[Traindude]

If we're talking about future features in ORTS, I have plenty of ideas that I've shared both on this forum and on Trello.

In particular I'm looking forward to improvements in the steam department, including the implementation of one-piece articulated locomotive models. Those of you who have already seen my experimental Challenger test model are probably aware of this--the bits and pieces of the puzzle are all there, it's just a matter of the ORTS development team filling in the gaps.

Also in the steam department is a whole laundry list of potential improvements--advanced water system specification, improved AI firing algorithms, oil-burning locomotives, throttle response lag, booster engines, etc.

Outside the steam department, some other features I'm looking forward to are the implementation of manual transitioning in rheostatically-controlled electric and diesel-electric locomotives, provisions for specifying fuel levels and fuel stops in timetable mode, variable carspawner traffic density (determined by Time of Day and even Day of Week!), and more.

...And that's just the beginning!

[darwins]

The list is very long Traindude. You and I have very similar lists. Unfortunately there are very few developers working on the above areas. Many of them point towards just one person at the moment. We may be waiting many more years, but we can always hope they will come through, one at a time.

[cjakeman]

Looky1173, on 28 December 2022 - 09:43 AM, said:

The Trello board has not been updated yet to reflect the release of v1.5.

Thanks for highlighting this. Done now.

[cjakeman]

Weter, on 28 December 2022 - 10:45 AM, said:

And, what for wishes, of course, extension of text fields on main menu window and it's dialog boxes - for fitting text in languages, other, than English.

As I've been revising the Options Tabs, I've also extended all the text fields (so with 2 columns of fields, they extend halfway across the form).

Hope that's OK for you.

[cjakeman]

Looky1173, on 28 December 2022 - 04:53 AM, said:

Revamp the website of Open Rails (openrails.org): The website gives the first impression of the simulator to new users, thus it is vital to keep it up to date and easy to use. In my opinion, the website would benefit from some updates:

• some pages are outdated, some elements are broken: the widget in the footer is no longer functional and could be removed; "Changes since last visit" does not work; many commercial vendors' websites are no longer online as listed on the Trade page; etc...
• the code is duplicated: there are two GitHub repositories which both contain the code of the website, one could be eliminated
• the website has not been translated into languages besides English: if the website was translated into more languages, potentially more people would discover it

I have created several websites and I could potentially rewrite OR's website in Next.js with all the updates listed above. Please let me know whether I should attempt to do this.

Thanks for suggesting this.

Ryan Young re-wrote the website (which is currently PHP-based) so that it is suitable for static hosting and therefore hosting on GitHub Pages. Now that v1.5 has been released, moving www.openrails.org from its current host to GitHub Pages is a priority for the Open Rails Management Team (as has been announced on the Project Team forum).

Once this has been done, we would welcome your input.

[Jonatan]

For myself, I would like to see the implementation of steam physics and AI fireman behavior that was present in MSTS but not yet implemented in OR.



The correct simulation of water level in relation to gradients, and the AI fireman responding to changes in water level when on gradient. Currently the water level does NOT fluctuate with the angle of the boiler.

Accurate fire and water management by the AI fireman. The AI firemans behavior has been sorely neglected, currently he works like a mechanical stoker and water pump and does not follow real world practice. Human bodies work in bursts, not continuous rates.



Another thing that would be nice to see in future is support for a shape file that renders wheel and rod animations while in the 3D cab view.

[cjakeman]

Looky1173, on 28 December 2022 - 08:22 AM, said:

A question about the website: is the source code of the API available? On GitHub, "/api" is in the .gitignore file...

That folder contains only short data files (in JSON) for each version of Open Rails - see attached ZIP.

Attached File(s)

•  api.zip (27.75K)
  Number of downloads: 77

[steamer_ctn]

Jonatan, on 29 December 2022 - 06:51 PM, said:

The AI firemans behavior has been sorely neglected, currently he works like a mechanical stoker and water pump and does not follow real world practice. Human bodies work in bursts, not continuous rates.

Part of the reason why the AI fireman appears to have been "neglected" is the complexity of the AI intelligence or algorithms needed to support its realistic operation.

The current AI fireman fulfills its purpose of ensuring that sufficient steam is available to allow the driver to run the locomotive.

To improve the AI fireman operation requires a lot of work to define algorithms that will provide the required operations. Perhaps some non-developers can assist by developing workable algorithms for coding.

In the meantime, I am happy to look at a few of the simpler features, see this post.

[jaytrain2]

Weter, on 28 December 2022 - 09:06 AM, said:

With some other MSTS communities, things are much worse: some have became a totalitary-like sects and leaders intentionally suppress any knowledge about ORTS successes, for retaining adepts. Declaring, it's not good program to use.

Really...!? Never mind their game has been left in the dust! They probably feel that way towards any other Sim...

[Marci]

Hi.
There is also room for improvement in the multiplayer section. Is there any chance of that? I even gave feedback about 1.5 in the news section, but there was no response.
http://www.elvastowe...post__p__290179