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"Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor"

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rgarber (526 posts)
Oct-19-01, 03:20 PM (EST) "Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" Sorry if you already have heard this. But we can now say we know what the check box MOUSE does on the Path Editor window. I can almost say I know what the optional path check box does too. And if I'm right.... it's just as useless too.Actually, the Mouse check box is more a preference. If you're familiar with the Highlight button and how it works with the Next and Previous button then pay attention. The Mouse check box allows you to highlight the path, with... *drum roll* the mouse. What you do is slide the mouse to the next dot and the a portion of the path will highlight. For those of you who don't get the life changing radical implementation of this dazzling feature, let's say you have several paths that overlap and your intent is to isolate only one. Hence, the highlight tool. Which is helpful if you use reversing points.The Optional check box is more a mystery still, cause, I don't get it. I see what it is doing... but I still don't get it. I think what it is trying to tell us, is that there's a junction where the path can go several directions. Be still my beating heart. Either that or it will tell the highlight to highlight the optional route. Now this may come in handy when analyzing a Begin Passing option which didn't take effect and may show you that in fact, it didn't take effect. ??????Alas, as an editorial retraction, I'd like to take issue with my own work, The Tutorial Manual, where I basically give the Use As Template, the thumbs down. Well, in messing with it a little more, it's not so bad, depending on in which instance you use it. In some instances still, I can don't see a whole lot of use for it. But in others, I can see where it would be more helpful.Finally, does anyone have any shred of evidence that the waiting point works? I've scoured through service info, through path info, through activity info ( I mean the saved files ) and I haven't found one reference to a Waiting Point. I'm convinced now the reason Waiting Points aren't remembered from one session to another has nothing to do with what Kuju claims in the tech doc. I think it's because Kuju forgot to write in the routine that includes the Wait Point in the path file. If you know otherwise, could you post a sample of what a wait point looks like. We may be able to get this nifty little feature working if someone did have it written.Rich Garber Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Once again, an exciting new use... Frin63 Oct-19-01 1 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... rgarber Oct-19-01 2 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... Frin63 Oct-20-01 3 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... kff180 Nov-07-01 4 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... lnghairedwizard Nov-07-01 5 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... scand Nov-15-01 6 RE: Once again, an exciting new use... CNW_SD60_8051_2 Nov-15-01 7

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Frin63 (56 posts)
Oct-19-01, 05:56 PM (EST) 1. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" Well the good news is: Waiting points ARE stored in the path file. They can also be recognized because one of the parameters is different. The bad news is that no timing information is stored in the path file. So even if your train knows it has to wait, it won't know for how long.The question that really beats me is why Microsoft or Kuju are so secrative about documentation about the formats. They've been bragging on beforehand that there would be an open system but the activity syntax seems to be secret. Weird. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (526 posts)
Oct-19-01, 11:17 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" Can you show an example of a path waiting point? That's what I was looking in, and had a timing value of 350. I couldn't find the 350 anywhere. So I'm curious how you know there's a waiting point there?Thanks!Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Frin63 (56 posts)
Oct-20-01, 08:16 AM (EST) 3. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" Like I said, the timing information isn't stored, so you won't find the 350 anywhere. Here's an example of a very simple path with 3 nodes: a starting point, a waiting point and an end point:====start=====
SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0P0t______Serial ( 1 )
TrackPDPs (
TrackPDP ( -11051 14285 622.264 20.8432 -881.402 1 1 )
TrackPDP ( -11051 14285 999.697 20.8432 -725.594 1 1 )
TrackPDP ( -11050 14285 -919.786 20.8432 -672.539 1 1 )
)
TrackPath (
TrPathName ( Transport )
Name ( Transport )
TrPathStart ( "Transport start" )
TrPathEnd ( "Transport end" )
TrPathNodes ( 3
TrPathNode ( 00000000 1 4294967295 0 )
TrPathNode ( 00000002 2 4294967295 1 )
TrPathNode ( 00000000 4294967295 4294967295 2 )
)
)
=====end====The middle TrPathNode is the waiting point. The parameter 00000002 means that it's a waiting point. The other parameters link the notes to the positions (the TrackPDPs) and the order of the nodes. There's no timing info whatsoever here. You can also tell that by storing your activity and then opening it again. The timing info has been set back to zero then... Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
kff180 (4 posts)
Nov-07-01, 03:09 PM (EST) 4. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" NOW I COULD BE TALKING OUT OF MY ASS BUT I HAVE 2 THOUGHTS ON THIS TOPIC, 1 COULD OPTIONAL PATH NOT BE e.g YOU DRIVE TO X STATION & THEN IF Y CONDITION BECOMES TRUE i.e YOU STOPPED AT A CERTAIN LOCATION POINT THE OPTIONAL PATH BECOMES ACTIVE, OTHERWISE THE ACTIVITY ENDS, THATS WHAT I THOUGHT WHEN I SAW IT, BUT I'VE NOT TESTED THIS YET.
2 WAITING POINTS THE USE I'VE FOUND FOR THEM IS ON THE PLAYERS PATH AT STATION STOPS AS ON THE VCR THE PLAYER TRAIN DOES NOT STOP FOR THE CORRECT TIME, THEREFORE MESSING UP TIMING WHILST VCR-ing AN ACTIVITYJAMES
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lnghairedwizard (217 posts)
Nov-07-01, 05:07 PM (EST) 5. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" My observation on the waiting points (and Ive done expirements to prove this out!) is that they will stop the train but only for a second or so!!! If the train is a passenger making a stop at the station obviously the waiting points arent needed and we already know we can alter the amount of passengers it picks up thereby altering the length of time it stops. If your goal is to delay an AI train, one can simply put several wait points in a row to slow a train down (although this would be best if the train weren't in the players view at the time).

Or you can (as has been suggested to me, and successfully tested), copy the engine file of an engine, rename it (and any references in the eng file), then change the MAX SPEED parameter(decrease to slow the train). This WILL limit the speed of any AI trains to simulate yard speed restrictions, or a "drag" freight (the "restricted spped zones seem to have no effect on AI trains)Longhairedwizard Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
scand (122 posts)
Nov-15-01, 07:03 PM (EST) 6. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" Here is another one that Microsoft passed over. What is the "Break Point" feature in the options. All I could find thus far is "You use the break point at any switch where you need to switch a spur or siding. This helps the signal system and the game's A1."]
I checked it out and all I saw was a dark line going from one switch to the other. Also, I noticed that once you have it on the path, it cannot be deleted even though it has that option. Can anyone fully explain how you use it? Do you use it if you are "reversing" over several main tracks to get to the siding? Thank goodness for the copy and paste procedure in saving work.
Thanks!Alex Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
CNW_SD60_8051_2 (13 posts)
Nov-15-01, 11:53 PM (EST) 7. "RE: Once again, an exciting new useless discovery in the Activity Editor" As for slowing down AI trains, I've been able to do that by changing their performance levels. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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