3D Trainstuff & Converting Activities to Use AI and Dead

meonia · Post by **meonia** » Thu May 12, 2005 11:53 pm

Recently I purchased 3DTrainstuffs's 'Donner Pass'. It's terrific! But one problem .. a few times some activities hang due to too much detail trying to load at once. Not as bad as Thames Mersey can get, but worse than Skipton. Since I have a state of the art computer, sata and all that stuff I know thats not the problem and feel I shouldn't have to modify my msts setting which are all at full throttle. Msts is the problem.

Anyhow, when the tutorial "Converting Activities to Use AI and Dead locos" came available I thought "Ah ha!" and proceeded to use it on one of the Donner Pass introduction activities with a cab forward in the hopes of just sneaking past one of the hang points.

No luck. It appears that 3Dtrainstuff has done something to their eng files to stop copying, reskinning etc - cant blame them on that count - but it shouldn't extend to making AI or dead locos for better activity performance. A message comes up with a loading fault that says there is an error on a nonexistant line in the eng file. I can't find a way to fix the problem so I'm wondering if anybody out there knows how to convert 3DTrainstuffs locos to AI or dead (without infringing copyright) so as to get better sim performance?

Mike.

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Fri May 13, 2005 12:19 am

changing Ai's to make a dead one wont do a thing, its there purely to recues a failed train rather than it emitting noises, There isnt anything you can do just turn the settings down.

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Fri May 13, 2005 12:34 am

There's plenty you can do.

A non existing line number usually means that there is a missing close braket " ) " causing the file to read beyond the end.

I don't have the loco in question so I can't help but have a look at .eng file and make sure there are no extra spaces in each line which could confuse Route Riter.

I would imagine that a cab forward would be a multi part loco.
If so, only make the .eng file with the cabview into an AI loco.

jbilton · Post by **jbilton** » Fri May 13, 2005 12:50 am

Hi
I think RR can produced AI locos for you...not sure on static...however just strip out the sound lines from the AI loco and change the name to $
Cheers
Jon

BobLatimer · Post by **BobLatimer** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:04 am

Mike,

Glad you thought my tutorial would be useful.

Are you using Route-Riter to make the # and $ locos and are you trying to convert steam or non-steam?

I agree with Ian that there's probably a non-standard format in the original .eng file that's confusing Route-Riter and that it's probably leaving a mis-matched bracket. I have run into that problem with other locos once in a while. I don't think it's a copyright protection issue.

Do you have EngMod? If so, run the modified files through the Check Brackets routine. That will tell you if there is a bracket problem.

Put the original and the modified files side by side (using something like UltraEdit). To get from the original to the # loco, it should have removed the passenger view (if any), the cabview and the cab sounds and modified the wheel radius and the name, of course.

To get from the original to the $ steam loco it does the above plus changes the eng.sms sounds and strips out a lot of stuff, like the lights.

I don't have the US 3DTS stuff, so I can't test it for you. I tried R-R on the 3DTS UK stuff and it works okay, but that will be by different authors.

I, unlike salopiangrowler, think you're on the right track. I have been able to run activites after making the conversion that I couldn't run before. I too have a pretty grunty machine with SATA and RAID 0 etc. but even so, I do once in a while have to turn the Quantity of Sounds down to get an activity to run all the way through.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Bob.

MartinH · Post by **MartinH** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:25 am

I'm certain that it's nothing to do with copyright protection. There is probably a fault, or else you are creating a fault when modifying the file (accidentally deleting a bracket or something similar).

Regarding the settings, on your pc, you will almost certainly have to set them a little lower if you are getting crashes. Don't be fooled into thinking that having a "top spec" computer means that you can set everything to max. I also have a "top spec" pc, but keep the visibility down to 1500m and have the shadows turned off. You should also turn the ambient sounds setting down to medium. Also, bear in mind that good pc performance is all about getting the right combination of components. Too much processor speed running with too little memory will cause more problems than if you have an old P4 with 512 MB (as I've found out myself).

I've not actually tried Donner yet, but will be soon. It arrived from the US a week ago, but I haven't had time to install it.

Martin

nickaxon · Post by **nickaxon** » Fri May 13, 2005 6:35 pm

Hi. I don't think it's a problem regarding copyright etc. i purchased the cab forward pack a few months ago and created AI # eng files with cab views and cab sounds removed and wheel rotation fixed etc. All worked ok so I would guess your problem is elsewhere.
Hope this helps.

Regards, Nick.

jbilton · Post by **jbilton** » Fri May 13, 2005 8:08 pm

Hi Mike
Darwin is after you....apparently you have 2 PMs waiting

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?t=41856

Cheers
Jon

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Fri May 13, 2005 9:42 pm

I thought he said he want better performance without stuttering or the framerates dropping into single fiigures and asked if changing something making dead locos would improve this.

oh well maybe there is 2 questions in one, ill leave you guys to it.

meonia · Post by **meonia** » Sat May 14, 2005 1:09 am

Woohoo . It worked! Thanks guys for all the input and you were all correct.

I had made the changes to the activities, services and traffic according to the instructions in "3D Trainstuff & Converting Activities to Use AI and Dead". I then converted the loco's per instruction to # and $ using route-riter. That is where I originally ran into trouble.

I used EngMod to check for brackets, it only picked up the $ file. I then used ConText to try and locate the missing brackets if any in the files but it was becoming difficult scrolling up and down and keeping track of the changes. Finally I used Latimers suggestion and downloaded a free trial version of UltraCompare (companion to UltraEdit) and compared the # and $ with the working eng file. I wish I had heard of Ultracompare years ago, what a wonderful application. It instantly spotted a missing bracket at the end of a comment which must have thrown everything and three periods in a row that had been converted to an '&' sign. I corrected this and "voila", no problems loading. I heartily recommend UltraCompare to anybody working a lot with text or hex files, but it will be about $50 US to buy after the trial runs out.

I then slightly adjusted my trainsim specs as per MartinH's suggestion and I'm getting a trouble free run down the Donner Pass.

I don't know what recommendations I can make for other people, "3D Trainstuff & Converting Activities to Use AI and Dead" is really worthwhile trying, Set your computer specs as MartinH suggested, try out UltraCompare if you need to troubleshoot files a lot, and double check your files after conversion to AI or Dead using Route-riter just in case it got a gliche someplace, its not always brackets either

Thanks again guys,

Mike.

BobLatimer · Post by **BobLatimer** » Sat May 14, 2005 1:57 am

Good to hear it worked Mike.

Thanks for the tip on UltraCompare. I'll have to check it out. UltraEdit, which is what I have been using, will compare two files side by side and it will also check for mismatched brackets. It's also pretty good for replacing character strings in a whole lot of files at once. Can't remember what I paid to register it but it was well worth the money.

"three periods in a row"??????????? You must live in North America. Most people on here, including us Kiwis, call them "full stops". "Periods" are something else again!

thenudehamster · Post by **thenudehamster** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:33 am

meonia wrote: three periods in a row

technically an 'ellipsis' - which has nothing to do with egg-shapes either

but yeah, you have to be either on or from, this side of the pond, Mike - but I'm pleased you got it sorted - and thanks for letting us know the solution, too; never know when we might run across the same problem.

meonia · Post by **meonia** » Sun May 15, 2005 8:57 pm

Yes, I'm in Vancouver in western Canada, but I was born and spent my first 12 years in Portsmouth and Poole during the 50's.

Mike.

BobLatimer · Post by **BobLatimer** » Sun May 15, 2005 9:16 pm

Hi Mike.

I spent about 20 years in Saskatchewan, so I guess we're ex-neighbours (well almost). I spent my first 15 years in the 50's (well, actually the late 40's, 50's and early 60's) in Cumberland.

Regards,

Bob.