Page 1 of 1
Measuring Distances In MSTS?
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:33 pm
by Backfoot2002
I did a search on this but couldnt find anything.
I am wanting to build a route, and i ahve maps with the number of miles and such on. Now the problem is, how do i know how far a mile is in the RE? On the games stsation monitor you can see the distance, but there is nothing to tell you in the RE so that i can get distances right. I know it can be done but i dont knwo how at all, anyone know how?
Anton
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:36 am
by JohnKendrick
It sounds like you need a good route editor instruction manual, I would recomend Michael Vone's Route Building Guide.
If your query is your only problem, then as a rough and ready method, each straight track section is identified by its length. So if you lay a 100 metre track section, then that is how far you've gone! The compass at the top of the screen gives a rough idea of direction. The Vone book goes into much more detail than could be described here, and shows several methods using signals and mileposts.
The easiest way is probably to create a marker files, see a .mkr file from a default route (it's in decimal lat/lon.) Several terraforming programs allow loading maps to help create a marker file (eg TSTools.)
John
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:08 am
by barrymcguire9999
One very simple tool that I have used is the 1/4 mile rule (4 of these is of course 1 mile..............), once route is built, simply delete!
File ID 279 in the download library.............
HTH
Barry
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:40 pm
by pepsipowell
For shorter distances, e.g. measuring distances between tracks to build custom platforms, bridges etc, I use a piece of dynamic track, then make it bigger or smaller until it fits the right size. This gives you an accurate measurement. Make sure to delete the dynam,ic track afterwards though!
Jonathan
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:37 pm
by gooneebird
Supposedly, a tile (in either the RE or the RGE) is 2.2Km by 2.2Km.
Cheers,
gooneebird
«Prochaine station: Cadillac.»
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Bayou/4804/ a fictitious network serving London, Weymouth, and points in between.
But how accurate are the compass and the coordinates?
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 12:34 pm
by DavidYoung
Could anyone tell me if there are any known issues concerning the coordinates that appear with the compass?
I have been building a route with the genuine gradient profiles and engineering specifications accurate to within less than a metre. The grid points in MSTS start to veer from those of the prototype quite early on. There appear to be two solutions depending on where the mistake is being made.
Are the grid coordinates in Route Editor accurate to such an extent that they could be seen as the last word on the matter?
Re: But how accurate are the compass and the coordinates?
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 1:12 pm
by johny
DavidYoung wrote:Could anyone tell me if there are any known issues concerning the coordinates that appear with the compass?
I have been building a route with the genuine gradient profiles and engineering specifications accurate to within less than a metre. The grid points in MSTS start to veer from those of the prototype quite early on. There appear to be two solutions depending on where the mistake is being made.
Are the grid coordinates in Route Editor accurate to such an extent that they could be seen as the last word on the matter?
This has been covered time and time again, there is a mismatch between MSTS and the real world.
Have a search through the TSTools forum, going to the earlier dates, and you should find descriptions of the problem by D Charles the author of TSTools.
John
Thanks
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 3:25 pm
by DavidYoung
Thanks for the help. I did run a search before I added my post to this thread but I did not come across anything.
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 4:38 pm
by johny
David,
The following is from the original help file for TSTools:
The ability to use free placement backgrounds arose from a discussion with TsTools users in the forums at
http://uktrainsim.com/ . Before release 1.25 of TsTools, only the first two types of background placement existed. The reasoning behind this was that we could not envisage a reason why anyone would want to place an image that was not geographically accurate. Following a number of discussions, it has now become apparent that there is a very real need for this kind of operation.
When I discussed Projections in Section 7.2 above, I mentioned that the Map Default Projection is the only view of the route that will accurately portray the scenery as it will appear in the simulator. The reason for this, as I have already implied, is that Train Simulator uses a projection system for the calculation of its North-South, East-West distances which is different from that seen in most paper maps that you will encounter.
The end result of this is that if you place features in your scenery at the exact Geographical locations (in terms of latitude and longitude) at which they appear in the real world, the distances and angles between them - as perceived when using the simulator - do not, unfortunately, correspond particularly well to the distances and angles between them in the real world. Any projection of a portion of the earth’s surface will cause a certain amount of distortion of distance and direction, but some cause more of a distortion than others.
In the case of a route I was going to construct, I found that in Devon and Cornwall there is a discrepency of some 2km both in N/S and E/W directions.
John