[Jovet]

I've been having an odd problem for a long time, and it's curious to me that nobody else has reported it.

http://msts.jovet.net/files/images/ORTS-LaunchError.png

I seem to get this error message every time I select a different route in the Open Rails "Menu" and then start a simulation. If I close the "Menu" and restart it, it works fine.

As you can see above, for some reason, the time argument is missing. A while back I even combed through the code that builds the command-line string to see if I could figure out what is going on but didn't see anything awry [within my capacity to do so].

• It's always the time argument that is missing.
• It only happens after I select a different route from the one previously ran and press Start to launch OR.
• OR always aborts after the appearance of the error.
• The error then repeatedly appears no matter which route is selected until I restart the "Menu" application.
• After re-launching the menu application, the selected route can be ran without issue, but selecting a different route requires another restart of the "Menu" application.
• This has been happening to me for at least a year, across many different experimental OR versions.

[slipperman]

Hi Joseph,
Using X3700, I have no such problem. I've successfully switched between routes within an installation and switched to other installations.

Cheers,
Ged

[R H Steele]

Ged, same here, never any indication of any problems, whatsoever.

[Jovet]

That's what is so odd about the problem. I seem to be the only one having it. And I've no idea why!

[Coolhand101]

Jovet, on 21 December 2016 - 12:45 PM, said:

I've been having an odd problem for a long time, and it's curious to me that nobody else has reported it.

I seem to get this error message every time I select a different route in the Open Rails "Menu" and then start a simulation. If I close the "Menu" and restart it, it works fine.

I sometimes get this error with the reasons you have stated, as well as exiting then restarting the menu to stop this error happening. Guess i thought it was a problem my end and was easy to solve by restarting.

Thanks

[Jovet]

Coolhand101, on 21 December 2016 - 02:59 PM, said:

I sometimes get this error with the reasons you have stated, as well as exiting then restarting the menu to stop this error happening. Guess i thought it was a problem my end and was easy to solve by restarting.

Well I'm glad to hear I'm not alone. I don't know how it could be a problem only on our end, though, since it seems to be a bug in how the OR Menu builds the command line to launch the game. I can also confirm that, when the problem is happening, changing the time field also ceases the problem. Somehow the time field is not being correctly fetched/generated when the time comes to build the command-line after changing the route selection. I don't know why this would be, but an internationalization setting or scenario that OR isn't properly dealing with is my first thought.

[James Ross]

Jovet, on 21 December 2016 - 12:45 PM, said:

I've been having an odd problem for a long time, and it's curious to me that nobody else has reported it.

http://msts.jovet.net/files/images/ORTS-LaunchError.png

That is strange... next time you get this, can you return to the menu (without closing it) and check what is in "Time:" box; in explore mode it is just a textbox so you can freely edit it. It seems that it is empty, but I'd like to confirm before trying to figure out why.

[Jovet]

James Ross, on 21 December 2016 - 03:43 PM, said:

That is strange... next time you get this, can you return to the menu (without closing it) and check what is in "Time:" box; in explore mode it is just a textbox so you can freely edit it. It seems that it is empty, but I'd like to confirm before trying to figure out why.

The combo box is not empty. I never change the time. It's always 16:30.

From what I gathered looking at the code, there are a few methods invoked to get the input time out of the combo box, and something about changing the route must change how that happens.

I also observe that changing the route or Activity makes the time field combo box disappear momentarily. None of the other fields (e.g. Season, Duration) do this.

Also note that this issue is persistently reproducible for me. I can get it to happen at any time.

[Jovet]

Well I have made a breakthrough in this problem.

As I mentioned above, I usually use a Time setting of 16:30. The fractional hour seems to be the culprit. The bug also appears when I use a time of 8:30. Also, setting the time to 8:30, Exploring a route, and then switching to another route initially reset the time setting back to the previous (pre-8:30) value. This seems to be bad behavior as well. After setting the time to 8:30 again, it stuck. And also started causing the original error again.

I hope, now, everyone else can reproduce this.

[Csantucci]

Yes, I could reproduce this, but I'm not the best person to solve this.

[Coolhand101]

There may be another way to see this bug 100%.
On the main menu, hit the start button then exit OR. While still on the menu, turn off control confirmations and hit the start button again.

[James Ross]

Jovet, on 17 January 2017 - 06:41 AM, said:

I hope, now, everyone else can reproduce this.

I am still unable to reproduce this. :(

But, it is very useful information that you are getting the issue on fractional hour: those are all values which do not exist in the dropdown's options. That could be important!

Do you also get the issue when using e.g. "08:00"? The leading zero is not in the dropdown's options, so although this is not a fractional hour, it is nevertheless an interesting value.

[Csantucci]

The crash sequence in detail is this one to me:
- start OR
- select explore mode
- set manually time to 16:30
- start explore mode
- few seconds after you are in your cab, regularly exit runactivity
- select another route and the parameters to start again in explore mode; don't change 16:30 that should be still there
- start explore mode with this new route
- crash!

And what I found is that effectively args[] is missing the element of the time of day.

[Jovet]

James Ross, on 19 January 2017 - 01:45 PM, said:

Do you also get the issue when using e.g. "08:00"?

Yes, I do get it then as well.

Csantucci, on 19 January 2017 - 02:01 PM, said:

... don't change 16:30 that should be still there ...

I've observed that changing the time doesn't always stick, especially when changing the route after changing the Time value (but before launching the simulation).

[Coolhand101]

Coolhand101, on 17 January 2017 - 05:17 PM, said:

There may be another way to see this bug 100%.
On the main menu, hit the start button then exit OR. While still on the menu, turn off control confirmations and hit the start button again.

Is no one else getting the mention bug with the above method? I can reproduce it 100%!