ORTS AI Auto American Horn Blow at Crossings

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Great new feature in Monogame 86 - thanks to Carlos - one line in your activity file an all AI trains will initiate horn blow at all crossings with an American style.

- inserting line
ORTSAIHornAtCrossings ( 2 )

in .act files after line
NextActivityObjectUID ( xxxx )


Video Example

Regards,
Scott

[geepster775]

Hoping next up will be a fix for the 'overzealous dispatcher' problem.

If the player train was not waiting to make a crossover move, and instead continued to use the track it was on, the signal would have come in with the rear 8 cars of the AI freight still in the interlocking plant. Cringe-worthy. Some routes can have really long interlockings.

https://youtu.be/n_UvghGnNI4?t=298

Needs to behave more like this

https://youtu.be/n_UvghGnNI4?t=608

On dark territory, or when dealing with MOW on signaled track, the delay should be even longer as the track must be released by the MOW person via radio communication with the dispatcher, and (in no signal territory) a new track warrant issued for continued movement by the player.

https://youtu.be/Ppw6Ca6kEQg?t=632

Signal should not come in the moment the track inspector clears the switch. The track inspector in the hyrail needs to verbally clear his hold of the track via radio conversation with the dispatcher before dispatcher can clear the signal for the waiting freight.

[trainmanaustin]

That is a heck of an improvement. Last blast of the horn was a little long but beggers cant be choosers.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[csantucci]

To trainmanaustin: there is a reason for the length of the last blast. The position of the train when the the blast sequence, which has a fixed duration, starts, is determined by the speed of the AI train, its max allowed speed and the duration of such sequence. If however the AI train accelerates or decelerates significantly from the moment the sequence starts, there is either the risk that the train passes the crossing when the last blast hasn't started, or that it passes it when the last blast has already terminated. Using a long blast significantly reduces this risk. A solution would be to adapt the length of the last blast considering the position of the train when such blast is initiated, but this requires further work.
To geepster: I see your point, however it must be considered that not all railways in the world work this way. So maybe a sort of a general delay parameter should be provided either in the activity or in the route file to consider that case. It must also be taken into account that there also other cases where signals are at stop, e.g. when a train precedes another train. In such case I don't think there is a so long delay from the moment the preceding train has cleared the section ahead of the following train; so distinctions must be made, which might complicate coding.

[niknak]

I'd been putting off installing MonoGame for a while but the AI crossing horn sequence was what finally swayed me. Many thanks csantucci

[flanker]

Hi geepster,

nice videos. One question. Where can i find this flat-cars with the trucks?

[uli2]

Hi Michael,

The flat cars with trucks come with the "UP Feather River 1984" add-on by TrainSimulations https://www.trainsimulations.net/up-feather-river-1984 .

Uli

[flanker]

Ulrich, thanks. I have this pack, but not installed.

[csantucci]

Hoping next up will be a fix for the 'overzealous dispatcher' problem.
...

Geepster,
there is something that you can do to partially mitigate this issue. The point where the train passing the switch clears it is determined by the ClearanceDist ( 35 ) parameter (in meters) of the TrackShape of the switch within the Global tsection.dat.
You can increase such value for the switches of your interest, without modifying the Global tsection.dat, acting as described in paragraph 15.8 of the OR manual.