IMPORTANT NOTE: The Run8 V2 Change Log can now be found in the HELP UserGuide. After you install the update just open the program and click on the HELP button at the top right corner of the opening menu and you will see it in there. It's called V2ChangeLog.pdf. To get the latest v2 update CLICK HERE.

Release 12.16.2015

• TMU no longer hangs if train is too long for the track; it will spawn as many units as it can and ignore the rest. A message will display in such situations
• Placeholder locomotives will now load the GP40 trucks if the normal trucks are not found
• Fixed accidental resizing of placeholder car-bodies when cars were uncoupled from train
• Corrected a mistake with the DJJX Gondola xml file
• Corrected a mistake with the GCFX locomotive xml file
• TMU window programmed to ignore a couple faulty xml files
• The BNSF Mojave Sub now has more track, signals, and scenery west of both the yards (thanks to Robert Fitzgereld). The DS Screen has changed a bit as well to accomodate the new mainline track.
• Added part of the Buttonwillow Branch in Bakersfield (the branch that comes off the “Y” next to UP Bakersfield Yard. For the sake of interest, a few of the major operations have been condensed into a few miles of branchline
• Amtrak P42s in real-life are slow-loading; an Amtrak Engineer wrote us with some data, and we've adjusted the loading-rate of the P42s accordingly. From a stand-still (swiping the throttle from idle to notch-8), it will now take about 40 to 50 seconds for an accelerating train to reach notch-8 power.
• Amtrak cars have had their brake-force increased about 15% in accordance with the above Amtrak source
• Reduced memory-usage of Distant Terrain a bit
• Overhauled the Car-Spewer logic to be better behaved at railroad crossings and to act more realistically. You still get the occasional idiot driver though.
• Tweaked the Procedural Vegetation system to reduce the memory used. Even on full-vegetation, the memory used has been reduced. You may still need to set your Vegetation-Thinning level to 1 or more depending on your circumstances. Procedural Vegetation will cull itself further at higher memory-usage and not load if the memory-usage goes too high
• Fixed issue where a single locomotive's brakepipe would vent too quickly on successive train-brake applications, causing the triplevalve to trip into emergency. Brakepipe vent orifice was too large for the given volume
• Fixed the eastbound signal on Main1 at East Barstow; it had an errant signal-link associated with it that caused a double-green aspect
• The Shift-Z readout will now show an approximate memory-usage value in megabytes. Run8, because of XNA and dotNet, can only use 2000mb (2 gigs) of memory which in reality ends up being around 1700 – 1800mb. Beyond that you may start seeing glitchy scenery or crash. Pressing F10 to reset the terrain and scenery may help, but the best thing to do is to use the Low-Res texture options in the main menu

Change Log History

Release 08.22.2015

• Reduced the memory-usage of procedural vegetation
• Reduced the memory-usage of certain sounds
• Reduced the memory-usage of the rail index-buffers
• For railcars that are missing (or not yet pirated\purchased), the sim will spawn in a place-holder Run8 boxcar stretched to the correct coupler-length. For locomotives, a Run8 locomotive appropriate to the length and general type will spawn. If the trucks for a particular unit are missing, the standard 36” wheelset will load in its place
• Fixed the problem of Client trains disappearing on the Host when the Client loses connection. Note: Host must be set to revert trains to Free-Agents.
• Changed the layout of the Hump Controller window in order to accomodate larger hump yards.
• Changed how trains are handled when they encounter the end of a track. If you run your train off the end of a track, the train will simply stop. You can then hang your head in shame and pull your train away from the endpoint. If you are kicking cars into a spur, then no-worries, the car(s) will simply stop upon reaching the end of track.
• Free-Agent Trains on the network now retain their angle-cock states for each coupler
• If “Auto Parking Brake” is enabled in the F1 menu, the hand-brakes on each unit of your train will be applied upon grabbing and\or relinquishing the train, just as it has always been.
• If “Auto Parking Brake” is disabled in the F1 menu, rail-units will retain their handbrake status as-relinquished by the user. It is very wise to make sure that trains are properly tied-down before being relinquished, or else the next guy to grab that 9000-ton grainer on the Hill may have a fun surprise. You can always Shift-F5 to set all the parking-brakes as usual. NOTE: If the Host has this option enabled, trains will always spawn on the network with the hand-brakes set. WARNING: if a client drops off the network whilst running his train, the train may start rolling downhill when grabbed again, be prepared with Shift-F5.
• For public servers, or “just for fun” servers, it is probably best for the Host to keep Auto Parking-Brake enabled.
• A Host or Single-Player, if not currently in possession of a train, can now select and take-possession of AI Trains (trains that have been kicked or humped or otherwise are rolling and owned by the host\computer). Eventually this will be extended to all AI Trains seen by clients as well.
• Enemy-Train (another player's train or AI Train as-seen by a client) couplers can now also be selected by clicking on the body of the desired car, and the sim will select the coupler closest to the camera. This is useful when cars have run-away making it difficult to select a specific coupler.
• Rail-vehicle curve dynamics modified a bit when using Kidney-Busting Cab Motion. Take a 30mph crossover at 60 and you'll see what I mean... ;)
• Corrected a faulty Auxiliary Reservoir charging variable
• Corrected the ER value so that it cannot exceed MR psi
• For the Locationally-Challenged, if you are standing on the ground (F12 mode) within about 3 meters of a CTC-Controlled switch, that switch will blink a lovely shade of light-purple on the DS Screen (F3).
• Fixed an error with the GP40's when set as DP. If you really must know, it was a specific spawning circumstance that caused a Division-by-Zero in the setup code.
• Fixed a minor error regarding a non-negated variable and reversed units mixed with forward units on the host.
• Added a bit of code to prevent crashing of the sim if a naughty scenery-asset attempted to load and failed.
• Some minor tweaks for the upcoming Caboose Packs. Cabeese will have a working BP gauge when you are riding aboard them.
• A few signal and block-detector fixes for the Mojave Sub and BarstowYermo
• Fixed a sound issue where the EMD radiator fan sounds would “stick”
• Rearranged some rail-unit update code to reduce CPU load
• Fixed a piece of code regarding the Hyrailer
• TMU: Found and fixed a condition that allowed multiple-presses of the “Place Train” button to spawn multiple copies of the same train atop one-another.

Release 11.14.2014

• Fixed a bug related to rendering the window in full screen or windowed mode and switching monitors. Note that if you are having issues with the windows task bar being on top of the Run 8 window, try setting the windows font size zoom to 100% (in Windows 7 this is under Control Panel->Display). Thank you Tércio for the help!

• Fixed a TMU bug that prevented train stats from showing when loading the current player train

• Added the ability to load a player controlled train into the left side of the TMU.

• The Hump Controller window has been renovated.

• The main menu size was increased the last patch to accommodate the extra save game information being displayed. It has been compacted down a bit for lower resolution monitors.

• Added double buffering to all menu screens as a possible cure to a screen flicker issue some users have experienced.

• Added an option to the options menu to reverse the mouse Y axis (push forward to look down).

• Fixed a bug that caused scenery assets to go missing depending on the order that routes were loaded. Routes can now be loaded in any order and all scenery items will show.

• Fixed a bug that would prevent new track from appearing if you were standing at the edge of a route and did a route merge.

• Visible car tags now toggle between off, showing the unit number, and showing the destination.

• New World saves now go to a central location (Content\Routes\WorldSaves), so it no longer matters which route you are standing in when you save. A World save will now show up in the list of every route it contains.

• Run 8 will default to the main monitor upon starting now.

• Fixed all the missing block detectors on mainline track in the BarstowYermo and Mojave routes.

• Added necessary signal files and code for the upcoming A-Line!

Release 10.17.14

• Fixed several issues found in the previous update, so we will just forget 10.05 ever existed...
• If you are joining a session, and you don't have all the necessary rolling-stock, you will now be immediately disconnected. Your Run8.log file will show a listing of what was missing.
• From the Network Tab, you can now highlight a player's entry and use the new Transport buttons at the bottom of the tab to transport to that player's avatar or train positions.

Release 10.05.14

• Run 8 no longer minimizes when you Alt-Tab to another application. Windows will restrict access to the CPU until it gets input focus again however. There is new text at the top right corner of the screen whenever it has lost input focus.

• Mouse position is no longer inaccurate on the dispatcher screen in windowed mode.

• Fixed crash that happened if you hit Alt-F4 in fullscreen mode.

• Fixed a bug where Alt-F4 on the orange menu screen would only close the menu, and leave the main game window open.

• For keyboard users/second class citizens:
• You can now press multiple key commands at once.
• In the keymapper, if you hit "Shift-F6" to close the window while in "change key" mode, then the key being changed would be assigned to "Shift-F6". Instead, Shift-F6 now no longer closes the keymapper when changing keys for a function.
• Added a "Cancel" button while mapping a key combo.
• Hitting keys with the keymapper open no longer affects things in the sim. Now the only key combination that works when the keymapper is open is the combination for closing the keymapper, and this only works when not assigning a key.
• Fixed a small render issue with showing the current keys during key assignment.
• The key mapper list is now sorted alphabetically.
• New keyboard command: RightCtrl-PageUp: Independant brake full.
• New keyboard command: RightCtrl-PageDown: Independant brake off.
• Fixed a rounding error that caused dynamic brake values to display differently on the way up and on the way down.
• Fixed a rounding error when going back to 0 DB that prevented going to Idle until the "+" key was hit one more time.

• You must now have a valid player name set in order to join a session.

• Added a new text message if you try to connect to a server that is running a different version.

• Fixed the “Someone has joined the network” message to show the player name.

• When you are disconnected from the server, you will now get a more descriptive message about why you were disconnected.

• Started network code optimization.

• New keyboard mappings: QuickZoom (RightCtrl-UpArrow) will go to full zoom in 2 steps, and ResetZoom (RightCtrl-DownArrow) which will jump back to normal zoom.

• If you have text message display disabled (Shift-Tab by default) and you try to send a text message, displaying incoming messages will be automatically enabled again. This way players won't be left wondering why no one in answering them, when the incoming text was actually hidden.

• Text messages now use buffered keyboard input, so typing is no longer affected by frame rate. A side effect of this is that sending text messages over the network is disabled when one of the menu screens is open.

• New keyboard mapping: SwitchMonitor (LeftControl-F4) now switches Run 8 to the next available monitor. Note that depending on your graphics card configuration, not all monitors will get will access to the GPU! Check your frame rate after switching monitors … you may want to switch back!

• MFD Configuration is now saved for each locomotive model.

• Fixed a crash that could happen when loading terrain tiles, especially when resetting terrain.

• Changed the number of “inside” positions on all the rail units. An “inside” position has muffled sound and shows the player in a seated position. Previously all units had 2 inside positions. Now freight cars have none, P42s have 3, and ES44s and SD40s have 2.

• Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause switches thrown with the external dispatcher application over the network to flip back.

• Added a new “Network” tab to the F1 options menu. When you are connected to the network, this will show all the players in the session and the ID/Train symbol of any train they are in control of. In order to not choke the network, this data is only updated a few times a minute.

• It is now safe to load old saved games that have trains on tracks that no longer exist. Any train on missing tracks will be skipped when the scenario is loading.

• The user interface for saving and loading scenarios has been updated. Saved files are now divided into 3 categories: Extra Boards / Trains / Worlds.

Here is the data saved with each scenario type:

Extra Board Camera position, simulation time (hint: Custom teleport spots)
Train Camera position, simulation time, player controlled train
World
Camera position, simulation time, all trains, all MOW objects, all switch orientations, all signal indications

Here is how loading each save type works:

From the main menu:

Extra Board Teleports the player to the save location
Sets the simulation time
Train Teleports the player to the save location
Sets the simulation time
Loads the saved train
World Deletes all trains and MOW objects
Teleports the player to the save location
Sets the simulation time
Loads saved signal and switch positions, MOW objects and trains

Within the simulation from the Options menu in single player:

Extra Board Teleports the player to the save location
Train Teleports the player to the save location
Loads the train
World Teleports the player to the save location
Relinquishes your train if you have one
Deletes all trains and MOW objects
Loads saved signal and switch positions, MOW objects and trains

Within the simulation from the Options menu on the network (client or host):

Extra Board Teleports the player to the save location
Train Teleports the player to the save location
Loads the train,
World Not allowed on the network, due to the stored signals and switches

Note: for old saved games, anything with no trains is treated as an Extra Board save, anything with one train is treated as a Train save, and anything with more than one train is treated as a World save. However, only new World save files will contain signals and switches!

• In the Spawn tab of the Options screen, if you select a saved file name in the list, it automatically populates the Save text box. In addition, it sets the Extra board/Train/World radio buttons to match the list that the saved file came from.

• The allowed rail unit packages that are selected in the Session List tab of the Options menu are now saved.

• All the zoom functions (keyboard, mouse and raildriver) now animate smoothly.

• Added “Service Areas” to BarstowYermo, with a new ServiceAreaDatabase.xml file. Examining the file and seeing how to set up service points on a route should be fairly self-explanatory. Service Areas will service a locomotive based on their ability, for example, if a service area is designated as Diesel and Sand only, that is all you will get from that spot, Water and Lube-Oil will not be serviced. (At the moment, only Fuel gets changed until I add the code for the other consumables).

• New Host option for forcing Manual Locomotive Servicing in a session. The Host also supplies each client with the Service Areas in use for that session, hence the new message you will see when joining.

• In single-player, or if the Host is not requiring Manual Servicing, selecting a locomotive and pressing CTRL-R will instantly fully service the locomotive anywhere; if you happen to be next to a Service Area, the servicing will happen at its normal rate according to the area's capability.

• You must be next to a service area and fully stopped for it to function. If you start moving, the area “disconnects” and servicing ends.

• Added new MFD page to the GEVOs.

• I think I fixed the “West-Colton Shuffle” problem.

• Upgraded the diesel-electric simulation of the GEVO's.

• The Shift-Z stats display now shows three modes: SimData, EngineData, TrainStats, and will cycle between Off and these three modes.

• Fixed a minor “feature” regarding the dynamic-brakes on DPU.

• Car Tags are now set to show above the railcars so that they will be easier to read when standing on the ground.

• Dynamic Brakes can now be cut-out on a locomotive from the RV Options Window. This state will save on the network as well.

• Since we can now render Windows Forms in “fullscreen”, the old F1 and Shift-F1 menus have been recombined.

• RV-Options Window has been converted back to a Windows Form and updated. You will see a bar-graph representing fuel-level, plus you can now specify the load-tonnage for a unit. NOTE: you will no longer see Train Stats in this window, use your Shift-Z for that data and cycle-thru to the TrainStats line.

• Trackside Objects menu has been converted back to a Windows Form and updated. You will now select the item from the list then place it with the button. This will allow us to easily add new objects to the sim in the future.

• To prevent excessive tractive-effort and subsequent broken-couplers when using the Shift-F5 cheating function, the Gen-Field Circuit Breaker will automatically switch to “Off” on your lead locomotive.

09.06.2014

• Brad added new scenery splendid assets to the routes by Jim Ray and Nigel Apperley with lighting by Mark Fox.

• Fixed a minor “feature” having to do with Route Merging on the network where existing routes would not load after a missing route was attempted.

• When viewing railcar tags, the color of the tag will vary between green for unloaded, and red for totally loaded. Cars that are half-loaded will appear yellow (half-red and half-green make yellow in the RGB world). The color is interpolated between green and red based on how loaded the car is, so you may see various shades of yellow in-between. I was considering 50 shades of gray, but that just seemed cheap and tacky.

• Shift-F1 Menu: Removed “Ground Detail” option since it was pretty much worthless, and replaced it with option to view Clock in 24-hour format (default). Uncheck this to see clock in 12-hour format.

• Fixed a feature that caused the Flow Gauge value to drop to a huge negative number.

• Signal System set up to handle CSX Seaboard signals.

• Added “Blue Flag” to MOW Objects that can be placed trackside. Also changed the title of the MOW window to Trackside Objects. Track flags\boards are still placed by moving the camera to the desired location and direction and using the appropriate button.

• Added a mo-betta BNSF Hy-Railer truck by Nigel Apperley to replace the cheesy test-unit I originally programmed just for fun.

• “Fake” window-forms, such as the F1 or F6 menus that can render whilst in full-screen mode, can now be dragged anytime the left mouse button is held down whilst over the menu-window. Also, objects behind such windows will not be affected by mouse-clicks while the mouse is on the window. In other words, you won't accidently select a rail-vehicle if the mouse is on the window and you left-click.

• There is a new option in the program's Main Menu that allows the sim to use lower-resolution textures on most of the rolling-stock. Using this option will reduce the memory-load on the computer at the expense of a small sacrifice of visual quality on the effected cars. It is strongly recommended to use this option when in a large session spanning multiple routes using a lot of different rolling-stock, and you'll never notice the visual-difference as you're running your train and\or watching others pass by you. This option does not affect the locomotive interior textures, only the exterior textures of most of the railcars and locomotives. NOTE: This setting will NOT save until you have started the sim and opened\closed either the Shift-F1 or F1 menus.

• Added a new Host option that allows for a Serialized Save. If used, every 30 minutes the Host will automatically save the session with a time-stamp based on the computer's clock (not sim-time). For example, the filename would look like “244_1946 HostSave”. This means it was saved on the 244th day of the year at 19:46. The host will also continue to automatically save under “LastNetworkSave” every ten minutes, but this always gets overwritten each time.

07.04.2014

• Fixed what would have been a problem with the CSX detector code.

• Adjusted some memory-management code with regards to how XNA handles content. See below...
• Shift-F1 now has a menu option for “Auto-Flush RailUnit Content”. This will cause rail-vehicle assets to periodically be unloaded from memory and reloaded, thus flushing out the unused ones and only reloading the ones currently in-scene. This option currently does not save and is defaulted to “Off”. You will notice a lag while the assets reload, hence the menu option. The benefit to using this is that during a long session, you won't be holding onto every single rail-car that loaded, thus freeing up memory.

• Whenever F10 (Scenery-Reset) is pressed, it will now also flush and reload the scenery assets AND the railUnit assets, thus freeing memory of assets no longer in-scene. For those who don't want to use the Automatic Flush setting, this is a good way to periodically unload your memory at your leisure.

• Memory Tips: For those having memory issues, one of the best ways to reduce memory consumption is to set the Vegetation Thinning value to something higher than zero. One or Two will greatly reduce the amount of memory that the procedural-vegetation consumes.

• Tweaked the Weather Interpolation code a bit in preperation for a more advanced weather system. Also added a Temperature readout in the Shift-Z display, which reads in normal degrees (Farenheit).

06.12.2014

• Fixed minor “feature” that caused block-occupancy detectors to not load properly for clients on a network using only one route.

• Added CSX Detector audio for the upcoming CSX A-Line

• Minor additions made to the code.

03.31.2014

• Fixed errant line of code having to do with AI\FreeAgent spawning as a client (also had something to do with the occasional “phantom engine” sounds).

• Opening the Hump Controller window will no longer force a reset of that hump, which was causing interference when someone else was humping cars on the network.

• Slow-Speed Control (Cruise Control) now works on the ES44's. The speed readout will turn blue when cruise-control is turned on.

• Slow-Speed Control now disables when train is relinquished or deleted.

• Distance Counter will reset to zero (when in CountUp mode) after passing 10,000 feet.

• BNSF_MojaveSub Scenery added at Boron and Monolith courtesy of Brad and Nigel. Lighting by Mark Fox.

• Monolith spur track extended 50m at the request of a few engineers.

• Fixed a “feature” that allowed phantom MFD screens to linger after a locomotive was deleted.

02.27.2014

• Trains will now retain their settings when relinquished. This includes airbrake system values and control positions. Free-Agent trains on a network may have their engines running. For those using RailDrivers, it is adviseable when grabbing a train to have your RD controls set as you normally would have before: Train Brakes released, Indy's applied, Throttle Idle, etc. You may need to use F7 to reset the airbrake system. Those on Keyboard should not have to do anything special, you'll pick up the train in the same condition it was left.

• Run8 now has the ability to HUMP and KICK railcars. (Yes, this is perfectly legitimate behavior on the railroad). This can be done in both Single-player and Multiplayer modes. If on a network, the Host can disable the ability for clients to Hump or Kick cars in the Host Options tab.

• HUMPING KNOWN ISSUES: At this time, Host will NOT be able to select the couplers of a moving railcar until it comes to a stop; Clients ARE able to do this. Also, we do not have the track retarders modeled visually yet, nor do we have humping sounds programmed at this time. There are also a couple other minor sound issues that we'll address in the future.

• Barstow Yard now has the Hump Yard and the Local Yard. The Local Yard is where most of the Local trains are made and departed. The Local Yard is accessible from the west by using the Hump Underpass track, and also from the east.

• The east end of the Barstow Hump Yard (tracks 101-114) have automatic stopping retarders to keep cars from rolling out the east end. They will automatically release when you pull a train over them.

• Inbound WB traffic from the Needles Sub normally comes in on the Yard Entry track and then makes its way around the south side of the yard to the “WJ” signal. At this signal, the track splits: to the Left one can access the south half of the Receiving Yard, to the Right, one can use the Hump Underpass track and access the north side of the Receiving Yard without fouling a hump-job in progress.

• Autoracks and Double-stacks will NOT clear the Hump-Underpass! If an inbound train containing such railcars needs to get to the north half of the Receiving Yard, that train will have to wait to use the hump-crossover if a hump-job is in progress. Or you can just pretend you won't hit the bridge.

• Within about 200 meters of a Hump, Left-CTRL-F6 brings up the Hump Options window (similar to Shift-F1, you need to be in windowed-mode).

• Left-CTRL-C toggles Slow-Speed mode (or Cruise-Control). When humping a cut of cars, the ideal speed is 1.5 to 2mph. Once you are shoving to the desired speed, enabling Slow-Speed Control will cause the locomotive to modulate its loading. This ONLY WORKS if the train is trying to slow you down, it WILL NOT modulate locomotive braking. Sometimes it may be wise to set a small amount of Indy Brake whilst shoving with CruiseControl on.

• Left-CTRL-F7 will bleed the airbrake system on either the entire train, or a selected railcar (locomotives excluded). If “AutoPinpuller” is not enabled, YOU MUST do this prior to humping, or else the car will go into emergency shortly after separating from the train. Close the last locomotive's anglecock, make sure nothing is selected, then hit CTRL-F7 to bleed off the train. This removes all the air in the entire system on all the railcars (unless a specific car is selected, then only that car). If Autopinpuller is enabled, you do not need to do anything special, just shove and hump away.

• By default, Humping happens automatically, unless the Hump Controller is turned off (uncheck the Active box). As you shove cars past the apex of the hump, the hump will scan the car and route the hump-ladder switches. If AutoPinpuller is enabled, it will also uncouple the railcar automatically. If humping on a network, you will notice a brief disappearance of the car as it respawns on the network. DO NOT HUMP FASTER THAN 2mph, or you can overwhelm the automatic system and the switches won't be able to throw in time.

• If you wish to hump more than one car at a time, you will have to disable AutoPinpuller. It is not advisable to hump more than two cars together. Also, you will need to make sure both cars don't have conflicting destination tags.

• In Barstow, if standing on the hump looking East at the Hump Yard, hump track 101 is at the left, and 114 is at the right.

• The Hump Controller reads a car's destination tag and sets the track accordingly. If the Controller cannot make a valid scan, it will default to Track 114 (or whatever track is set as the Sluff Track, Barstow is set to 114). You will need to set your destination tags before humping. There are two ways to do this: you can set the car's destination tag for the track number, OR, you can make use of the Track\Search Tag function in the Hump Controller Window...

• Track Search Tags can be assigned to a hump track in the Hump Controller window. For example, if you want all cars with Destination Tags that contain “Bakersfield” to hump into track 105, you would select Track 105 in the window, then enter a search string in the window below (such as “Bak” or “field” or even the entire word “Bakersfield” without quotes). It would probably be a good idea to keep all your railcar destination tags lower-case, because the search tag is case-sensitive (if the track search tag is “bak” and your destination tag is “Bakersfield”, it will not scan; it would have to be “Bak”). Make sure the search-string is unique. For example, if one track was used for San Antonio, and another for San Diego, “San” would be a poor choice to use for a search-tag, instead, use Ant and Die respectively. As long as the railcar's destination tag contains the hump-track search tag, the Hump Controller will route the car as it is humped. You can also use actual railroad destination symbols as well like BAK for Bakersfield or SDG for San Diego or STO for Stockton or CHI for Chicago and etc. etc.

• It is sometimes possible, usually due to operator-error, to overwhelm the hump-controller, which will cause cars to route incorrectly when humped. If you notice this occurring, pull clear of the hump and use one of the Reset options, but MAKE SURE the hump ladder is clear of traffic FIRST!

• If you find it necessary to shove past the hump and travel down into the hump yard (or to come back up FROM the hump yard), TURN OFF the Hump Controller FIRST! (uncheck the HumpControllerActive box) Otherwise, it will keep attempting to scan, route, and uncouple your train as you roll past the apex of the hump.

• For your convenience, we have diligently and expertly placed a yellow sign, with great care and precision, using an abundance of skill, at the apex of the Barstow Hump. Uncoupling a car at this point should cause it to roll free of the train. Better yet, use the automatic PinPuller in conjunction with Cruise Control and enjoy the show.

12.23.2013:

• EB Double-Target Signal at Cable has been fixed. It was referencing the wrong block detector.

• Fixed a couple of problems when coupling onto Free-Agent Trains that would cause the train to jerk really hard.

• Reverted the coupling physics back to the original model due to unforseen problems that didn't show up in Beta. Sorry guys. That damned “Good Idea Fairy” struck again.

• You can now run a rudimentary HyRail MOW vehicle. Unit sets up automatically, all you have to do is start it up and run it like a normal engine.

• TRAIN MAKER UPPER IS FIXED!!!

12.17.2013:

• The coupling physics has been adjusted, modified, made moBetta, and otherwise tweaked. This should get rid of 99% of the physics explosions encountered. It is also advised that you use the MoBetta option at all times unless your computer simply can't hack it. Also, as the sim gets more and more realistic, proper train-handling and proper train building are at the forefront of importance. Don't build a stupid train with empty baretable cars all up front then haul 50 loaded grain hoppers behind and expect to have a good trip!

NOTE: It is now possible to break couplers in Piglet Mode. Part of the explosion problem was that previously they were next to impossible to break and causing excessive forces to transmit up and down the train. It is still harder to break in Piglet Mode than in Hogger Mode, and you will receive a warning message when excessive Piglet forces are encountered until they exceed the threshold for Piglet breakage. Or think of it this way, Warning Message = Forces > HoggerThreshold until breakage occurrs at Forces > PigletThreshold.

• Couplers will break in Hogger Mode at about 400,000lbs of strain. We allow for a bit of fudge-factor to account for impulses due to the nature of the simulation. But you should start sweating when you get above 370,000lbs. One little jerk of the train...
I am slowly but surely getting the sim ready for some neat new coupler effects coming in the near future. You may notice some separation between couplers when hauling heavy trains up hills. Instead of focusing on this, you should be sitting in your cab running your train. ;)

• When coupling onto a train that was extremely stretched, you may initially notice the train jerk away from you due to the coupler forces trying to relax. Simply try again. This could also be noticed in the opposite direction when the train is severely bunched.

• K3LA and RS3K horns have been added. For the Intrepid Run8 File Hacker, change the xml files accordingly.

• For those using a 64-bit version of Windows, which is just about everybody these days, Run8 is now able to make use of more RAM, about 300 to 500 megabytes more than previously. This should get rid of the Out Of Memory exceptions that were experienced recently. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Microsoft DotNet and XNA, Run8 cannot make use of all system memory. Those still running on 32-bit Windows cannot be helped unless you Google the Windows 3gb Switch function and apply it to your computer, BUT YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK AND RESEARCH IT CAREFULLY!!! We take no responsibility for what you do to your own computer.

• Light definitions have been added to some of our assets, like the main high tower and the Amtrak station at Barstow, which will enhabce your night time Run8 experience. We will add more of these light definitions to Run8 assets in futre upgrades as time permits.

• The high yard light tower definitions were affecting framerates on lower end PCs at night so I added a new variable that can be change in the Shift+F1 Options tab that lets you set the draw range of those lights.

11.26.2013:

• Airbrakes now incorporate the Quick Service function of the triple-valve. This causes the brakepipe to vent locally a few PSI on an initial set, thus more quickly propogating the set down the train. Any further reduction of the air happens at the normal rate. Releasing the brakes resets the Quick Service chamber.

• When you grab a train, the train-brake system will be discharged; you will need to use the F7 Airbrake Cheat key if you wish to immediately have air, or else wait for the compressors to recharge the train.

• Airbrakes now incorporate the Quick-Release function of the triple-valve. Upon releasing the brakes, once the triple-valve senses a BP increase of about 1.5psi, the Emergency Reservoir is ported to the brakepipe causing the pipe to recover a bit more quickly, as well as helping to propogate the release down the train.

• The Auxiliary Reservoirs on each car charge at a more or less normal rate now. TAKE NOTE: just because your rear BP shows 89 or 90 DOES NOT mean that the system is fully charged. Watch the Shift-Z values to see what I mean, as I show the rear brake BC, AUX, and EMG reservoir psi's. Making a re-set of the brakes very soon after a release may cause strange things to happen. You must use your air properly! The thing to remember about the AUX reservoirs is that on a single-pipe system, it is the psi difference between the AUX and the BP that causes the brakes to set or release. The AUX reservoirs charge thru a very small orifice, so they will always lag well behind the BP psi. It can take several minutes for the AUX's to recharge completely even though your BP may already be up to normal pressure.

• Improper use of your air can cause inadvertant releases of the brakes! If you reset too soon after a release, and don't reduce the BP far enough, you can cause the train's brakes to set for a bit, then towards the end the BP will exceed the AUX reservoir and trip that car into Release. Well, guess what happens? That car's EMG reservoir dumps into the BP and trips the next car into release, and so on.

• ES44's now have a working Airflow readout (in Cubic Feet per Minute). SD40-2's have the same but in needle form. NOTE: The overall function is there, but the flow-rates may not match real-world values yet. In real life, once you fall below 60cfm on the flow gauge, that would indicate you hava a full release of the brakes on the train. The sim's value may vary from this, however, you can be sure that your brakes have fully recharged when the Airflow needle approaches zero (for the sake of simplicity, we do not simulate brakepipe leakage at this time).

• The External Dispatcher reserved Port has been changed to 15191 in order to force people to change to the latest version of the ED. Older versions will no longer work, and they cause problems on the network anyhow with the newer route-splicing code. The newest ED by MrBalls is awesome by the way!

• Sim has been programmed to allow for future rolling-stock to call out loaded and empty versions of a railcar. This would usually only be used for open type cars such as gondolas, coal hoppers, center-beam cars, etc. Empty versions of such cars will be rendered when the car is completely empty, and the loaded version any other time.

• The Tile Loading pattern has been changed so that the tiles will load from the camera's position outward, allowing the closest tiles to load first. This will only really be evident after having transported to a new spot on the route.

• Sometimes when Terrain Tiles were loading, one or more of a tile's textures wouldn't load properly causing purple spots on the tile. Logic has now been added to recognize this erroneous condition and reject the tile, and after a few moments it will attempt to reload. After transporting, if you notice a tile missing in the scenery, just wait a few moments and it should reload itself.

• It is no longer necessary to pre-load your routes when spawning! When loading or spawning a Session (a “Save” with more than one train), the sim will attempt to pre-load all the necessary routes for each train in that session. Therefor, when spawning a session, it may take longer for the process to complete. Please note however that it is still the responsibility of the Host to make sure the necessary routes for the session are loaded, because the sim will only auto-load those routes that are used by a session save file. If, for example, you wanted to include the BNSF Cajon Sub in a session, but your session save file only contained trains on the Mojave Sub, the sim will not know to preload Cajon. You would therefor need to preload Cajon yourself before starting your session.

• Decal draw-range upped from 200m to 400m.

• Switch-signal and switch-target visible range upped from 500m to 700m.

10.04.2013

• IMPORTANT: The existing BNSF Mojave Sub has now been split into two sections, with Barstow-Yermo being removed from it and placed into its own “route”. This was done to remove any overlapping of routes which caused trouble in multi-route sessions. You will need to move any train files that spawn in the Barstow area into the new BarstowYermo route folder. Also, the existing pre-made sessions for the Mojave Sub may not work completely. These minor pains-in-the-ass are the result of a major improvement in the sim.

• IMPORTANT: For those who have the BNSF Needles Sub, this route now splits at Minneola, again, with Barstow-Yermo having been removed and split into its own route. Any trains in the Barstow area will need to be moved into the BarstowYermo route folder.

• IMPORTANT: Barstow now has its own DS Screen, with the Receiving, Inspection, and Departure Yards on CTC switches that can be controlled from that screen. Also, these yard tracks have a signal-controller (the small red\green dot); when these are set for “Flag-By” by right-clicking and holding for a few seconds (the symbol will turn white), that sets the track signals for that yard track to be “blue-lighted”. These signals are in-between the rails at each end of the yard track. When not blue-lit, these signals will either show dark for a clear track, or yellowish-orange for an occupied track. These signals are only controlled by using the right-click “flag-by” feature, setting the symbol red or green makes no difference. Also, the CTC switch-machines in these yards now have lit indicators to show if the switch is normal or reversed, green and yellow respectively. If you go onto YouTube and search for videos on UP's West Colton Yard at Night, you will see the inspiration for these new yard signals.

• Route Merging has been vastly improved and simplified. Routes no longer overlap each other, but rather are spliced at a specific point. The Mojave Sub now runs east to Hinkley; the Needles Sub splits at Minneola. The upcoming Cajon Sub will split just west of Lenwood. The BarstowYermo route fills the gap in between. The interface for merging\splicing routes is the same as before, but happens much more quickly now. Signal issues have been fixed.

• IMPORTANT: When splicing two routes, if you were close to the area where the splice ocurrs and notice missing track, you will need to hit F10 to reset the terrain after the splice has finished. Most of the time this will be unnecessary.

• Station Signs have been added to the BNSF Mojave Sub. Also, in Barstow, Valley Junction has been corrected to its proper location (its the old “Main 3 Special” switch).

• Destination Tags (if there is one) will now show with the Car Tags.

• Fixed a crash-condition when attempting to spawn a train on a network and the spawn fails to read the xml file correctly.

• You will now be properly auto-disconnected from a multiplayer session if a train attempts to spawn and you don't own the necessary units. This has to happen in order to maintain network integrity in the session. This should have happened all along, but there was an error and it simply gave the “Non-Critical” message repeatedly and allowed you to stay in the session.

• Changed code to prevent a possible condition after transporting where the sim attempts to render a null train.

• Destination Tags should now spawn across the network normally.

• When Host is in Oligarchy Mode, any client can attempt to gain DS Authority by inputting the password and using the button to Request DS Authority. If the password is good, the Host will automatically grant DS authority to the client.

• Wheelslip has been reinstated. The programmer screwed up and had accidently removed a line of code... oops.

• Client-Dispatchers on network sessions can now lock\unlock CTC switches. Once agian, the programmer...

• Locomotive Failures have been removed for now until I get a chance to moBetta that system. Disregard the Host Session setting that has to do with failure-probability. A future update will have a better system with the ability for the Host to set the probability for failures. End of notes.