Yesterdayz Trainz Group

Hello to all members,

I've just been advised I must move. I expect that it will be a bit of a bumpy ride so I may be out of touch for a while. If so, don't think I have lost interest or commitment. "I shall return."

Bernie
 
Hello to all members,

I've just been advised I must move. I expect that it will be a bit of a bumpy ride so I may be out of touch for a while. If so, don't think I have lost interest or commitment. "I shall return."

Bernie
Advised to move???
 
Advised to move???
He's probably putting his bindle stiff together and tries to get the most comfortable looking car that happens to run by,
bad internet connection on those I presume. :hehe:

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan
 
It's OK guys. I was "advised" because the "advisor", landlord, is a lifelong friend. I'll be back as soon as I get settled down. I might also be able to get an internet connection while I'm accomplishing this. If I do I will check in with the occasional irrelevancy.

If you will excuse me, I'm putting together my bindle. :hehe:

Bernie
 
If I do I will check in with the occasional irrelevancy.

If you will excuse me, I'm putting together my bindle. :hehe:

Bernie

Bernie, I miss you already, didn't you mean the 'occasional irrationality', or wath thath 'irregularity'. At my age things are all becoming so confusable. So is that a bimbo you're doin' in the bindle, you're putting in the bindle, or a stiff bindle you're p... Ahchoo. Wish I had a stiff bindle.

Don't stay away long,
I'll miss your cogent thinking,

Frank

P.S. Where's all the activity, Gang? I was coming here to gloat over all the emails I wouldn't have to cut and paste, and seem to have stumbled over a conspiracy to do all the talk-talk last week... Oh, well, back to going cross-eyed with cutnpastes.

P.P.S. Took a break and did some Driving today. Got the Big Boy stuck going up the Marias pass 'cause the AI ignored the turn, while I was flying ahead to see what was coming up. Apparently the AI Drivers in Driver are dumber than the AI Drivers in T2004 -- who would have made the right junction change as he approached the veer... It was nice to drive something new. John visited me yesterday and kept me straight on installing SP1 for TRS2006, which alas decided to empty the original install directory... most of my content is safe, but the latest edited version of my 400 boards route was an older edit. The goto hell backup. Hope to check for the other backup which should be current. Or I lost data... I guess most of us been there!

F
 
Hi All,

I've been offline for a couple of days. It looks like I missed quite a bit of activity. I think this will work better than the private-group. I've got some ideas brewing on stuff that might be good for everyone here - beginners and experienced alike. :)

John
 
Hi John,

This sounds refreshing. I have a pretty secure connection for the next month or so while I move, but I sure would like to know where in H**l I can contact the whole group. It seems like a gaggle of geese. No offense, but it's a bit confusing, what with innumerable programs being proposed for downloads, coal haulers in Pennsylvania, and so much other stuff going on. I know it's mostly my fault, but where do I go to contact the members of the actual Yesterdayz Trainz deal? Don't get me wrong, freedom and creativity is great, but we should be able to find it in one, compact place, I think.

Bernie
 
Hi John,

This sounds refreshing. I have a pretty secure connection for the next month or so while I move, but I sure would like to know where in H**l I can contact the whole group. It seems like a gaggle of geese. No offense, but it's a bit confusing, what with innumerable programs being proposed for downloads, coal haulers in Pennsylvania, and so much other stuff going on. I know it's mostly my fault, but where do I go to contact the members of the actual Yesterdayz Trainz deal? Don't get me wrong, freedom and creativity is great, but we should be able to find it in one, compact place, I think.

Bernie
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/group.php?groupid=90 <<<<Until the website is done, post here.
 
Thank you,

I will lash myself to this mast and not allow myself to be washed away under any circumstances whatsoever. :wave: But only for the white whale, Moby Dick! :hehe:

Thanks,

Ahab (Bernie)
 
Tutorials home may be closer

I've put up a inquiry to the Wikimedia Commons regarding copyrights issues (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Co...check_off_help) on uploading tutorial screenshots, Fraps or equivalent video clips and the like in support of all we do educationally.
  • Like here, if we park things there, we can hotlink an image... e.g.
    File:DB_WRmz_interior.jpg
  • Harumph - that's not expanding in preview, so don't know if I got that right...
  • Those of you into photography that don't mind sharing your work with a GNU (free license) or other release of photos into the Public Domain will find a ready place to permanently keep high quality photographs. (See: Upload of Licenses)
  • Among other things, you can categorize your uploads and keep them sorted by sub-category (lists of linked records), and generally you'll find those easy to find. Same with our tutorials, if someone uses on image in one tutorial, and another can make use of it in a second or third, all the better and it is easy to do.
  • See this: Trains Logos and wade around in this (some sub-categories will be nearly empty, others have quite a bit.) Trains Images.
The upshot of the commons conversation is they want to see a sample, so I'm going to take the eight or ten screenshots I've taken while mentally stubbing together a tutorial, and put up a draft with those.

Frank
 
Email vetting, Dropped Ball #1

So far I've only been able to skim quick in preview mode the 70+ back emails John sent me yesterday by batch forwarding, which unfortunately gives a false sent date... so I can't be sure of what is and isn't there until I find time to add them to the overall timeline. I've gotten pretty busy in case you're not missing the verbiage! <g>

Found this query from our West Virginia contact, that needs further expanded upon about more modern newer portal types, and anything I missed...
HTML:
<hr/>

Sent: Friday, 12 April, 2013 20:44
To: Yesterdayz Trainz Group Subject: Re: idea #1

I've got to learn more about portals!

But it seems the 15x15 route with time travel portals covers all the bases:
----Different time eras and their appropriate trains, for the many different TRAINZ runners preferences;
----As Jan said... it could be of real educational value (even outside TRAINZ) to show the history of the RR with all it's changes, let alone the changes in America from the impact of the railroads, for each time frame;
----It sounds like something I'd personally really, really want to see/run/play/explore/own/clone.

The offered idea of a more standard route/board that could for e.g. start in Boston in one year and get to Providence years ahead has lots of merits too. Perhaps centered around one or more major metropolitan/geographical areas and surrounding states. A huge circular type route that by the time you get back to Boston, the city has aged 15 years, then back out to Providence and then back to a Boston now 30 years older (or younger) than at the very beginning.

But in thinking about what appealed to me most about the time portals and why, I came to the conclusion that it was the suddenness of the change, that going through the time portal would allow, that excites me.... the total emersion in one time frame then suddenly.... in another totally different one, like a sudden 25 year difference (or a 10 or a 50 year difference etc) would give me.

Because I don't know anything about this.... would you be able to enter a portal in a steam loco while in it's appropriate time frame and then automatically come out of the portal in an early diesel appropriate to the new time frame ?

And if that IS possible...what about weather? Although I haven't made use of all the 'seasonal' content available or yet to be made, the idea of leaving the hot desert in an early steam engine in the 1800's wild west, going through the time portal and suddenly coming out in snow covered Massachusetts in the 1950's sounds fantastic.

I'm off to search the forum for information on 'regular' portals.
Rebecca (From email, posted by Fabartus)
 
Re: Dropped Ball #1 (above)
Rebecca,

I don't see any replies to you on the standard portals, but those you set up and program just like a Driver command que in setting up a session. I guess the Trainzers term is schedule for my 'command que', que being an First In-First Out (FIFO) ordered list in programming (Computer Science). In fact they are part of the session binary data and part script (See the \libraries sub-folder contents and open a few script files (.gs/.gsl files) in notepad, look around), so clone to retain a debugged driver command que, when changing a session into a new on, first create a new version or clone the old in CMP to retain the part of the driver/session data when you aim to keep (to retain one that has been debugged) and will work on a new scenario, Delete the parts (and Drivers) which don't fit the new plan. (It's easier to delete the Driver and so all his commands then re-add him with a new que, as a general rule in my experience, unless you are only changing a part of his behavior.


The Portal's I've used extensively are in the basic TRS2006 versions, and generate trains on a time delayed basis, each driver having it's own command que to drive; if you specify multiple trains they are generated in a random order, so you can't and don't know which will come out first. Or Second or third, ad infinitum. So far I believe I've never given more than five drivers in any one portal on a route to create traffic to dodge. OTOH, I rarely have a session where only one portal is generating traffic. In those normal cases, I widely vary the time intervals when new traffic will come up generated by the portals. I try to stagger things so they are, however and when ever generated, some will be exiting soon via an exit portal. This necessarily means I'm talking a long driver session... 2-4 hours of interactive activities, mainly industry scenarios, or commuter passenger train with lots of stops...


On a long route, a short interval between generations, can generate too many drivers and really slow down the simulator. It may even crash the simulator, as has been my suspicion once or twice per experience, I could be wrong on that so far into a driver session. Over generation also tends to have AI Drivers trying to use the same tracks as you and other AI Drivers 'more than sometimes' if your road has choke points, especially if you wrote to have thru traffic use a particular 'express lane' trackmark--as I learned not to do. Since my two large layouts are both mountainous terrain, there is only a limited amount of double trackage, which obviously affects transit permissions and times...


Many of these (my) long sessions were written to make the human driver take control and do the complicated part of the task a AI Driver can't well perform (At least in TRS2006&'04, e.g. turning a loco around at a wye, then re-coupling the tail of a consist for a run back can be done, but it's easier to drive myself. Ditto shuffling a consist into a particular order). The technique's what I call 'Mission Impossible' programmed, where I create a trigger 'aMisImp' on an unreachable track segment (Inside some engine sheds used as a 'backdrop structure', for one example, a stack of tracks in a rail maintenance yard for another). Where the command que needs human operator intelligence, I have a Park at Trackmark sequence, notify, Wait for aMisImp trigger.


By monitoring the drivers (hoover over their command icon with the mouse pointer) on the expanded driver bar, and the message window I can normally immediately (or shortly after) go take control of the loco. That requires first manually stopping the driver after clicking on his/her icon to ride his train. Driving the bit that needs it, and then restarting the driver in the correct next command. As a reminder, typically, those bits of human intervention are stubbed in with drive via trackmarks and drive to trackmarks and so forth. As I execute each, I drag them off the driver que and having reached something where the AI Driver is sane again, tell it to resume schedule.


Since you can program portals to return a train after a specified time delay, they make a good dummy industry/train station out on the fringe of a layout, or middle of a mountain--one is a tunnel mimic. Send em out loaded, and they come back empty, or vice versa. Also re-enter on another 'mated' portal way across the layout. You can even write the command que to continue after reentry, but the trains lost their 'named' identities in T'06... but the schedule or que continued on fine.


The offered idea of a more standard route/board that could for e.g. start in Boston in one year and get to Providence years ahead has lots of merits too. Perhaps centered around one or more major metropolitan/geographical areas and surrounding states. A huge circular type route that by the time you get back to Boston, the city has aged 15 years, then back out to Providence and then back to a Boston now 30 years older (or younger) than at the very beginning.

But in thinking about what appealed to me most about the time portals and why, I came to the conclusion that it was the suddenness of the change, that going through the time portal would allow, that excites me.... the total emersion in one time frame then suddenly.... in another totally different one, like a sudden 25 year difference (or a 10 or a 50 year difference etc) would give me.

The Iportals, I don't believe connect to the new road and let you immediately begin experiencing that... you'd need to load it on surveyor at the least, then the train will show up. I have no experience with those. So group, please elaborate and educate us all/both. If driving a consist on board 'A' leaving by iportal 'a' connecting to layout 'D' via 'd'... who gets the train, etc?????

I'm hoping someone has improved the basic T'06 portals to allow programming in a specific elapsed time, a specific generation order to match and/or a 'triggered' generation and the order which they generate which train and in which order. Can someone knowing about these mysteries clue us in?
All kuid donations greatly appreciated!

Frank
 
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