ATSF Seligman Sub 2.0 - SouthWest Chief for ORTS

[R. Steele]

https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?322866-Question-about-running-MSTS-activities-in-OR/page3

In the above thread grncherry1 (post #8) mentioned that this activity does not work in ORTS. It definitely does not.
I rewrote the whole activity. It is attached here as a beta, in a basic RouteRiter packaged zip format.
All files are renamed, so it will not overwrite anything already installed.
No consists are included - uses all the same consists as in the original.

If anyone is interested could you give it a run - I just tested it in X3217 - all seems fine. Be nice to have some feedback from those interested in this activity for Open Rails

Removed by R. Steele 8-29-2015, new completed activity will be posted in library Monday, Aug 31st.

[plethaus21]

I will give it a go! I'll have to test the original one first for comparison though, but I will gladly test out your version afterwards.

edit: I can already see how the original activity doesn't load the AI.. what was the culprit that broke it within ORTS? Might be good to get this testing info to OR devs to help catch other potential issues as far as backwards compatibility with MSTS goes.

[R. Steele]

I can already see how the original activity doesn't load the AI.. what was the culprit that broke it within ORTS? Might be good to get this testing info to OR devs to help catch other potential issues as far as backwards compatibility with MSTS goes.

That's the wrong end of the stick, I suppose, it is not OR that needs fixing. Many MSTS activities do work in OR without any tinkering, some require adjustments to AI timing, others need complete reworking. Sometimes, it most certainly can be a bug, but I think that at V1.0 most all of those have been cleared or the OR team is aware of them.

The deal with this one...lot's of waiting points, reverse points, short paths in the original. I am supposing all that was to provide plenty of traffic and avoid the msts deadlocks. In OR this just caused all the traffic to stop.

OR can accomodate plenty of traffic without deadlocks.

I will give it a go! I'll have to test the original one first for comparison though, but I will gladly test out your version afterwards.

That is just what I am looking for, a comparison. I never ran the original in MSTS, so I do not know if this one is even a close approximation or a worthy substitute. I think it is a good starting point, maybe it'll do as a sub for the original. Thanks for taking on the chore.

[plethaus21]

Does fixing it up like that require the MSTS Activity Editor? I can't even run MSTS at all actually, it just crashes instantly on load - same goes with trying to load the editors and tools.

[grncherry1]

That's the wrong end of the stick, I suppose, it is not OR that needs fixing. Many MSTS activities do work in OR without any tinkering, some require adjustments to AI timing, others need complete reworking. Sometimes, it most certainly can be a bug, but I think that at V1.0 most all of those have been cleared or the OR team is aware of them.

The deal with this one...lot's of waiting points, reverse points, short paths in the original. I am supposing all that was to provide plenty of traffic and avoid the msts deadlocks. In OR this just caused all the traffic to stop.

OR can accomodate plenty of traffic without deadlocks.



That is just what I am looking for, a comparison. I never ran the original in MSTS, so I do not know if this one is even a close approximation or a worthy substitute. I think it is a good starting point, maybe it'll do as a sub for the original. Thanks for taking on the chore.

Sorry Gerry, busy this past weekend, I am anxious to try your fix tomorrow and will definitely report back. Your efforts are appreciated. I think it is a nice one if it runs correctly. Guess you can tell I'm a passenger train fan.

[R. Steele]

Yes on both counts. The AE needs to be functioning, although some of the editing work on the files is done with ConText - and you are going to need MSTS up and running to run the default activity in order to compare it with the revised OR version.

[grncherry1]

Yes on both counts. The AE needs to be functioning, although some of the editing work on the files is done with ConText - and you are going to need MSTS up and running to run the default activity in order to compare it with the revised OR version.

Tried to run the revised version this morning and I had the following experience. Ran fine with several meets and over took several eastbounds that were in the hole as far as Kingman. Left there on time with a AI EB Manifest ahead of me. Followed it to Seligman, where it should have stopped and I should have gone around him, even though the turnouts were thrown and put me on the WB track but never passed the Manifest. This is where the problems start. Very slow running behind the EB Manifest on speed restrictions as far as Williams Jct. where it stopped fouling the main and I had a red and that's where everything stops. Nothing changes from that point.

I surmise all because the AI EB Manifest did not stop at Seligman threw off all the subsequent timings. I did notice there was a westbound in the siding, the manifest should have been sitting on the eastbound main and I should have gone around it at that location.

[R. Steele]

All the eastbounds in the hole are the original "static" loose consists put there by SLI for effect in MSTS.

I did not have the experience you encountered, timing appears to affect the outcome here. Perhaps reworking the AI EB Manifest path will be the solution. Thanks I will have a look at it.

[eric]

I seem to recall reverse points being an issue with another route recently.

[R. Steele]

I seem to recall reverse points being an issue with another route recently.

In OR does reverse or waiting points terminate the AI forward path until wait time is over or reverse is completed? I thought it did.

I thought putting in a waiting point in the AI path would allow the Player to overtake and pass. Reading through manual today to try to find information, thought I knew where it was.

[grncherry1]

In OR does reverse or waiting points terminate the AI forward path until wait time is over or reverse is completed? I thought it did.

I thought putting in a waiting point in the AI path would allow the Player to overtake and pass. Reading through manual today to try to find information, thought I knew where it was.

On the last page of the signalling tutorial there is a statement that an AI will wait at a specified waiting point for a specified period of time. It is too complicated for my brain to even begin to make that happen.

[plethaus21]

Here is what I've encountered in my testing so far.

Everything was going fine early in the activity until I got to Griffith East/West. At the time I arrived there was a westbound freight coming through. It was lined up to cut across eastbound to get onto the westbound track. However the first red signal I had was a restricting (proceed at 20mph) which would have had me collide with the westbound. After I let it through I continued on with the track monitor showing the 20mph all the way to Kingman to 3 miles out. I am thinking that is a specific timing "glitch" since that particular signal can only show restricting as its most, er, restricting aspect.

I am on my way out of Kingman now to see how it continues, 6 minutes behind schedule right now.

UPDATE: Well on my way past Seligman now without any other issues so far.

UPDATE 2: OK, I reached as far as I could get in the activity. After making my stop at Flagstaff I moved on towards a red signal just west of the LiteCo sidings. Sitting next to me was the EBTRF4 AI, sitting there despite a diverging signal. According to shift-F5 HUD the AI is in a waiting state. I waited for a while since I was about 10 minutes early to Flagstaff (despite running at or well below speed limit at all times) and figured it might be scripted with the assumption that I would depart Flagstaff at the right time, but it was still stuck there.

In the meantime, WBTRF8 stopped at East Darling.

LAST UPDATE: I decided to try using the dispatcher window to give the EBTRF4 AI a stop signal which gave me the green and then I was able to run through the rest of the activity, although EBTRF4 and WBTRF8 never moved. WBTRF9 did spawn and ran past me correctly before I got to Winslow.

[R. Steele]

I believe I have everything solved, including the cross over at Griffith East/West. Player now should overtake EB Manifest at Yucca, although there are now several other opportunities for this event to take place.

I'm finishing up this weekend, give it a final run and then will upload to library on Monday August 31st.
No consists will be included, as it uses the same consists as the MSTS version. <<<<EDIT>>> Consists will be included, all renamed so they do not overwrite the originals.

All act, pat, srv, and trf files have been renamed so no overwriting will happen. It can be loaded without affecting the MSTS version.

Thanks for the help.

[plethaus21]

Thank you for taking the time to make it! It's a really fun activity

[grncherry1]

Thank you very much for getting this sorted out. I've been frustrated for a year trying to run it successfully. I can hardly wait to try it once again.