Camera's 2 & 3 Locked

[jfike]

This may belong in the general area rather than tz2019. I'm trying to learn Surveyor and have been making slow progress. I've made a large route and have been working small areas on it each day (it isn't designed to be permanent -- just learning the basics and seeing what limits I may run into (versus a small route.) Now I've run into a problem that may be a limit or just lack of knowledge on my part.

I was using the TRS19 Track Concrete Procedural track for the whole route -- several locos and consists to try out. I decided to add extra track -- a simple large oval around the whole scene just to test it using TRS19 Trk Jarrah 5 - Procedural -- no connections between the two types of track. However, when driving the new track, cameras 2 and 3 simply line up straight pointing to the front of the loco. I couldn't rotate the camera left/right. So I added a junction from the concrete track to the Jarrah (the connecting track was a Jarrah.) When I drove this using the same loco, cameras 2 & 3 worked fine when it was on the concrete or the Jarrah connecting tracks, but as soon as it got on the Jarrah oval, no left/right rotation.

I tried a new route making two small ovals, one using each type of track. The cameras worked fine. Am I reaching some resource limitation?

 

[SailorDan]

I presume you mean camera mode 2 (Chase) and camera mode 3 (Lineside Tracking).

Camera mode 3 does not allow manual rotation - do you mean that in mode 3 the camera does not rotate to follow the active loco? The camera will be configured to either rotate or not, so you would start by checking the properties of the trackside camera. If you don't have trackside cameras placed then mode 3 is the same as mode 2.

I can't imagine how the type of track could affect the cameras - it's more likely to be the location of the track (for instance, if it puts the view position off the map) or the loco you are running on the track. You should indicate how you are trying to rotate the camera (mouse or keyboard, what mouse buttons or keyboard keys, etc) and also what your Compass Speed, Compass Movement and Camera Behaviour settings are in Interface Settings.

 

[jfike]

Yes, camera mode 2 and 3. Chase goes to straight ahead and above where I left click the loco/consist. Pressing the left, right, forward/backward arrow keys does nothing. The right mouse button lets me rotate or pitch only from the center point of the position of where I first left clicked the loco or it's consist.

Selecting 3 for Lineside does nothing -- it goes to the same place selecting Chase does and it's locked in place (like the Chase camera.) The mouse wheel does not zoom in or out in those two camera modes (2 & 3.) However, I can drive the loco completely around the route with speed changes, etc, and that works fine. Everything, including the camera modes works fine on any other loco on the other tracks in the route.

As I mentioned, creating a simple circular route (two separate circles) using the same two track types and loco's work fine. Really puzzling.

 

[SailorDan]

Chase goes to straight ahead and above where I left click the loco/consist.

That is the default chase view.

Pressing the left, right, forward/backward arrow keys does nothing.

The arrow keys will not work if you are using the numeric keypad with Numlock enabled. What are the settings for Compass speed, Compass Movement and Camera Behaviour in Interface Settings?

The right mouse button lets me rotate or pitch only from the center point of the position of where I first left clicked the loco or it's consist.

That is correct for mode 2 (Chase) view.

Selecting 3 for Lineside does nothing -- it goes to the same place selecting Chase does and it's locked in place (like the Chase camera.)

If you haven't set up trackside cameras then mode 3 is the same as mode 2. So the different behaviour for different tracks would be due to the location of the trackside cameras. If the trackside view does not rotate with the train movement you need to check the configuration of the cameras.

Everything, including the camera modes works fine on any other loco on the other tracks in the route.

What is the KUID of the loco that is not working?

 

[jfike]

All the other loco's work fine using the same mouse/keys -- if Numlock was the problem, it would effect other loco's on. Any loco I've tried has that problem when I put it on that (Jarrah) track but not in a new smaller test route.

 

[SailorDan]

All the other loco's work fine using the same mouse/keys -- if Numlock was the problem, it would effect other loco's on. Any loco I've tried has that problem when I put it on that (Jarrah) track but not in a new smaller test route.

So it has nothing to do with the loco. What was the result when you checked the configuration of the trackside cameras? What was the result when you checked the Compass Speed, Compass Movement and Camera Behaviour settings in Interface Settings.

 

[jfike]

Sorry for the delay on my side -- I'm in the middle of a very long Terragen render so I can't run TrainZ until that finishes. I'll check the trackside camera and the interface setting you mentioned asap.

 

[edh6]

Could the camera be going into tunnel mode (view looking forward from above the train car)?

 

[jfike]

Thanks edh6,

Yes, I just came here to write "it looks and operates just like it was in a tunnel". Is there a way to check if a certain portion of the track is in tunnel mode? Any loco I put on that track does the same thing.

Not sure if this is a clue, but you know how when typing, you sometimes hit the wrong key, or a couple keys at the same time? I remember when I was laying that track that I did do that but didn't see anything obvious.

Here's another thing I just thought of. When I put down the track, there were already tall trees in the area. I figured it was easier to move the trees off the track after it was in place than to delete and repopulate the trees afterwards. Could this cause a problem?

 

[jfike]

A little more testing and info. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, it is a large route and I was using it purposely to check if I ran into limits (resources/errors/etc.) It was originally 11x8 grids. I added a lot of scenery, track, and consists, a couple lakes and tunnels. Everything was working fine (at least to this rookie surveyor!) I then decided I wanted a backdrop, but thought I'd do it by adding ground grids around the whole route and use topology hills/mountains to hid the "drop off." So now it was a 13x10 grid size. I added PBR textures, vegetation, and rocks to the new grids (backdrop.) Everything was fine. Here's where it changed.

I decided to add track all around the original route, on the new ground grids. I had to move some trees/bushes/rocks off the new track. I then added a loco to it for a test drive. Note that none of the new track was in or connected to the track on the original 11x8 section. When I started a test drive, I roamed to the new loco and left clicked it (it went to that "tunnel view) and pressed a few "." to get up some speed. It did start to speed up, but I noticed I had no control of the #2 camera other than what you get with in inside camera #1.)

So then I went back to surveyor and added a junction to the original route track to the new track and put a loco on the old track near the junction to the new track. I drove the loco to the junction which was set to take it to the new track. I ran fine -- all cameras worked as they did in the original route, until the loco got to the new track, where it immediately went into "tunnel mode"!

I have a relatively strong PC: Ryzen 1800x , Samsung 960 EVO 500GB NVME-M.2 SSD, EVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G2 PS, Corsair Vengeance 64GB DDR4 3200 Mem, GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3, Win 10 Pro x64.

 

[jfike]

After reading some of the posts in the Gold Class area, I decided to go that route. So I updated to the latest beta build and my symptoms changed, but I guess my route would really have to be re-built, since there were many new problems. Now, when selecting a train on the Jarrah track and driving it, the key inputs (like ".") shows the train accelerating, but zero speed. Another train on the route is accelerating too and displaying the speed and the throttle %. Also, in surveyor, quick drive (Ctrl-F2) doesn't work, but the menu selection does. Track seems to be very hard to delete now (have to select one spline or the other) and simply identifying track ("g") doesn't always work. Drivers are replicated (the blond woman is named "William"?)

Kind of depressing when trying to learn -- seems like a moving target (of course my using the beta updates isn't helping.)