[cjakeman]

I received a message via the Open Rails website that reveals a level of activity that surprised and delighted me.

Greetings from Brazil, gentlemen! First of all I would like to apologize for bad English since I am using Google Translate.

I speak on behalf of a group of 38 people who simulate weekly on Saturdays using the Open Rails platform, and we ask for possible improvements to follow if possible:
- Improvements in the sound of AI trains and other players, since it only contains the sound of the locomotive, the wagons do not make noise,
- in addition to the locomotive of the other players are in the same constant noise;
- Improvements in the CTC map (control of the route to the dispatcher in multiplayer mode) with an option to see the speed of other players, since some do not like to respect the maximum speed;
- Traffic map should be available only to the dispatcher and not to all players.
- A possible way to auto-save multiplayer sessions, in case the server crashes we do not have to start again.

I would like to thank you for listening and keeping this beautiful simulator for free. We will donate to the entire team of Open Rails developers for everything they do to us.
Sincerely, William.

To the multi-players reading this - have you also observed the problems identified above?

Thanks,

[Csantucci]

I'm glad to read that multiplayer is used around the world.

I have just tested, and in multiplayer I hear the sound of the other wagons. I hear also the track sound generated by the other wagons.
The "same constant noise" isn't clear to me. The sound of the multiplayer locomotives has been simplified, because else additional (physics) data should be sent for each locomotive (e.g. effort). In other words the sound is dependent from the speed, but it assumes a fixed value of Variable1 (except for steamers), Variable2 and Variable3.
Seeing the speed of the other players is not enough to control if a player runs too fast. Maybe lines covering the multiplayer trains could be added in the Dispatcher Info HUD (they are not there now).
I prefer that traffic map (I assume they mean the dispatcher window) remains available also to other players. I don't see reasons to restrict this.
Auto-save multiplayer sessions would be useful, as in my experience multiplayer sessions can end up with crashes.

[Csantucci]

I've found an error that for certain .sms files let motor sound to be heard also at zero speed in multiplayer. I have corrected it in x.3972.

[Howky]

When dealing with multiplayer, it would be possible to change the nickname of the player even in the game not just at the beginning.

[cjakeman]

Csantucci, on 31 October 2017 - 12:34 AM, said:

I've found an error that for certain .sms files let motor sound to be heard also at zero speed in multiplayer. I have corrected it in x.3972.

Thanks, Carlo, both for the fix and the feedback.

I will pass it back to Brazil and, if they can't find the cause of the problem, then we will need more detail.

[Csantucci]

A further small improvement. I noticed that the dispatcher info HUD already lists the multiplayer trains and their speeds. They are however all identified with the name "REMOTE" and therefore they can't be related to the remote player.
With x.3973 I uploaded a patch that now displays as name of the multiplayer trains the first 7 chars of the related player name.
In the attached picture you see that there is a line where the consist name is "Client" (the name of the multiplayer player - not much fantasy here...). This way the dispatcher can monitor the multiplayer train speeds.


I'll check further if it is possible to display also the maxspeed for the multiplayer trains. Now always a 0 is displayed.

[Howky]

Csantucci :and change the nickname could be done? during the game

[Csantucci]

Howky, I'm sorry, but I don't see a simple way to implement this. Nickname now is defined within the menu window, and transmitted to the server and to the other players. Changing nickname would need a window where to change it (maybe the dispatcher window), a new message to be sent to server and other players, and also the train cars should be renamed.

[Csantucci]

There was another problem in the dispatcher info HUD at the side of the server. As it can be seen on picture 3 posts above this one, the max speed for the remote trains is shown equal to 0. This has been fixed in x.3975. This way the dispatcher has on the dispatcher info both train speed and train max speed for all multiplayer trains.

[Csantucci]

A further problem has been fixed in x.3976. The speed displayed for remote multiplayer trains oscillates, because it is not the speed as received from the remote train, but a recalculated speed. Now the original speed as received is displayed. Moreover to ease control by the dispatcher the speed is displayed in red if the train is running above the allowed speed.