[railguy]

I know all about how potentially complex train dispatching can get, even with a CAD--computer-aided-dispatch--system. I made the suggestion based on some of my experience. I've worked as a real world train dispatcher. I certainly did not want to offend anyone.

[roeter]

railguy, on 26 November 2013 - 02:15 PM, said:

I know all about how potentially complex train dispatching can get, even with a CAD--computer-aided-dispatch--system. I made the suggestion based on some of my experience. I've worked as a real world train dispatcher. I certainly did not want to offend anyone.

Rest assured - you didn't.
I know all too well how it feels having a sim which just doesn't do what you want - and just hope that someone, sometime will pick up those ideas! Why do you think I joined OR :pleasantry: .

Keep the ideas coming - all helps to form the complete picture of what is to happen. But please be patient - there is still an awfull lot of work to do.
As I said in another post : it's all on the list - but that list grows by the day.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[railguy]

roeter, on 26 November 2013 - 04:12 PM, said:

Rest assured - you didn't.
I know all too well how it feels having a sim which just doesn't do what you want - and just hope that someone, sometime will pick up those ideas! Why do you think I joined OR :pleasantry: .

Keep the ideas coming - all helps to form the complete picture of what is to happen. But please be patient - there is still an awfull lot of work to do.
As I said in another post : it's all on the list - but that list grows by the day.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

Please be assured that I completely appreciate the hard work you and all of the OR team have done. Without it, I firmly believe that the MSTS sim will quietly die a slow death with no replacement on the horizon to run all the routes, models, and activities that were designed for it. OR already runs circles around MSTS in many important areas--most noticeably things like train physics and overall realism. In a "past life" I worked in a job where part of my duties were to interface with programmers--explaining to the programmers what the program needed to do for the end users, so that the programmers would understand what their programming needed to do and write the code accordingly. It could be a frustrating, head-butting experience at times, but the end product was well worth the efforts. I see this much the same way.

[cjakeman]

railguy, on 26 November 2013 - 02:15 PM, said:

I've worked as a real world train dispatcher.

That's great. Your insider knowledge could prove very useful as our plans develop.

[roeter]

disc, on 26 November 2013 - 03:49 AM, said:

Why is that so bad? The analysis probably not so slow. And reversing and manual switch settings aren't happen so frequently.
And what happens on yards, which in reality are usuall out of automatic switching, and automatic signaling territory, and manual switching and reversing happens frequently?

It's not the processing capacity that is the problem here, but the stability of the deadlock processing which would be affected. Also, changing direction or switches can easily lead to situations where deadlocks are unavoidable.
Improvements to the dispatcher window, and use of this window to safeguard agains deadlocks in manual mode, could well be a much better option.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[R H Steele]

Thanks for making this thread I started a real goldmine of information on the huge task of implementing CTC-like or an intelligent dispatcher into Open Rails. I have to emphasize that I was also expressing gratitude and admiration for the excellent job done at this point in the development of Open Rails. One thing that has not been mentioned (and I am all too aware of it - considering my skill level) is that any system devised for Open Rails will have to contend with instances where the player (due to skill level - lack of) cannot meet set timetables, speed requirements, etc. When I ran my little exercise I was extremely careful to run the train properly, managing speed and braking to keep as close to optimum speed as possible at all times. This is a pretty level route -- making it easier - gradients (defined as rate of descent or ascent - inclination) would make it considerably harder for me. I cannot fathom the number of variables introduced in multiplayer situations. I have read everything with much interest. Cheers, rhs (aka gerry) :furious: { I love this guy)

[R H Steele]

roeter, on 27 November 2013 - 01:24 AM, said:

It's not the processing capacity that is the problem here, but the stability of the deadlock processing which would be affected. Also, changing direction or switches can easily lead to situations where deadlocks are unavoidable.
Improvements to the dispatcher window, and use of this window to safeguard agains deadlocks in manual mode, could well be a much better option.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

I am having trouble deciphering the dispatcher window. If I am talking about the same thing as you are .... is it one of the features of the F5 key? If so, is there any explanation of how to "read". To a beginner like myself it seems somewhat cryptic. I DON'T want it simplified ... I just need the codebook to start to understand it. Attached is a screenshot of the dispatch window from an activity I have been working on for OR. In all there are about 12 traffic trains divided into outbound and inbound traffic used in the activity. I have run it several times - testing - and Open Rails handles it quite nicely. I need to learn how to read the dispatch information. Cheers rhs (aka gerry) :furious: (night used to make text stand out -- it's a daylight activity - unless you like the +/= key)

Click to enlarge

Attached thumbnail(s)

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[roeter]

The dispatcher window is what you get when you press CTRL+9.
But don't look at that too much for now, it's 'all change' with respect to both display and operation of the dispatcher window as part of the rewrite of MultiPlayer signalling.
What you are looking at here is the F5-Hud Dispatcher information. There is a fairly extensive description of what it all means in the OR Manual, page 21. :furious: .

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[R H Steele]

roeter, on 28 November 2013 - 03:07 AM, said:

The dispatcher window is what you get when you press CTRL+9.
But don't look at that too much for now, it's 'all change' with respect to both display and operation of the dispatcher window as part of the rewrite of MultiPlayer signalling.
What you are looking at here is the F5-Hud Dispatcher information. There is a fairly extensive description of what it all means in the OR Manual, page 21. :pleasantry: .

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

Thanks Rob, reading/study material is always welcome! Cheers rhs (aka gerry)