Official v645 Thread

[jjtang]

Why i claim it was not a signal that stops the train? Because that is NOT a signal(and i didn't see that bug until i linked that screenshot)! That's a level crossing, but in OR somehow it behaves like signal.

BTW here is the comment with the screenshot https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...49#post1669049 #214

I did some tracing, and indeed it is a signal item (TrItemId 3994).

If you check the 100a-140.tdb file in your route directory, you will find the following block

SignalItem (
TrItemId ( 3994 )
TrItemSData ( 7920.46 00000002 )
TrItemRData ( -219.872 99.8775 -232.114 -5375 14704 )
TrSignalType ( 00000000 1 2.08729 AS )
)

and if you scroll up a bit, you will see several blocks of LevelCr (TrItemId from 3986 to 3988). For example, item 3988

LevelCrItem (
TrItemId ( 3988 )
TrItemSData ( 7859.25 00000006 )
TrItemPData ( -220.955 -237.232 -5375 14704 )
TrItemRData ( -220.955 99.8733 -237.232 -5375 14704 )
)

Please notice how close the TrItemRData are: the Xs are close to -220, the Zs are close to -235. They also appear in the same .W file, thus I am pretty sure there is a signal close by.

Why MSTS ignore it, I think the TrSignalType may have some hidden values and MSTS knows that, while ORTS could not decipher it yet.

[lindsayts]

I posted this on OKTrainsim a couple of days ago, I belive I do not REALY need to put this up here now but it does explain a few points..............

"One MUST remember the OR is NOT a released sim but is in very strong development. Now I do not know the OR teams official position on this but speaking as a developer of long standing there are two reasons for releasing programs in development. The first I do not regard as important but is to show the community that something is being done. The second reason is critical, firstly there is no such thing as a standard IBM PC clone. One can have diffent CPU's, MB chipsets, graphics cards and sound cards, not to mention different OS's. What this means is there is a VERY strong possibility that what works on the development machine MAY NOT work on another machine. So it becomes critcal if one hopes to get something working on a wide scale to do as much testing on as many machines as possible in order to find all the hidden bugs."

"So the best thing to help the team along is not a whinge about OR but a clear post on what works and what does not. This will enable the team to best understand where the development work needs to be aimed at."

"Keep up the good work OR team,"

"Lindsay"

[lindsayts]

I have been doing plenty of driving of Steamers over the past few daya and I must say one is impressed. One route in particular is getting a hammering is the "Wolgan Valley" the last 11 miles being mostly 1 in 25 with 5 chain (100 metre) curves. The line being standard gauge and a REAL test for locos.
The first point I will mention is the ENG file needs to be correctly done, some minor errors causing the the mathematical modelling to do some REALLY strange things at some odd times (not easily reproducable).

At the beginning of the climb using either a Shay or a Heisler (both of which I have gone to great effort to correct the ENG files) loaded to the max (the Shay having a trailing load of 540 tons) Just managed to make the climb with some "nursing' along. At the beginning of the climb it requires the blower on until the draft gets going properly, VERY important to turn the blower on when halting temporarily. I have never enjoyed an hour an a half at 8mph so much. It would be nice to know how much water and coal was used, judging by the display the amount of water would be in the area of 2500 imperial gallons which would be in the correct "ball park".

Anyone know of another good "mountain route",

Very good work,
Lindsay

[scottb613]

Ahh - so the blowers work - thanks Lindsay... Have you tried the grates ???

[kox]

I did some tracing, and indeed it is a signal item (TrItemId 3994).

If you check the default routes (for example tokyo-hakone) there also level crossing looking signals, but those showing clear aspect.

[csantucci]

It was due to my misunderstanding of the LevelCrData of crossings in the .w file. I thought none 0 values always mean invisible, actually 0000001 means invisible and silent, 0000006 means silent but visible. I will update it into the code and have it fixed.

Thanks a lot again.

Carlo

[soapbaux]

I can run any route, with any train, on the previous version v360 without a single loading problem. But the 0.646 gives me this:

runactivity.exe : Error : 0 : System.ArgumentException: The device does not support creating a render target of the given format.
Parameter name: format
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.RenderTarget..cto r(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Int32 width, Int32 height, Int32 numberLevels, SurfaceFormat format, MultiSampleType multiSampleType, Int32 multiSampleQuality, RenderTargetUsage usage, Boolean isTexture2D)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.RenderTarget2D..c tor(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Int32 width, Int32 height, Int32 numberLevels, SurfaceFormat format, RenderTargetUsage usage)
at ORTS.RenderFrame..ctor(RenderProcess owner)
at ORTS.RenderProcess.Initialize()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run()
at ORTS.Viewer3D.Run()
at ORTS.Program.Start(IEnumerable`1 options, String[] args)

As has been mentioned previously, that error message is due to insufficient graphics memory.

Fortunately, I have another computer with 256mb video. I don't use it much, but decided to try the new version of ORTS on it.

Same route and circumstances; dynamic shadows off: Runs perfectly.

Therefore I conclude, the 0.646 effectively obsoleted my 128mb graphics Dell. Someone owes me 600 bucks

by the way... did I miss a version? Mine says 646 and this is the 645 thread...

[jjtang]

If you check the default routes (for example tokyo-hakone) there also level crossing looking signals, but those showing clear aspect.

I drove through the whole route and could not find the crossing you mentioned. Could you please pinpoint that for me, i.e. start from which station heading towards which, how far away from the station? I used a fast train to traverse the route, so I may miss it.

[twpol]

As has been mentioned previously, that error message is due to insufficient graphics memory.

No, the error you quoted says the graphics format is not supported; presumably due to the card being too old. Due to the nature of the error, I suggest you try the next version when it comes out as it may work.

[soapbaux]

No, the error you quoted says the graphics format is not supported; presumably due to the card being too old.

The first time this came up, there was no response to cp5513's dilema:
post #106

So I read on... several pages... and then K5LLA mentioned it once again...
post #167

In response to his query, you said it meant the:
graphics card doesn't support the dynamic shadows

Then muskokaandtahoe added, in response to K5LLA's reply about having a total available graphics memory of 358mb, that:
Very likely that amount is not enough

So, I assumed, since my card does support dynamic shadows, the issue must be the memory. Please understand my frustration at having ORTS working a week ago; and now, today, suddenly my hardware is too old for it.

It was a lot of fun, though.

My stats:

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 : 3D enhancements enable greater flexibility and scalability and improved realism with support for Microsoft DirectX* 9.0c Shader Model 2.0, OpenGL* 1.5.

	Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver Report

Report Date:		03/14/2011
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]:	21:22:38
Driver Version:		6.14.10.4820
Operating System:		Windows XP* Home Edition, Service Pack 3 (5.1.2600)
Default Language:		English
DirectX* Version:		9.0
Physical Memory:		3061 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory:	8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory:	128 MB
Graphics Memory in Use:	14 MB
Processor:		x86 family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13
Processor Speed:		1795 MHZ
Vendor ID:		8086
Device ID:		29C2
Device Revision:		02

*   Accelerator Information   *

Accelerator in Use:		Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family
Video BIOS:		1471
Current Graphics Mode:	1920 by 1080 True Color (60 Hz)

*   Devices Connected to the Graphics Accelerator   *

Active Monitors: 1

*   Monitor   *

Monitor Name:		Dell SP2309W(Analog)
Display Type:		Analog
Gamma Value:		2.20
DDC2 Protocol:		Supported
Maximum Image Size:	Horizontal: 20.0  inches
			Vertical:   11.0  inches
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (75 Hz)
720 by 400 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (75 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (75 Hz)
1152 by 864 (75 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)
1680 by 1680 (60 Hz)
0 by 1152 (827 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
	Standby Mode:	Supported
	Suspend Mode:	Supported
	Active Off Mode: Supported

[GaryG]

I drove through the whole route and could not find the crossing you mentioned. Could you please pinpoint that for me, i.e. start from which station heading towards which, how far away from the station? I used a fast train to traverse the route, so I may miss it.

I can help a bit I hope.

Starting from the Tirano end, you will reach a location with a station and a few tracks on left and right. As you leave the station, there is a good climb with a turn to the right. If I am remembering correctly, the crossing in question is at that point. (From memory, I haven't run that route in a while.)

Google maps to the rescue - Campocologno is the town I think.

GaryG

[Dralex]

General feedback and observations

I have just sent the same text through the feedback button on the ORTS home page. The automatic response told me to use the forum for bug reports. Which I am doing just now.
I do like what you have done so far, but there are some small matters that may not be very high on your list of priorities. As for instance:
Invisible locos: where a train has certain types of locos (particularly the SD40) these locos remain invisible. That is, in the external view (2 key) there is a gap where the locos should be. The cab is rendered correctly, and the locos do pull the train as they should.
Keyboard commands: why can you not just leave the keyboard commands as they are on MSTS? Commands that are new to the sim could then be assigned to some of the other keys. The best solution would be when one can assign keys to the various commands after his/her own taste. E. g. by having ORTS read a text file with that information that can be edited by the user.
Tunnel entrances: in MSTS one can set an invisibility flag to one (or more) ground polygons so there is a hole in the mountain. In ORTS you have to drive right into the mountain. Strange enough, exiting the same tunnel is ok.
Again, keep up the good work! AFAIK many of you (if not all of you) developers are ex-MSTSers!
I do know that this is a pre-release version (Zero.something), so I cannot expect immediate solutions to some problems. Which is quite ok for me.
Keep up the good work! Having been a systems programmmer for about twenty years (I am now retired) I do know that it is quite impossible to release a totally error-free program. So I shall wait and see what comes from you.

Greetings,
Dralex

[mikephfl]

How does one play a short blast of the horn? I've tried many different engines and when you press the space it seems to play the entire wav file. In MSTS it played fairly close to the length of time you held the space bar down. I think it went on to the next point or marker or something like that in the .wav file.

Thanks for all the hard work that has gone into OR.

Mike

[longiron]

How does one play a short blast of the horn?
Mike

Mike,
Unfortunately, the sound engine that OR uses (irrKlang) does not support cue points. That's a requirement to play a short segment of a longer wave file. We are already very far along with an alternative sound implementation that will fix that issue as well as offers a lot of new features down the road.

[longiron]

Invisible locos: where a train has certain types of locos (particularly the SD40) these locos remain invisible. That is, in the external view (2 key) there is a gap where the locos should be. The cab is rendered correctly, and the locos do pull the train as they should.

Please let us know what model, where it can be downloaded. There's a lot of different SD40s out there, so we'd don't have to guess.

Keyboard commands: why can you not just leave the keyboard commands as they are on MSTS? Commands that are new to the sim could then be assigned to some of the other keys. The best solution would be when one can assign keys to the various commands after his/her own taste. E. g. by having ORTS read a text file with that information that can be edited by the user.

We are working on some improvements to the keyboard commands based on feedback by the community

Tunnel entrances: in MSTS one can set an invisibility flag to one (or more) ground polygons so there is a hole in the mountain. In ORTS you have to drive right into the mountain. Strange enough, exiting the same tunnel is ok.

It's on our TO DO list. Finding and punching the hole is pretty easy (and we have that working) but quite often the holes are too big. MSTS uses something it calls "terrain transfers" to cover these. We don't have any support for them in the code currently and they're not terribly easy to implement, it seems.