Ben
fotopic... whats that?
Posts: 4,282 
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Post by Ben on Aug 15, 2009 10:20:45 GMT
Bit of a question for the sim people on here. I'm looking for a specific type of simulation, but since there are dozens out there I don't know which one can deliver what I'm after. I'm looking for a sim where its possible to lay track (inc points and crossovers) and signals, and have trains automatically use and run over both like in 'Trainz', but where also trains can be routed to stop and serve different lines and branches, similar to Sid Meyers railroads. Does any such sim exist? If not why has no-one written one?  Many thanks! |
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Post by stimarco on Aug 17, 2009 16:26:56 GMT
You can script trains in Trainz too, though it's not a feature they've made particularly easy to use. As long as you have the correct elements in place, you can tell a train to stop at Station A, platform 1, then Station B, platform 2, and so on. A proper timetable is also doable, but requires more effort to achieve. (There's also "Train Simulator 2" or some such, from EA. This is similar to Trainz, though you can see where the latter's maturity has paid off in its ease of use.)
Personally, I'd love to write something which combines Chris Sawyer's "Locomotion" with the power of something like "Trainz", but I don't have the money or art skills. (I do have the programming skills though.)
I'm particularly interested in a game which gives a more realistic engineering and logistics experience; most games of this sort tend to dumb down the track-building to a ridiculous extent, but then throw loads of tedious micro-management at you. (Why the hell should the person responsible for building the network also have to remind the company to replace their locomotives when they get too old?)
I think there's a lot of potential in something like this, where you pick and choose which level you want to play at: a contractor like John Mowlem or Robert McAlpine; an engineer like a Brunel or Stephenson... all the way up to the level of a Watkin or Yerkes.
It's technically doable.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2009 10:04:32 GMT
Most rail simulators can do what you require except BVE. MSTS, Railworks, Railsimulator and Trainz all have the ability to build your own routes as that's what was required by most of the simming community. You can set the destination of your train and timetable it to stop at various stations. You can program AI (Artificial Intelligence) trains that the computer drives whilst your in control of your train, which is great for busy scenarios where you have to wait for the AI train to get out of the way before you can go.
I have RailSimulator and Railworks and read the forums regulary and I would say track laying is easier in Railworks/Railsimulator than MSTS. Most people are changing from RS to RW hence you will get the most support for this if you get into technical difficulties.
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Ben
fotopic... whats that?
Posts: 4,282
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Post by Ben on Aug 20, 2009 10:42:20 GMT
I'll have to take a look at Rail Works. I've investigated Trainz scripting; I'm sure it does the job but I'm not one for coding. My programming prowess stopped with QB and MSDOS batch files!
The reason that I mention SMRR despite its game ethos is because the routing engine allows a train from a station with multipul platforms to continue into a station with multipul platforms, automaticallyy taking the first available platform (as long as it can continue its journey from that platform).
/----- 1---
-----/------2----
\-------3-----
So say a train is coming from the left and theres trains in any two of the platforms it'll go into the one thats unoccupied without trouble. Presumably theres a way of doing this? Avoidinjg specific platform numbers if wished.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2009 13:02:47 GMT
Hmmm. I'm not sure there is a way of doing this. All platforms that are designated in the timetable have to be stopped at. If your train was programmed to stop at platform 1 and it was occupied, altough there may be other unoccupied platforms the signalman will hold you at red untill your particular platform is clear.
You can play the sim in free roam where you set the route on the fly as you're driving but I'm not sure if you can have working AI to interact with in that state.
The only other way is to program your train not to do a timetabled stop at said station but you stop the train there anyway. This way the sim will select an unhindered route through the station but I don't think this will be possible for terminus stations.
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mrfs42
71E25683904T 172E6538094T
Big Hair Day
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Post by mrfs42 on Aug 20, 2009 14:54:38 GMT
Are you thinking of any location in particular, Ben?
If you are interested in a particular data-set for a specific station, remember I've got a huge library of WTTs/TTNs that I can extract data from for you.
Some might be best pondered with a piece of paper first eg. Hammersmith (Met), where there is a definite preference for *not* that platform.
Other situations are not immediately obvious, particularly in the cases of TTNs around Dec. 25th/31st. As examples (plucked at random, because they are next to me about to be entered into the database-of-much-confusion):
Central TTN 335/74 - 25/26 December 1974.
Looking at West Ruislip the road preference in the morning was for road 21 (pfm 2), except for one occasion when road 21 was occupied by an Ety arrival off the Dt (11 02) and train 2 arrived at 11 05½, departing road 22 11 27½; the Ety left in service at 11 07½ from road 21. After that all train used road 22 until 15 01½ when every train until close of traffic - with the exception of another Ety off Dt at 16 39 went to 22, so the following arrival at 16 41½ went to 21.
I can't as yet fathom out why from start of traffic until 1500 road 21 was the preferred route and after 1500 until close of traffic 22 was the preferred one.
Northern TTN 341/68 24 - 27 Dec
By comparison this is quite easy to work out why the cyclic pattern of 1, 2, 3 is broken Ety Start at Edgware went to platform 3 for preference, that's why SB trains sometimes went 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Other things stick out like Morden 'throughs', they were usually given a bit of stand time in the platform before they trundled off up the bank to the Depot, hence any following arrival (usually within 1/1½ min of a departure) was put into an unusual platform.
By comparison, the modern TTs are almost pathological slaves to the cycle of platform occupation - however, bear in mind that certainly in some cases the run-time changes according to the arrival platform. I'm getting reasonable results using vlookups in sorting out the runtime according to the time of day and then the 'tweaks' according to which platform and a second vlookup.
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Post by pakenhamtrain on Aug 20, 2009 15:12:31 GMT
The AI generally sets it's own route depending on how you ordered it. It will lock the junction from changing back until the train has passed. Depending on how complex and how many signals you have the AI will somtime come to a junction and signal set it but not set the rest of the route up and you usually have to set it up yourself. Sometimes you get a conflict between 2 AI trains who won't let go of thier points and you have to take it out of manual to fix it. Like here:  I've just told the train to go to Glen Huntly Centre platform From Caulfield PL2. What the train has done is changed points 648 and locked them to stop anyone from changing them. I can tell the train to go via a trackmark but because I have a number of points there it will only set the first set. I will then sit there and do nothing and will tell you it's waiting for track clearence. I have to change 642U and D: img215.imageshack.us/img215/116/screen075.jpgBefore CFD748 clears and the train departs: img151.imageshack.us/img151/793/screen071.jpg |
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