[Genma Saotome]

cjakeman, on 03 December 2012 - 11:11 AM, said:

Elvas Tower is a great forum - with lots of collaboration. Recently we've added multi-user (thanks Jijun) and we can exchange recordings with ORSavePacks, which will be good for tutorials (and competitions?).

The source code gets better because we all work on it together. I want to see the same approach taken to developing content and, of course, some way to merge two routes together and grow large-scale routes.

Something that has always been in the back of my mind is increasing the collaboration of model building by taking sub-assemblies of .s files and integrating them as 1 model. Stuff like person A's trucks, Person B's couplers, Person C's brake equipment, and let Person D create the car body. We'd have a whole lot more steam era cars with that approach than we do now with the do-it-all-yourself not much sharing/reuse. Maybe it would need to be cad-neutral source files (e.g., collada) instead of .s files, I dunno, but the basic idea is to look at how (physical) model railroading uses kit-bashing and figure out how to do that with our own models.

[Csantucci]

midneguy, on 06 December 2012 - 05:02 PM, said:

...
Thinking of wish-list items made me think of something I don't recall seeing mentioned too much? Sounds - or really, additional options to be available in making .sms files. Since my primary interest in steam I've always been frustrated by several aspects of the original MSTS sound system, particularly in dealing with the chug sounds and synchronization to the driver rotation. The main gripe I have is the phonograph effect the current .sms options allow, that is, though the chugs may be synchronized correctly, it sounds like a record player speeding up and slowing down, and on top of that you have the abrupt transitions from one chug stream to another. ...

If one does not take into consideration the wheel slip case, a solution to this problem with the actual .sms language could be using Dist_Travelled_Trigger.

[That Genset Foamer]

So I was thinking about what I'd like to see added to OpenRails, and right out the gate these two ideas popped into my head. Of course, for all I know these ideas are probably so complex that they won't really make it into OR for a long while...

* Linkable sound sources, with a primary application on level crossings. Let's say your main crossing.sms file calls for a mechanical bell by a particular builder, yet the prototype crossing has...say...an electronic bell, or some bell by a different manufacturer. To a layman this is perfectly acceptable, but to a discerning crossing aficianado this is one of the greatest limitations of MSTS! Maybe it could be implemented by line in LevelCr entry in the .w file that is read in OpenRails, specifying the .wav file used much like the .ace file line for Forests or Transfers. This could also open the doors for defect detector sounds, specific types of signals--for example semaphores and searchlights equipped on the same route, and wish to have the motor sound for the semaphores--and a multitude of other functions.

* A means of jumping between two or more horn or whistle sound effects: this trick is currently remedied by using the sander function, but a solution in which CTRL-Spacebar plays a recording of the locomotive's horn/whistle when "quilled" while simply pressing Spacebar actuates the horn/whistle at a full-blast setting. For steam-era trainsimmers, this is a must as some engineers back then blew the whistle in a specific way as though it was their signature, hence the origin of the word "quilling".

[conductorchris]

Amen on Dave's idea of subassemblies of models. "Interchangeable parts," so to speak. That would really open up new worlds.
Christopher

[eric from trainsim]

Genma Saotome, on 04 January 2013 - 09:21 AM, said:

Something that has always been in the back of my mind is increasing the collaboration of model building by taking sub-assemblies of .s files and integrating them as 1 model. Stuff like person A's trucks, Person B's couplers, Person C's brake equipment, and let Person D create the car body. We'd have a whole lot more steam era cars with that approach than we do now with the do-it-all-yourself not much sharing/reuse. Maybe it would need to be cad-neutral source files (e.g., collada) instead of .s files, I dunno, but the basic idea is to look at how (physical) model railroading uses kit-bashing and figure out how to do that with our own models.

+1... A variation on this could be accommodated by supporting multiple freight animation lines, e.g. perhaps the trucks are the base model due to the animation, with separate shapefiles for the brakes, couplers, hoses, etc.

That could also allow for more interesting loads on flat cars...

[Genma Saotome]

Conceptually what I'm describing is kinda like this:

NativeCad ==> Exporter ===> MeshFile (.m), MeshDescriptionFile (.md; to include any useful attributes, such as copyright, bounding box values, texture file names, etc.)

MeshFile(1..n) NAME ===> ORShapefile (.ors)
MeshDescriptionFile(1..n) NAME ===> ORShapeDescriptionFile (.orsd)

where:
--- the ORShapefile locates in 3d space each of the component meshfiles
--- the ORShapeDescriptionFile provides a place for texture file subsitution (whole file, not UV changes) as well as any descriptive attributes (e.g., ShapeName()).

That's not intended as a specification (nor is it an indication of what OR will do) but only to conceptually describe one possible way as an example whereby n number of individual meshes can be integrated into a single shape for use in a game.

[jared2982]

In addition to seeing the switches of the current path in the track monitor being able to throw them by clicking on the would be a great feature. Especially where switch are very close together. I have a couple in my Alamosa - Antonito route that are less than 3m apart which requires me to stop the train at just the right spot to throw the next switch.

[Genma Saotome]

May the Kuju programmer who coded the track & road pitch function in MSTS RE spend the rest of eternity in purgatory doing 1d curve placements at a various degrees of pitch not evenly divisible by .15 with none required between -.825 and + .825 on a monitor w/ resolution equal to or greater than 1920x1200 and a mouse set at high speed, >2000dpi. No End key allowed. And background music by anybody that can make Adam Ant & band sound as pleasant and sophisticated as Bach's chamber music.

May the OR programmer who codes any similar function for an Open Rails editor know and fear the well deserved fate of the Kuju programmer.