Which commands do YOU prefer to give to AI drivers on schedules?

"To" stops at the trackmarker
"Via" drives through the trackmarker

I drive manually in DCC, or CAB, with my hands, or KB keys, controlling the handles
 
Hard to drive a number of trains (five or more) at once. The BART system is all automated by computer and has been since the early 1970's.

Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Francisco Bay Area, California

If real-world transit trains and subway trains can be automated without trouble, so can PC simulated trains.

Union Pacific now has locomotives roaming around yards unmanned. It takes SMART software engineering to
make it all happen without mishap. :eek:
 
Hard to drive a number of trains (five or more) at once. The BART system is all automated by computer and has been since the early 1970's.

Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Francisco Bay Area, California

If real-world transit trains and subway trains can be automated without trouble, so can PC simulated trains.

Union Pacific now has locomotives roaming around yards unmanned. It takes SMART software engineering to
make it all happen without mishap. :eek:

These computer systems they user are also specially built for this purpose. Our personal computers are doing all kinds of things in the background, which can interrupt the process the game is trying to do. Granted, the game isn't perfect and really far from it. If there's a lot going on within the game and on the PC, the AI drivers get more confused and dorky. :)

Speaking of commands and stuff. If you are going to assign the same set of commands to multiple drivers, I highly recommend you look into the Schedule Library and the Copy Commands from companion.

When you setup the drivers in the Session, you put the list of commands in the Schedule Library instead, doing everything you need to do just like you would a driver. You then save this schedule to the library, even giving it a fairly descriptive name.

Then in the actual driver command setup, where you place the commands, you simply insert the Copy Commands from... command. Insert (don't append) from Schedule Library (I think this is what it's called), and you'll see an icon of a copier. You can string together multiple schedules and as the driver comes across each one in his queue, they will expand out to show their commands.

The advantages of this are truly amazing. You can easily edit a bunch of driver commands at once, rather than editing each individual driver. If you discover a bug while driving, you can easily edit that driver and not affect the other drivers, but later on you can go back and edit the schedule library setup.

When setting up the drivers in portals, this setup is invaluable as well. Simply setup your consist, AI driver, insert from Schedule Library, and you're done.

There are other neat driver commands that we have, I'll post them as I remember them. It's been awhile since I've done some driving.

John
 
I have my Windows 7 out of the Aero mode to conserve resources. I have a medium-grade graphics card.

I have been editing my route seriously lately. I saw some yellow makers in places that might confuse AI jocks. I did use yellow markers (directional track markers) to try to get drivers to station platforms the right way without backing up all over the place. I have added some red markers on the side of the track I want drivers on to try to compel drivers to keep right and stay off of left tracks while navigating two-track sections. For example, coming from the ATSF Fresno portal past the junction block and on onto the Mojave Sub main line I dumped a red marker labeled "Bear Right from ATSF Fresno" on the right-hand track of the main line heading east.
 
In my opinion the reason for most of the so-called "stupidity" of the AI drivers is due to the use of "Drive to/thru" and "Navigate to/thru" driver commands.

These commands were written to try to locate paths to their destination track marks under all circumstances, often with astonishingly poor results. There should have been another set of commands that do not try to look backwards if the destination mark is not found in a forward direction.

One solution is to use an "Autodrive" command, which does not attempt to set the junctions at all, and will never drive the train in the reverse direction. In order to set the junction directions there are rules that set the paths on demand via a driver command or trigger. Look for "Path rule". Some of these rules are broken in TANE.

Another way to set junctions is by using "ControlJunction" driver command. A series of these commands can be set up in a library schedule and copied in when required.


There are probably a few other ways to set junctions. Do some searching for various keywords.

The yellow direction markers are like "No Entry" signs and prevent trains from entering a track against the arrow direction.

Regards

Trevor
 
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In my opinion the reason for most of the so-called "stupidity" of the AI drivers is due to the use of "Drive to/thru" and "Navigate to/thru" driver commands.

These commands were written to try to locate paths to their destination track marks under all circumstances, often with astonishingly poor results. There should have been another set of commands that do not try to look backwards if the destination mark is not found in a forward direction.

One solution is to use an "Autodrive" command, which does not attempt to set the junctions at all, and will never drive the train in the reverse direction. In order to set the junction directions there are rules that set the paths on demand via a driver command or trigger. Look for "Path rule". Some of there rules are broken in TANE.

Given that the AI, Drive/Navigate To/Via and Bendorseys bridges don't get along at all, I've pretty much switched permanently to the Autodrive driver command.

Another way to set junctions is by using "ControlJunction" driver command. A series of these commands can be set up in a library schedule and copied in when required.

There are probably a few other ways to set junctions. Do some searching for various keywords.

The yellow direction markers are like "No Entry" signs and prevent trains from entering a track against the arrow direction.

Regards

Trevor

rather handy the Control Junction Driver command.

Some experimentation has resulted in a few different ways to do stuff.

I.e. using a control junction command on an off line point to control which train has access to a single track section.

more to come but its getting late.

I'll continue this in the morning.
 
Hi

If you want absolute control of the AI then it is essential to use one of the Path Rules and it's associated driver commands. There is one built into TS12 by _mutton_ and another on the DLS by brummfondel. As Trevor says most of the issues with AI are to do with the algorithms used. The Path rules allow you to set an absolute path to whatever destination and the Autodrive driver command will drive the train to or through the required trackmark. I also make extensive use of the Schedule Library to create blocks of paths that can be called in sequence to take a train to whatever destination I require.

The last thing that you want is to set a path from the start point to the destination as this will lock everything up along the route until the train has passed each section along the way which is why I "build" the full path using small sections.

If you want to automate a route then you will need conditional commands to allow the driver to make decisions and Trevor (trev999) has some driver commands on the DLS "Insert Buff Label", "Jump to Label", and "Skip if S-variable" which are on the DLS and can allow a driver to skip a block of commands if a condition has been met. Also download "Special Instructions(metric)" which contains a number of useful commands in one driver command.

Getting the best out of the AI is much like the rest of life - the more effort you put into it the more you get out.

Regards

Brian
 
[You should read the 2 blogs on the use of the AI, to get a better understanding of it.

Peter]


Thanks for reminding us all Peter, that the answer to most questions on navigating around our routes, has already been written before.
Those two (2) blogs on TrainzDev are extremely well written and detailed enough for anyone to get their head around.
Over time it's easy to forget and slip backwards into bad habits, however a quick re-read of some very important Driver facts, brings you back on track again.

Cheers,
Roy3b3
 
I am compiling a folder full of-on line resources pertaining to Trainz. Tutorials, how-to-videos, etc. Roy, I will definitely put those two blogs there.
 
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