in some sub folder of that locomotive. Basically the .eng file is like coded instructions for how the locomotive is going to operate and respond. This programs the engine to look into certain file folders for particular files for sounds and cabs and it tells the engine how to respond to breaking, weight limits, load limits, whether to trigger the bell when the horn is sounded, and others things like that, just to name a few examples.

HHP HORN FOR F AND E UNITS:
To get the HHP horn to work for you F7s/E8s 1. Make a COPY of your GP38 file (your F7s/E8s .eng files are written to look for and use the GP38 file). 2. RENAME your GP38 copy to GP382 (or if you already have a GP382 file name it some other variation). 3. Go into your HHP’s sound file. Copy the hhp_hornh and x_hhp_hornh files. 4. Go into your new GP382’s sound file. 5. Paste your HHP horn files into this folder. 6. Delete, rename, or move your gp_horn1 and x_gp_horn1 to a new folder. 7. Rename hhp_hornh to gp_horn1 and rename x_hhp_hornh to x_gp_horn1. This way your .eng file knows what to look for and use. But your not done yet. Read on…

Now you must edit your .eng file for your F7/E8 locos. 1. Open your .eng file in word pad. 2. Search for the word ‘sound’. 3. It should take directly to a line that looks like this:

Sound ( “..\\..\\GP38\\SOUND\\gp38cab.sms” )

and when you click “find next” you should also get a line that looks like this:

Sound ( “..\\..\\GP38\\SOUND\\gp38eng.sms” )

4. Change GP38 to GP382 (or whatever you named your copy of GP38). The new lines should look like this:

Sound ( “..\\..\\GP382\\SOUND\\gp38cab.sms” )

5. And this:

Sound ( “..\\..\\GP382\\SOUND\\gp38eng.sms” )

Now, your F7 and/or E8 program knows to look in this folder: GP382, and not this folder: GP38, for the engine sounds and cab sounds and you get that HHP horn fort the loco. I guess it’s obvious why you don’t change the sound files in the original GP38 folder. (This will make every loco have the HHP horn.)

I know this involves a lot of steps but it’s the only way I know to change these sounds for these locomotives. Some locos let you to simply replace the default horn and paste in and rename the new horn sound. That’s the easy way, but it’s not that easy for every locomotive.

CABVIEWS:
Now changing cabviews: There are also 2 ways to do this, the same way as changing the sounds. Almost every loco I’ve downloaded comes with or has you copy the cab view from either the GP38 or Dash9 depending on what it is. We’ll, needless to say, I wanted some different cabviews for my F7, new SD40s, SD50s, and others besides using the GP38-2 cab. The easy way is copy your cab view file (like your SD40-2). The file is a .cvf file. Copy this .cvf file and paste it into your cab view folder. Delete or move your current cab view .cvf file to a new folder. Rename the .cvf you pasted to whatever the previous .cvf file was. This way the .eng file knows what to look for and use.

The other way to do this is paste a new cab view .cvf file into your cab view folder, go into the .eng file, search for ‘cabview’ and change the line that looks like Cabview ( “..\\..\\GP38\\CABVIEW\\gp38.cvf” ) and change gp38.cvf to whatever new file you put in the cab view folder whether it be SD40.cvf or P42.cvf or F7.cvf or whatever the new .cvf name is. You might also have to redefine the path. Remove that first GP38 and put the name of the folder that the .cvf file you want it to look for is in. If you F7 cab view in in a folder called F7 then change GP38 to F7 and make sure you F7.cvf file is in a subfolder labeled CABVIEW. It might be possible to upload F7.cvf into your GP38 CABVIEW folder so that way all you’d have to do is change that last part of the line from gp38.cvf to F7.cvf, just as an example.

Whether you rename .cvf file or change the instruction lines in the .eng file it should work either way. HOWEVER, if you don’t have a cab view folder, like in the case of one download I have, you’ll have to edit the .eng file. Just remember: the .eng file is written to look for other file names. If the file it’s looking for is not named properly then your engine won’t work. Same way goes for your sound files. If your horn file is not present or improperly named the horn will just be silent when you play, BUT if your .sms files are not all properly configured and named that will cause the game to crash. You’ll get a message saying: failed to find .sms file.

That just about does it for changing cab views and sounds. All the sound effects should be able to be aliased the same way you do the horn. I hope this isn’t too confusing. Just be careful when editing .eng files. If you mistakenly change something and unwittingly saved those without any idea of what you changed you could wreck havoc on your locomotive. However, whether it be something you downloaded from the internet or something you bought at the store it’s not a total loss. You’ll just have to reinstall the file. You get this, of course, from your .zip file you downloaded or the CD the game came on depending which one it came from. I’ve got all of my internet downloads saved to a CD so that these files cannot be changed or erased. Besides, my game is on a computer not connected to the internet so I need a way to transfer the files.

That's all for now.