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Hi,as Jim (SNIPER) said, this is a BETA of a BETA, much still needing to be done by way of Scenery, Objects and Activities and is meant mainly for extensive testing of the Track Layouts and 2 Activities, stretching AI Traffic to the Limit ! Download from: www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/downloads/pon9beta.zipIt Unzips into a temporary Folder portogden9b which needs to be PASTED into the ROUTES Folder and it's INSTALLME.BAT run !!The INSTALLME.BAT contains all the latest fixes and addons and is ALL that is needed, providing all your Default Folders and Default Rolling Stock are visible and not ROUTE RITERed ! I have added my RAILWAVES Ttype.dat, supplying much more realistic track joints sounds than the MSTS Default version.JIMBO even managed to have the Switch Lanterns turn as well as moving the Switch Blades, there were problems with on the PON-8.Things are getting better and better with MSTS, thanks to guys like Jim, 3D-TRAINS, TA, MLT, etc. !!! HAVE FUN and ENJOY !!!Take Care, O t t o.

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PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now ! [View All], OTTODAD, 12:49 PM, Jul-14-04, (0) AAAAACK!!!, sniper297, Jul-14-04, 01:14 PM, (1) RE: AAAAACK!!!, OTTODAD, Jul-14-04, 04:51 PM, (2) RE: EEEEEK!!!, sniper297, Jul-14-04, 06:11 PM, (3) RE: Garber would be proud!!!, LooseCannon17, Jul-14-04, 07:30 PM, (5) RE: AAAAACK!!!, lunionpacific2, Jul-14-04, 07:22 PM, (4) RE: AAAAACK!!!, sniper297, Jul-14-04, 08:28 PM, (6) RE: !!!, LooseCannon17, Jul-14-04, 09:51 PM, (7) AAAARGH!!, sniper297, Jul-14-04, 11:19 PM, (8) RE: AAAARGH!!, LooseCannon17, Jul-14-04, 11:47 PM, (9) Ready, Aim, Backfire!, sniper297, Jul-15-04, 01:42 AM, (10) RE: AAAAACK!!!, OTTODAD, Jul-15-04, 08:25 AM, (12) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, Johansteam, Jul-15-04, 05:09 AM, (11) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, OTTODAD, Jul-15-04, 08:41 AM, (13) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, sniper297, Jul-15-04, 03:48 PM, (14) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, lunionpacific2, Jul-15-04, 07:17 PM, (15) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, hd194512, Jul-15-04, 08:35 PM, (16) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, OTTODAD, Jul-16-04, 08:57 AM, (17) WHAT?? SPEAK UP, DON'T MUMBLE!!, sniper297, Jul-16-04, 11:44 AM, (18) RE: WHAT?? SPEAK UP, DON'T MUMBLE!!, OTTODAD, Jul-16-04, 05:04 PM, (19) RE: WHAT?? SPEAK UP, DON'T MUMBLE!!, sinclair97, Jul-16-04, 06:10 PM, (20) Woods comin', stand clear of the sawdust!, sniper297, Jul-16-04, 11:31 PM, (21) RE: Woods comin', stand clear of the sawdust!, OTTODAD, Jul-17-04, 06:53 AM, (22) RE: Woods comin', stand clear of the sawdust!, OTTODAD, Jul-17-04, 08:40 AM, (24) RE: Woods comin', stand clear of the sawdust!, BN_9402, Jul-17-04, 09:12 PM, (32) RE: Woods comin', stand clear of the sawdust!, OTTODAD, Jul-18-04, 06:48 AM, (34) RE: PORT OGDEN - 9 BETA available now !, Johansteam, Jul-17-04, 07:13 AM, (23) Murphy strikes again!, sniper297, Jul-17-04, 10:49 AM, (25) RE: Murphy strikes again!, OTTODAD, Jul-17-04, 11:06 AM, (26) RE: Murphy strikes again!, Johansteam, Jul-17-04, 01:56 PM, (27) DOWN boy!!!, sniper297, Jul-17-04, 02:46 PM, (28) Pssst, don't tell Otto!, sniper297, Jul-17-04, 02:57 PM, (29) RE: DOWN boy!!!, OTTODAD, Jul-17-04, 03:12 PM, (30) No, not like THAT!, sniper297, Jul-17-04, 06:22 PM, (31) RE: No, not like THAT!, OTTODAD, Jul-18-04, 07:41 AM, (35) RE: DOWN boy!!!, Johansteam, Jul-18-04, 01:41 AM, (33) RE: DOWN boy!!!, OTTODAD, Jul-18-04, 07:46 AM, (36) RE: DOWN boy!!!, Johansteam, Jul-18-04, 01:48 PM, (37) RE: DOWN boy!!!, BNSFLADY, Jul-18-04, 02:03 PM, (38) STOMP!!, sniper297, Jul-18-04, 09:05 PM, (39) RE: STOMP!!, Johansteam, Jul-19-04, 01:10 PM, (41) RE: STOMP!!, OTTODAD, Jul-19-04, 04:55 PM, (43) RE: DOWN boy!!!, Johansteam, Jul-19-04, 01:05 PM, (40) RE: DOWN boy!!!, BNSFLADY, Jul-19-04, 02:21 PM, (42) Speak of the Devil..., sniper297, Jul-19-04, 11:49 PM, (44) RE: Speak of the Devil..., OTTODAD, Jul-20-04, 06:50 AM, (45) RE: Speak of the Devil..., riograndedude, Jul-23-04, 04:46 PM, (46) RE: Speak of the Devil..., sniper297, Jul-23-04, 09:17 PM, (47)

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Hee-hee, silly old geezer, don't you know if you're gonna customize something you gotta include all the required files?! Copying the ttype.dat from one of the defaults in to overwrite will fix it, anyone else gets smacked with this one. Otto, shoot me the original package for the railwaves sound, if it don't fatten up the zip too much I'll add it to the custom folder and throw some lines into custom.bat to send everything where it's supposed to go.

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O.K., sorted that one, Jim !Easy to forget that others don't have the same stuff ! The new pon9beta.zip (13 Mb) now has it all and UNZIPs into a Train Simulator Folder which contains the SOUND and ROUTES Folders for easy installing !Take care, O t t o.

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So lemmee see if I got this straight, you took a 7.5 meg download and added 6.5 megs of wave files just so it would SOUND better?! Hee-hee, redefining the meaning of FATWARE here, I guarantee that ain't going in the final version!Don't worry, folks, Otto and I will get our act together eventually!

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Sniper,Installed no problem, no crashes on delivery, AI runs well, 30 FPS using cabview, 24-26 using 2 view, sliders cranked. DEFAULT equipment. Sounds nice too. 21 minutes of driving around, 2 AI trains (one passing, one head on).Keep up the good work,LC17
"46 and 2 are just ahead of me"
www.mltdownloads.net - Another free source of Maple Leaf Tracks products repaints

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Hi everybody..PON9 is a must........Question to OTTODADWhat to do with PON version 8 ?RAILWAVES is a good surprise. Does it work in any route?
Just Paste Your sounds in the sound folder?regards
Lunion

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What to do with V8 is hang on to it until V9 is finished, this is just a beta.Hey loose cannon, rolling around the decks unsecured, thought you fell overboard! Sent you the 8 1/2 clone with all the signals stripped out, got it kicked back cuz your mailbox was full, sent you a note advising you to clean out all your junk so I could stuff your inbox with my junk, got that kicked back too! Git a good laugh out of it tho;209.228.36.2 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 RCPT TO:<alan.crotty@virgin.net> User unknown
Giving up on 209.228.36.2."209.228.36.2 does not like recipient."? What did you do to piss off 209.228.36.2?

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Sniper,Maybe the ailines have spilled over to the internet, and e-mail can be lost like luggage, cause I gots no idea who alan.crotty is. Yer glasses need cleanin' again? Anyways, who built this boat? I've been rolling around on this deck for years, least you noticed, almost fell in tho. Either way, I hope I haven't missed the boat, so to speak, on that version, been running some MLT equipment in place of the DEFAULT, and I've come to two conclusions. Heavy, 59 and 60 cars trains, led by 4 SD-40's, are no match for your route, nor your AI frequency. Makes MSTS phone home. Keep it short, 35 cars is safe, pulled by three SD-40's. PO&N, with MLT equipment, looks really, really good.Now, this v9 you've thrown out, runs a few FPS faster from Port Ogden to Anderson than v8, but there are still some switches that have points that don't move, 'specially in Johansburg. Going to do some more exploring, using DEFAULT, just to see what I can see. Now only if I could find Wipfel for some cognac, been drving around for hours looking, and I'm gettin kind of parched.If you could, you've my address again, my box is ready for yer junk.LC17
"46 and 2 are just ahead of me"
www.mltdownloads.net - Another free source of Maple Leaf Tracks products repaints

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-14-04 AT 11:37 PM (EST)

Well, you're right, except it ain't my bifocals, it's premature senility. I had WAY too much fun back in the '60s, and it caught up to me. "alan.crotty" was a different kickback, somebody that requested a trackplan. One problem at a time is saturation point for what few braincells I have left. Anyway, sent Loose Cannon atch'ya again, medium rare hold the signals."Now, this v9 you've thrown out, runs a few FPS faster from Port Ogden to Anderson than v8," Not surprising considering the scenery is only half baked so far,"but there are still some switches that have points that don't move,"Yeah, I haven't really looked at that yet, like I say it's not been one of the real high priorities. It is puzzling tho, why would a switch quit animating just because it's been there for 3 years? Switches go stale?!"'specially in Johansburg."Now that's an idea. When I layed out the track from Port Ogden going north (obviously north, hence the name!), I had Lin Wescott's drawing with me at all times. Once I finished and started adding wyes and expanding outside the original trackplan I was winging it, so I put the trackplan away where it would be safe, IE where I'd never be able to find it again. So when it came time to name the towns I knew Port Ogden (duh!) but just made up names for the other places since I couldn't find where I put the trackplan. Johnsburg was actually supposed to be "Saint Marys", and after finding the trackplan again last year I thought about changing it, but by now MSTS PO&N fans knew that yard as Johnsburg, so I named the upper level (which shoulda been "Carbon City" or something) Saint Marys. Oughtta change all that anyway and let the chips fall where they may, then I wouldn't have to fix the switches if everyone was confused about what town they were in. Renaming it to Johansburg for Johan Pretorious (JohanSteam, made a bunch of really cool cabviews) might be an idea, cause some serious confusion without fixing anything, all you guys squinting at the switchpoints wouldn't know where the hell you were."Now only if I could find Wipfel for some cognac, been driving around for hours looking, and I'm gettin kind of parched."Hee-hee, the default player path for Wescott goes left on the wye, try throwing the first switch to the right to cross over to the east track. That goes north out of Wescott to the river, and then Okrasa Ghia (SLOW DOWN FOR THE GAUNTLET!!) and into Wipfel. What's different about Wipfel is the tail of the wye no longer dead ends, but goes to a parallel route to Anderson thru the new Chippewa Falls, Texas Tea, and Shea coal mine. As for cognac, you won't find any, the water tower is still there but I drained it to try and keep Otto sober long enough to test this beta. EDIT: Almost forgot:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID6/12229.htmlA small four tile route for people who like to do wierd tests.

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Sniper, you've mail again.Regarding the switchponts, I really don't care cause I'm usually drooling over the scenery or on the hunt for AI (remember, as a beta tester looking for the limits of AI traffic, I will take my default geep and it's 5 boxcars anywhere to do so). When I stumbled into Johnsburg or Johansburg, or whatever little town that is, I threw the switch to go to the South Pass, or I thought I did, but why'd I go straight. A panic stop, back up, throw the switch again, it shows straight, I go right. WTF, I back up again, and try it again, only to realize that a) I failed as a BETA tester hunting AI trains down, as I'm sure I missed a couple by now, and b) I wonder how many other people are going to be just like me in their concern over a set of animated switchpoints. I can see the traffic back up now as a 100 trains are all backing up and wondering what's up with this switch at the South Pass. Note this, as I munch on a cocomut mixed with the last few drops of cognac, (I had to shake the tower), I found a stop signal, ran it, and had an activity end, much to the dismay of the AI train just coming around the bend. I don't care, as I wasn't paying attention to my train, just the scenery, but I thought the most restrictive signal you had was stop and proceed. Maybe it was because normally the player takes the main and the AI goes around it? Maybe I just used my last braincell, you've got a new addy in yer mail that claims 10MB (my Sympatico empty, I guess only allows 7.62MB out of 10, and Yahoo's free)I've called the PO&N to send another few tankers up to Wipfel for a refill. And as for the 60's ...LC17
"46 and 2 are just ahead of me"
www.mltdownloads.net - Another free source of Maple Leaf Tracks products repaints

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Unionpacific, I knew there was another question I missed somewhere. The ttype.dat file in the route calls for all the other files in the main \Train Simulator\Sounds folder, so once you have installed this sound package (which is automatic the way Otto packaged it) all the RA track SMS and WAV files are in the main sound folder. So copy that ttype.dat file into any other route, and you'll get the new sounds in that route too.Otto, that might be an idea for the official version, if this railwave thing is available as a seperate download somewhere, just include the ttype.dat for it in the custom folder or something, with instructions to overwrite the default eurotrack ttype.dat if and only if they have the RAeurotrack package. Two ttype.dats wouldn't take any extra space, and I can whip up a bat to change back and forth faster than you can say DOS Dinosaur."I threw the switch to go to the South Pass, or I thought I did, but why'd I go straight."Might help once I get all the switchstands in, that yard ladder with the crossover can get confusing."A panic stop, back up, throw the switch again, it shows straight, I go right."Hmmm, just tried it, my switch window appears to be working correctly. You got Ytracks (or mtracks or zztoptracks, whatever it is) replacements for default 10D switches?"WTF, I back up again, and try it again, only to realize that a) I failed as a BETA tester hunting AI trains down, as I'm sure I missed a couple by now, and b) I wonder how many other people are going to be just like me in their concern over a set of animated switchpoints. I can see the traffic back up now as a 100 trains are all backing up and wondering what's up with this switch at the South Pass."Now it sounds like a loose nut on the throttle, step out of the cab and blow into this little balloon."Note this, as I munch on a cocomut mixed with the last few drops of cognac, (I had to shake the tower),"Hmmm, as I suspected. You may want to have a lawyer present before we go on."I found a stop signal, ran it, and had an activity end, much to the dismay of the AI train just coming around the bend. I don't care, as I wasn't paying attention to my train, just the scenery, but I thought the most restrictive signal you had was stop and proceed. Maybe it was because normally the player takes the main and the AI goes around it?"Yeah, that would do it. Activity ending signals are only on the AI route, so you somehow got onto the AI route, probably by blowing the previous permissive red signal. Just because you CAN run the reds on the player route don't necessarily mean it's a good idea, the only time I do is when I know for sure I'm following AI traffic or if the AI train is overtaking and I still got a green distant. That last is risky cuz if the AI train hits the signal that trips the far switch before your engine clears the base of the near switch you can end up on the single track section commited to the AI route. You can still salvage that by running ahead of the AI train, "TAB"ing your way thru all the red signals until you get to the next single track section where you can get back onto the player route. Altho that's usually more trouble than it's worth, easier to quit the activity and start over. "Maybe I just used my last braincell, you've got a new addy in yer mail that claims 10MB (my Sympatico empty, I guess only allows 7.62MB out of 10, and Yahoo's free)"I just chopped it in half and sent you the first part, so when you download and delete that fire one back at me and I'll send the other half. Funny thing, I've had this same DSL for a couple years now, gone from Ameritech to SBC Ameritech to SBC Yahoo as the corporate raiders did their thing, but it's the same company and the same email address. At first I had a 10 meg limit total, then it was 25 megs but only 9 megs per attachment. That was when I was helping Bill Burnett with the packaging for Seaview 1 and 2, and poor Bill had to send me the route in 9 meg chunks, wait for me to send back "next", and then send the next part. Once I had compressed, chopped, folded, spindled, and mutilated it down to 21 megs I had to send it back in three sections to stay under the 9 meg limit. Thank heaven Mike Simpson came out with Route Riter in time for Seaview 3, trying to package all that manually woulda been crazy. Now I got a 2 gig limit for the actual mailbox storage, no idea what the max attachment size is tho. Back when it was 25 megs I wondered the same thing you did, why can't you have a zip attached up to the limit of the box?"I've called the PO&N to send another few tankers up to Wipfel for a refill."Sorry, I intercepted those.(HIC!) "And as for the 60's ..."But don't get me started on that!

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-15-04 AT 08:39 AM (EST)

Hi Lucio !Shhhhhhhh about using the Railwaves ! Forgot that they are $ 8 Payware now and purchased a copy yesterday. Could have sworn they were Freeware when I got them first ?If anybody feels bad about using them, get your own copy, they are worth the money !Yes, they can be used in any route. Just copy their Ttype.dat into the Route you want to use them for.PON-8 ? I am keeping mine, the last in that line of design ! The new PON-9 has a different layout and no doubt some of the Scenery and Objects as well.Take Care, O t t o.P.S.: JIM, yes I thought about doing the Ttype.dat bit you suggest, including both the Default and Railwaves versions after I realised that RAILWAVES are Payware now. I would not be without them ! Those who have them now, enjoy them and if your conscience pricks you then buy a copy ! B.t.w., you took the Lantern Switches out of the PON-9 Johnsburg yard. The ones coming out of Westcott work O.K. ! More testing yet to come. Keep you eyes on your INBOX for reports !

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Thanks a million, Jim and Otto, for another great piece of work. :^)
Great stuff,
Johan.

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Johan, 99% percent of Thanks to Jim, the rest to me ? O t t o

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Hee-hee, speak of the devil and up he pops! How you doing, Johan? I'm gonna take that as a sign from the ghost of Linn Wescott, people frequently get lost on the PO&N anyway, so scrambling up the town names a little won't make it any worse.You ever get a decent monitor and video card so you can do these pretty cabviews in 1024x768? "Payware"? Yikes, Otto, get that out of there, du sprekenzie "software piracy"? A ball and chain just isn't the proper fashion accessory for a man your age.

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hi sniper
you have mail
lunion

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Hi sniper. downloaded 9B ran install bat. no problems. ran for about 2 hours with kosmos sky, sliders max. with water, textures and mountains turned on. frame rate averaged around 25. great work can't wait until it is finished. besides MSTS i only have PO&N8 and now 9B on my computer. I am not real good with computers but if there is something i can help with or test please let me know. again thanks for the PO&N. Now back to PO&N9B. paul
Pentium 4 2.26 GHz w/512k Cache, 533 MHz FSB, 1.0GB DDR System memory. 80GB ATA/100 (7200RPM) HD. GeFORCE FX 5200AGP 128MB DDR Graphics card

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Done, Jim !Those who want RAILWAVES, I can recommend, can get it for $ 8.00 from: www.railwaves.comSorry about that ! O t t o

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-16-04 AT 11:46 AM (EST)

Can't hear you over these track sounds, and I've gone half deaf anyway. Cranked the volume all the way up, half the neighborhood is wandering around by the Union Pacific - Metra - Lake Street EL merge half a block north of me trying to figure out whether they should sue the CTA, Metra or the UP for all the noise. I turn the volume down when there's no train going by, so they still haven't figured it out. Working on a new idea, got a texture test:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40f8034e2325a72d.zipUnzip to the trainsim routes folder. That will add one activity with a start point at CPR Malice heading to Timken Forest, and new billboard backdrop tree textures, the textures are pineslope1 and 2.I noticed some shimmering from that mountain in the route editor, so I disabled FSAA and anisotropic filtering to look at it in the game. No difference from PO&N8 that I can see, with FSAA/anisotropic turned off the old texture shimmers too. Anybody see anything different, the new tex shimmers more than the old (start in Anderson on PO&N8 and don't throw any switches, take you to the same mountain), give a shout.Oh yeah, somebody (or several somebodies) sent me email talking about trees in the middle of the track, I know about those, just haven't gotten to them yet. Now where did I leave that chainsaw? Hmmm, come to think of it, that's a lot of trees anyway. Better use dynamite.

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Hi Jim !That's what it looks like in mine, Anisotropic 8x and no Antialiasing the RAILDRIVER don't like. No shimmering that I can notice. nVIDIA TI-4600 / 30.82 driver and KOSMOSed of course ! O t t o

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Very nice work Otto, but is that other fella (is he still needed?) going to change his default dirty ditchwater blue to something that looks like water?And when is the PO&N9 going to be finished--I can't wait all day you know?Mike

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That don't look like water either, looks more like a trainload of blue latex paint derailed. I was following this new idea;http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID6/12214.htmlAnd here's an application of it in Chippewa Falls:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40f8a67040f39881.zipSame as before, download and extract, copy, or move to \Train Simulator\Routes. To activate you need to run either 1forest.bat or 1gantree.bat, similar to the heavy.bay and lite.bat from PO&N6, that will swap world files back and forth. Also included is another activity with the starting point in Wipfel heading toward Chippewa Falls. After running 1forest.bat start the activity, and since Wipfel is the home of Ottodad the infamous bandit, keep one hand on your wallet while you advance the throttle with the other. Drive thru Chippewa Falls, note framerates.Escape to exit, and ALT TAB out of train simulator, go into Windows Explorer \Train Simulator\Routes\Portogden9b, double click on gantree.bat, go back in the game and restart activity: And note the framerates with the new autogantry forest scenery.This is not gonna be an either/or, so far it looks to me like both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and I'll probably end up using a combination of both wherever it's practical, unless somebody spots some obvious flaw that I've overlooked. Comments on how either looks compared to the other, or if you think they both stink on ice, are welcome, don't be afraid of destroying my poor little teeny tiny ego.
Oh yeah, don't worry about popups, all that empty space between Wipfel and Chippewa Falls will be filled with hills and trees too, so it won't be visible from that distance in the finished version. Dunno when that will be yet, but probably long before Mike manages to drive the entire route, including all alternate branchlines, without derailing or colliding with an AI train.

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Hi Jim !Yes, that idea of using the Gantry.dat that way intrigued me and there is a member who even uses it to create DYNAMIC tracks for SCALERAIL, all of it beyond me ! But whichever method you are going to apply to give the PON-9 an appearance you approve of is going to be good enough for me as it was with all previous versions, Aqua excepted ! Take Care, O t t o.

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-04 AT 09:25 AM (EST)

Jimbo, I am missing a Pineslope1L.s ! O t t oP.S.: Copied the Pineslope1, 2, 3 over to Pineslope1L, 2L, 3L, no problem, but am not thrilled with the looks of these Cardboard Cutout Trees Backdrops ! Also the GANTRY versions do not seem to place their shapes on uneven Terrain as FORESTS do.How about Water like used by the N.&.J.C. ?Or this one I hacked in the LEHIGH VALLEY ?I am a sunny, cheerful person and like the KOSMOS / SEAVIEW Sky and Water ! Especially here in the U.K. where there usually is a lot of Rain and cloudy Skies !Take Care, O t t o.

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Why in that last pic is there an airport layout map on the desk? I thought this was trainsim, not flightsim?Austin

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-18-04 AT 06:50 AM (EST)

Austin,you will have to ask KUJU, the suppliers of that SERIES 30000 Cab I am using in my special Diesel-Electric Trainsets ! If it is indeed a map of an Airport and perhaps includes a Railway Terminal this train is heading for. Or the driver is also a pilot, going for a spin in the air after signing off from duty ?Whatever, I am not aware of a rule prohibiting the use of non-railway related items in a Driver's Cab ! O t t o

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-04 AT 08:07 AM (EST)

Hi Jim and Otto,
Great stuff. Sorry but I was away a bit thus did not follow what else were posted. Thanking you both from the bottom of my heart for PON ( Otto, ok, Jim did the major work but your contribution is also taken note of )
Jim, yes I recall the time when I worked with "Fozzy" to create the cab for his K36....great times were held by all, Timken did the sounds.
As far as I recall, I did do it in 1024 x 768 as well. (The .cvf file has to be mod, to read the 1024 x 768 .ace. If you do not have the bigger .ace file, please let me know and I'll e-mail it to you. I'm running a reasonable hi speed PC with a Radeon 8600 lots of RAM.
Jim, I really have to honestly, "Thank" you, for the honour of having a "Town" named after me...Thanks a million.
Johan.

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Ooopz. Well, Otto, wouldn't ya know it, I'm not too fond of those billboards either, but they're easy on framerates. I decided at the last minute to make a cloned set that were bigger that the originals, forgot to include those. Anyway:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40f948676e5bae1f.zipThere's the correct one with the larger hillside tree shapes, pineslope1L.s thru 3L.s. You're right about the floating in air thing, the big advantage to forest regions is they automatically adjust to the terrain variations. These autogantry forests only work on flat or nearly flat terrain, which is why I say I'm probably gonna use a combination of both. Moving billboard trees further from the tracks might help with the ugly effect.Hey Johan, de nada. I owe you anyway, I stole bits and pieces of one of your cabviews (I forget which ones) for the PO&N 0-8-0s. Any idea what happend to Fozzy? We were working out an agreement with his silly EULA on that K-36, and he just disappeared. I'm half tempted to just declare it abandonware and upload this 2 year old repaint of the K-36 regardless.

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What a cutie, Jim !Looks just the way I feel sometimes, some of my joints getting rusty a bit too ! The Billboard Tree Backdrops would look better if they did not have angled bits sticking out, making it more obvious what they are.A flat Backdrop with a few 2D trees flanking it and some in front camouflaging it would hardly be noticed ?Take Care, O t t o.

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Hi Jim,
I do not know what has eventually happened to Fozzy.He at one stage was looking for income and since never heard from him again.
As far as the "stole" of bits and pieces goes....great, have a field day! I do not mind, as long as it has been put to good use.
BTW I kind of like the "weathering" look of the K36. Pssss, is that a lady on the cab side? Cyndi perhaps?
Regards,
Johan.

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Gotta watch that, I thought Cyndi was Otto's girlfriend? Well anyway, no, that's not B-17 nose art, that's the infamous CatDog logo that Kevin "Cadman" Shea created for the PO&N a couple of years ago."CatDog" was a popular cartoon here in the US on the Nickelodeon channel, a kind of siamese twin animal with a cat's head at one end and a dog's head at the other, no tails. Seemed like the perfect symbol for a route that don't know whether it's coming or going. Otto, looking at pic #1 in post 24 again, it just occured to me that if the ends of the backdrops are what you're talking about, that one on the right won't look like that in the final version since that whole section will be filled in later. That line where the scenery suddenly changes is the edge of the quad tile, that will also be blended better in the final.As for water, this being a beta I didn't package very efficiently, there is a custom waterbot.ace in there, and I forgot to delete the Route Riter generated installme.bat lines that copy over it with Europe2 textures. Not sure I really want to go with custom water anyway, since whoever wants to can always customize with Kosmos or whatever. Same objection as to the railwaves, even if that was freeware, .wav files don't compress very well in a zipfile. Ace texture files are the worst, the few custom textures I use are 256x256 flat, so they compress to 43k each. 512x512 looks better, 1024x1024 looks better still, but they fatten up a zipfile like crazy. Big change from PO&N6 to PO&N8 was finding default terrtex textures that looked good enough for freeware, and eliminating most of the custom terrtex files to slim down the zip. Compromises in quality are always gonna be necessary, unless you want to end up with something like the Whitefish route, 36 hours for somebody with a 56k modem to download. Until everyone on the planet has DSL or cable, the goal is to keep the PO&N under 10 megabytes for the complete route.

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http://www.raildriver.com/rdfree/tsnews.php

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-04 AT 03:25 PM (EST)

Hi Jim !Had a go at hiding that Trees Backdrop. Could not find better looking trees in a hurry, but you can see what I mean. Trouble is, there is no depth to them locking at them from higher above :Remember, I reported a TDB-Rebuild "Remove_end_end" at -108.33460 / 50.26395. Turned out to be a A1t500r20d crossing a Tile Boundary.Split it into 4 A1t500r5d and the TDB-Rebuild completed O.K. !

Water ? I simply borrow another Route's better looking water and copy it to the watertop.ace or equivalent of the Route I want to improve. Yes, Cyndi is a very good friend, sort of Pen Pal. Hope her arm is healing and she has full use of it again !Lots more work yet ! Take Care, O t t o.P.S.: PIE-TMTS ? Too late ! Already spotted the announcement in the TMTS Forum and downloaded the Videos, but could not help noticing that the SCALERAILS Switch Blades the loco went over to go into the siding were pointing the wrong way ! Apart from that, looking promising !!!

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You gotta remember what's in the zip is a single quad tile with the terrain carved, and two variations on the same world file for that one quad. That quad tile just south of Wipfel/east of Chippewa Falls has half a dozen forest regions on it, hasn't been scenicked yet.First step is getting rid of the sharp texture edge, that was done so I would know where the tile boundary was when I was laying track.Next step is to continue the treeline backdrops;Then fill in between the backdrops and the track. You're right tho, they do need to be moved further back away from the track, and maybe I oughtta make some smaller ones with tapered edges to put between."Remember, I reported a TDB-Rebuild "Remove_end_end" at -108.33460 / 50.26395. Turned out to be a A1t500r20d crossing a Tile Boundary.Split it into 4 A1t500r5d and the TDB-Rebuild completed O.K. !"Hmm, and did you check afterwards with the activity editor, running "take other exit" for all possible divergent paths, to make sure there were no blue poles? Remember, a "successful" TDB rebuild can return "All Tiles Visited" with no error messages, and leave the track database completely screwed up with stealth bugs. And if you managed to do a TDB rebuild without losing all the signals and signal links, everybody in the route forum wants to know your secret! Hee-hee, TDB rebuilds are to "freshen" or check the track database BEFORE placing intractive objects, once you start placing signals your TDB rebuilding days are over."Already spotted the announcement in the TMTS Forum and downloaded the Videos, but could not help noticing that the SCALERAILS Switch Blades the loco went over to go into the siding were pointing the wrong way !"Ha! Boy, if that don't underscore the difference between me and you I don't know what could!
I wasn't looking at the track, the first video showed SWITCHING WITH THE FRONT COUPLER!!! Clear proof to me that they got THEIR priorites straight!

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Hi Jim !Yes, my Railways priorities have always been TRACKS, TRACKS, TRACKS !!!Front Coupler ? That's if that Loco in this Video was not reversing at the time, the driver using the Rear Cab, as should be possible in a Train Sim. I shall pass judgement when I get the first BETA !Ever since being a boy back in Vienna, I liked nothing better than standing next to the driver in the cab of Trams and watch them going over Switches ! That stayed with me through my Model Railway years and now Train Sims.A Train Sim not using Switches looking like those from Xtracks, Y-Tracks or UK-FINESCALE quality is of no interest to me, no matter how good the rest of it is ! Told David Gregg of AURAN too !This is what a REAL FROG looks like compared with a Train Sim one and if that is not what we get with TMTS then forget it ! I am not interested in Part-Perfection ! If no Tracks or Roads have been disturbed, associated with interactive Objects, then I do a TDB-Rebuild leaving the .tit & .rit as are. That is the result of this one:As a programmer I tried to give my clients the best in perfection, paid for or not and that is what I also expect from Software purchased from others.Hope that is not a Crime ! Take Care, O t t o.

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Jim, OK, now I see it better.....kind of "Cute". I do like the reference "whether coming or going".
Otto, I agree with you......hope Cyndi's arm heal, so we can have some postings from her again.
Take care,
Johan.

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Yes, Cyndi is fine, Johan and her arm is out of it's plaster now !She spends more time over at the 3D Forum, where she is a MOD ! Take Care, O t t o.

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Thanks Otto, for the info. BTW where is this 3D forum? What does it entail?
Johan.

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Hi Johan:
Thank you for your get well posts previously. Everything is back to "normal" now.3D Trains is at: http://www.3dtrains.com Feel free to browse around the forum, lots of good information on just about everything. You and your expertise will be more than welcome.CyndiPS: @Otto, sorry for stepping on your toes here.

Am I the only 1 who loves BNSF Great Pumpkin 38s?

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Otto don't mind you stepping on his toes as long as you take off them glass slippers first. And don't forget to take them both with you when you run off to turn into a pumpkin at midnight, you leave one behind and he'll track you down.You know, this is wierd, mention Johan's name and he pops in, mention Cyndi-Rella and here she is. So let's try this: John Fowlis. Haven't heard anything from my favorite Canuck in a long time, maybe that'll work.Anyway, since we're having a wierd party here, let's get down and fuzzy in Chippewa Falls;http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40f948676e5bae1f.zipThat's the correct world file switching zip in case you missed it, extract/copy/move to \Train Simulator\Routes, then run either 1forest.bat or 1gantree.bat to change back and forth, check out scenery and framerates in Chippewa Falls. Here's the next idiotic idea:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/40fb2856565cbb4a.zipTwo more bats from my belfry, "salad.bat" must be run to create the textures, since they're stolen from defaults, then run 1bush.bat to see the bushy Chippewa Falls. I'm thinking this is probably better, the new pineslope ace textures look pretty good in a screenshot, but when the train is moving it somehow just don't look right. Too much detail and contrast in a flat backdrop will do that, I suppose, since the foreground trees change aspect and the ones painted on the billboards don't.So check it out from assorted angles, #7 view is okay (suppose I shoulda put a yard marker in CF, knew I forgot something), but what it looks like and how the framerates are from normal views is more to the point. And yes, I know the whole thing looks wierd from flight level 380, route editor views don't count.

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-19-04 AT 01:12 PM (EST)

Jim, when we were chatting about, Fozzy, I was hoping he also noted and appeared. BTW I would love to hear from John Fowlis again. Is he still in Marine Salvaging?
Take care,
Johan.

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Him Jim !That Salad / Bush combo is not idiotic at all ! In fact, I quite like it. Perhaps the bushy area a little bit too dense but good looking !BUSH - 20 FPS entering the woods and improving to 30 FPS further on.
GANTREE - - ditto -
FOREST - 30 FPS all the way, using the 2 View with all options.Take Care, O t t o.P.S.: No, I don't mind Cyndi walking all over me ! A damn sight more fun than being run over by one of those T-34s back in the Vienna of 1945 !

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Hi Cyndi,
What a welcome surprise to to see a posting from you again. Great to hear you're fit again. Thanks for the invitation to brows around at 3D trains forum. I was under the impression that they shut down or were in the process there of? Maybe I've got wrong info or it is another site with a close to simular name? However it is great to hear from you again and also that 3D trains are still, well, and existing.
Take care,
Johan.

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Hi Johan:
Good to be back, I think. The 3D Trains site was down most of yesterday due to a server problem. It's back up and running, so come on over.Cyndi

Am I the only 1 who loves BNSF Great Pumpkin 38s?

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Gotta watch talking about 3D Trains, we'll have ol' Hack himself in here, end of sanity for this thread.
Server probably went down due to somebody making up for lost time and typing too fast! Hee-hee, gotta watch it girl, broken arm heals then you're down with carpal tunnel, nE+xt tH!n?G you kN00w yo""RE ty&p#ing wi?th yo<<<ur toes. Otto;"Him Jim !"Him yourself, is that German for "Hi"?"That Salad / Bush combo is not idiotic at all ! In fact, I quite like it. Perhaps the bushy area a little bit too dense but good looking !"Yeah, maybe. I'm thinking the large bush blocks (actually treeblocks distorted with SFM and sunk into the ground with the SFM shifter) oughtta be a bit lower if I can do that without making them look funky."BUSH - 20 FPS entering the woods and improving to 30 FPS further on.
GANTREE - - ditto -
FOREST - 30 FPS all the way, using the 2 View with all options."Hmmm, maybe the LODs on them things need to be adjusted. Forest regions are 1000 meters, as I recall I cranked all these to 2000 meters. Drop the max to 1000, then make sure there's enough viewblocks to prevent popups? Bushes aren't gonna be seen from a long distance anyway, maybe I should drop those to 750 or even 500 max.I've been fooling with weeds and bushes between Westcott and Okrasa Ghia:And altho it looks better than a dense carpet of weeds and bushes, and doesn't tank the framerates as badly, it still affects framerates. Obviously a bit of restraint is in order, whether I like it or not.
"P.S.: No, I don't mind Cyndi walking all over me ! A damn sight more fun than being run over by one of those T-34s back in the Vienna of 1945 !"Hee-hee, I still wanna see a pic of you in the Volkstuurm uniform. Every time one of these teenagers today complains about how rough his life is, I think about what YOUR childhood must have been like! Here's me back in my warrior days:
USS America, in the North Atlantic, circa 1980. That's the water color I'm trying to get BTW, that blue-gray-green is what I'm most familiar with.

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-20-04 AT 06:56 AM (EST)

Hi Jim !Sorry about the "Him". Was overdue for bed then ! Used to have a picture of me wearing the Volksturm uniform, the army issue rifle next to me looking almost as tall a myself ! Lost that photo many years ago.Changed the rifle later for one of those "Thompson" circular magazines Russian lookalikes I "found" during the "lets get the hell out of here" retreat from Vienna.Seen your picture before. What a handsome lad you were then, turning the heads of all the girls on shore. O.K., so you still are ! Take Care, O t t oP.S. I am sorry for today's youngsters who finish up in the army fighting somewhere. At least in my war days we knew where the enemy was !

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I say we declare the K-36 as abandonware, were all itching to get the K-36 from Jim, and I'd like to show some of my work.
Copper Basin Railway Tracklayer
Track: 95% Complete
Scenery: Far From it.

MR SPARKLE!!!

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Oughtta start a new thread on this, or switch to this other one:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID15/3860.htmlTook almost 2 minutes for this thread to load on my DSL it got so cluttered!Okay Will, let's run it up the flagpole and see who fires a flamethrower at it:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID26/95.html

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