Elvas Tower: Open Rails Signal Oscillation - Elvas Tower

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Open Rails Signal Oscillation Demonstration route Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   Jovet 

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Posted 10 January 2017 - 04:10 AM

The test route can be downloaded here.

There are a few maps in the Documentation folder to aid in describing specific locations, signals, and switches in the instructions below. The keyboard keys instructed to be pressed represent Open Rails default settings.

To reproduce the oscillation in Open Rails:

  • Explore the route with a short consist, starting at location Left Leg.
  • Once the Explore activity has started, press 8 to leave the cab of the locomotive, which should not be past the first signal ("Signal A"). (Map.)
  • Fly the camera along, following the left track path your locomotive is already on, and find the third signal ("Signal C"), the first one with the diamond sign.
  • Throw the switch next to Signal C ("Switch 3") by ALT+clicking it.
  • Fly to and observe Signal E. The home arm stutters as it constantly fluctuates between Danger and Caution (STOP and APPROACH_1). This can be observed on the Track Monitor as well.
  • (Also observe Signal D does not go back to showing Danger, despite there no longer being a train pathed past it.)
  • You can press G to throw the first switch to see the behavior start and stop as the selected path changes and alters the signals.
  • You can move your locomotive forward to approach the signals. Once the locomotive passes Signal B, the oscillation stops. Reversing the locomotive back to in rear of Signal B will restart the oscillation. SignalNumClearAhead is set to 3.

You can also be observant for signals in Signal Debug Mode (CTRL+ALT+F11) which do not display any indication name (e.g. CLEAR_2) where their track marker should be. Such signals still seem to work correctly otherwise. I've been surprised to rarely observe this on several routes.

#2 User is online   roeter 

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Posted 11 January 2017 - 01:32 AM

View PostJovet, on 10 January 2017 - 04:10 AM, said:

There are a few maps in the Documentation folder to aid in describing specific locations, signals, and switches in the instructions below. The keyboard keys instructed to be pressed represent Open Rails default settings.


No doubt there is such a folder somewhere - but I'm afraid there's no such thing in the zip.
But never mind - there's only one path, so it's fair to assume that's where to start the train, and there's only one switch, so again it looks clear that's the one to throw.

But then - nothing. Everything is working as it should :wtf01: :wtf01: :wtf01:

No oscillating, signals reset on the path now no longer selected and clear on the other path. I can throw the switch till I see blue in the face but nothing unexpected is happening.

The only thing I can think of is that you make a testdump of the signal processing. Perhaps that can show some light on this rather weird problem.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

#3 User is offline   Jovet 

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Posted 11 January 2017 - 03:40 AM

View Postroeter, on 11 January 2017 - 01:32 AM, said:

No doubt there is such a folder somewhere - but I'm afraid there's no such thing in the zip.

Sorry it was not clear, but the indicated Documentation folder resides inside the route's own folder. See here.

View Postroeter, on 11 January 2017 - 01:32 AM, said:

But never mind - there's only one path, so it's fair to assume that's where to start the train, and there's only one switch, so again it looks clear that's the one to throw.
But then - nothing. Everything is working as it should
No oscillating, signals reset on the path now no longer selected and clear on the other path. I can throw the switch till I see blue in the face but nothing unexpected is happening.
The only thing I can think of is that you make a testdump of the signal processing. Perhaps that can show some light on this rather weird problem.

That doesn't sound like the correct switch to throw, especially when my instructions refer to the third signal and the switch next to it as Switch #3. Here also is a link to the map in question.

If throwing the correct switch still does not offer the claimed results, I will be happy to provide said dump... but I would request and require access to the most current source code, which I do not believe I have.

Thank you for taking the time to look into this.

#4 User is offline   dforrest 

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Posted 11 January 2017 - 04:30 AM

Is there anything particular about the "BNSF Hy-Rail" consist used in the test activity? You did not include it.

#5 User is offline   copperpen 

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Posted 11 January 2017 - 04:47 AM

Following the instructions I get D showing danger and E showing danger with a flashing red light. Signal arm has a very small jitter in time with the flashing red and the track monitor also shows the signal alternating between stop and caution.

#6 User is online   roeter 

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Posted 11 January 2017 - 11:11 AM

:blush2: :sign_oops: wrong zipfile ..... :sign_sorry:

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

#7 User is offline   Jovet 

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Posted 12 January 2017 - 01:03 AM

View Postdforrest, on 11 January 2017 - 04:30 AM, said:

Is there anything particular about the "BNSF Hy-Rail" consist used in the test activity? You did not include it.

No. I don't use it either. There is something about that .eng that OR doesn't like and I've never gotten around to bother fixing it. Since the test is for Explore mode it doesn't really matter. It just can't be too long; I tend to use a 2-loco consist.

View Postcopperpen, on 11 January 2017 - 04:47 AM, said:

Following the instructions I get D showing danger and E showing danger with a flashing red light. Signal arm has a very small jitter in time with the flashing red and the track monitor also shows the signal alternating between stop and caution.

Yep, that's it! (I am kinda glad it's not just me.) Usually you can also hear the signal sound repeatedly triggered as the semaphore constantly tries to change positions, though the audio system doesn't seem to like that many triggered events.
:p
I've observed this across several different signaling systems, too, it's not just this one. (I actually just wrote this one for this test route, and happened to stumble across the oscillation bug in the process.)

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