[copperpen]

One activity in the MEP, Mancs on Tour, starts with one AI consist unable to be placed. When the F4 key is pressed for the Track Monitor OR crashes to a grey screen with an error message. Activity starts in MSTS with no errors. Log attached.

Attached File(s)

•  OpenRailsLog.txt (24.53K)
  Number of downloads: 256

[dennisat]

This happens on at least one other act (Butlins here we come) as well, but very late on. Turning off the track monitor keeps it going for a while but it sucuumbs in the end to a freeze. Before the failures the track monitor was showing Skegness 1600 miles - Hmm, a roundabout route! I'm trying to gather useful debugging info.

Dennis

[dennisat]

I've done some diagnosis and found the Track Monitor crash is cause by an invalid floating point number being generated for the distance to next station. I've so far tracked back to the "splitSection" method in signals.cs where I've put in a test and replace any bad floating point numbers with ?suitable? defaults and the problem is "cured". I'm still looking for the root cause because my patch merely dodges the problem. I suspect it's going to be something beyond my knowledge in the structure of the TDB. Probably an inconsistency that MSTS ignores.

The freeze that I'm getting is so similar to one I had with Briscard, that roeter tracked down, that I suspect it's going to be a very similar cause. However, tracking it down will probably be beyond me because my knowledge of the TDB structure is a bit sketchy.

Dennis

[R H Steele]

I was going to purchase the MEP, but after reading this and other posts about difficulties that occur when running it in Open Rails, I may wait a while until more toubleshooting is done. It will be good when route developers start testing routes for Open Rails and MSTS. Should I go ahead and get the MEP? MEP was to be my first experience with British railways. I have read quite a bit, sounds very interesting and quite different from the North American long haul freight routes. Appreciate any advice.

[copperpen]

I would go get it. Yes it has a few problems running in OR, but apart from this particular one, all are easily sorted out. 100 activities to run, a mix of express, semi-fast and local passenger, plus a mix of freight. It gives a good portrait of British Rail in the '70s. Most activities also have a good amount of AI as well.

[roeter]

 dennisat, on 03 March 2014 - 11:41 AM, said:

I've done some diagnosis and found the Track Monitor crash is cause by an invalid floating point number being generated for the distance to next station. I've so far tracked back to the "splitSection" method in signals.cs where I've put in a test and replace any bad floating point numbers with ?suitable? defaults and the problem is "cured". I'm still looking for the root cause because my patch merely dodges the problem. I suspect it's going to be something beyond my knowledge in the structure of the TDB. Probably an inconsistency that MSTS ignores.

Dennis

Can you tell me which method etc. you have put this patch?
Perhaps I can look a bit deeper and put you on the road to the root of the problem.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[charliechan]

 R H Steele, on 03 March 2014 - 11:54 AM, said:

I was going to purchase the MEP, but after reading this and other posts about difficulties that occur when running it in Open Rails, I may wait a while until more toubleshooting is done. It will be good when route developers start testing routes for Open Rails and MSTS. Should I go ahead and get the MEP? MEP was to be my first experience with British railways. I have read quite a bit, sounds very interesting and quite different from the North American long haul freight routes. Appreciate any advice.

Good Morning:

I highly recommend the MEP. I have had a ball running the route. The route is very large and all the rolling stock is included on the CD, all very easy to install and has it own MiniRoute loader included. There have been a few activities that I have had to run using MSTS but for the most part have not had many problems.

Hope this helps.

Chandler

[copperpen]

I am not sure my crash has the same cause. GetTrainInfo seems to be failing in this instance, possibly because OR cannot place train 23 and so fails on the total train count. The activity will run without the F4 window but without that, speed limits are invisible and signal aspects are not that easy to see.

[dennisat]

 copperpen, on 03 March 2014 - 01:27 PM, said:

I am not sure my crash has the same cause. GetTrainInfo seems to be failing in this instance, possibly because OR cannot place train 23 and so fails on the total train count. The activity will run without the F4 window but without that, speed limits are invisible and signal aspects are not that easy to see.

Looking at your log I'm certain your problem is the same as mine. You have to step further back and examine where GetTrainInfo is getting its data.

Dennis

[copperpen]

Maybe, but this is right at the start of the activity, or any time after.