So, let's first stipulate what this mod is in general, what it includes and what period it covers.

A small explanation of the format: "Q" - question, "A" - answer, "NB" - note (important information or warning about an unfixable bug). I would really like to attach illustrations to my words, but the forums in steam do not support such a function.

Q: What does mod includes?
A: The public version of the mod without patron content includes 15 railroad crossing variants, new sounds, and several dozen new assets.

Q:This mod covers the entire period of the game?
A: No, the first crossings start to be available from 1980, as an exception. All the others - gradually from 1991 until now. This is done because if in the future we want to make a separate mod with Soviet crossings, they will have their own settings, their own models and textures, their own sounds. And so that they do not conflict with this mod, they should be separated by periods.


The public version of the mod includes 15 crossings:

• Classic cross + a variant with an additional cross at the bottom, indicating that there is a double-track or more railroad ahead
  
• Same cross but with traffic light and bell + option with additional cross
  
• Again a cross, but with a traffic light and a white light. In reality, the white light flashes when you can drive, and when you can't - it fades out, and the red lights start blinking.
  
  NB: Unfortunately, there is an unfixable bug with white lights. Immediately after installing them on the map, the white lantern does not blink, but just glows. This is due to the peculiarities of the relocation code in the game. In order for it to start flashing properly, you need to make the crossing close once. When it opens - the light will flash as it should. Unfortunately, this is necessary after every game load.
  
  
• Unregulated Soviet-style cross
  
• Soviet-style cross + traffic light
  
• Modern version of the cross with traffic lights (available since 2013)

Now let's move on to barrier crossings:

• Soviet-style barrier, with a fence
  
• Soviet-style barrier, updated
  
• Classic barrier of late Soviet design
  
• Updated Russian-style barrier (with LEDs)
  
• Modern Russian barrier (from 2013), rectangular shape.

Also for our patrons there are an anti-ram barrier and a track barrier device. Read more in the Patreon Bonus content section on the mod page.


To make it easier to understand the new crossings, we made functional icons. Let's decipher them.

In the upper left corner it is written the number of tracks for which the barrier is set. 1 track; <3 (less than 3, i.e. 1 or 2); >1 (i.e. more than 1), etc.
Also written is the year from which a particular crossing is available (a dash before a number means "before", i.e. "- 1991" - before 1991.

The mod also has functional interface of the assets. Hovering your mouse over the pack of objects will give you general information about them, and their proper use. And if you hold the mouse on any button inside the object menu - an additional tooltip will appear.


We should talk about sounds separately, because here we realized not everything we wanted. And we will explain why.

The good news, of course, is that the mod got new crossings sounds - everyone's favorite Russian crossing call. But there are a few technical limitations that we couldn't get around.

1) The crossing sound sounds once when a train is approaching. There is no way to fix this, it is a feature of the game code. The crossing sound is played once, from the beginning of the audio to the end, it is not played in a circle.
In the vanilla game, the crossing rings for literally 5 seconds, which seems too short for many players. But at the same time, others, for example, would not want to listen to ringing for 30 seconds. Therefore, we have added to the mod options in the mod manager! It took some serious digging into the code, but we managed.

2) The crossing sound doesn't fade into the distance. The exact same thing, it is built into the game engine. If your camera was near the crossing at the moment when it started to close - even if you move the camera away or pause the game, the audio will be played from the beginning to the end. Therefore, when choosing the duration of the sound - remember that there is no way to shut it up or hide from it. 5 seconds is the optimal duration, but you can set it longer if you want.

3) Only one sound can be set for the whole move. Consequently, we could not make something other than a bell. You can't make a separate sound for the squeak of the barrier, you can't sound the automatic barriers.
So there is no point in asking us to fix it, nothing can be done here yet.


There's a lot of them. We wanted to make a large set of objects so you can add realism to your moves.

The list of assets is roughly as follows:

• 4 manual barriers
  
• Crossing markers
  
• Road signs related to the crossings
  
• Signs for the crossings themselves (warning, informational)
  
• Road markings
  
• All crossings mod as scenery (disabled)
  
• Bollards
  
• Height limiters

That being said, all assets have additional functionality:

• Model and equipment can be selected
  
• You can level the landscape under the object
  
• You can make displacement on three axes. And the Z-axis offset is more accurate than if you move the height of the object with the shift button (0.02 vs. 0.1). Thanks to this, plates and other objects can be placed in height with amazing accuracy.

.

В: Why didn't they make new decking for the railroad crossing??
О: Because the decking is not prescribed in the crossings, but in the railroad tracks. And we can't change all the tracks for the sake of a mod with crossings.

В: Why do the assets have to be placed manually? Couldn't they be added to the crossings right away?
О: We could, but first of all they are unable to bend to fit the curves of the road, and secondly there are a lot of variations of how the crossing can look like. We think it is better to let the player customize his own crossings. Besides, additional objects are a burden on the computer, and for some people, assets may add an unnecessary burden.

В: Why didn't they also add *object name/mcrossing model*?
О: Because we're human and our resources are limited. If it were easy and fast, we would have added every possible object and move. But, 3 months of work has been tiring us out.

В:Crossings from the mod are not installing correctly on my roads added by another mod!
О: This is impossible to fix, again related to the game code. The game does not know how to properly adapt the crossing to this or that road width. This is prescribed individually. Simply put, a separate file with a model is created for roads with different widths. Since it is impossible to adapt the mod to all existing mods with roads, we have prescribed crossings only for standard road widths: 9, 12, 18, 22, 28.
If the game cannot find the desired width, it chooses the file with the closest width value. For example, if a road in the mod has a width of 14 meters, it will select a file with a prescribed crossing for a 12-meter road.

В: And why can't you automatically do a half-cross setting if there are more than two paths? Or put height limiters if there is one?
О: Because the crossings in the game cant read info around, its basically just animated assets. They don't know how to recognize any additional factors, including the number of paths and the presence of wires.