CMTM - Simple Question - Must You Drive?

boleyd

Well-known member
In the CMTM system must you drive a train within the developed system? I really prefer the "model railroad" approach. You could call it virtual rail-fannig. CMTM seems to allow me to setup complex situations but if I have to drive it does not appeal to me.
 
If you are taking about sessions then no you can set them up where you don't have to drive. The AI will follow his commands and you can go along for the ride or you can choose to drive. I believe you can free roam also but not sure.
 
CMTM is a system of car forwarding not an automated railroading system.

CMTM functions as a framework for operating as a real railroad.

What is the "model railroad approach"? I wish solid modeling had an automated car forwarding system that works like CMTM.

Manual at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/CMTM3.pdf

Try the Long Island Western on DLS.

Harold

EDIT: Isn't driving the trains the point of "model" railroading, I mean if you want to watch trains go outside or watch videos.
 
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Model railroad approach is different strokes for different folks, some people prefer to just watch. Back before computers SOP to control more than two trains on the same layout was to wire one powerpack to one side of a single pole double throw toggle switch, the other powerpack to the other side, with the common lead going to the track. The track was divided into isolated sections with insulated gaps in the rail, and throwing the toggle switches left or right changed which powerpack was feeding that section. Two trains controlled by two different guys following each other around an oval, or even moving in opposite directions, was possible but took a lot of coordinated switch flipping to avoid loss of control and short circuits.

Computer age changed all that, in 1983 my Dad bought a Keller Onboard kit, which had a constant 14 volts DC on the track with an AC signal controlled by keypads with 20 different channels. A 1x2 inch circuit board was shoehorned into a loco wherever it would fit, each loco was a different frequency so you could control up to 20 different locos at the same time on the layout without the complicated block control board. Obvious problem there even on a big layout was trying to control more than two trains at the same time, but when my four brothers and I had a "meet" at Dad's house that made for 6 engineers, and we found that two trains each was manageable so running 12 trains at once wasn't that difficult. Some AI controllers would have simplified that, and worked better for smaller families, so it wasn't long before Model Railroader magazine started several articles on computer control for layouts. Some people took it a step beyond and turned all the control over to the computer, just sitting and watching instead of controlling one of the trains themselves.

Not to my taste since I prefer driving a train myself, but it's easily doable in Trainz just by adding the player loco on an out of the way siding and switching to the #4 view without moving the player loco.
 
You have been out of the loop a while, now most everyone has DCC. Multiple trains for the masses.

Have a $2000 1985 dollars box of Keller crap, great system for the time.

1985 was the year Model Railroader devoted most of the year on Bruce Chubb's computer control system for MR's, yawn. That didn't sell well.

Most people want to drive the train.

Harold

EDIT: CMTM makes Trainz the only sim that has a true ability to duplicate railroad operations, moving and loading cargo with destinations.
 
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Perhaps I should have been more clear. Making an absolute statement on the Internet is dangerous to your virtual health.

First I can't imagine driving a long train over long distances. Especially over a desert area devoid of most vegetation and little human habitation. Negotiating hills is a unique challenge of course.

If I could get a CMTM system to work with lots of yard action then it may be interesting to arrive with a driven train, find my assigned consist only to have to wait until a switcher finishes assembly. As you can see I am not a rail expert. As to going outside, I live 25 miles from any Pittsburgh rail yard so 50 miles of gas sort of tames that down.

I know model rail road sounds simplistic and that certainly would bore me. However, train activity operating under control of a schedule is interesting if that schedule can, in-turn, be influenced by real events such as waybills/customers, etc.

Although I would probably not sit in a virtual cab and cross the desert I would like to model my local spur line and drive that.
 
I haven't played with it for a while, and no longer have it available, but I created a big yard route when I first got Trainz to experiment with AI interaction. I had AI trains spawning from portals at 10 or 15 minute intervals, with the dropoff AIs doing navigate to trackmark (I've since learned Drive to trackmark works better) uncouplez from, then leaving to go to a destination portal. Meantime a pickup AI spawns, waits 5 or 10 minutes, then couple at trackmark to haul the previous one away. At one time I had three sets of pickups and dropoffs working at the same time. The player had the option to just sit there and watch, or switch other cars around while all that was going on. Also, as long as the pickup trains found at least one car to couple onto at the designated trackmark they were perfectly happy to couple on and haul it away, so the player had the option to add more cars to the consist after the the dropoff engine uncoupled and drove away, or steal all but one car from the consist - had to leave at least one car or the pickup got confused. Humyo is gone now, but I think I made a couple videos of it, hold the phone a second, here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=optJinMu9aw
 
I have found an issue with Delete Missing Assets and Fill The Grid. Worked great. Saved the route. Later I could not find it on the Route Directiory (was not a star problem). So did a backup and the same thing. Disappeared from the Surveyor Route Menu.

In the Content Manager 3.6 I see that there are two copies each of these routes. One copy says Faulty Dependencies and the other says Faulty using the symbols. The usual look at missing dependencies shows none missing. The exception iin the Dependencies listing is the route itself marked as missing. There it is shown as faulty. The error is that the 'height' and width' are missing and set to default. This looks like a circular mess. Will try the now infamous quickie repair. With 4 route copies "clobbered" this may wipe things out.The "el cheapo" repair did nothing. All I can do is forget that route since there is a missing texture in each copy. I used it early on.

Checkrails Evansvillr route is much more worthwhile. It is so well done that there is no outstanding need to modify anything. Plus, if I did it would be wiped out when the next section is added. That is good since it keeps me from fiddling which is an addiction with no patch to wear for the cure.
 
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I'm taking a SWAG that you haven't been modding PC games very long. If you want, save one of the copies to a CDP and email it to me, I'll see if I can fix it.
 
EDIT: Isn't driving the trains the point of "model" railroading, I mean if you want to watch trains go outside or watch videos.

Not possible in my case. I've recreated a route that was closed in 1954. Only a few scrappy bits of black and white video exist. And one half the of the route has been obliterated, the other half only the right-of way exists, and it is a Parkland Walk.

But now the route is virtually back to life, in vivid colour (too vivid, I sometimes think). :hehe:

I've often thought about making a DVD for the local Historical Society, but the copyright issues are very complex, I fear.

BTW my favourite MO is sit-back-and-watch.

Mick Berg.
 
I'm taking a SWAG that you haven't been modding PC games very long. If you want, save one of the copies to a CDP and email it to me, I'll see if I can fix it.

I am in the Otto Wipple era. Similar background. However, I recently decided to stop fiddling with configs, XML and DLLs and actually USE the program. If I really "need" something that is messed up I will work at it. In this case I had a really good looking route that was max'd with vegetation of various kinds just as in the real world. It stuttered and stammered on my system despite medium use of the CPU and video card and 40fps. I was in the process of stripping out some stuff to reduce the effect of poor disk queuing from the program seeking all those veggies.

I have now adopted the Checkrail Evansville route and will try to focus on CMTM for now and hopefully stay away from fiddling the appearance which is pretty darn good "out of the box". Thanks anyhow....
 
I had a similar problem with the auto save session coming up faulty for this one particular route, my main WIP. When I queried what the fault was, CMP came back with a error that seemed like a simple "No Region." However the error was not in the config file, it was in one of the other non editable support files, and the error would only show up in the Auto Save file not the WIP file. Long story short, I created a new session from the defective session and that fixed the problem.

John
 
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