A Full Day on the Wupper

Hi. I just wanted to share what I've been doing with the activity editor, and find out whether anyone else has been trying out anything similar or had any comments to add.My goal is to set up an entire day's worth of traffic on the Wupper route, including local, express, and freight services. Once this has been accomplished, a myriad of user activities can be created by replacing any ai service with the player.So far I've done most of the passenger traffic, which at last count meant 230 traffic items buzzing about at various times of the day. I've made no effort to be prototypical, and in fact I'm using French stock since that's what I happen to have around at the moment. I did however write up a schedule of sorts in an attempt to provide a reasonable level of service to most of the stations on the route. There is a morning rush hour heading into Dusseldorf and an evening one heading back out. Because the consists are standardized the entire system uses only a handful of rolling stock.I've created a dummy activity where the player simply hangs out at Dusseldorf all day long and watches the trains come and go. There are about a dozen trains an hour, fluctuating slightly based on the time of day. I've actually found it somewhat engrossing to just leave the game running and see what shows up.One item of note is that the load time is lengthened considerably while the game works its way through the day to whenever the start time of the activity is. I haven't timed it but even an 8 am start seemed to take a minute to load on my system: XP 2100+. I have yet to try an afternoon start.I'd like to make the entire system a little busier, but I'm concerned that I'll start to run into deadlock problems as the traffic gets denser. I guess a train every five minutes at Dusseldorf isn't bad.I have yet to run into any hard limits in the activity editor. Does anyone know of any? Has anyone created mega-activities far larger than mine?Ok, I'm done rambling. Hope a few people found that interesting.Rob.

Obo's MSTS Locomotive Catalog: http://msts.banal.net

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RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, mrmike, Aug-23-02, 09:10 PM, (1) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, obo, Aug-25-02, 00:08 AM, (2) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, mrmike, Aug-25-02, 08:41 AM, (4) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, henry3, Aug-26-02, 11:54 AM, (5) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, keiffer, Aug-25-02, 00:18 AM, (3) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, henry3, Dec-06-02, 10:46 AM, (6) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, obo, Dec-07-02, 09:08 AM, (8) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, bob hahn, Dec-06-02, 03:20 PM, (7) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, obo, Dec-07-02, 09:26 AM, (9) RE: A Full Day on the Wupper, beluga, Dec-30-02, 07:24 PM, (10)

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Rob,
Can you package that? It sounds very interesting. My Computer specs are in my profile
Mike
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Mike:If there is interest then I will certainly package it up. I'm not sure how many people here have the Wupper installed, though.Today I added a yard marker to Dusseldorf station. Now, using the yard cam hack, I can fly all over the route to check out what is going on. Fun to visit the various choke points and see how the meets are resolved.My last activity save was at 2am, after 18 hours. I'm interested to see if it will cycle through the day again, making the activity effectively infinite, kinda sorta.Rob.

Obo's MSTS Locomotive Catalog: http://msts.banal.net

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Rob,
Also awaiting Wupper 6. My Computer specs are in my profile
Mike
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I have the Wupper on my system, and I think that this is a great idea. Please keep us posted on how it turns out and let us know when you upload it.Thanks!Henry

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Hi,
this would be a great thing on any route, More so on the real world routes, where most have established schedules. I think maybe it could make all activity writters job easier.
Keith


---- Keith Getter ----

-- "Power for You" --

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Hi Rob!Just thought that I ask how you were doing with this massive project?Henry

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>Just thought that I ask how you were doing with this massive
>project? I'm afraid it's been on hold for various reasons for a couple of months. Now that the Wupper 6 is out and a few more of the choke points have been cleared up I might get back to it, but it will depend on how much time I can find. I'll let you know if it gets restarted.Rob.

Obo's MSTS Locomotive Catalog: http://msts.banal.net

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I guess a train every five minutes at Dusseldorf isn't bad.I did one that only lasts an hour or so, but it has trains every two minutes during rush hour. To make this work, I had to make all the consists some number of Series 2000 cars. If I put anything else in there with them, speed differentials started causing things to bunch up.Also, Wupper is not real friendly towards large, heavy trains. Running the TGV over it, for example, was Derailment City, even at the speed limit. This matters for any plan to set up AI trains and then simply substitute the player train for one of them on the same path. AI trains won't derail unless they hit things, whereas the player train will.

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> I did one that only lasts an hour or so, but it has trains every
> two minutes during rush hour.Neat. How many trains in the station at once and what were your frame rates like?> ...Derailment City...Heh, I wouldn't know about derailments as I always have them switched off. I consider them arcade-like and I don't trust the game's physics in this regard anyway. Also, I figure that a derailment is a relatively rare event (how many hours pers derailment for the average driver?) and that assuming that I'm trying to drive safely then "exceeded speed limit" is all I really need to know.Just explaining a personal preference here, your mileage may vary, etc.Your point about derailment issues affecting the substitution of AI trains has been noted. Thanks for mentioning that.Rob.

Obo's MSTS Locomotive Catalog: http://msts.banal.net

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Hi Rob,
I'm doing something very similar. However, I have added signals, the same type used by the creator. For instance, the main line now has1 to 1.4-mile interval or block signals for the local tracks and 1 to 2 mile interval signals for the express tracks, some being bi-directional. Some of the dwarf "resume speed" signals have been removed because they provided some surprising reds. Anywho, One problem that we will run into is the grades. While the Wupper is a great route for running passenger trains, the inclines are a little nuts. I believe these grades play havoc with the scheduling function of the service editor. While this effect on AI traffic can be noticed and sometimes appreciated in that it creates a dynamic environment - the effect on the train you are driving or planning on driving can be a problem.
Good Luck!

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