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I was sitting back, running MSTS on my tower (on the laptop now, so no MSTS) when I noticed something.As most know, I've begun working on making integrated track/road combinations to allow railroaders to simulate a street trackage type of route. Part of that, is my messing with the car spawners to make them behave more accurately. I'm working on several things in that area, such as having passing cars, police pulling someone over, stuff like that. Well, I noticed something that I'm going to test soon, and post the results. Basically, I realised that I could manipulate the automobiles to be something similar to trains.Here is what I will be testing soon.I am building a tractor trailer truck, where the tractor is the locomotive,and the trailer the car. The connection point is the "fifth wheel" over the rear 2 axles of the tractor.This is my hypothesis.If I manipulate the "bogies" settings in Gmax, it may be possible to recreate realistic movement of automobiles with trailers.The key factors are: the main rotation points, the trailer rotation point, and the "coupling" of trailer and tractor.
The only problem I see with your idea is you are stuck with the available track sections for your "hidden roads". The smallest radius for a curve or switch that I am familiar with is the 60 meter tram sections in Xtracks. That is not nearly sharp enough to simulate a vehicle turning a corner. Another thing to watch out for is loops. If you try to use a loop of track to have a vehicle go around the block, you will crash the sim. A loop in live roads using carspawners will also crash the sim.I can think of a number of things you can do with your concept but I think you will be very limited in what you can do to emulate the real world of rubber-tired vehicles. Here's a thought--you could use the concept to have tractors working in fields. Again, the main problem is the turning radius.I wish you well. Keep us informed of your progress.Cal Rasmussen Beaverton, OR (My email is in my profile)Columbia Gorge Route (Phase 2-- On Hold.)
Now I know why Okrasa (I think) was experimenting with 90 degree "switches". Some thought he was creating a turntable work around...Trying to search for the thread, but I have to look up everything with his name (if it was him). He had screen shots of what looked like a single sided crossing and a train making the turn. It looked weird with a train, but a truck would have been a different story.Frank MusickMoving America into the 19th Century! www.kelticsylk.com
Yeah, it's doable. The way I thought about doing it, to have the diverging paths, would be to create buried tracks that work on a near 90 degree curve. If I could find Oksara's work on it, I'd like to try that direction. Mostly, when I invisioned this, it didn't mean to have loops and such, but rather I wanted to simulate road traffic. The idea came from my RL home. Basically I thought, after seeing how tracks paralleled a road, how neat it'd be to see cars doing things other than moving in a uniform way. I wanted to see things turning corners, curves, and passing each other. Maybe a car at a house backs out of the drive way. Stops, and then continues forward down a road.Or, a tractor trailer truck comes down a road, turning, and then its trailer follows it along.
