Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5… ohh my!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 06:21 PM (EST)

Using the Activity Editor and messing with the "21 AI train heavy traffic" activity, if I use any other consist then CT Jet Train(which I used instead of the default player train), the activity seems to not work right in the Activity Editor.The first AI train outside of Whitefish, pulls out and backs up, and causes a red signal until he clears the track. This is normal, right?Any other consist, the AI train just sits there...for HOURS, at the red light. The same is happening to all other AI trains. Further down the line, 1 train stops short and waits...for no incoming train, and there's a train a mile behind him waiting for the train infront of him to move his axles.Did I just "corrupt" the activity?
About this activity, I noticied in the game, every AI train, except that 1 in Whitefish, looked excatually the same. Same cars, same consist.
I believe this activity, not knowing to me (it did give me permission to say "yes" but I wasn't knowing what I was doing, I thought it was a "fix" for the broken coupler issue I had), allowed it to overwrite the default consists to make them all look the same.How can I fix this if that's the case without having to reinstall?

-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, marois999, Aug-08-04, 06:40 PM, (1) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, heffed, Aug-08-04, 06:56 PM, (2) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-08-04, 06:56 PM, (3) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-08-04, 09:11 PM, (4) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, thenudehamster, Aug-08-04, 09:28 PM, (5) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-08-04, 09:40 PM, (6) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, westerngy, Aug-08-04, 11:57 PM, (7) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-09-04, 00:27 AM, (8) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, Claude350, Aug-09-04, 00:39 AM, (9) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-09-04, 00:46 AM, (10) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, Swissie, Aug-09-04, 07:22 AM, (11) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, BeaverMon, Aug-09-04, 08:59 AM, (12) RE: Activity Editor, AI Trains, and Whitefish 5...ohh m, Swissie, Aug-09-04, 03:47 PM, (13)

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"Did I just "corrupt" the activity?"... No, you just corrupted the English language.

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>"Did I just "corrupt" the activity?"
>
>... No, you just corrupted the English language.
Somebody needs to relax... -Jeff

Union Pacific fan.

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 07:27 PM (EST)

........... I don't know if to take that as an insult or a compliment.Ok...fine, I'll say it...slowly (I am an American and my English is very good). I have downloaded the activity that lets you see 21 AI Trains on the route. Ok?I have Chris Trains Jet Train and I used it to replace the default player train in the Activity Editor. Ok?After doing the route once I decided to have a big train instead of the jet train so I replaced it with a default consist. Ok? You got that so far?I ran the activity to see how the AI traffic will react with this new consist.There's a small train outside of the Whitefish Yard. With my Jet Train I saw it backing up and it blocked the player drivable path, causing a red light.With any other consist (in the activity editor, not in the sim), the train does NOT backup, it just sits there on a red light, even when the player train passes.The same thing is happening to all westbound trains, waiting for hours due to a red light that refuses to change to green.Did I make myself clear this time? I hope so...picking on my grammer.

-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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*bump*-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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Hmmm.... interesting.I don't have this activity, nor do I have the Jet Train (it doesn't fit my usual slow branch lines of rural England ) so it's difficult to comment for certain. I wouldn't have thought that changing one consist would screw up the whole activity, but, hey, this is MSTS and normal logic doesn't apply. As this is merely one activity, and I'm assuming you still have the original downloaded .apk file, I'd be inclined to take the easy way out and reinstall the activity. There shouldn't, unless you've somehow screwed up your consists folder in a big way, be any need to worry about anything else as the activity installer will reinstall all the original consists anyway.Though I'd love to know what the cause actually is...Oh, and don't let the soi-disant grammar police get to you; they don't even speak English anyway, merely 'Ahmurrican', a simplified sub-dialect of the real language.(for the humour challenged, and the blonds, out there, the preceding sentence is a JOKE)

Barry
Certified Old Fart
=========================
Any opinion expressed above is hereby warranted to be worth exactly what you paid for it.

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1 reason was I reported that a coupler broke 1/4 outside of that 6-mile tunnel and someone said that it's the default consist.So I thought about using something ELSE, and I tried my favorite, truly "high speed" loco, Chris Trains Jet Train.Now, about the .apk file...it DID change some of the default consists (like I said, I thought it was a "fix" for the coupler issue. I should of known the only "fix" is the wagon itself).Here's the consists it said that could be overwritten;
yard_one_trafficconsist.con
gp38-2 lumber.con
d9.con
gp38-2, 5 hopper cars 1 box.conWell? Did these consists "affect" the sim in anyway?-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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When you change out a player train for another in an activity if the consist is not the same weight,length,power it changes the whole dynamics of the activity.Just Rollin Down The Tracks

Dale

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 00:31 AM (EST)

So that means.....I screwed up(I didn't know it was that "sensitive", another thing I don't know about Activity Editor, next to not knowing how to make paths for AI trains or even placing an AI train). What about the consists that the .apk file overwrited though?Would just re-running the .apk file and overwriting all files fix the activity?-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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I don't really trust the activity editor but after you change consist before closing out the activity editor choose the compute and save option.And no you didn't corrupt the english language.Overlook that comment.Claude Debnam NS Piedmont Division Raleigh East

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 01:05 AM (EST)

I have tried ConBuilder in the past, and it doesn't seem to "activate" the passenger view for passenger cars for some reason, but Activity Editor does(I was debating if I should download the new version if it has been fixed).Has it?Well I'm heading off to bed. Cya in the morning! -BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 07:31 AM (EST)

Hi Ben,just a few points - that might not have been covered yet.1) When you change something in an already existing activity (player train, path, AI consists or traffic pattern etc.) and want to use the "video preview" feature, I always find it to be unreliable - things like trains sitting in front of a red forever etc. tend to happen, even if I did not alter that particular service at all. Seems that occasionally MSTS gets a little confused by these changes and does not update all the asociated files as it should when you save them. With associated files I mean: a) An activity (.act) is based on a number of services (.srv) i.e. player service, AI services. Their timetable is saved in the traffic file (.trf). But each service also requires a path (.pat) and a consist (.con) file. If you alter any one of the files, MSTS should update all the associate files, but more often than not, it misses one of them and gets the entire array of interdependend files out of synch. Once this has happened, the preview cannot work properly anymore (and in most cases the activity itself will not work properly in the sim neither). b) What can you do about it? I found out that after making changes to an already completed activity you best exit the AE completely and re-start the editors in order to clear the memory cache completely. When you reload the recently changed activity you will often be confronted with an error message that "path xyz" or "service 123456" is no longer current, and the activity needs to be saved (despite you did save the changes before!). So press ctrl+s again, then - and only then - you can run the preview. Now it should work as it will in the sim.2) When changing consists, keep an eye on the length, weight, and power of the original consist, and try to keep your new one as close to these figures as possible. Luckily, ConBuilder lists these parametres for you in a window next to your train.a) Length: If your replacement consist is longer than the original one, you risk that your new consist's tail end might not clear the track for another AI or the player train - simply because it suddenly is too long for the siding the activity makes it head to, and its last three cars end up still outside on the mainline.b) Weight and power: If you underpower your new consist, it will travel slower than the original one - or even get stuck in a grade. You could be waiting forever for the oncoming service struggling fruitlessly at the base of the hill. HAL the AI engineer has never learned how to use sand, and when you want to make absolutely sure that he gets through, make sure that his lead engine does not have the lineAntiSlip () commented out in the .eng file. Or in less clumsy words: Make sure this line is in his .eng file! If your engine comes in a player and an AI version, make sure the line is there in the AI file, while you can comment it out or simply delete it (same effect) for realism & challenge in the player version. Btw: It's not good to overpower your AI trains either - now they will suddenly accelerate faster or even travel faster - within the limits - and the entire timing of the activity is at stake once more...3) Activating a passenger view in any waggon or engine requires to put the necessary lines into the .wag or .eng file. I haven't installed the latest ConBuilder yet, so I am not aware if and how this feature could be added automatically. I prefer to do it the traditional way by editing the .wag file using wordpad. The section - add it early on in the file, just before the brake section is a good spot - should look like this:Inside (
PassengerCabinFile ( filename.s )
PassengerCabinHeadPos ( -0.55 2.4 -3.66 )
RotationLimit ( 45 360 0 )
StartDirection ( 0 0 0 )
)"Filename.s" must match the name of the .wag's or .eng's shape file you want to add the view to.
PassengerCabinHeadPos defines the position of the observer relative to the center point of the car ( 0 0 0 coordinate): In the example ( -0.55 2.4 -3.66 ) above, you sit 55 centimetres (0.55 metres) sideways from the centerline, to the left if I'm not mistaken, 2.4 metres above the tracks (which should be the "base" heightwise), and 3.66 metres forward of the centre of the car.
RotationLimit ( 45 360 0 ) means you can look up & down 45° and turn your head 360° sideways. But you can't tilt your head.
StartDirection ( 0 0 0 ) means you look straight ahead when you activate the #5 view for the first time.Of course it takes some trial and error to find the figures that work best for your car in question. But whatever you settle for, don't miss any brackets!Hope some of this info was useful to you.Lukas a.k.a Swissie
Edited for typos and clarity

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 09:01 AM (EST)

Ohh wee...lots of reading here, lol.I now understand about the entire "the train you replace has to match the power/traction/weight of the replaced train or your activity will go beserk" thing.
Trust me...I had no ideas those figures where any importance to the activity.I guess the best thing to do is re-run that .apk file and let it "fix" all the things required for the activity to really fix it, and then adjust the slider to make it fully reliable so a coupler won't break on me.Either that or possiably, maybe create another activity, with the same start point and stuff, and use the traffic (like I did for 1 activity).-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 03:56 PM (EST)

Hi again, Benuhm, didn't catch the point on breaking couplers well before. I could do even more writing on that than on the above - but many have done so already, so I just hint you at doing a search in the forum for the keywords "switch node" and "coupler damping".The reason why couplers sometimes break has been found to be an error in some default .wag and .eng files. In there, the line governing coupler damping (i.e. the damping of the jolts the couplers sometimes have to absorb) has a faulty physical unit of measurement. It should be N/m/s - but for whatever reason, all default .eng and .wag for USA2 (Marias Pass) come with N/m - and that causes the damping to be ineffective. Unfortunately, tons of repaints also "inherited" this error before it was detected. Normally, you would not realise it, if there wasn't another problem of MSTS. It calculates the progress of your train from the last switch you passed (so-called "node"), and the formula used has some inherent margin of error due to rounding. The longer you travel, the more noticeable this error becomes when you finally reach the next switch. As your calculated position is off from the actual one, you hit the switch a tad earlier than MSTS expects - and the train "jolts" into the new position car by car. That's when the lack of damping becomes fatal...The cure is to download "EngMod" from the utilities section of the file library. It lets you correct the wrong coupler settings on all your equipment in a few mouse clicks. Better than early on when many a user went through his entire trainset folder, manually inspecting and editing every single .wag and .eng file for the error and its fix...Lukas a.k.a SwissieEdit: Tend to forget it, but RouteRiter also has a nifty function letting you fix the wrong coupler units. Go to the section for checking Activities & Stock, run the check (it'll certainly come up with a lot of small errors like mis-spelled .sd file references etc when you run it for the first time). Once it has gone over your trainset folder, RR presents you with a spread-sheet of all your equipment - and there is this little button "fix coupler damping units" or something like this.

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