Open Rails - Time Acceleration

[joe_star]

Hello

I understand time acceleration is possible in Open rails similar to what is in MSTS (user controlled with shortcut). However, is there any option to apply a time multiplier to speed up & slow down the entire passage of time in game?

I ask this with reference to certain routes which are "compressed" and do not follow the real route mileage, or fantasy routes which the user may want to set up extended time spans (to run during night & day). This way AI train behaviour could also be better managed to suit the timetable.

I doubt such functionality exisits, but was just throwing it out there to see if anything is possible...

[csantucci]

I don't know if this answers your question, which is not fully clear to me, but there are two ways to fiddle with time in OR. The first one is similar to MSTS, that is you can (in game) accelerate time with Ctrl-Alt-9(NumKey), slow down time with Ctrl-Alt-3(NumKey) and return to standard time speed with Ctrl-Alt-7(NumKey).
The second one is "Debug Clock Forwards" and "Debug Clock Backwards", which moves the clock forwards or backwards, while still having trains run at normal speed. I don't have an English keyboard, so I can't tell you what keys are used. You can see that in the list of the commands in the F1 help window.
I don't know however how this influences operation of AI trains. I'd say situation could become quite confused...

[Don6218]

"The second one is "Debug Clock Forwards" and "Debug Clock Backwards", which moves the clock forwards or backwards, while still having trains run at normal speed. I don't have an English keyboard, so I can't tell you what keys are used. You can see that in the list of the commands in the F1 help window.
I don't know however how this influences operation of AI trains. I'd say situation could become quite confused..."

I use this feature to arrive at stations close to on time, only from time to time. I found that a couple of jumps ( Use the "-" & "+" keys to advance or retard by approx. 3 minutes/press ) does not seem to affect anything as far as AI's, it just gets you to the correct spot for a timed meet. I also found that if you advance more than 3 presses (9 minutes) things seem to go wrong, maybe just me but it seems to really upset the AI's and any meets. At this point, depending on the Route/Activity some of the AI's just disappear. If you advance 12 hours the whole activity shuts down except for the Player Train.
This is what I have found to happen, not technical or scientific, just what I found.

[joe_star]

Thanks for the responses. Indeed I am aware of the 2 features above, but both need manual input from the user to work. I was looking for something that could be implemented at a global level, and thereby running a route in the correct night/day cycle even if the route itself is compressed and not following actual route mileage.

I may look into the source to hack something in for my own use at some point.

[geepster775]

Probably the smarter move, as I wouldn't wait around for official code fixes to handle oddly-built routes. The goal should be non-compressed routes anyway.

As for the time jump keys, I only use them when I need to take a screen for the purposes of showing off rolling stock features and find the sun to be at a non-supportive angle. Most of that is an explore situation and not when in an activity. I certainly don't use them to fudge my arrival times. I hate that they are located so close to the brake keys, as sometimes in dimly-lit rooms I hit them by mistake when aiming for the brake keys and it fubars the activity by accident.

[joe_star]

Digging this up again as today i actually went looking at the source code & managed to add for myself a feature that serves this exact purpose. It speeds up the in game clock at a constant rate while keeping the actual game speed the same.

A multiplier is specified in the activity file, so it can be customized per activity

This way, proper time cycles & timetable adherence can be achieved for some of the compressed distance routes (especially the Indian ones).

Testing with traffic seems ok as well, simply requiring modifying the start times according to the multiplier applied, as with the player schedule as well

[Akay Kumar]

can u tell me the method to apply the multiplier

[joe_star]

You can download my private build of OR thats attached here to this post

To use time acceleration in Activity Mode, add the following line to your .act file

ORTSActClockSpeed ( 35 )
- in the example above the clock and day/night will run 3.5x faster in the activity

To use in Timetable mode, you need to add a row #clockmult BELOW the #dispose row, and specify the time acceleration (same as in activity) in the comment column