Question for activity devolopers

LAST EDITED ON Mar-23-04 AT 10:31 PM (EST)

Hi,first of all i have never written an activity myself.I do how-ever dowload the activitys that make it to the file library.I personally don't run activity's,but i do use the .path files for the purpose of what i call "starting points"in any given route.I do have the understanding that deleting all the .act,.srv,.trf,and the corresponding consist files allows me to still run the route in "explore" mode using my own pre-arranged consists.The question i have is, has anyone considered devoloping .pat files for various routes?If not,is it easy to do?The reason i'm so interested in this,is because i'd like to have(create) on average 50 different.pat files per route so that i can have different "starting points"(that's what i call em')which will give me my favorite points of interest on a route,and also to start my train in various directions,sidings,etc.It will also save time for me having to drive my train 10 or more miles to find an area of interest(other than boring wooded areas,and other areas of baren land)Thanks for your help in advance

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

RE: Question for activity devolopers, mquist, Mar-24-04, 10:53 AM, (1) RE: Question for activity devolopers, robertreedy, Mar-24-04, 11:06 AM, (2) RE: Question for activity devolopers, SD80MAC, Mar-25-04, 10:45 PM, (3) RE: Question for activity devolopers, robertreedy, Mar-26-04, 12:02 PM, (4) RE: Question for activity devolopers, tulsarailfan, Mar-30-04, 05:27 PM, (5) RE: Question for activity devolopers, SD80MAC, Mar-30-04, 11:11 PM, (6)

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

A path consists of a file name, a display name (usualy the same), a start point text, an end point text, and the path itself (start point, switch nodes, reverse points, and end point). When you use an existing path in explore mode the start point text of the path you are using is shown as the starting point and the end point text is what you see in the towards entry, however nothing else from the path is used. In other words in explore mode the only part of the path files used is the start point and direction. As a result creation of paths for use in explore mode is pretty much a waste of time. Of course one or more of these "dummy" paths are usualy part of the route as distributed so that the route will load and explore mode will work. You could certainly make such "dummy" paths for yourself in AE but remember when doing this that the path dosen't have to go anywhere just a few feet of path running from the start point to the end point is needed to establish a starting location and direction.I would suggest that you might try creating an activity to accomplish your objectives. In doing this you can just skip much of the AE complexity involving action, location, and time events as well as traffic, work orders, and victory conditions. Such an activity would require only the activity header stuff (activity file and display names and the description and briefing text) and a player service which requires a player consist and a player path. The advantage of doing this is that you can set the switches needed for your desired trip with the path and you can also add some interest by placing static consists at various sidings and the like. The only downside of this is that to change consists you would have to edit the activity's player service to change the consist name - simple to do and it could be easily done in wordpad with out using the AE. With out adding too much complexity you could add a single location event near the endpoint of the path to end the activity and adding some simple traffic trains would also be posible. Oh no now I've got you writing real activities!!Anyway you need any further specific assitance doing any of the AE stuff drop me a line by private message and I be pleased to assist you. Be Seeing you.
Michael

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>The reason i'm so interested in this,is because i'd like to have(create) on average 50
>different.pat files per route so that i can have different
>"starting points"(that's what i call em')which will give me
>my favorite points of interest on a route,and also to start Keep in mind also that a large amount of .pat files will slow down the loading of MSTS considerably. With many routes in place, even after installing Train Store I couldn't figure out why it took so long for MSTS to start and finally narrowed it down to having 75 start paths in my own route alone. After moving most of them to a backup folder it cut the starting time down by at least a minute. Just an observation and your mileage may vary. RobertR .. ADF-M&RM at http://www.adfrr.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hi Robert,I sure do appreciate your advice.I had no idea making an activity involved so much work.Thanks for the heads up on "Train-store",that will be a definate must have for me.I was wondering why MSTS took sooo long to load.Hopefully MSTS2 will be easier as far as creating activity's?Thanks again for your help,i'll try to create some new paths for the routes i have installed.I copied your post and pasted it into a text document so i can go back figure out how all this is done.Thanks again

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

We're all glad to help. If you have any more problems with it, just speak up. There's usually someone around to get us going again RobertR .. ADF-M&RM at http://www.adfrr.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>The question i have
>is, has anyone considered devoloping .pat files for various
>routes?If not,is it easy to do?The reason i'm so interested
>in this,is because i'd like to have(create) on average 50
>different.pat files per route so that i can have different
>"starting points"(that's what i call em')which will give me
>my favorite points of interest on a route,and also to start
>my train in various directions,sidings,etc.It will also save
>time for me having to drive my train 10 or more miles to
>find an area of interest(other than boring wooded areas,and
>other areas of baren land)Thanks for your help in advance A program I wrote, SwitchList Generator, does something similar to this. While none of the templates I or others have created, have 50 paths, I've tried to set up paths that start at all the major towns, especially any towns with a couple of tracks for switching. So if you're a fan of "explore a route", you could actually download the free SwitchList Generator Templates, either here at train-sim.com or from www.skylinecomputing.com (the SwitchList Generator web site). Without the SwitchList Generator program, which is payware and costs $12, you can't use the templates as actual activities, but, the paths will be there so you can use all the starting points as you mention.I find that to be a little boring myself, since in "Explore a Route" there's no AI traffic and no cars to pick up. That's why I created SwitchList Generator. This program generates switching activities for you, based on these templates (which I and others have created ... the templates are free). If you don't like a lot of switching, SwitchList Generator is still enjoyable, as you can choose the path you want from a drop-down box and maybe just one pickup or setout and drive anywhere you want along that path. But you'll see AI traffic and cars on the tracks along the way. If this sounds interesting, please visit our web site at www.skylinecomputing.comHappy Railroading!--Steve

Steve Davis
"TulsaRailfan" on this forum
sgdavis@vigoris.net
www.skylinecomputing.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

LAST EDITED ON Mar-30-04 AT 11:17 PM (EST)

Hi Steve,That sounds very interesting I'll have take a look at it.I did how-ever forgot to mention,i do enjoy AI traffic(makes for really cool screenshots),and generally alot of fun to watch...by the way,is their a template for CSX M&M route?Thanks again for your help.

Alert | IP

[ Home | MSTS Forum | MSTS FAQ | File Library ] Copyright © 2004 by Nels Anderson. All Rights Reserved.