Roads and traffic?

[Railfan727]

I seem to recall seeing in advertisements for MSTS-2 that the road traffic would follow actual traffic laws (stopping at red lights, obeying posted speed limits, etc.) according to the country the route was set in. Will any of this be implemented in OR?

It would be really nice to be able to have cars be able to make turns from one road onto another at intersections. And it would be handy to have a way to have multiple types of car spawners in a route as well. For instance, one to use on Interstates that would feature heavy traffic with a preponderance of big rigs, and another for quiet country roads that would have only a car or pickup truck (or the occasional tractor) only every few minutes or so, with no tractor-trailers.

Also, will there be any way to do "dynamic roads" to fill in gaps that can't be completed using standard road sections?

[longiron]

I seem to recall seeing in advertisements for MSTS-2 that the road traffic would follow actual traffic laws (stopping at red lights, obeying posted speed limits, etc.) according to the country the route was set in. Will any of this be implemented in OR?

It would be really nice to be able to have cars be able to make turns from one road onto another at intersections. And it would be handy to have a way to have multiple types of car spawners in a route as well. For instance, one to use on Interstates that would feature heavy traffic with a preponderance of big rigs, and another for quiet country roads that would have only a car or pickup truck (or the occasional tractor) only every few minutes or so, with no tractor-trailers.

Also, will there be any way to do "dynamic roads" to fill in gaps that can't be completed using standard road sections?

That's the concept for the OR World Editor. If you think about it - track and roads should be handled is very similar ways. We have some work to do on the road "scripting" and file structures to be able to define stop lights(signals), intersections (switches), pathing (activities) and spawning (consists).

[Rick-MONON]

Oh yes, multiple car spwaners would be great to have if possible.

[justinrab3]

yep

[Railfan727]

That's the concept for the OR World Editor. If you think about it - track and roads should be handled is very similar ways. We have some work to do on the road "scripting" and file structures to be able to define stop lights(signals), intersections (switches), pathing (activities) and spawning (consists).

So does that mean tractor-trailers could be handled as a "train" with the tractor and trailer being treated as a "consist", rather than being treated as one discrete unit? This would be the key to making realistic turns, I would think...

Also, will there be a way to use different road section types in the same route (2-lanes, 4-lanes, gravel, concrete, asphalt, etc.) as we currently do, or will there be a global road texture the same way we currently use a global common texture for all track? And, while we're at it, I'd love to see functionality added to allow the use of different track section textures in the same route without having to do potentially risky world file editing also. One way this would be beneficial would be to model track from different railroads in the same route. For instance, Conrail and CSX tend to use ballast containing a mixture of 3 or 4 different types of rock (seems to be a blend of gray granite, black granite, and limestone), while NS seems to use plain white limestone.

[longiron]

Also, will there be a way to use different road section types in the same route (2-lanes, 4-lanes, gravel, concrete, asphalt, etc.) as we currently do, or will there be a global road texture the same way we currently use a global common texture for all track? And, while we're at it, I'd love to see functionality added to allow the use of different track section textures in the same route without having to do potentially risky world file editing also. One way this would be beneficial would be to model track from different railroads in the same route. For instance, Conrail and CSX tend to use ballast containing a mixture of 3 or 4 different types of rock (seems to be a blend of gray granite, black granite, and limestone), while NS seems to use plain white limestone.

There is nothing to prevent you from using multiple track textures on the same route per the OR World Editor specification, as these are defined per procedural track element. Of course, some transition is going to be needed to avoid abrupt visual changes between track elements.

[Railfan727]

Wow! That is nice to know...

So did you see my thread on crossing signals from a couple of weeks ago? I see it has been viewed but there are no replies, and I was curious what your thoughts might be on my observations...

[lindsayts]

One of the problems with the car spawners in MSTS is rural areas is the number of vehicles seen is WAY to high (certainly here is Australia, Note 2). Often even today a "quiet" country road will be just that. I live on such a road and the only vehicles using the road is myself, the mail man and the guy in the next farm say only two to three cars a day, and the majority of the roads around here would be like that. For routes set in the 1950's and 60's this problem would be worse as at that stage in most of rural victoria private transport was just become widely availible. There are at least 3 routes I can think of that have what I would consider wildly inaccurate road transport numbers. One needs to be able to turn the spawners down to as little as 1 car a DAY, that is only see a car from the train during an activity every say forth or fifth time one drivers the activity.

Note, one car a day will easily keep a road clear of grass. it appears traffic has to drop to at least less than one car a month for road to even look like it is becomming over grown. So a gravel road does not always mean it has much traffic.

Note 2, I am talking about rural NE Victoria here, Victoria being the most densly populated state on Australian mainland.

Lindsay

[Railfan727]

Well, a lot of the roads in Indiana and Ohio seem to be about the same as what you're describing there! Except most of them are paved, though a few counties still have gravel roads in some places. When I built those type of roads on the Conrail Indy route (and you'll see one every mile in most cases), I didn't even put car spawners on them. The only roads that got spawners were major county roads, state/US highways, interstates, and major streets in cities and towns.