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"Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks"

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jtr1962 (104 posts)
May-01-02, 12:54 PM (EDT) "Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks" I've been testing the latest version of Xtracks, and based on these tests, I have some interesting findings and ideas:1)Sometimes when you Horace a route after installing Xtracks the sim crashes when you drive over the altered tiles. At first, I attributed this to a flaw in the Horace program, but I think I found the reason why this happens, and it is completely unrelated to Horace. The problem occurs when you have compressed world tiles(as in the default routes). These tiles must be uncompressed before Horace can do anything to them, and uncompressing them with ffedit seems to cause problems. I found this out with the NEC when I uncompressed some tiles with ffedit to manually change the car spawner speeds to higher values, and then discovered that the sim crashed when I drove over those tiles. Therefore, before Horacing a route, all compressed tiles must be uncompressed using the Route Editor, not ffedit. Just select any object in the tile, and then unselect it. The Route Editor will think you've changed something and ask you to save when you exit it. The saved tile will be uncompressed by default, and you can Horace the route with no problems once you've uncompressed all the tiles in this manner. Once you've Horaced the route, and made sure that it is working everywhere, the tiles can be safely compressed with ffedit, but it is a good idea to save the uncompressed tiles in case you need to Horace the route again.2)The track ids of custom track sections should start a few thousand numbers above the maximum default track id(perhaps at 5000). I have read that if the track ids immediately above the default ones are not used, it is not necessary to Horace a route which assigns dynamic track to those ids. By not using ids up to 5000, most add-on routes not made with Xtracks will not need to be Horaced since this will allow around 4700 dynamic tracks before the ids start to conflict with add-on tracks. I hope this will be done in the next version of Xtracks, even though it will mean that routes built using the previous version of Xtracks will need to be Horaced.3)There needs to be some sort of standard for track ids, with certain ranges reserved for narrow gauge, third rail, tunnels, and so forth. Since up to 65535 ids are available, this shouldn't present any problems.4)The overhead wire on some of the larger radius curves disappears in the distance(the same thing also occurs with dynamic track hacked to a large radius). This may simply be an MSTS bug.Overall, I think Xtracks is great, but my suggestions would make it more standard, and would eliminate the necessity of Horacing the majority of routes when installing Xtracks. Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Observations And Suggestions Re... davidbeach May-01-02 1 RE: Observations And Suggestions Re... bjrhatigan May-01-02 2 RE: Observations And Suggestions Re... Hussar May-02-02 3 RE: Observations And Suggestions Re... davidbeach May-02-02 4 RE: Observations And Suggestions Re... Hussar May-02-02 5

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davidbeach (127 posts)
May-01-02, 03:32 PM (EDT) 1. "RE: Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks" Look for the first issue of the standardized \global\tsection.dat file by this weekend.David Beach Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
bjrhatigan (27 posts)
May-01-02, 06:54 PM (EDT) 2. "RE: Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks" To David Beach - Wonderful news.I've read yours ang Ohkrasa'a posts from April 9th regarding this project. A massive undertaking.Does this mean I'll be able to run any of the default routes AND routes like Chris C's L2 and Enocell's N&NJ without having to undertake workarounds like renaming tsection files or run .bat files?If so, thank you very much! Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Hussar (30 posts)
May-02-02, 01:21 AM (EDT) 3. "RE: Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks" I received an updated version of the English Settle & Carlisle route. This uses x-tracks and is an excellent route. However it also uses the upgraded Tsection.dat and unless this is installed you wont "see" the new route in the routes list.
I also have been using, for some time, Marias V3 and I like it a lot. It is incompatible with the new Tsection.dat and you get strange derailments where there is no problem with the original Tsection.dat.
In an effort to fix this ( to remove the hassle of changing Tsection.dat each time I switched routes ) I tried Horace on Marias V3. Disaster...the program crashed, due I believe to the problem mentioned above. Reloading Marias V3 was not so simple for me, as it needs the original Marias which I had long since wiped. I got it done but it took a while, and I would rather not have to do it again.
There is a post on the English forum that mentioned that Tsection.dat is being rewritten to fix this hassle. I really hope so and would welcome the "fix". Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
davidbeach (127 posts)
May-02-02, 03:49 PM (EDT) 4. "RE: Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks" The "fix" is this:1. The standardized \global\tsection.dat file has a "hole" in it that accommodates the dynamic track sections for all routes that do not use some form of extended track sections. Xtracks is probably the most common example of extended track sections, but any route which has required editing of the \global\tsection.dat file uses extended track sections.2. With the "hole" those routes can continue to be run as is without any modifications. They will need to be "Horaced" if you intend to edit them.3. Any route that uses extended track sections which are included in the standardized \global\tsection.dat file will need to be "Horaced" once. Once "Horaced" the first time, the route will be compatible with all future releases of the standardized \global\tsection.dat file.4. Any route started after the standardized \global\tsection.dat file is first installed will need no further modifications.5. Any route that uses extended track sections that are not included in the standardized \global\tsection.dat file will not work with the standardized file installed, but there is an easy fix -6. To have sections/shapes included in the standardized \global\tsection.dat file, send all relevant .S and .SD files along with the description of them from your present \global\tsection.dat file to tsection@train-sim.com and they can be included.7. At Chris Cyko's request, the standardized \global\tsection.dat file will not work with the L2 beta presently in circulation. It could, and I have a version that does, but Chris is planing on major changes and doesn't want to get the L2 beta shapes locked in at this point.8. If you are designing track sections and would like to get a block of id numbers up front, send that request to tsection@train-sim.com and I will allocate a block of numbers for you.9. Watch for Xtrack V3.0 to follow very shortly after the release of the initial standardized \global\tsection.dat file as that will be the file that Okrasa will be using with his package.David Beach.P.S. Anybody have a better (shorter) way for referring to the "standardized \global\tsection.dat file"? Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Hussar (30 posts)
May-02-02, 10:52 PM (EDT) 5. "RE: Observations And Suggestions Regarding Xtracks"
David, thank you for that. I look forward to the new xtracks v3. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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