[jared2982]

In the turntables.dat what values go in the x,y,z offset fields?

[Citrogeno]

Wow!! Excellent notice!! :thumbup3: :thumbup3: :thumbup3:

[VicenteIR]

Csantucci, on 17 May 2016 - 09:42 PM, said:

Vicente IR, I believe of having figured out what the problem with misplacement and crashes is: in your routes the turntable is connected to some tracks in a way not present in my test route. Vicente, is your route freeware? Where can it be downloaded so that I can test it?

This is my own route. I understood, that track section could be a problem in my case. I still can put any of them.
Can you declare a list of sections supported ?

[midneguy]

jared2982, on 18 May 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

In the turntables.dat what values go in the x,y,z offset fields?

Jared,

Those values are dependent on where the object center is of the bridge, or track portion of the shape within the shape file and model hierarchy.

I thought maybe I'd share a little more of what I investigated when I started trying to get the Turntables in the Feather River route to work... One of the first things I did was to look at the a1t27mturntable.s shape in shape viewer to see how it's hierarchy was structured, which I assumed included a MAIN group and a sub-object for the bridge and track since Carlo was able to get it to animate correctly. I confirmed this in the screenshot below, which does indeed show that the bridge and track are all in their own node which could be animated independent of the Turntable pit:




I then looked at the Turntable shapes from the Feather River route to see if they had the same structure in their hierarchies - bridges and tracks all contained in a single node that could be animated, and they did.

I initially only tried to add the rotation animation into the shape files for the Feather River Turntables and after doing so the bridges and tracks did move - though they didn't rotate in the center, and actually rotated around one end. This is where the offset values come in, because they correct this, and specify where the axis of rotation should actually be for the bridge / track relative to where it actually is. Judging from the values that Carlo had to use, and that I had to use for the Feather River Turntables, it looks like both probably rotated around their ends originally since the z offsets for both are basically half the total length of the bridges. And of course this is also where the linear translation animations are also required. I was definitely thankful for Excel and the trigonometry functions to determine the linear translation animation for the Feather River Turntables. Without that I would still be calculating values lol http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/ko2.gif

Anyway, at this point I would bet that any of the turntables can be made to work, assuming they have the bridge and track all contained within one node in the model hierarchy like in the screenshot above so they can be animated independently of the rest of the shape - and also assuming they have the necessary information for the possible exit paths defined in the tsection.dat file.

[Sid P.]

I got the two turntables in the ATSF Marceline Sub working; I used the same method to locate the w files and UIDs as m61 reported in Post #31. I had one crash, which I haven't been able to repeat, as the turntable was just completing a 180 rotation, (I'll look at it again), but otherwise worked fine.
My .dat file is attached:

(The superstructure of these particular turntables need a bit of editing, since the openings are not wide enough; but I wanted to try the method on a route that I remembered had turntables.)
BTW, did anyone else notice that OR may be switched from "explore" to "Manual" during a turntable operation?

Cheers,

[SP 0-6-0]

At www.trainsim.com MSTS Transfer Table l36xftbl.zip Only American model I am aware of. Might be a couple small English transfer tables floating around www.UKTrainsim.com

Robert

[jared2982]

midneguy, on 18 May 2016 - 03:12 PM, said:

Jared,

Those values are dependent on where the object center is of the bridge, or track portion of the shape within the shape file and model hierarchy.

That was my assumption Derek just thought I would ask before I got to that step. I may be able to shed some light on why the turntables are built this way. In MSTS the are still essentially track pieces. Track pieces are modeled with their origins at one end of the piece. They are done this way because of the way MSTS was programmed to place them. When you place a track piece you do so by selecting the piece you want, hit F5, place the arrow at the end of the previous track piece and click. The new track piece snaps to the old one. While you can make the path start and end anywhere you want relative to the the origin or pivot point of the shape, MSTS used the origin of the shape to place it. If the origin of that shape is in the center of the track piece the ends of the path end up nowhere near the end of the previous track piece and there fore do not snap to the previous track piece. I have not investigated whether or not a track piece, or in this case a turntable, will snap to the previous track piece by use of the F3 (move) function. I will report those findings as soon as I get a crude table designed for testing.

[Csantucci]

I have just updated post #13 http://www.elvastowe...post__p__202568 , replacing the .exe pack with a new one that includes turntable sound management and that should (I hope) solve midneguy's, Vicente and maybe Sid's crashes and bad positionings. Moreover now the turntable does no more align in positions where external track is not connected.
In such post also two sound-related files may be downloaded.

Referring to midneguy's point about abrupt viewing point switching, this is a general feature of camera views 2 and 3 when the train is flipped. If you don't want to have this, switch to camera view 8 when your train is stopping on the turntable, and you will no more have these switchings.

Commit of turntable management won't yet occur this week. "Quarantine" (which for OR means a week from blueprint filing, provided the blueprint is approved - this one is) times out on May 23rd.

Re rotary dumpers: they are supported by OR, see paragraph 9.3.2.2 of the manual and here https://www.youtube....h?v=Qbpkj1tTbO0 .

An animated transfer table may also be downloaded from here http://didi2004.de/ at page 8 of the "Animierte Objekte" . This website, that is no more update since sadly the author is no more with us who live, includes many other nice animated objects.
However I don't know about routes including a transfer table.

[midneguy]

Carlo,

This was a nice surprise to wake up to this morning - and of course I couldn't resist testing your changes right away!

First off, the sounds do work so congratulations on that! I just had to rename where appropriate for the Feather River route and they worked when the turntable was both empty and loaded.

Second, I confirmed that the sim doesn't crash if the table is stopped between where exit paths exist - so a definite improvement there too!

Unfortunately I'm still getting the crash at the Keddie turntable of the route the same as I was before, if I start in the position shown in my post #42. It appeared that I had the exact same error message as I had before as well. And again, if I started on one of the other leads that required the table to be turned to the locomotive first, I was able to move on, rotate, and move off the table without a crash happening.

Lastly, one other little thing I noticed this time that I didn't before (which may have been happening but I didn't realize it)... After turning a locomotive 180° or so and when the camera jumped as the turntable reconnected, I noticed that the "2" and "3" camera views had become reversed. That is, the 3 view was centered on the front of the locomotive and the 2 view was centered on the rear of the locomotive. I haven't tested yet to see if the 2 and 3 views reverse back to normal once the locomotive is coupled to a consist or not though.

[elvasleis]

Hi all especially Carlo,
It took me some time to get the turntable to rotate but it now works.
Thanks for all your excellent efforts Carlo.

Regards Geoff.

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