Track Displacement At Interactive Objects (TS12)

[Vern]

I was somewhat horrified on entering a narrow gauge route I'd been working on in TS12, to notice that track attached to level crossings had become displaced. Still attached to the spline point but skewed at an odd angle and could not be adjusted back. I hadn't done anything to the track or route to cause this - it was okay the previous time I exited but had corrupted on returning to the route. Previously I have noted in TS12, when I imported my Raquette route built in TS2009 to TS12, the track exhibited a similar issue at one of the interactive stations, also more recently joining track to an invisible station in TS12 although it looked to be attached there was a "ghost" spline point overlapping that on the object.

A quick search of the forum hasn't proved revealing but what I really want to know before abandoning further construction in TS12 and returning to an earlier version is, 1. Has anyone else experienced or noticed this issue? 2. Is it purely a TS12 bug, i.e. going back to TS2009 or TS2010 will eliminate the problem? And, 3. Is there a fix for it which would allow me to continue working in TS12?

 

[Muliebuck]

*Frowns* I think I follow you, do you mean its 'breaking' the spline at the interactive industry? Or just randomly having the track fly off into the distance at random angles, yet still being 'attatched' to said spline point? Without a screenshot, its a little difficult I'm afraid, to offer you any real advice, as I don't quite follow. I have a very very faint 'inkling' of what you mean, but not 100% positive. You *might* try to 'break' the spline at the interactive industry/level crossing/etc, and rejoin it, see if that helps you.

 

[clam1952]

Think it's a layers thing, you can sometimes get that effect if you have been changing or moving track or any spline for that matter in a session where it already exists in the route layer and haven't merged the session with the route layer and then go to edit the route layer. Merging has fixed the problem here. I don't edit in the route layer now just use a session I call edit and always merge with the route layer before saving and don't get any problems.

 

[oknotsen]

- post removed -

Problem solved and concluded the problems had nothing in common.

 

[Vern]

A screenshot would have helped, unfortunately I got angry and deleted the route. Mine was not so extreme as oknotsen's example but imagine, if you can, the line should go straight on from the attachment spline point to the next track spline point. Instead, the spline overlaps and is slightly offset from the attachment, though trying to select and move you get the "bloop" sound that it is still attached. Goes off at an angle of about 45 degrees to the side before curving back in a shepard's crook shape to the next track spline.

I don't think it's a layer issue as I haven't been working in anything bar the route layer.

For now, I've reinstalled TS2009 and will see how I get on with that.

 

[clam1952]

I usually find that a simple cloning of a route and or an EDR if there are strange things happening, usually fixes it, assuming that it hasn't been caused by a faulty asset, thinking DLS cleanup fixes and maybe scrambled database.

If you get the bloop sound, that's a good description by the way, you may find you can delete or move by using the scenery items tab or one of the others rather than the track one, again I blame that on a faulty database.

Probably would have been worth checking what layer the track is in and what's happening in the session layer that's always created by default.

 

[bnsf50]

Are you all by chance using the ctrl+z key? That's the undo key. That problem with the track taking off at weird angles did that in 06 when undo was used. That bug is probably still present.

 

[Vern]

No but I have used the Undo button. Oh dear, sounds like that could be the culprit then...

 

[bnsf50]

And then to add to the problem, It was hard if not impossible to delete the offending track. It's as if it is frozen in time. The only way out of it was to install a backup of the route. Moral of story never use the undo feature.

 

[Vern]

I've managed to reproduce the problem, visible after downloading my Raquette route from the DLS into TS12.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

I’ve seen something similar to this after laying a basic station platform with integral track from the object flyout.

If I break the connection in a similar position to the one illustrated in your problem screenshot it is impossible to pick up and move the exterior piece of track at its broken spline point.

I get around this by adding another spline point a short way up the track from the problem break. I can then delete the newly created short spline section of track. It is then possible to pick up the new spline end and reconnect it to the station platform track.

 

[sniper297]

I've had that in 2009 and 2010, haven't done much route editing in 12 yet. Two different problems, one is a bug where a track or spline section suddenly decides it's a fixed object and can only be deleted with the fixed object tool instead of the correct tool, that one usually takes out other tracks/splines and disconnects or deletes all the turntables on the route.

The other one is session related, not an actual bug - try to delete or move a track section and it won't let you because you have a session installed that has a train on or near that section. Deleting then reinstalling all the sessions usually fixes that problem, or you can edit starting with the session, move the train over to another track, delete and relay the problem section, move the train back then save - overwrite both route and session.

 

[Vern]

I don't think this particular instance is session related as the route downloaded into TS12 "as is", no sessions.

All a bit disheartening as I've got so much I would prefer to do in Trainz, as opposed to the birdsong sim, but little point if I'm going to run into this problem at any object that attaches track splines, you're not going to get very far before needing a station, industry or level crossing.

 

[Vern]

One further thought, I wonder what would happen if you placed the interactive objects but didn't actually connect them to the network until the very last stage of building the route? Not the most convenient solution but sometimes you do have to use the Undo button to put right some manky terrain painting or something else that went wrong. It's hard to avoid never using it. Ideally of course N3V need to identify what glitch in the code is causing the problem and fix it.

As an aside, I wonder if this is related to the bug which causes interactive objects to disconnect when merging routes which, I believe, was responsible for the isolated level crossings in ECML when it first appeared in TS2010?

 

[Vern]

The problem reared its head again a couple of days ago, this time using the replace facility to change out some track. At first I noticed at level crossings the track had appeared on top of the road surface. At one location the spline had disconnected in a similar manner to that shown above.

To be honest this is a game killer as the whole point of the replace function is to experiment, particularly with items like track, to see what looks best and doesn't go jagged on tight curves etc.