Suicidal Drivers

[NJCurmudgeon]

I've recently bought Trainz 2012 and am doing a revamp of an old layout. One thing I noticed is that the roads in 2012 are full of drunk, stoned, suicidal, or just plain reckless drivers! It looks as if periodically cars will make a move at random as if to pass a slower car, pulling into the oncoming lane and then back again. Two problems with this...one, there is no slower car to pass, and two, they do this without regard for cars in the oncoming lane. They seem to do this on pretty much all the various road splines I've had time to test.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!!

 

[jcardana]

I see it often. Your situation makes me think there is a car being passed but it's just not showing up. There is a way to add/subtract cars that appear on the road, but I can't think of how right now.

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

"Your situation makes me think there is a car being passed but it's just not showing up."

That would make sense. But it doesn't seem to explain the penchant for head-on collision?

Actually, that does bring up another question I've had - what would I search under on Content Manager if I want to add vehicles to the mix of what gets spawned? I'd like, for example, to add some tractor trailer trucks for the industrial parts or on the highways. I've seen them on Trainz YouTube videos, so I know it's possible. Of course, given my problem above, it would end up being head-on collisions with semi trucks! Crashz!

 

[slabay]

Being from New Jersey, it should be just like looking out your window, huh?:hehe:

That's one of the biggest reasons I keep cars turned off. Euphod just pointed this tutorial out in another thread in the past day or so. Maybe this will help.

 

[JCitron]

The problem with adding semi's to the roads is they'll also show up on the backstreets as well. It's too bad that we couldn't specify which roads could handle which traffic type so big cit buses and tractor trailers are located on the city streets and highways, but don't show up on the little side dead end road along the tracks.

John

 

[frogpipe]

In what version did these passing drivers show up? I recall in TRS2004 all the carz moved at exactly the same speed...

 

[falcon500]

This showed up in TRS12, another N3V bright idea that appears that nobody really had a hard look at to see if it worked okay.
:hehe:

 

[JCitron]

This showed up in TRS12, another N3V bright idea that appears that nobody really had a hard look at to see if it worked okay.
:hehe:

I agree. Another thing not tested, or probably allowed to fly because management wanted to ship on time. This is more likely the latter issue, in my opinion.

At least the cars aren't back to going up stairs when it comes to grades. Remember that one in TRS2004 prior to the first service pack? There was quite a bit of moaning in the old forums about that. I remember Lance saying that this fix might cause a performance issue. At least up until TS12 the drivers stayed on their side of the road.

John

 

[frogpipe]

I wonder if there's a way to undo it?.... hmmm... *ponder*

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Thanks Scott - I will be checking out the tutorial.

Yeah, you would think they could be a little more sophisticated with the passing car thing - at least only have them passing when a slower vehicle is in front, not just randomly passing ghost cars no one else sees! But I would be perfectly happy NOT to have them lane change like that. It's called "Trainz," not "Carz," and from the perspective of the train, the lack of realism from not changing lanes would be far less noticeable than head-on collisions passing right through each other.

I also agree that there ought to be a way of controlling what kinds of vehicles appear where. Maybe have road spline types that spawn only cars, only trucks, only a mix? I don't know enough about the back end of things to know if that's possible?

While I'm griping, how about "smart" intersections with traffic lights and "stoppable" traffic? I know there are some great working intersection "kits" but they're a pain to set up. How about something you just drop in position, connect up the roads, and it just works? Yeah, yeah, it's easy for me to say...I don't have to make the things!

I haven't tried it yet in 2012, but in 2009 the L-shape turns wouldn't carry the cars around them, so they'd just disappear. Again, I know this is "Trainz," not "Carz," and I can live without high realism on the roads (I'd rather out those resources into the train realism), but there are a couple things like that which are obvious and sort of ruin an otherwise cool effect. Nothing worse than spending hours creating a detailed layout only to have it spoiled by seeing a vanishing car outside your locomotive window!

Thanks guys!

 

[vonhammer_87]

After reading this thread, the talk about the cars and trucks thing got me thinking. What about eras? For example if your doing a 1920s-1940s based route you should only see vechials from that era.

Just my two cents on the topic. I am working on a route based in that era.

 

[Dermmy]

Traffic assets are defined in the route's 'Region'. You can create a custom region that will only show vehicles of your choice, so you can have a modern US mix, or a pre-WWII Brit mix, whatever you want. All you need to do is find (or create!) the required cars....

The behaviour of the drivers though is hard-wired, so your pre-war Brit Vauxhall is still going to behave badly. Why the honking horns, wrong-side-of-the-road thing was implemended is a mystery, but it is probably one of the greatest detractors from realism in the whole sim - I sincerely hope it's gone in the next version!

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

"You can create a custom region that will only show vehicles of your choice,"

How? That would be awesome! To date, I have made "modern" routes, but have ideas for an early 1900s where 1920s cars would be appropriate. What does one search on to find cars that will get thrown into the spawn list?

Thanks!

 

[Jananton]

Have a look at this page how to create a region asset with by you preferred cars for ts2010 and up.

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[Robert2d6]

If you have ever driven in Atlanta Georgia, we see drivers like that every day on our highways.

 

[frogpipe]

Have a look at this page how to create a region asset with by you preferred cars for ts2010 and up.

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

That's just it, back in TS2004, I could use any cars in the assets no trouble - now in TS2012 they changed the specs on the cars so that they need a different config file (having a trackside tag seems to be the important thing) if you just go and pick any old car, you'll find they don't spawn.

Spent a few hours tearing my hair out over this.....

 

[Jananton]

You did understand that you don't need to change anything on the original cars you want to use, did you?

You just have to create a new scenery asset for each car referencing the original kuid and mesh file of that car and include the kuids of those newly created assets in your region. The process is very much the same as creatings assets that reference meshes in a mesh library.

Greetings from rainy Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[frogpipe]

Oh? Can you give an example? This would let me fix those cars without violating any copyrights.

 

[Jananton]

Just click on the link I gave in post #14 of this thread. It's very well explained over there. When you scroll down that page at the end there's an example of the config.txt that's needed to create such a reference scenery asset.
In fact that config.txt and an optional thumbnail are the only things needed in such an asset. :hehe:

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[frogpipe]

I feel like a fool. I assumed that link was to the Trainz wiki pages on making cars... Now I see it's really the answer to this problem. Thanks for pointing that out to me!