Anyway to UNDO TCS Emergency Braking, or disable it?

[eric]

Who left the project?...

[seagoon]

Unfortunately, the chap that was behind the signaling, AI interaction, pathing, timetable work, etc, is now gone ....At this point there is no one that can step in and take over the coding for that segment......

No succession planning.
Not so critical in this situation, as it's a community project run by volunteers and as a not-for-profit project.

But in the commercial world it would be considered a HUGE case of mismanagement that could have critical financial results.

[OTTODAD]

Otto, what I failed to replicate was the emergency brake application that supposedly happens in explore route. I failed because I never reached the end of path nor went through a red without permission. I deliberately went off path to try and provoke the emergency brake, but nothing happened. Your freestyle activities will still work in OR. You just need a full length path and use manual mode when switching or changing locos.

Have tested Explore mode in my GSX route and apart from some weird indications in the F4 panel I could drive it the same as in MSTSBin.

Using a long path starting in the same location where the Explore Mode starts and could not divert from its path despite applying Ctrl-M.

Like I have said, no problem and am happy with running my DB-Tracks routes in MSTSBin !










.

[CNW 5099]

For starters it is a DESIGN decision, not a bug. I don't much care for it myself but I understand it is on purpose and so functionally speaking it is not a problem as it is doing exactly what is intended.

That said, if you don't like it.... well, you don't like it... and I agree. Learn how to work with it.

AFAIK the issue being addressed is this: What are the AI trains and signalling system to do when the player train runs past its defined path? Remember, everything is set up to follow a plan as defined in the activity files.

I suppose one answer is to "destroy" the Ai trains and be done with it... but that's not the decision that was made, and no, I don't know why.

I do know that all of this kvetching about this feature has given the author the full incentive to go find other things to do with his spare time, which, IMO is a VERY BIG LOSS as not only was he a skilled coder but also a deep thinker on how to solve many of the hard problems bestowed upon all of us by KUJU.

Bottom line: Everybody who works on OR is a volunteer, not a paid employee, and as such are under no obligation to put up with crapolla of any kind, even when a large number of persons believe it is warranted

You want it changed? Start reading the existing code, figure out a better solution, then join the OR project and code it yourself.

And yes, I am cranky and in a bad mood; Perhaps tomorrow I'll be mellow again so don't take it personally as it is not meant to be directed at any individual(s).

Jesus. Why couldn't the grumpy MSTS lifers continue playing their precious freestyle activities without so much complaining? You don't like the option, fine. Go on with your life. OTTODAD has been moaning and groaning about OR for years. We GET IT. You don't like it, okay, keep using your hallowed MSTS bin and let those of us who prefer a continually evolving simulator to enjoy it in peace. I think at this juncture we should ignore posters like OTTODAD who do nothing but gripe with little or no constructive contributions as it relates to OR. We lost a valuable programmer due to career complainers. No wonder this community is on life support.

[baldwin]

Before everyone gets the entirely wrong impression about the situation the team member who resigned did so because Open Rails was taking up far too much of his free time. Much of what he was working on was for the distant future of OR. As for OR version 1, he has given us a good foundation for signalling and operation of AI traffic, and others are working on an activity editor already.

Otto
In your 4th screenshot, you label Control M as having been applied. That being so, the switch ahead should change if the G key is pressed. What I am seeing there is the player train is still in automatic mode, not manual. I use that manual mode in an activity every time I need to do some switching and no reverse points are defined, so it does work. Explore mode has the manual operation of switches enabled and the automatic mode disabled. However, if you use a long path this is set including all switches to take you from one end to the other, unlike MSTS explore mode which does not set any switches along the route.

So, you have a choice, MSTS explore which does not set any switches, the user having to rely on memory as to which way to go, or OR explore mode where all switches along a path are set, but can be changed if the user so desires.

[OTTODAD]

In your 4th screenshot, you label Control M as having been applied. That being so, the switch ahead should change if the G key is pressed. What I am seeing there is the player train is still in automatic mode, not manual. I use that manual mode in an activity every time I need to do some switching and no reverse points are defined, so it does work. Explore mode has the manual operation of switches enabled and the automatic mode disabled. However, if you use a long path this is set including all switches to take you from one end to the other, unlike MSTS explore mode which does not set any switches along the route.

Mystery solved.

I used the Switchlist Generator to set all switches in my GSX route to MANUAL.

Before starting the loco in this LONG PATH test activity I applied CONTROL-M and the F4-Map changed what it displays.

Driving it had no more problems running it, setting a switch to divert from the activity's long path.

However, reverting to my short path activity version the problem of not being able to throw that switch persists despite having used Control-M like in the long path version !

P.S.: Can these Alerts be displayed at the bottom of screens on a black background line, please ?








.

[muskokaandtahoe]

(1) WRT messages generated by the software... it's always difficult to find the best extent of messaging... too few and some folks will struggle, too many and others get irritated. For my self, I've no interest in being told I just pushed camera button 2. I suspect the only good answers are to either let each user mark up the list of all messages to say which ones should be shown... or to add a bit of web server code to the software and have all messages sent to a second device, like a phone or tablet. Either way, it seems to me that addressing levels of irritation is less important than say, creating a new Activity Editor to replace KUJU's AE. YMMV.

(2) Manual vs. Automatic switches. The KUJU design placed this attribute into the world file with each turnout shape. OR moved it into the signalling code and set all of them to automatic unless you change modes to M -- Manual... you know, as in Manual Switches. I argued against this but when all opinions were collected the majority went for what you see in OR today. Apparently this change corrected a number of flaws in the KUJU design related to standoff's and collisions and so once you adjust to occasionally using manual mode your activity will not have those KUJU designed Activity bugs. Since the control is now within the OR code, stuff like the old Switchlist Generator may not work as expected.

[mikeebb]

WRT the messaging concern: one possibility might be to have delayed messaging rather than instant. The olde DOS Wordstar program did that: hit Ctrl-something (for a command) and it just did it; hold down Ctrl for a moment and a menu would pop up to help you choose the rest of the command. Certain annoying messages in Windows, also, only appear if you hold down a key for a while without "completing the thought". In the OR case, for things such as camera switches, you could suppress the label unless somebody holds down the key for 1/2 sec or whatever - a quick tap just switches & that's it.

[OTTODAD]

Hi Dave !

Here is how I would show essential alert messages at the bottom of screens :



However, that is not working in short path Freestyle activities !

Saving an image of what is shown on the screen requires an audible tone only to indicate that one has been taken, like other screen savers do !

There also appears to be a problem in WIN-7 trying to access the images saved into the user's My Documents\Pictures folder.

Me being a KISS - "Keep It Simple, Stupid" programmer would save them into the root of the ORTS folder !

[dcarleton]

You do realize that you have to stop the train before you can switch to the manual mode?

[OTTODAD]

You do realize that you have to stop the train before you can switch to the manual mode?

Running my short path Freestyle test activity I set it to run it manual with Ctrl+M before I started its loco.

Not doing that and stopping the loco after trying to set the first switch ahead, setting it to run Manual and re-starting it, all worked as in MSTSBin.

Thanks for mentioning that.

[mikeebb]

That's actually prototypical. If you aren't running where the dispatcher sets all the switches for you, you have to stop and let somebody off to hand-throw the switch. Equivalent here is to stop, go to manual mode, do your switching, then line everything back as it should be and go back to automatic (which Ctrl-M toggles back to, right?).

[roeter]

... go back to automatic (which Ctrl-M toggles back to, right?).

If you are back on the defined path, you can switch back to automatic using Ctrl-M again. You can use Track Monitor (F4) to check if you are back on the path : if so, the 'own train' symbol is shown in white; if not, it is shown in red.
If you are on the set path and running in the right direction, you can switch back to automatic without the need to stop.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[OTTODAD]

Hi Rob !

Thanks for the more precise instructions on how the MANUAL function in activities works !

But as I am a short paths Freestyle Activities user only, stopping a player loco / train after trying to divert from the non-existing path to the right it then lets me carry on driving.

But if I try to throw another switch to divert back to the left on the pathless track I get another alert about the switch being locked and have to stop again, switch to MANUAL and set the switch !

That is not on and shall continue to use MSTSBin until that has been fixed.

I would suggest that any activity using a short length or full path remains in MANUAL mode until it has been canceled by another CTRL-M !

P.S.: Preferably setting MANUAL at the start of any such activity before running its player loco / train !

[jkcooney]

I had the same experience Otto. I thought it was the result of a line in the "Eng" file that this controlled but it turns out it is built
into OR.... I freelance also and will rarely use pre set Activities because I like to wander off-line...
joe cooney, usa