(or, "How I spent my summer").After plugging away on getting dual gauge track to work, and having
some setbacks and progress, here's what I've learned:MSTS Activity editor does not like "black dots" to be too close to each other. This affects: switch points, start points, end points, and reverse points. Possibly other points that I haven't experimented with yet (platforms, fueling points).This will occur whether the track shape has included two close
paths/points iteslf, or even if you just lay to independent ordinary tracks that happen to line up with each other.For shapes that have two close paths (eg dual gauge track with two centerlines... like double track but with the tracks really close), the AE appears happy as long as you're routing an activity path over the FIRST path in the shape. But try anything on the other and wierd stuff happens and you're assured a "path failed to load" error.To fix the points-too-close problem, I have modifed the track shapes to redefine the locations of the points (easy since the stock switches use an extra length of track in front anyway). The result is that the switch shape will have uneven ceterlines at the point end, and the shape shows that two rails are missing. An extra track shape is used to bring the centerlines even (and get those missing rails added) and so able to connect to pre-made dual gauge track sections.To fix the path start/end/reverse point problem, activity paths on the narrow gauge seem to be OK (at leas in limited testing), and for standard gauge the activities will just have to be defined to take advantage of natural gauge separations.Unrelated, switches only animate if you are approaching the FIRST set of points. Fine for normal switches (there is only one set of points) but for dual gauge, you in effect have two side by side switches, just squished togehter to overlap. If the train approaches the second set of points, no animation (but it does move the train properly).One solution to the switch animation is to build up the dual or other complicated switch from multiple, independent track shapes. But for
dual gauge you then have the problem that of your three point rails, only one or two (depending on how you split them between the track shapes) will animate depending on which gauge you're on. In the real world, all three points move in unison. Problems also arise with a switch machine target, which again there is only one of and only operates if you're on the proper gauge, or you duplicate for each 'half' of the switch, and now you've got an animated target superimposed over an inert one. While this could be a viable solution for other shapes such as slips, for the much-overlapped dual gauge switch it is worse than the disease. Instead, I have gone with a single switch shape that works perfectly for the first gauge (narrow) and is non-animated for standard. Afterall, if you're doing dual gauge, you're probably emphasizing the narrow more than the standard, or at least I am!Now I can get on with fleshing out the assortment of dual track sections and then lay some serious dual gauge for field testing!
3footer
Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top