220hotwheels

Hi. What can I say to that suggestion other than, Hmmmmm. It's taken me ages just to get a suitable track layout working reasonably for one tug to pull away from the ships side, manoeuvre alongside, wait until all cargo has been unloaded and then return to the ship ready to pull it away from the quay and then to theoretically scuttle off, bad choice of word for a ship, back to it's base, plus I don't think I could find enough space in the dock area of my current layout for another tug. Still more to do, smoke from the tugboats chimney and if possible hawser lines from the tug to the ship for a more realistic pull but not sure if that will be possible as they would need to appear and when finished disappear. I'll send you an update of my efforts when complete. Cheers Pete

Hi streit_ross Many thanks for your kind reply and for the demo. My current example runs pretty much on similar lines since I was put on the correct path by Goetz yesterday. I'm still working on a suitable side thruster simulation, nothing quite right yet, but I have introduced a tug into the equation which is quite effective although it still needs some fine tuning. The plan once finished is for the tug to withdraw once it has berthed the ship and to lay alongside awaiting the time when the ship needs to be pulled off the quayside ready for it's journey. So still some work to do. I've taken the liberty to attach my example thus far. Just press play and let me know what you think. Kind regards Pete Berthing1 experiment.mbp

Many thanks Goetz for the additional insight. I might just leave telling my harbour master this as when last I spoke to him he was looking forward to admonishing a few ships captains in an effort to maintain tradition and discipline. Pete

Hi Simon Nice to hear from you, I trust you are well and nicely settled into 2023. On the main layout I have used actual track simply because it is easier to see and adjust but I do find that the virtual track allows for more precise positioning under certain circumstances. As for the rule about use of the port side against the quay, I didn't know that, I may well have to get the harbour master to hold a meeting with all of the ships captains and admonish them for ignoring this long standing procedure, either that or redo the port routes. No I think I'll leave the harbour master to give each captain a good ticking off!! Cheers Pete

Just had time to run through your suggestion in between lunch and next batch of work. It works a dream, so many thanks for that. Now all I have to do is sort out suitable thruster effects. If that doesn't pan out too well then a tug will be the alternative. Pete

Good morning Goetz Many thanks for that very useful information. I hadn't considered simply moving the track. I'll give that a try. If that works then I have to see if I can achieve realistic side thruster motions. If not then a tug might be the answer. Onwards and upwards. Isn't life fun!!! Pete

Hi I am attempting to create a more realistic vessel berthing procedure rather than it simply pull up alongside the quay, there are good technical reasons for this in the current layout that I am working on. Getting the ship to stop, imitate side thrusters to move to the quayside and later back out to the main track is no problem. Where the difficulty arises is then getting the vessel to continue on its way. As can be seen from the screenshots everything would seem to line up correctly but the vessel will not move off unless it is given the tiniest of nudges. I have managed to sort this out, in a fashion, by using a second SX1 dummy but that too creates further problems down the line when the vessel has to negotiate entry and exit from the lock. No doubt I am overlooking the obvious but thus far the solution escapes me. Any thought please. Pete

Hi Neo I have to admit that you have done it once again, the V8 beta version is great, although my very first impression was not quite so glowing as I thought it all just a little bit irritating moving from one area to another. However, it didn't take long, just a little bit of patience and an inquisitive mouse to search out most of the little tricks needed to master these new techniques. Thus far I have not looked into all of the new features but am now very confident that when I do so they too will be as exciting. Just what you can now do with V9 after this is completely beyond comprehension but no doubt by the time you introduce it, I might just about have mastered all of V8. Cheers Pete

Hi Simon Just taken a brief look at your solution. As I suspected your EV is definitely a lunch menu compared to my encyclopedic solution. Now I need to try to absorb how you achieved such simplicity and see if I can adapt such thinking to my test layout. Your solution works very well, most impressive although with mine I have tried to emulate a more natural approach and exit at the junctions although with today's traffic you are perhaps more accurate!!! Cheers Pete

Hi Simon As I mentioned yesterday, here is my attempt at solving the T junction problem. I too have experienced the squishing problem. At Jn02 the poor red porsche can, at times be totally squished by the following vehicle and my solution is to continue to move the stop TC back just a touch to try to solve this problem. I'll take a look at your solution now, no doubt much briefer as far as the EV is concerned so let's see what I can learn from that. Cheers Pete T junction trial layout-copy.mbp

Hi Simon I might just have a solution which if all goes well I hope to be able to post tomorrow. So far all is running well. My EV is a bit long winded, compared to yours, it's a bit like comparing the encyclopedia Britannica with a lunch menu but I'm sure you'll be able to trim it down. and from that I'll learn a thing or two. Pete

Hi Simon I couldn't help but look through all the post regarding traffic management. This is something that I too have wrestled with for quite some time. Late last year I got an almost passable test layout, the junctions on the south side only thus far, but my methodology is somewhat cruder than yours,lack of knowledge in the finer points of EV. However it did seem to work to a point, then I lost the enthusiasm to finish it and used traffic lights instead, not ideal but it does control the traffic well. I've attached my unfinished attempt just in case, with your expertise you are able to do something with it. Mix and Match I think is the phrase that springs to mind. If not then there's always the bin!!! Regards Pete My attempt at T junctions (unfinished).mbp

Hi Goetz Having followed your advice more closely with a few modifications to the layout it would seem that the lag issue is all but gone now. Tomorrow I will try a full run through so fingers crossed all will be well. Many thanks for the continued patience and advice. Kind regards Pete

Hi Douglas I don't know about "Deep Blue" more like egg on face and a winding handle. All of that said, thanks to Goetz and a bit of a rethink today plus quite a bit of a reshuffle and so far, fingers crossed, no further problems with lag as each vehicle moves from one set route to another. Tomorrow I'll try a complete run through just to be satisfied. Pete

Hi Douglas Many thanks for the insight into the problems my layout causes, I hadn't realised this as it runs well on my PC apart from the stutters caused by vehicles changing from one part of their designated route to another so now I must rethink quite a bit of this in an attempt to smooth these out. Heaven forbid that the AFS fleet of 30 trucks has to be trimmed down, so I need to get this right. Everything else is now on hold as I concentrate on one vehicle at a time. Certainly I don't think the problem is my PC. I have plenty of RAM, 48GB, an i7 processor and high end Nvidia graphics card when I load the layout it runs around 40 to 60 fps, memory usage is about 30%, cpu 17% and gpu 35% but it does use a fair amount of power. However one of the grandsons sometimes uses it for his computer games and he tells me that it is just fine, so well just have to see. Back to the drawing board. Pete

Hi Goetz Many thanks for that, I think!! A further rethink is on the cards, especially after Douglas's comment about how slow elements of my layout run on his machine. Fortunately I don't have that problem apart from the occasional stutter brought about by lag as each vehicle sets it's next target. With luck and time I might just get that solved now. Further knowledge to my expanding learning curve awaits. Many thanks Pete

Good afternoon Goetz Having applied your recommendation to most routes then the program lag has drastically reduced as the route finder has less work to do before confirming the assigned route. My current problem is perhaps the number of individual routes applied to my present layout. 1.5 seconds seems to be the longest lag caused to the movement of most items but even so this can throw some element out of sync especially if there are several such lags within a short period of time and such lags happen whilst a vehicle is negotiating a junction with traffic lights or something similar. Clearly this problem only appears to apply to specific routes applied to a particular vehicle, I currently have over 30 such routes, these being essential when a particular route involves specific junction changes/portals or reverse directions. For those routes set as a single round trip route then there does not appear to be any issue. In your opinion is there anything further that you feel I might be able to do to reduce this problem. I've read your conversations with Herman but my problem is that nothing is currently able to share the same route fully. If there is nothing further that I am able to do then do you feel that a future update might possibly address this issue, or am I just clutching at straws? Perhaps it's time to get back to the drawing board rather than maintaining an optimistic view that all will come right in the end!!! Kind regards Pete

Hi Goetz Well, your suggestion has worked just fine. Part one of route 2 with only 3 waypoints and the little VW Golf stops only momentarily before going on it's merry way. So lots to do now to improve other hiccups but at least the little grey cells have gained yet more knowledge, with yet another problem solved, in what seems to be a merry go round of problems and solutions. Life's never dull with 3D Train Studio and would we want it any other way? Cheers Pete

Morning Goetz Many thanks for your advice. In a way it's good to know that you too have experienced this problem. Most of the vehicles designated specific routes have their overall route already split into either 4 or 5 sections because of the specific need for direction change at the older style junctions. However within each of these separate routes there are as many as 13 different waypoints listed and some of those waypoints are also included in other vehicle route listings. So I will follow your recommendation for this particular vehicle initially and introduce 4 separate routes (reducing the number of waypoint in each) to replace the one 'route2' for this VW Golf and see if that sorts out the problem. If it does then I can adopt the same solution to any others. I'll let you know the outcome either way. Cheers Pete

Hi Sintbert Thanks for that although at this moment in time I'm not too sure how to investigate this. The problem is worst with one particular vehicle, the VW Golf in the screenshot as it starts route 2. The whole program freezes for about 15 seconds. With others it is no more than either 1 or 2 seconds at best or 5 seconds at worst. How do I start to investigate an endless loop? Pete

Hi to all I have a number of vehicles that have their routes set individually. Most have upto 4 separate routes and all work well in themselves. However I do find that when a vehicle makes contact with the TC that will start it's particular route the vehicle will stop, sometimes only momentarily, other times for several seconds. If the latter then the whole program freezes and is only unfrozen when that particular vehicle actually starts its designated route. This is most apparent when there are 7 or more instructions within the route. Many of the "objects" set are used by other vehicles as well but I cannot believe this would cause the problem. Is this a normal phenomena or is there a way to resolve it. As things stand at the moment when this freezing occurs it can sometimes adversely affect other vehicles and their routes depending upon the intricacy of said vehicles movements at that time. Currently I have in excess of 40 vehicles on this particular layout so things need to work perfectly. I have attached a screenshot of one of the vehicle routes in question. All advice gratefully received. Pete

Well Douglas, what can I say! you're an absolute star. The trailer is brilliant. Now to the tricky stuff. The only program I have on my computer at the moment is Paint and I've only ever used it when having to convert a screenshot from a .png to a jpg file, that's it. Back in the days of first starting out with 3d Studio I did download both blender and Gimp but quite frankly I simply could not make any sense out of either. In the past I have used Coral but that was many years ago and having taken a brief look at the present cost I decided to remain ignorant, now that I am good at!!! So I will have to see if I can download Photoshop and give that a try. I'll let you know how I get on. In the meantime many thanks for taking the trouble to assist me. Pete

Hi Douglas Just got back from getting my hearing aids sorted, downloaded your file, extracted the zip file and taken a quick peek. I'll amend that last bit to taken a quite lengthy peek. Now I've decided I need to go back out again and try for a brain transplant. Having done nothing in the past with design/paint programs I am left feeling just a bit overwhelmed. No doubt once I get the hang of such programs then all will become much clearer but at this moment in time I really don't know what to do in order to progress with your very kind gift. The closest I have ever got to this type of work is to do a little bit of editing of photo's, but this was many years ago. Give me a spreadsheet, set of accounts, a video to edit or any logistical problem and I'm in my element but this design stuff has me somewhat at a loss as to how best to proceed so if it wouldn't be too much trouble then would you mind steering me in the right direction in order to get started please. I was a bit like this with EV work but after the inordinate patience of members like you and many others I am starting to get the hang of it and am thoroughly enjoying the challenge. Pete

Hi You are absolutely right. My mistake for this oversight. Now I have lots to keep me occupied for several days. MANY THANKS ONCE AGAIN. Pete

Hi Douglas Just picked up your message as I am about to go out for a few hours so will take a closer look when I get back and let you know my findings. At first glance all looks pretty good. Great stuff. Pete