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: -----

#11 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 12:40 AM

View Postcaptain_bazza, on 19 February 2010 - 09:32 PM, said:


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.....
Cheers Bazza


That is exactly what Open Rails is trying to deal with.

#12 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 12:59 AM

I believe you'll have to do what Kuju/RSC did with the transition from RS to RW. Make the clean break and with a plan to help people over the transition. It's a wee bit traumatic at first, but I can't see any way to do it without some fortitude at break time. In the long term it will pay off.

Cheers Bazza

#13 User is offline   johnfrum 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 04:44 AM

Fellow Simmers:

Having the ability to type a name (or perhaps even a short description) when saving an Activity in progress.

-JF-

#14 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 11:00 AM

View Postjohnfrum, on 20 February 2010 - 04:44 AM, said:

Fellow Simmers:

Having the ability to type a name (or perhaps even a short description) when saving an Activity in progress.

-JF-



That's a good suggestion.

#15 Inactive_norman_*

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 11:04 AM

View Postcaptain_bazza, on 19 February 2010 - 05:13 PM, said:

Attachment 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.


If I missed the request for these items, please forgie me.

Three things that I would like to see -- (1) An AI dispatcher that works correctly. Dispatching trains on the US system is NOT all that hard. The signals work certain ways. Trains follow logical patterns of movement. Writing an algorithm to run AI trains can't be all that hard. (2) Save files must be accessible to the user. This would allow stringing activities together. I.e complete one activity, and begin another from EXACTLY where the previous one finished. The MSTS save file is unitelligible to anyone so far. Let's save it as a text file, just like a regular activity file. (3) The ability for the user to set any track switch, not just the one directly in front of and directly behind the player train. Provide a warning if setting a switch interferes with AI traffic. This will mean the option for a user to unlock any AI controlled switch. It would also be nice to be able to set multiple switches with one or two actions (clicks?), just like diode routing used on many model RR's.

#16 Inactive_norman_*

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 11:07 AM

View Postnorman, on 20 February 2010 - 11:04 AM, said:

If I missed the request for these items, please forgie me.

Three things that I would like to see -- (1) An AI dispatcher that works correctly. Dispatching trains on the US system is NOT all that hard. The signals work certain ways. Trains follow logical patterns of movement. Writing an algorithm to run AI trains can't be all that hard. (2) Save files must be accessible to the user. This would allow stringing activities together. I.e complete one activity, and begin another from EXACTLY where the previous one finished. The MSTS save file is unitelligible to anyone so far. Let's save it as a text file, just like a regular activity file. (3) The ability for the user to set any track switch, not just the one directly in front of and directly behind the player train. Provide a warning if setting a switch interferes with AI traffic. This will mean the option for a user to unlock any AI controlled switch. It would also be nice to be able to set multiple switches with one or two actions (clicks?), just like diode routing used on many model RR's.


I just thought of another one. It would be very nice to have some easy way to implement AI traffic for track warrant and/or time table routes.

#17 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 02:30 PM

Quote

(3) The ability for the user to set any track switch, not just the one directly in front of and directly behind the player train. Provide a warning if setting a switch interferes with AI traffic. This will mean the option for a user to unlock any AI controlled switch. It would also be nice to be able to set multiple switches with one or two actions (clicks?), just like diode routing used on many model RR's.


One of features the team feels is feasible is to provide a variety of display viewers. That's not just different camera positions but a unique display intended for a specific purpose, such as a window for dispatchers CTC board, or towerman's switch controls. One I'd like is a brakemans Window... moves alongside the train at a walking speed as that's really what is happening when a manual switch is thrown -- somebody is out there on the ground doing the work and the train needs to be going slow enough for that person to step down or climb up (locomotive, caboose, or cars side ladder). How often do MSTS players go slow enough to mimic the man on the ground?

Anyway, nothing has been done to date to implement any of those ideas. I mention them here just to point out there are different ways to provide features and sometimes multiple solutions would be a good thing.

IOW, it's valuable to think outside of the box.

What it takes to get any of these ideas to become real is somebody willing to describe in some detail what is wanted... and somebody who is able and wants to write code to implement it.

#18 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 02:55 PM

Quote

What it takes to get any of these ideas to become real is somebody willing to describe in some detail what is wanted... and somebody who is able and wants to write code to implement it.


That's about what it boils down to, folks. Open source is about shared knowledge and active participation. You don't have to be a programmer....but the ability to put across your ideas in a comprehensive and lucid manner might just get results.

The journey has just begun. This thread is about an ideas pool or brainstorming. Once we have a good beta and more background knowledge available I can see we'll probably form topic discussion groups.

Cheers Bazza

(First caffeine intake of the day is kicking in.)

#19 User is offline   ricksan 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 06:23 PM

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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.


That will happen for sure! B)

Quote

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.


Maybe so, but right now a big part of our mission is backward compatibility. I really think we can have it both ways. We haven't tried it out yet but we've discussed ways to provide enhancements to MSTS content without altering the MSTS files themselves. A good example of this is smoke and steam effects. Open Rails could use the same expanded effects capabilities for MSTS models, perhaps by using supplementary files, as it will use for native Open Rails content.

#20 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 20 February 2010 - 06:38 PM

Thanks Rick, that's good news in my book.

Cheers Bazza
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