Timing of AI trains

[bwfeldsee]

I've just written a session involving some shunting with my driver's loco and various AI trains going past in both directions along the main line whilst the shunting is taking place. At one stage I have to cross the main line between trains. After quite a lot of tweaking I got the timing of the AI trains just right - great satisfaction!!

I ran the session several times and everything went according to plan then today, some of the AI trains seemed to be fractionally late - not much (about 45 seconds maybe) but enough to scramble a sequence of movements across a junction.

I had expected the AI trains to run at exactly the same times every time so is this kind of error normal?

I suppose it added to the fun of the session and created an air of the unexpected but it left me very curious.

All the best

Alan

 

[JCitron]

That little bit of randomness does add to the fun of the operation. I have adjusted AI driver moves by as little as 5 seconds and that's all that was needed not to cause cornfield meets and stuck junctions.

John

 

[Kennilworth]

Hi Alan

I make extensive use of the Path rule and Wait Until II driver command in an attempt to keep trains running to time but, even with this, the start time can vary up to a minute. It makes me wondered if each train has its own thread that should be called every xx cycles. If some other thread is using up cycles at the required time then it may delay the train thread from starting on time. It does seem to be impossible to totally eradicate this little bit of randomness.

Regards

Brian

 

[bwfeldsee]

Thank you John and Brian. I'd often suspected the randomness but had never proved it until those trains came through the junction in the wrong sequence. It didn't spoil the session - simply that the trains appeared in the wrong order, just like they do in real life!
Regards and thanks again.
Alan

 

[stagecoach]

Its a computer. Every time you move around the screen or change the view That split second is enough to alter any sequence in the calculation to miss a vital message. So it all adds to the real world and its delays. As stated the path rule for your shunt operation is the best and safest way to cross the main line.