Elvas Tower: "When we wish upon a star........." - Elvas Tower

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"When we wish upon a star........." Open Rails users' wishlist, please and thank you. Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 05:13 PM

Attached Image: vulturesfeedingongnu.jpg
Photo credit: Magnus Kjaergaard

We would appreciate you using your first name when posting here, it makes it more sociable when posts are being answered. Thank you. Barry, or Bazza, is okay for me.

Wishlists are as enevitable as death and taxes. Just about every simulator ever made has one, either prior to release, or very soon after. The wishlist carries the hopes and dreams of the sim's fan base. In the case of an open source project, and I mean any open source project, a user wishlist is a measure of the software's success and probably a good indicator of longivity.

A wishlist is a great resource for developers to dip into as a project proceeds. It is a fount of ideas, rather like brain-storming, for no project team can think of every little detail, or even every big detail. Sure, some wishes are a bit far-fetched, but someone has taken the time and energy to contribute and that's the important thing.

What must be realised here, is the Open Rails project is just what the title says - open; it's on-going. There is a great team spirit and a great team working away in the background. Some wishes may not be realised within a fixed time-frame, or at all - due to technical difficulties, etc. And, the big one; the sim coding must not get bogged down with wishes, otherwise everyone will complain about low or jerky frame-rates! We all know well how train simulator fans like to complain, eh?

The purpose of this thread is a wishlist of what you would like to have considered for inclusion in Open Rails. This is a 'wish' list, not a 'demand' list, so please keep your 'wishes' requests polite and respectful. The team members working on Open Rails are giving the project their time and their energy for free. They owe us nothing, we owe them everything.

I hope the Open Rails team will regard this thread as a benign lobby group. They are welcome to pick over the bones. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/discuss_gathering.gif


Cheers Bazza
20 February 2010

At the time of writing there is no public beta available for downloading. There has been much development work done since the initial very early beta release and the next beta release. Please view the Open Rails 'roadmap plan' on their official site.

This post has been edited by captain_bazza: 19 February 2010 - 09:36 PM
Reason for edit:: Corrections and updates.


#2 Inactive_NW_611_*

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 05:32 PM

-The ability to read the consist and trainset directory---like a "Rescan directories" button---in lieu of a single read at program launch.

-True alphabetical sorting of things based on what's in the name attribute.

-The ability to activate/deactivate routes while inside the program.

-See what can be done about reducing the need to have a trim trainset directory.

-Anything that'll enhance stability of the program when everything isn't perfect, i.e. a missing locomotive from a consist or similar.

#3 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 06:16 PM

Quote

See what can be done about reducing the need to have a trim trainset directory.


Could you explain that further, please?

Cheers Bazza

#4 User is offline   longiron 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 07:29 PM

View PostNW_611, on 19 February 2010 - 05:32 PM, said:

-See what can be done about reducing the need to have a trim trainset directory.


Believe he's referring to eliminating the need for Train Store-like functionality, where you have to "remove" items to a reduced set to get the game to load.
chrisvw

#5 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 08:10 PM

Not sure what NW_611 is asking for (side note: sometimes I really miss the rules followed on the Steam Era Freight Car list (STMFC) at Yahoogroups where including your full, real name is a requirement for every post) but I have my own set of "issues" with the way MSTS handles all rolling stock:

It's fine there is a global location for everything but IMO it is very undesirable to then have everything thrust in your face when trying to make a consist... or when selecting something when doing an Explore Route. That's just too much.

I'm not going to have CN and CP early diesel locomotives in California and I'm not going to have modern GE or EMD powerhouses on a traction route either, so why is that offered up as choices when I'm in a California route or a traction route?

There is a need, clearly, for an effective filter.

So... first pass at finding a soultion: use mini routes -- one per route. Works really well for (some) locomotives. My CP and CN stuff can be tied to a Kicking Horse Pass route. etc. etc. So far, so good. Ahh, but what about the freight cars? They can (and do) go everywhere. So scratch this sort of mini-route as The Solution.

Second pass -- mini routes by era. That covers a lot of locomotives and cars... by hey, cars can be in interchange service for 40 years. That's several "eras". Okay... solve that one by duplicating the .wags.... Uhh, then try and do an update because you've got some new info on braking ... or you've changed your mind about what is in and not in the name line in each .wag. TOO many places to go. This is no good either.

Third pass, keep the mini routes by era but add junctions so there is one global location again for .wags and .engs. Uhh, no, that's pretty much where I started.

Fourth pass: Use junctions in the mini routes to point at individual folders within the global directory. Waaaaaay too many junctions.

And so on. And that doesn't address the problems in consists that ask for cars that arn't in the right place anymore.

What I eventually realized is the problem isn't one that MSTS-as-a-simulator should solve because it's strictly an administrative problem, not a simulation problem -- in the same way that a text editor is administrative -- you really have to have one but if you don't, the sim can still function. So IMO it's really a combination of "tools" that are needed: A way to categorize each .wag and .eng -- and that will mean multiple possible uses / criteria (e.g., by route, by year or by type of route) and then tools like conbuilder that intellegently can act upon those qualifiers.

That is, my friends, a set of relationships one normally uses a database to hold: One car has one to many qualifiers and one to many qualfiers can be requested when building one consist.

That could be good stuff... but where does it fit in as far as priorities go?

#6 Inactive_NW_611_*

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 09:07 PM

Dave and longiron have pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I was looking for.

First, an engine that doesn't run the risk of timing out or otherwise going kaput if it has to read a fair number (say north of 2500 ENG/WAG) files at startup.

Secondly, some kind of robust filtering system that can take a look at attributes set in the ENG or WAG file would be very nice. What kind of attributes? Things like "NotAvailableBefore" or "NotAvailableAfter", "FoundInCanada", "RollerBearings", or maybe even user-definable things. I'm not a programmer, but sticking a line called "Attributes" or something in the ENG/WAG and then going from there could be a start. For example, take a car for the California Zephyr:

Attributes ( TypeStainlessSteelStreamlinedPassenger; Class 10-6 Sleeper; Manufacturer Budd; NotAvailableBefore 03-19-1949; NotAvailableAfter 03-22-1970; Railroad CB&Q|D&RGW|WP ) and so forth.

It's not the priority, but I would like if it were a priority enough that someone might think about it. This may require a stand-alone program.

Is superelevation something that can be considered?

#7 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 09:32 PM

Quote

That could be good stuff... but where does it fit in as far as priorities go?


Interesting discussion, I see this happening down the line...., which introduces the problem of designing things to work with the old MSTS structure and its folder setup, then later on, completely changing that setup. ATM, the consist file <name>.CON has the location of the locomotives, etc, in the format, ie:


Engine (
UiD ( 0 )
EngineData ( BZZ_USNG3_DRGW50 BZZ_USNG3_DRGW50 )

That's my little diesel lokey, and I forget which way round it is folder first, then the lokey file name. I always use the same name for the folder and lokey shape file.

Just checked; it's the lokey name first, then the location folder in the trainset folder.

At some stage of the development, MSTS will have to be cut adrift completely, perhaps after a major version release. This will allow a native OR setup, at least for consists and activity purposes.

In the meantime, the umbilical is still attached.....

Where's my security blanket?

Cheers Bazza

#8 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 09:39 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Dave, I've put a request for the use of first names in these posts.....that helps somewhat when answering a post.

In fact I'll put the suggestion to Admin to change the rules. I think most could live with first names, as well a nicks, it's a measure of trust and social involvement..

Cheers Bazza

#9 User is offline   dantheman 

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 10:18 PM

Things I must havewant:
Super-elevation
3D cabs
Sound echo

About the filters. Maybe a folder structure by Railroad would work?

#10 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 12:39 AM

I have some things on my (wish)list relating to effects, such as steam and smoke emissions, which I'd love to have available to give more ambience to a steam locomotive.

Having a strong interest in narrow gauge. I'd like to be able to tune a locomotive to give nice prototypical performance on the grades and tight curves of narrow gauge, under typical loads.

If I had to choose something for 'out of the box' I'd choose the steam/smokeFX.

Cheers Bazza

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