Competitive Trainz

[MeowRailroad]

Me and a friend came up with and idea for trainz competitions. There is a long route with a certain session, for example Mojave Sub Division. You agree on a certain route, and time yourself, then compare times. Whoever does it faster wins. For routes with point systems, you could consider points and time. Any thoughts on this?

 

[oknotsen]

Don't "time" but make a screenshot when finished? It will show the "finish" time (which you than can compare) and is less easy to cheat with .

 

[pware]

Unfortunately, the time taken to complete a session can vary between different systems. I recently tested the same TS12 route/session simultaneously on two very different systems - an i7 Win 8.1 laptop and an Intel Core 2 Win 7 - and the i7 system finished the simple AI task several minutes ahead of the Core 2.

 

[oknotsen]

I can totally see how the speed of a PC has influence on the speed the AI figures out what to do and how fast it takes new actions / adjusts.

Did you also happen to test the influence of the speed of the PC's for human controlled actions?

 

[MeowRailroad]

I hadn't even figured in different PCs, my friend isn't even sure if he still has trainz on his computer. The session we picked was ATSF 991 East, and the ending screenshot thing is a good idea, but since school is out for the thanksgiving break I won't be able to tell him.

 

[nicky9499]

Why don't you call him...using a telephone? :hehe:

Anyway, the term "competitive" is very general. Are we simply racing each other from one end to the other and see who can go the fastest without derailing? Or are we comparing who can get from A to B in the most safe and efficient manner? There are lots of other ways you can compete; who can stop a commuter train the most precisely? Who can keep to a timetable the most accurately? Who can get the heaviest train up a particular grade using a steam engine? And so on.

 

[Falcus]

Pware's point is valid for Races. The fewer system resources a computer has to throw at a simulation, the longer it takes to compute everything thats going on in it. Particularly when you get to the point where the game stutters or pauses while the computer catches up....

Nicky's ideas are great for 1 on 1 competitions in a room together. Over the net competitions are a bit harder to organize.

Falcus

 

[MeowRailroad]

Why don't you call him...using a telephone? :hehe:

Anyway, the term "competitive" is very general. Are we simply racing each other from one end to the other and see who can go the fastest without derailing? Or are we comparing who can get from A to B in the most safe and efficient manner? There are lots of other ways you can compete; who can stop a commuter train the most precisely? Who can keep to a timetable the most accurately? Who can get the heaviest train up a particular grade using a steam engine? And so on.

I was thinking this, but didn't post it.

On a separate matter, I was thinking that it didn't matter with lag because if it lags, the ingame time would lag, and so it would be ok.

 

[Zeldaboy14]

Someone from the Thomas and Friends Community has already done this concept. It's amazing!

 

[pware]

I was thinking that it didn't matter with lag because if it lags, the ingame time would lag, and so it would be ok.

That is only partly true. The in-game clock on the slower machine certainly did run slower than the clock on the faster machine but there was still a noticeable time difference between the clocks when the consist reached the same set way points in each case.