[markus_GE]

NickonWheels, on 05 June 2020 - 01:10 AM, said:

Thanks, Ryan

I´m running back and forth about joining GitHub myself, have currently no experience with this and not wanting to mess the main code up by accident. I also sill have the fear of someone else removing such code changes because they think it´s unnecessary. If you know the formula to main code changes I´m very thankful.

Hi NickOnWheels,

you need not fear Git at all. By coincidence, I have been in the same situation as you are now just a bout two months ago. But let me tell you the whole story in a few sentences.

I have been translating ORTS to German since translations were introduced way back in 2014 (IIRC) but I have been out of the hobby for the last few years due to real life keeping me too busy. I kept updating the translations during that time until the switch from SVN-based source code management to Git was announced in 2017 (IIRC), which intimidated me similarly to you right now. When I recently came back to the hobby (originally through my renewed interest in updating the translation again), I had to learn Git from scratch after all - or so I thought. I asked for help and got really great support from Chris Jakeman (cjakeman) who is part of the OR Management Team (sort of the core of the core team) and who has kindly provided me with a manual on how to work on ORTS' translation files via Git. It took me a matter of mere hours to get my head around the basics then.
Now, Git will require one or two additional steps when working on the actual code, as translations do not require the use of so-called branches. Yet, I have taught myself how to use those on a private programming project that I decided to bring to Git after my experiences with ORTS and Git.

Additionally, as Ryan has already mentioned, it's almost impossible to break anything since any submission to the code base (a so-called pull-request) will be reviewed twice by experienced ORTS devs.

Summing it up, Git is nothing to be afraid of. It's just another (very useful) piece of software and as with any software, you just need to find a place where it is explained in a way you can handle. I know such a resource (as mentioned above), but will have to ask for permission to share it first.

Cheers, Markus

[NickonWheels]

Thanks, Markus

After joining ET I just never thought about such things in advance, same as many others, making me just quite nervous. However I´m thankful for every advice.

[markus_GE]

Hi NickOnWheels,

you got a PM :)

Cheers, Markus

[cjakeman]

Hi NickonWheels,

NickonWheels, on 16 May 2020 - 10:30 AM, said:

According to numerous test runs with the private version it works perfectly and in conjunction with the Davis lines already established, also positive feedback.

Ryan (YoRyan) has submitted your code for inclusion in the Unstable version of Open Rails.

If it works fine there, we can consider it for inclusion into the Testing version (and ultimately the Stable version). As part of the approval process, submissions are linked to any ET forum thread (done) and a "blueprint" for the feature. These blueprints are kept onwww.launchpad.net/or along with the Bug Reports. Please would you register there and add a blueprint which sets out what the feature achieves.

Just a couple of sentences should be enough.


Thanks,

[NickonWheels]

Thanks Chris.

Yes hopefully I can make this done, sounds like a small documentation is what you want.

For the last days I was indeed in the process of joining GitHub but had registration issues, which would be nice to solve in the scope of possible future code experiments.

Having some 'crashing' problems with the latest few unstable versions it may take some time before I really want to go back to them, certainly this means a lot of going back and forth between unstable and testing versions to verify everything you mentioned. Should be no problem however...

[NickonWheels]

And seemingly the same registration issues are in place at launchpad.net (not accepting any password).

Bad luck I guess...

[cjakeman]

Hi NickonWheels,

NickonWheels, on 08 June 2020 - 11:15 PM, said:

And seemingly the same registration issues are in place at launchpad.net (not accepting any password).

Just tried it out and had problems too trying to create a new account.

If you send me the details for the blueprint, then I'll add it for you.

[NickonWheels]

cjakeman, on 15 June 2020 - 12:03 PM, said:

Just tried it out and had problems too trying to create a new account.

If you send me the details for the blueprint, then I'll add it for you.

What blueprint do you mean? The MSTSWagon.cs uploaded here before is still the same.

I also deleted my first broken account on Launchpad and will try it again.

[cjakeman]

NickonWheels, on 15 June 2020 - 01:25 PM, said:

What blueprint do you mean? The MSTSWagon.cs uploaded here before is still the same.

I've added a blueprint called Parameters to adjust friction at low or no speed and included that as a link in the Pull Request.

The purpose of a Blueprint is to:

• summarise what the feature is going to achieve
• to provide a form to record the status and progress of the work

[NickonWheels]

Thanks, Chris

In order to make future code changes/blueprints myself is there anything noteworthy if I could finally get on Launchpad? At this point I only know that code lines have to be added and/or deleted somewhere. I´m just asking because with this code extension it works only for static weights and I always wanted to try it with dynamic weights too.

Also I just found out ORTSMergeSpeed works with kph/mph prefixes as well... awesome

[YoRyan]

NickOnWheels, your feature has been mainlined and will be available starting from tomorrow's testing release. B)

I've modified your code substantially, so if you intend to add support for dynamic weights, you should obtain a new copy of the Open Rails source code and start from there.

As for Launchpad and GitHub, here's the general rundown on code changes:

• File a bug report or blueprint on Launchpad
  
• File a pull request on GitHub, containing:
  
  • Your code changes
    
  • A manual update with a description of your new feature

[NickonWheels]

Thanks for your advice, Ryan. But do you really mean testing release, not unstable?

[YoRyan]

Yes, I do. The one that builds every Friday and can be selected as an update channel.

[NickonWheels]

I know but lastly I´m switching randomly between them to hopefully get something that is not truly unstable (because ORTS crashes alarmingly often for some time, but maybe my computer just has a heat problem and shuts down automaticly)

I just tried U2020.06.18-1751 and the extension is already in it... AWESOME!

[Lamplighter]

Hi,
I have a few questions for this solution:
I can't find anywhere how the values ​​of the ORTSStandstillF (force) and ORTSMergeSpeed ​​(speed) parameters are determined (or calculated).
I overlooked something?

In the example of the Dash 9 locomotive, low torque bearings are defined at the same time as the higher starting resistance ORTSStandstillFriction.
ORTSDavis_A ( 1842.82 )
ORTSDavis_B ( 42.2945 )
ORTSDavis_C ( 7.705134 )
ORTSStandstillFriction ( 3400 ) <-----
ORTSMergeSpeed ( 0.869698 )
ORTSBearingType ( Low ) <-------
It's alright? Does the Dash 9 locomotive really have this type of bearing? I thought that the better the bearings, the easier the start. But in the example, the initial resistance is artificially difficult.