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Okay, someone answer this question for me. Lets say I have an "sd" file that points to NSgp60.s and the "S" file actually is named SPgp609755.s How come I can run this eng in MSTS with the "sd" pointing to a non- existant "s" file?JohnPS. Anyone interested in doing a McCloud River SD38-2?
What happens when you attempt to view the bounding box data in the sim ("Ctrl" "+")?Cheers! Marc - 3DTrains http://www.3dtrains.comPro Series Super Packs
John, for some reason if the correct s file is not in the folder it will read any other that is there. At least most of the time, I have had then not read an s file and get the error message.Kevin Arceneaux It is time for Amtrak to become a fallen flag!
Kevin, so does that mean if it was a simple reskin, the shape file would remain the same regardless of how it was named? hmmmmm.Marc, never thought of checking the bounding box.For no good reason, I decided to test all my wagons (1369) with conbuilder (why I have ignored the freight cars, I don't know) and guess what? 13 pages of errors! 90% of them were mis named shape files.
I just went through that drill myself. I now test all new equip as follows:Unzip to temp location. Edit the Name in the .wag file so it starts with AAA (this puts it in the front of the ConBuilder list!). Create folder if needed (ideally same name as .wag file). Add to trainset. Test (and fix as required) with ConBilder. Add to consist. Run MSTS. Take screen shot of equip. Edit in Photoshop and convert to JPG. Name the .jpg with wagfile name and add to folder with wagon. Then edit the Name line in the .wag file to remove the AAA and replace with a name of my choosing.I have d/l'd several hundred wagons and engines over the months, and my guess is that something over half of them have minor errors in the .wag, .eng, and/or .sd files. As I came to realize this, I admit a certain initial anger that these sorts of things could get u/l'd. I even said something to myself like "Oh my! Those fine fellows ought to have known about this". (Actually, I was in the Navy for 10 years and that is only an approximate translation.) 6 or 8 pages of ConBuilder errors will do that. Fortunately, sanity soon restored itself and I realized that just because "those fine fellows" know a damn sight more then I do (or I would be doing my own modeling/skinning) it dies not follow that they ought to know _everything_. Taking the time to test stuff and make sure the files are jake before using is (1) only common sense and (2) a very small price to pay for the incredible stuff available.A related point: We, here, most of us, gripe to some extent about the quirks and foibles of MSTS. As has been pointed out, many of these things run with the errors (which is why a skinner without ConBuilder might miss some) and for all its problems, MSTS seems very fault tolerant at least in this area. OTOH, we have no way of knowing if dealing with those fauls puts any extra "overhead" in the operation of MSTS. Casn we suck out another frame or two if the trainset is clean and righteous? Either way, I have to admire the fact that MSTS can run at all with all the syntax errors and bogus call in the equipment we run. Brad Meyer
Let me know how it works for you.Just after posting that note I had my first encounter with a bouncing car. That led me to bounding box issues. Now is run new equipment through bbox.edit as soon as it is unzipped in its temp location. Going through my trainset I found about a good third of my equipment wouldn't have been able to be coupled to if it had been at the end of a consist, and another third or so were actually dragging on the ground. Testing the bounding box parameters is right up there with the things being tested by conbuilder. Brad Meyer
