[Csantucci]

I'm working on making the turntables operational.
Here a rough demo video (no fake):
https://youtu.be/zsyg7_vWEto

Further details in the next days.

[PA1930]

That is amazing! Great work, Carlo!

[midneguy]

I really don't think there are words to describe the significance of this development - and how awesome it is! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/bravo.gif

I'm sure I echo the feelings of many others when I say thanks for your efforts (and everyone else on the OR team for that matter) and all of the work that you do to make a great sim even better http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_thank_you.gif

And my closing thought, this sure looks like another nail in the coffin of tired old MSTS :D

[Hobo]

Carlo !
To say I'm not only elated and extremely impressed by your work is a great understatement . Congratulations on an upcoming wonderful improvement for OR .
I'm really looking forward to this major innovation .

[conductorchris]

This will be great fun. And of course fill a hole.

But like midneguy said, the significance of this improvement is also symbolic. It is a significant enough advance that people will take note. It will put open rails on the map as having arrived.

Christopher

[captain_bazza]

A Gold Medal award to Carlo, for a grande achievement event in the development of Open Rails.

Kudos!

Cheers Bazza.

[Csantucci]

Thank you for appreciation!
In the meantime I start indicating the requirements for a turntable to be operational.
The turntable must be within tsection.dat. In the demo I used A1t27mTurntable.s, because it has the rotating bridge implemented as a single subblock, and I added the animation in the uncompressed .s file. Other turntables must be structured as that one, that is:

1) within tsection.dat the TrackShape structure must include the (invisible) track sections for all angles where an external track can be connected. The track sections must cover half circle, because they extend to the whole diameter, and therefore also to the other half circle. As an example the above turntable has following block within tsection.dat:

TrackShape ( 253 
 FileName ( A1t27mTurntable.s )
 NumPaths ( 18 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 0 -0.18 0.0000 0 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -2.3278 -0.18 0.2040 10 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -4.5847 -0.18 0.8080 20 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -6.7025 -0.18 1.7960 30 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -8.6166 -0.18 3.1360 40 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -10.269 -0.18 4.7884 50 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -11.609 -0.18 6.7025 60 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -12.597 -0.18 8.8203 70 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -13.201 -0.18 11.077 80 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -13.405 -0.18 13.405 90 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -13.201 -0.18 15.733 100 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -12.597 -0.18 17.990 110 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -11.609 -0.18 20.107 120 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -10.269 -0.18 22.022 130 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -8.6166 -0.18 23.674 140 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -6.7025 -0.18 25.014 150 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -4.5847 -0.18 26.002 160 338 )
 SectionIdx ( 1 -2.3278 -0.18 26.606 170 338 )
)

2) the shape (the .s file) must have an animated rotating bridge The animation block must be as shown here:

				anim_node TRACKPIECE (
					controllers ( 1
						tcb_rot ( 3
							tcb_key ( 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 )
							tcb_key ( 1800 0 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 )
							tcb_key ( 3600 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 0 )
						)
                                           )
                                        )

Unfortunately the above turntable has TRACKPIECE wich is not centered at the center of the platform, therefore I had to add also a translation animation. I attach here the block to be added at the end of the existing A1t27mTurntable.s (just above the last parenthesis).
 a1t27mturntable_animations.zip (3.95K)
Number of downloads: 1407

To every route containing operational platforms a .dat file must be added, to be inserted in an OpenRails subdirectory within the route directory, with following format (example used for the demo video route):

2
Turntable(
WFile ( "w-005625+014198.w" )
UiD ( 1280 )
XOffset ( 0 )
YOffset ( -1.92177 )
ZOffset ( 13.4 )
TrackShapeIndex ( 253 )
Animation ( "TRACKPIECE" )
Diameter ( 27 )
)
Turntable(
WFile ( "w-005631+014158.w" )
UiD ( 638 )
XOffset ( 0 )
YOffset ( -1.92177 )
ZOffset ( 13.4 )
TrackShapeIndex ( 253 )
Animation ( "TRACKPIECE" )
Diameter ( 27 )
)

XOffset, YOffset and ZOffset indicate the offset of the center of the turntable, relative to the zero of the shape.

I have analyzed tsection.dat: no other turntable available there has a shape with the rotating bridge within a separate and unique block (and therefore easily animable). But for a shape builder it's easy to replace the available shape with another one with same name, that has an animated bridge.

I think following turntables can be made operational with a new shape (in addition to the one I used of course):
- SR_Turntable_c_37m.s
- SR_Turntable_w_37m.s
- A1t42mTurntable.s
- ukfs_tt_68ft.s
- N1t16mTurntable.s (narrow gauge).

Therefore there is a starting base. If new turntables are desired, additions to tsection.dat should be considered and agreed.

It would be nice if a list of routes could be generated where A1t27mTurntable.s or any other of above turntables is present.

[longiron]

Brilliant work. I'm sure modelers will jump on this.

[Howky]

Will it work even multiplayer ? :-)

[Buttercup]

List of routes containing A1t27mTurntable.s

Attached File(s)

•  A1t27mTurntable.s.txt (979bytes)
  Number of downloads: 1522

[ConCat]

Austin Yoders Horseshoe curve also has the A1t27mTurntable.s

[Csantucci]

Thanks Eric and Cliff,
that's better than I imagined.

[Csantucci]

Here are the instructions and the files to test the turntable alpha version, both for route Catania-Messina (SICILIA_1) and for other routes using a1t27mturntable.s.
Route Catania-Messina can be downloaded from here: http://www.trainsimh...oad.php?did=544
A .ws file within the World subdirectory must be replaced with the following one (this has nothing to do with turntables, it's a file that contains incoherent data that can cause a crash)
 w-005631+014158.zip (785bytes)
Number of downloads: 1170
Here two test paths, one for each turntable in the route, are provided: they can be used either in explore mode or within activities:
 Turntable_PATHS.zip (2.66K)
Number of downloads: 1221
A subfolder OpenRails must be created within the route's folder and therein following file, containing the turntable data, must be inserted
 turntables.zip (348bytes)
Number of downloads: 1277
Within such subfolder also this small integration .trk file must be inserted, that indicates the name of the .sms sound file to be associated to the turntable
 Sicilia 1.zip (232bytes)
Number of downloads: 1204
File a1t27mturntable.s within Global\Shapes must be uncompressed with Route Riter or Shapefilemanager and the animation data included in the file attached here http://www.elvastowe...post__p__202540 must be added to such uncompressed file (just above the last parenthesis).
Within the base Sound folder (not the one of the route) the following .sms file has to be added to provide sound. It uses the two default MSTS .wav files for the sound. They have a bit a low volume. It is open to everyone to improve such files. Discrete trigger 1 is triggered when the turntable starts turning empty, discrete trigger 2 is triggered when the turntable starts turning with train on board, and discrete trigger 3 is triggered when rotation stops.
 turntablesSOUND.zip (532bytes)
Number of downloads: 1289

5 OpenRails .exe and .dll files must be replaced with the attached ones within release x.3543
File deleted because feature is now available in x.3544

To extend to other routes the operation of such turntable only one integration .trk file and a specific turntables.dat must be created and inserted in an Openrails subfolder. The only data that must be modified for the first file is the reference to the base .trk file, and for the second file parameters Wfile and UID. One block for each turntable must be inserted in the file, and the number on top of the file indicates the total number of blocks (turntables).

Operation hints. After having stopped correctly the loco and having put reverser to neutral and entered manual mode (in explorer mode this last step is not needed) you can rotate the turntable clockwise with keys Alt+C, and counterclockwise with keys Ctrl+C. You must keep the keys pressed to continue rotation. When the first of the two rails of the rotating bridge is between the two rails where you want to stop, release the keys. Rotation will continue up to perfect alignment. If necessary exit from manual mode (if you are again on a path in activity mode) and move the loco out of the turntable.

It would be nice if a collection of ORTSturntables.dat files for routes containing this turntable were generated and made available to everyone by people that succeeded in making these turntables operational. Beware: this alpha release has not save/restore working.

16/5/16: command keys changed from CTRL+T and ALT+T to CTRL+C and ALT+C. .dat file renamed from ORTSturntables.dat to turntables.dat
New release of OR_Turntables1.zip. Save and restore implemented
19/5/16: a new release is now present here (see new file OR_Turntables2.zip). Also two sound-related files are present here. This new release includes sound, should solve a bug that affected midneguy and Vicente, and does not align turntable at position where external track is not present
19/5/16 14:11 GMT : new release OR_Turntables3.zip correcting a further bug on directions
19/5/16 15:46 GMT : new release OR_Turntables4.zip
19/5/16 20:53 GMT : new release OR_Turntables5.zip
20/5/16 : new release OR_Turntables6.zip
22/5/16 : new release OR_Turntables7.zip
23/5/16: first release committed in x.3544

[NF1-800]

This is astonishing...all my respect and thank you very much for making this possible. Hats off... :sign_thanks:

[SP 0-6-0]

Holly smokes batman! My long dreamed of addition for ORTS has become a reality at last. I can't help but to wonder if this was spurred on by my discussion a while ago on the subject at TS.com?

I am so glad to see my quest for a working turnable show up as a rough working beta thanks to a very ingenious individual with the knowledge and know how to do it better than Railworks/Train Simulator 20xx. Hopefully the default MSTS turntable sounds can be linked to work correctly with this new found wonder we are seeing for ORTS at some future point.

I had struggled with the very idea on how to connect and disconnect the table from the paths and not screw the trackdb all up in the process. The rotation of the locomotive once on the table was also a huge stumbling block since I have no formal training as software engineer.

I wonder if the table has bounding box properties?

Other concerns will be offering a version for electric and non electric locos so a table with overhead cable that rotates with the table can be rendered correctly. I envision something like two supports at each end of the table and more of steel pipe or bar as the cable for the table.

Hopefully this will lead to a working transfer table for big engine works yards Transfer Table? Or rotary car dumper for coal or gravel hoppers at some point in the future. Rotary Dumper Useful for large industrial sites like steel mills and power plants. This rotary dumper is in Trainz even know the video says TS2010. Dumper

Then ORTS will be the best train simulator around!

I'd donate to a fund to buy beer for this contribution to ORTS. Well done!

Robert