Wrong Route Surfliner 2-3

[Don6218]

Hello all, again. Stupid question today. I wanted a change of pace so I decided to run me some Surfliner. Low and behold I cannot! I have used and run these before my reset of my computer without issue. Now when I click on OR application, as can be seen, it chooses Surfliner 2-3 and says the activities are not available. My install says Surfliner 2-2 (the 2-3 is only there because I changed it to reinstall the known good copy of 2-2, but it still comes up as 2-3!?
What is going on here? Other routes are playing fine, suddenly OR doesn't like this install. I have posted a screenshot and you can see my version and install dates of the route(s) in my Computer. There is no log file as the activity never started.
Where does OR get the information about the Route Name? I looked but could not find any reference to 2-3, yes I have put in the upgrade a while ago when it first came out to 2-3. Here is the screenshot:
Surfliner Issue.jpg
Surfliner 2-2 issue.jpg

[jonpd]

I believe OR gets the route name from the RouteID entry in the .trk file
Tr_RouteFile (
RouteID ( Surfliner2-2 )
Name ( Surfliner2-2 )
. . .
There is also a RouteID entry in the .act file for each activity, for example:
Tr_Activity (
Serial ( 52 )
Tr_Activity_Header (
RouteID ( Surfliner2-2 )
Name ( "Amtrak 778" )



These entries have to match. I believe in the past i.e. MSTS and older versions of OR this check was not done, which is why the activity may have worked before but doe snot now with the newer versions.

To fix just use a Unicode capable editor such as Notepad++ to correct the .act file entry to match the entry in the .trk file.

[slipperman]

Hi Jon,
With respect, I'd NEVER suggest changing the RouteID in an activity file! If it's designed to work with a specific version of a route, it's quite likely that it'll fail to work in a different version.

The best thing Don can do is to go into the Open Rails Options > Content and delete the Surfliner 2-3 entry, then add the 'proper' Surfliner 2-2 route. Obviously, if he has overwritten the 2-2 route with the 2-3 version, this won't work and he'll need to re-install v2-2 from its download before adding it to OR.

Cheers,
Ged

[R. Steele]

Hi Jon,
With respect, I'd NEVER suggest changing the RouteID in an activity file! If it's designed to work with a specific version of a route, it's quite likely that it'll fail to work in a different version.

The best thing Don can do is to go into the Open Rails Options > Content and delete the Surfliner 2-3 entry, then add the 'proper' Surfliner 2-2 route. Obviously, if he has overwritten the 2-2 route with the 2-3 version, this won't work and he'll need to re-install v2-2 from its download before adding it to OR.

Cheers,
Ged

Generally speaking - good advice, however, with the surfliner ( and other some routes not germane to this discussion ) the revisions in each route update corrected track layout -- changing paths -- making activities inoperative. IF you wish to repair the paths ( relatively easy with OR's trackviewer [compared to MSTS AE ] ) you can run all of the previous surfliner activities on the final update 2-3. I've renamed every activity for the surfliner I've found to "RouteID ( Surfliner2-3)" and with the path repairs they all work fine.

You do have to take care to examine broken paths for such items as reverse points -- etc..and sometimes a little troubleshooting needs to be done when running the activity...but it does work.

[slipperman]

Hi Gerry,
Whereas you are quite correct that these problems can be fixed, we need to remember that many members asking for help are not experienced in the intricacies of MSTS and/or Open Rails and they may not have the ability or confidence to do as you suggest.

Cheers,
Ged

[Don6218]

Yes Gerry, your suggestion is a good one, I have enough back-ups to delve deep into the inner workings, I only hesitate if I am really uncomfortable.
So far I have gone through with the Corrections of renaming, in the TRK file as well as in the Activity (one act at a time, so far only one. I also ran the ActMan program, only a couple of errors with Metrolink Trains with the activity HT-Amtrak 14. It is the only one I modified. I checked through a bunch of other routes and activities and they work fine. Also the Explore part works fine with whatever train I select. I also ran through the Path Correction in the OR Window, came back with no issues-nothing needed correcting. I am still getting the "Not Same Route" error message. I also tried deleting and reinstalling the Default path in OR but still the same.
Where else is the "Route ID" found? Just in the Activity and TRK file? My next step is to totally delete and reinstall Surfliner 2.3.
Thank you all for your suggestions.

[R. Steele]

Hi Gerry,
Whereas you are quite correct that these problems can be fixed, we need to remember that many members asking for help are not experienced in the intricacies of MSTS and/or Open Rails and they may not have the ability or confidence to do as you suggest.

Cheers,
Ged

Of Course-certainly, but that's up to them to decide. I'm simply providing what small insight I have into the question, based on my experience. At one time I did not know how to fix paths, or that it would work --- changing the Route ID data in the activity file --- read the forum, dug into the threads, and made mistakes trying to do the work...but I finally learned.

No matter what their abilities, trying and failing is much less preferable than not trying at all. From every failure some learning occurs. I taught college level courses for many years and came in contact with a very wide range of human confidence...believe me everyone can learn.

Just giving someone the chance to follow their own path to some sort of better understanding of the hobby.

...and lastly...borrowing a phrase from a most learned and talented colleague --- everything posted above is with greatest respect.

[R. Steele]

Yes Gerry, your suggestion is a good one, I have enough back-ups to delve deep into the inner workings, I only hesitate if I am really uncomfortable.
So far I have gone through with the Corrections of renaming, in the TRK file as well as in the Activity (one act at a time, so far only one. I also ran the ActMan program, only a couple of errors with Metrolink Trains with the activity HT-Amtrak 14. It is the only one I modified. I checked through a bunch of other routes and activities and they work fine. Also the Explore part works fine with whatever train I select. I also ran through the Path Correction in the OR Window, came back with no issues-nothing needed correcting. I am still getting the "Not Same Route" error message. I also tried deleting and reinstalling the Default path in OR but still the same.
Where else is the "Route ID" found? Just in the Activity and TRK file? My next step is to totally delete and reinstall Surfliner 2.3.
Thank you all for your suggestions.

Since you mentioned HT-Amtrak 14, take a look at the screenshots. This act opens and runs on my system. Compare the file and Route ID names with yours to see if you spot a difference.

bandicam 2021-10-27 17-39-20-108.jpg bandicam 2021-10-27 17-41-14-647.jpg

As you can see the trk file in my Surfliner2-3 folder is named "Surfliner2-2.trk" --- if all your names match mine it should work...unless you've really got some sort of mess on your hands...we'll cross that bridge when we have to.

If I've chosen an activity that works for you, find me one that doesn't and we'll start over again. Perhaps Ged can also diagnose it, if he logs back on before I do.

[slipperman]

Hi Gerry,
The most important thing I can see is that, in the Surfliner2-2.trk file, FileName is set to 'Surfliner2-2' which means that all the 'key' files (.tdb, .rdb, etc) looked for by MSTS/ORTS will be named as such and not 'Surfliner2-3'. Solution? If the route really is Surfliner2-3, change the line to read : 'FileName ( Surfliner2-3 )'. It might also be better to similarly change the 'Graphic' line (unless that file is still named Surfliner2-2!).

NOTE : MSTS doesn't look at the name of a .trk file, just picking up the first one it finds in the route folder, which is why it accepts Surfliner2-2.trk in the (presumably) Surfliner2-3 folder - there is no need, technically, to change the name of this file, although it'd be preferable from a human/visual point of view!

Cheers,
Ged

[R. Steele]

The most important thing I can see is that, in the Surfliner2-2.trk file, FileName is set to 'Surfliner2-2' which means that all the 'key' files (.tdb, .rdb, etc) looked for by MSTS/ORTS will be named as such and not 'Surfliner2-3'.

Solution? If the route really is Surfliner2-3, change the line to read : 'FileName ( Surfliner2-3 )'. It might also be better to similarly change the 'Graphic' line (unless that file is still named Surfliner2-2!).

Correct all the key file names mentioned should match, in the case of updating Surfliner from 2-2 to 2-3, I believe the update was incidental, so I left them all the same at 2-2. I did change the Route ID and Name lines in the trk file to reflect the update and made up a new load.ace reflecting the change. All activities from all previous incarnations of the surfliner work with version 2.3 -- once the paths were fixed and all activity Route ID matched the trk file Route ID.

I don't know if it's absolute necessary to change all the file names from 2-2 to 2-3, ---of course not being a route builder there could be some reason I'm unaware for doing that. Ver2-3 does open in TSRE with no trouble and indicates the file and internal names as I have them.

NOTE : MSTS doesn't look at the name of a .trk file, just picking up the first one it finds in the route folder, which is why it accepts Surfliner2-2.trk in the (presumably) Surfliner2-3 folder - there is no need, technically, to change the name of this file, although it'd be preferable from a human/visual point of view!
Cheers,
Ged

I don't use MSTS, so no comment there. As I said OR runs this route correctly with names as I've outlined. Am I being obtuse, missing your meaning, or posting at cross-purposes?

Referring to my underlined, gotta agree, common sense move -- another chore for the list. --- More importantly the difference you're pointing out, while understandable to me ( and yourself ) could present some confusion to someone trying to learn about this!

[Don6218]

Thank you Gerry! A picture is worth a thousand replies! I had a look at your example and it suddenly flashed before me that I also have ConText and it is so useful in finding errors! Old Brain Fart moment for sure, but your example showed me just what to do, thanks for that to jog my memory.
I changed the related numbers to "2-3" and at least now OR reads the activities, I will now see if they do in fact function.