[perpetualKid]

Weter, on 19 January 2023 - 06:56 AM, said:

What is rose marker?

it's just using the complement color for highlighted items/track (doesn't show the mouse pointer on the screenshot). But colors are customizable, so everyone can mess up those colors themselves :)

Weter, on 19 January 2023 - 06:56 AM, said:

Are they directed into same side automatically, or it may be messed, depending on actual markers direction?

they are directed into same side, readable from left to right. so something along such line / will be from left bottom upwards, but \ will be from top left downwards. So it only will change direction if tracks are converging \ / or / \ across the vertical threshold.

Weter, on 19 January 2023 - 06:56 AM, said:

Is not aligned text for station's name? If so, maybe make it different (font, size, color)?

station names are just placed in the calculated "middle" of the station area, nothing to align to. There are no station markers in the track format, so basically just looking across all platforms which have the same station name, take the boundary and find the middle.
It's like city names on a map (station names, always horizontally) and road names (platforms, sidings, following the track).

Maybe I'll make them more like a station name label to be better distinguishable. However, they also differ already, station names have a fixed size, while other items scale down and fade out as you zoom away.

Thanks for your input!

[eric from trainsim]

Weter, on 19 January 2023 - 06:56 AM, said:

What is rose marker?

Maybe I'm answering too literally, but rose markers are also called a compass rose and gives the four directions on the map. North is not always pointing upward depending on the map.

[Weter]

Hello, Erick.
Thanks for valuable note: it's indeed so, that in some maps north don't match with upside.
Also, there is a term "rose of winds", especially for naval or aviation maps, showing prevailing directions of winds in given location.
I've meant one platform is rose.
Maybe, touched by mouse.

Anyway, I like, how it appears, thanks for Your work.
That's good, direction is uniform.
About text's look similarity for platforms/stations... It's discussion question: both have pluses and minuses, but, at the same time, both are acceptable.
I only remind You about pointer line possibility: not as asking to introduce it, but only for Your information.

[perpetualKid]

perpetualKid, on 19 January 2023 - 08:08 AM, said:

Weter, on 19 January 2023 - 06:56 AM, said:

Are they directed into same side automatically, or it may be messed, depending on actual markers direction?

they are directed into same side, readable from left to right. so something along such line / will be from left bottom upwards, but \ will be from top left downwards. So it only will change direction if tracks are converging \ / or / \ across the vertical threshold.

turntables and the like are good example where text actually changes direction, but doesn't look messy (bottom ones where it changes between 09 and 10)

 Turntable Sidings.jpg (115.39K)
Number of downloads: 6

[eric from trainsim]

That looks perfect.

How does it look when you zoom out? There's obviously going to be some overlaps the further out you zoom, but that's unavoidable unless you try to come up with logic to offset the labels so they don't overlap, and that's where the misalignment starts to take place.

[Genma Saotome]

A couple of thoughts: First, there isn't anything to designate an industrial siding and/or spotting locations. I've been using siding names... it would be trivial to hand edit that name in the file that holds the data.

Second, outside the scope of this discussion but tangentially relevant, for years I've been asking to put the subset of those sprite labels that should be displayed when running the activity. Were that feature available the desirability of adding additional sprite name classes and names increases substantially thereby helping the end user.

WRT orientation, a couple of years back I used the Track Viewer to create a SPINS document (official spotting catalog used by N.A. Railroads). A couple of examples, discussion follows each image (click on each to enlarge for easier reading).
 K10 - Ontario St Siding.jpg (236.44K)
Number of downloads: 8
I screenshot the app after positioning and scaling to the extent I thought best and then pulled it into my art tool to add text, change colors, and pointers. Not everyone has art software but I'll wager that every person who has built a route and released it did. That begs the question of whether the investment to enhance this app is wise. Might it not be better to enable Activity driven displays of sprite text and additional sprite name classes?


FWIW, here is a screenshot of the top most spur in the above diagram. The next one down is the same.
 Clipboard0217.jpg (383.07K)
Number of downloads: 7


 K11 - S End of Kingsbury St.jpg (153.7K)
Number of downloads: 3
Less complex so it will be easier to point out a few things: First, Each page has its own title and it is used to indicate the before and after pages to tie the several pages together. Several industries have multiple tracks. One industry has a track going inside the building. And the river is shown as are road names so you have some idea where this is.

All of that is essential information; Doubtful that any belongs in a request to a programmer for "improving" the software display.

So my vote is to keep the display simple and ask the route builder to do the necessary work in his art tool. Add sprite class names so we can tell one class of text from another Last, in the ideal, find a way to make the Activity files display only a pre-identified subset of sprite text.