[dennisat]

roeter, on 04 March 2014 - 11:57 AM, said:

... (which is in traveller.cs, by the way)....
Rob Roeterdink

Yes... You tend to lose track after continual "List all references" and "Go to definitions"!
When I was a full time programmer I used to be able to remember everything; I ought to make notes these days. I was starting to get "senior moments" - What am I doing here???
Tomorrow I'll do as you suggest and try to locate the track piece(s) in question.
Thanks for your suggestions.

Dennis

[dennisat]

I have now extracted details of the track piece involved at the time of failure:

	Dyntrack (
		UiD ( 250 )
		TrackSections (
			TrackSection (
				SectionCurve ( 0 ) 4294967295 0 0
			)
			TrackSection (
				SectionCurve ( 1 ) 42888 -1.49 196.28
			)
			TrackSection (
				SectionCurve ( 0 ) 4294967295 0 0
			)
			TrackSection (
				SectionCurve ( 1 ) 4294967295 0 0
			)
			TrackSection (
				SectionCurve ( 0 ) 4294967295 0 0
			)
		)
		SectionIdx ( 40780 )
		Elevation ( 0 )
		CollideFlags ( 583 )
		StaticFlags ( 00100000 )
		Position ( 450.505 6.57633 -597.492 )
		QDirection ( 0 0.194486 0 0.980905 )
		VDbId ( 4294967294 )
		StaticDetailLevel ( 0 )
	)

Does this look unusual? Is more information needed from the TDB or any of its related files?
Incidentally, I have tried the suggested patch from Peter Gulyas which solves the Track Monitor crash. Now I have a freeze up to try and solve - I'm fairly sure it isn't related to the Track Monitor crash.

Dennis

[roeter]

It is unusual but not wrong - it's a 85 degree curve with just under 200m. radius. One heck of a curve, but as it apparantly is on the Skegness line, it would not surprise me to find it is the former South curve at Firsby Junction (now the only track in the area) - that is a very sharp curve indeed (if you want to check it out on Google Earth : position is 53 deg. 08'56 N, 0 deg. 10'30 E).
Perhaps someone with a good head for mathematics can work out if the error has occured when the track was placed in MSTS, or whether there is some small error in the calculation in the traveller. Even on a full 90 degree curve one can ofcourse never have a delta-z value which exceeds the curve radius.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[gpz]

roeter, on 05 March 2014 - 03:25 AM, said:

if you want to check it out on Google Earth : position is 53 deg. 08'56 N, 0 deg. 10'30 E

On the map it is rather a 110 or 120 degree curve. Really sharp and surprising. :sign_welcome:

[dennisat]

roeter, on 05 March 2014 - 03:25 AM, said:

...former South curve at Firsby Junction (now the only track in the area)...
Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

Absolutely right. The route (Mid East Plus) actually has most of the lines in the area "reinstated". The general era seems to be late 70s - early 80s.

Now the next problem. What would be the best place to try and trap the conditions that are causing my freeze on this route? It occurs just as a semaphore signal is passed and returns to red. I can re-create the conditions easily. I imagine I could work it out myself eventually :sign_welcome: but if you're familiar with the program flow perhaps you could save me some time?


Dennis

[roeter]

It's a remnant of a triangular junction. The main line used to go straight on, eventually to Grimsby (via Willougbhy and Lough). As so many rural lines in Britain it was closed in the 1960's.
Firsby Junction station was beyond the curve to the north, and there was another curve from the station toward Skegness with a much easier radius. I suppose that in the past, most trains were headed for Grimsby and dropped a portion for Skegness at Firsby Junction, and the sharp curve was not much used in those early days. But when the Grimsby line closed, the curve became the main line to Skegness.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

PS. This was in reply to Peter's remarks on the sharp curve.

[roeter]

dennisat, on 05 March 2014 - 04:04 AM, said:

Absolutely right. The route (Mid East Plus) actually has most of the lines in the area "reinstated". The general era seems to be late 70s - early 80s.

It looks to be a bit earlier. I have a 1969 timetable which does still show a service on the Grimsby line but has a note on it that says that "These stations may be closed during the currency of this timetable". A well-known epitaph for many a local service in those days.

Quote

Now the next problem. What would be the best place to try and trap the conditions that are causing my freeze on this route? It occurs just as a semaphore signal is passed and returns to red. I can re-create the conditions easily. I imagine I could work it out myself eventually :sign_welcome: but if you're familiar with the program flow perhaps you could save me some time?


Dennis

Freezes are a real nightmare - with a crash at least you know where to start looking, but a freeze can occur anywhere.
First suggestion (if you have not allready done so) - strip the activity of all AI trains - just to make sure that it is indeed the player train which causes the freeze. It would not be the first time that what seemed to cause the freeze had nothing to do with it - it was something else completely which just happened to occur at the same time.

If it is indeed the player train and it does occur when the signal is passed, a good start would be CheckSignalPassed in train.cs.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[copperpen]

Dennis

I added the patch suggested by Peter, opened the F4 window, and drove the Mancs on tour activity all the way to Skegness. Then I did the same with the "Butlins" one with no freeze. Your 1600 miles to Skegness is interesting because I had something similar with one of the Postal activities. In my case I tabbed through a red and was deemed to be off path, and my distance to next stop went from 65 miles to 3600 miles.

[dennisat]

copperpen, on 05 March 2014 - 10:40 AM, said:

....with the "Butlins" one with no freeze....

Interesting. I have just located the source of my freeze and am attempting to understand why the conditions are occurring. I'm running from a save and I'm thinking I ought to start it afresh and see if the freeze still happens.

Dennis

[dennisat]

dennisat, on 05 March 2014 - 10:48 AM, said:

.. I have just located the source of my freeze and am attempting to understand why the conditions are occurring...

The freeze (actually a loop) is apparently occurring in method "dist_multi_sig_mr" in signals.cs. There is one "while" loop in this method which the sim fails to break out of. I have put "Trace" statements in the method to confirm this. "thisSignal.sigfound[(int)sigFN1]" is stuck at 3945 and "sigFN1" at "NORMAL".

I'll do a bit more research tomorrow. At the moment I'm starting from a save to do the tests. I'll start the act from scratch and see if the loop happens again which will be a pain because it takes a couple of hours to get to the failure. I could run it at double speed I suppose.

Dennis