Clearing Trees from tracks in OR - new_needs testing

[OTTODAD]

O.K., downloaded the X.3360 and installed it.

Downloaded Carlo's 6.Dec. files from ET and added them to ORTS.

Inserted the ORTSForestClearDistance ( 2 ) at the bottom of the Dorset.trk and after deleting all its *.PAT files, it had no other Activity files, created an activity from Waterloo to Weymouth and ran it at 310 KpH from Waterloo to Weymouth, using the ORTS Time Acceleration function.

There are a couple of trees on the tracks and a few are sticking their branches over them.

Would an increased to ORTSForestClearDistance ( 4 ) deal with them, some are to the left of tracks and other to their right ?

No other objects seem to have been moved, except my eyes, which are safely back in their sockets !

Hope that this helps Carlo !

P.S.: Having an hour to kill before going to bed, I ran the Dorset-3 in my X.3337, pre-Carlo files copy and there are now masses of trees everywhere, proving that what he did WORKS !

[OTTODAD]

Forgot to use my improved UKFS tracks textures I released in 2007, having better looking rails as befits routes used by frequent commuter trains !

[drelyea]

Hi,

That looks good, that the trees are starting to clear.

Which set of UKFS tracks is that, in the last screen with the third Rail? The L&WV (Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley) which ran between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre was 3rd Rail. That set of shapes is much closer to being their style of third Rail than anything else I have.

There was a real tight Balloon Loop at the terminals in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, and I can make up static objects for those 3rd rails if I have to.

Doug Relyea

[R. Steele]

I did a run on the WP# Sub to the first set of trees, (SLI activity Overland Mail) one directly on track, one very close on conductor side of cab
Both trees are present in OR stable V1.0, both are moved in X3360 with the test files applied....WP3 Sub now loads and runs fine.
No noticeable difference in fps - which is around 30 at this point in the route (I have it locked at 60) in either version, CPU stays at about 9 to 12% also in both versions.
Stuttering at tile loading actual appears less in X3360, in any case performance seems quite acceptable. Will finish run tomorrow.
Ran the activity in autopilot mode with time acceleration, saved and resume worked fine, dispatcher window worked.
Yes the new algorithm appears to be working. I used ORTSForestClearDistance ( 2 ) in the trk file.

NO_TREE.jpg TREE.jpg

Like Otto my eyes were a poppin'! People should keep testing on different routes just to see if there are any other problems or glitches.

Thanks to Carlo Santucci and jtang....and of course all the OR users.

[baldwin]

Otto, only forest objects are affected by this patch, so any trees left close to the tracks will be individually placed.

EDIT. Patch #3 has let some trees back onto or close to the track. Still needs some work to get things right.

[OTTODAD]

Checked the original WP3 this morning with the ORTS X.3360 and Carlo's latest update of his fix and it too worked !

The less than a dozen trees in the Dorset-3, their branches intruding over tracks, it has not moved completely clear off the tracks, I will ignore !

[Don6218]

That does look promising! Is this something that is/will be readily available in T-S?

Is this included with that version of OR?

[R. Steele]

That does look promising! Is this something that is/will be readily available in T-S?
Is this included with that version of OR?

Don, Carlo's latest patch files are for testing version X3360 (available here: http://james-ross.co.uk/projects/or/builds ), the patch is comprised of RunActivity.exe ; RunActivityLAA.exe ; and Orts.Formats.Msts.dll. After the OR dev team evaluates and tests this new algorithm it will probably be incorporated into the OR code in some future testing version, that is if all works okay.

[OTTODAD]

Final test of my DB-Tracks Gold-Spike-X in the Carlo Trees-on-Tracks Fix ORTS X.3360 and there are no trees on tracks anywhere.

Leaving the ORTSForestClearDistance ( 2 ) parameter in its *.TRK file and running it in its MSTSBin DB-Tracks MINI had no effect on it running as it should !

[Don6218]

Thank you for the clarification. This is something for us nummies to assist in maintaining a clear route.

Good job all!

[R. Steele]

Just an update from the thread at ET, Carlo is working with the other OR devs on an XNA problem - (beyond me - just reporting) - trying to refine the algorithm just a bit more. You can see from Otto's posts - and others here and at ET - that this new approach using an algorithm from 2013 (jtang) appears to be working.

[eric]

I did some experimenting back when JJ did the first attempt, and started just placing forest objects that covered the entire tile.

Maybe time to revisit that for portions of upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin...

[tbundy1982]

I can report that all of Rich Garber's routes show remarkable improvement with the patch applied to x3362. However, not all trees have disappeared from the tracks. I'm certain that several of these instances are merely poorly placed single object trees, but a couple require further investigation. I've set the threshold to 2 or 3 depending on the route. 3-4 works for lines with telegraph poles but a higher number may be too intrusive into the existing scenery. Even 3 completely removed a few trackside groves. In all, a remarkable improvement to OpenRails.

Many thanks to all involved!

Tyler

[baldwin]

I did consider the possibility of poorly placed single trees, but then decided that it was not that. After all who would place trees on the track deliberately. There are some poorly placed forest regions though and it is those that I think are causing the odd one or two to appear even when the patch is in place.

[Don6218]

Ok, I downloaded the newest experimental version of OR, instigated the "Clearing Trees" as instructed.

I found that most were cleared except for 4 trees still on the track, but an anomaly showed up......it also put a static consist off the rails.

I am going to adjust the number as suggested, on the return run, to see if the route has been cleared as intended. It is the Feather River Route by 3D Trains.

I love this route, almost as much as Surfliner 2, that route has no such problem.

But anyway, I will report back my findings.