Dual Route Work?

Hi All:I'm in the process of aiding a fellow Frisco enthuasiast develop a Frisco route. What we're wondering is if both of us can be making modifications to the same route, exchanging the changes between our copies of the route. Is this possible, or does any changes to the track data base only need to be made on THE original alpha route?In other words, can I make track changes on my copy of his alpha, and send them to him for inclusion on the master alpha?Andre Ming

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RE: Dual Route Work?, pennsyfan2, Sep-03-02, 01:03 PM, (1) RE: Dual Route Work?, OkrasaGhia, Sep-03-02, 02:53 PM, (2) RE: Dual Route Work?, pennsyfan2, Sep-03-02, 05:08 PM, (3) RE: Dual Route Work?, Coonskin, Sep-03-02, 09:22 PM, (4) RE: Dual Route Work?, sniper297, Sep-03-02, 11:11 PM, (5) RE: Dual Route Work?, davidbeach, Sep-06-02, 03:22 PM, (8) RE: Dual Route Work?, lfriddle, Sep-04-02, 10:08 PM, (6) RE: Dual Route Work?, Coonskin, Sep-05-02, 02:21 AM, (7)

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Another trainSim fan and I Have been trying to combine short segments of our two routes to form and extended a portion of the PRR from Philadelphia to West of Altoona.WE have encountered several significant problems most of which involve problems with the track data base when trying to import each others track work into our own routes. WE haven't given up on it yet but it has caused much frustration. Avoid dynamic track in those world files which you will be sharing.
They are easily corrupted when you import and attempt to rebuild the track database using the function in the route editor. Manually rebuilding sometimes works around these problems but any new piece of dynamic track you add to the route anywhere has the potential to cause havoc with the tdb and other areas of the already completed track work. Be aware. It can get discouraging, be prepared to do lots or rebuilding and repairing, but you may also find ways to work it that none of us hav discovered yet.Make regular backups to your route as you build.

pennsyfan2

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I made areply to your question in the general forum but Ithink I can add some knowledge to the dynamic track problem.I think you should be able to add dynamic tracks if you take some precuations. Be sure that you are only adding dynamics to one of the copies at a time between exchanging updates. When you update you should include the file tsection.dat that is in your routes main folder (this is not the same as the one in the global folder). This file holds information about all the dynamic track sections in the route and is updated whenever you add/modify/delete a dynamic track section. You should use the updated version from the route builder that has been adding/handling dynamic tracks.
It would be possible to combine two different copies of this file or even generate a new one from the information in your w-files. My program Horace deals quite a lot with this file but I'm not going to write a tutorial on that here and now.
Be restrective with dynamic track and be sure only one of the route builders deals with them at a time.


//Okrasa
Chief Engineer
okrasaghia @ yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia/XTracks



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Just read Okrassa's comment over in the Train simulator forum.His comments make good sense. especially the one about picking a common tile to start at and working in opposite directions from there.

pennsyfan2

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Thanks for all the input guys.From the sounds of it. We'd best not attempt it. Thus, either the ball is in Larry's court... or I will try to move ahead with my personal copy and be on my own. (Eegad!) Decision time.Andre "Coonskin" Ming

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I've been giving this some thought, and it's possible to do completely independent work and then merge the tiles together, with the following restrictions:No signals or interactive track objects.No overlapping track. An example:
If we are doing a 100 tile long route, I will do tiles 1 to 49, you do tiles 51 to 100. Neither one of us touches tile 50, that's the merge tile. When both routes are merged together, the \World and \Tiles folders are pasted into the new "master route", the tit and tdb files are deleted from the root. (I strongly suspect the tsection.dat files would have to be carefully merged, I don't really know. I haven't been able to do any kind of succesful rebuild of the TDB since adding signals to the PO&N, I suppose I'll have to try this with PO&N1 and PO&N4. Those two versions are wildly different enough to really test the principle, and neither has signals added.) Then the TDB would be rebuilt, and last but not least one guy finishes tile #50, connecting the two halves. After that signals would be added. The easiest way to collaberate would probably be one guy lay all the track, the other guy twiddles his thumbs and waits. Once the track is finished it would be a simple matter to divvy up the tiles for scenery work, copying and pasting \World (and \Tiles if terraforming is done) files into the master route wouldn't be a problem in that case, since both sets of tiles have the track objects in the same locations matching the tdb and tit.Longhairedwizard and I are gonna try this scheme with some sections of PO&N6 once I get it packed up and ready to send at him, as long as he doesn't touch any track sections or signals he can delete static objects and replace with whatever, it won't hurt a thing. While he's working on scenery in one area I can work on it in other areas, then merge the two together just by overwriting my \World (and tiles if terrain is changed) files with the ones that he worked on.So I guess the short answer to "how" is, "VERY carefully, and you'd best know what goes where, and why".http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4559&forum=DCForumID6&archive=yes

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That would work as long as you don't use dynamic track. Dynamic track in both sections would use the same set of id numbers, but each piece of dynamic track in the combined route would require a unique id number. The mergeing could be done, just would require much effort.David Beach.Palouse & Lewiston

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Coonskin,
I appreciate your desire to help, but I think it best to keep working on the route alone for now. The route editor is extremely fickle anyway without trying to do anything out of the ordinary.
About 120 miles of the 130 some odd miles of track are already in place. Going back and adding the additional sidings you desire won't take me long. I just wish I had those track charts when I was laying that area the first time! Looked all over for some, even drove up to the FRISCO museum in Springfield, but no luck. Turned out you had them right down the road! Getting a marker file so I can relate to real locations is the key and takes the longest.
I think it will be a big help that you have the FRISCO rolling stock done by the time I finish the route. As fast as you are learning, I bet you could provide some 3D scenery objects to add in.
Just hang in there, I'm sure you'll love the finished product even if you can't hurry it along. Keep the ideas coming. Your suggestions have already improved the route 100%!
I'm tackling the Arkansas River crossing this weekend, then on to the Fort Smith yards. Whish me luck.FRISCO Centeral Division Fort Smith Sub Division 30% complete.

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Take that ball and run Leroy!I will concentrate on SLSF equipment and rolling stock.Coonskin

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