Red light in AE

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:15 pm

I've decided to take the plunge and have a go at creating my first activity.

After much experimenting and relaying off the path (mainly because of need to move reversing points) I thought I had got things half way there (a few AI trains included and ready to insert more and change the AI schedules).

So I run the AE sim. My godamn player train is stuck at a red light about 20 mins into the activty. There are no AI trains anywhere in the vicinity and I've even tried removing any AI trains that could possibly interfere. But whatever I do the red light stays.

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me stop losing ALL my hair

ca55ie · Post by **ca55ie** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:16 pm

what route are you running the act on?

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:19 pm

OK scrap that.

Just went back into AE and everything seems fine now

Guess I just needed to quit out and restart.

[edit] actually bearing in mind the possibilities of it happening again, is it likely and if so how do you sort the problem out? [/edit]

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:33 pm

Sometimes the signalling gets confused and the only cure is to exit and restart.

tinsley · Post by **tinsley** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 5:17 pm

Make sure that the start and end points are not against buffers..this is known to cause signal problems. Just move them a few feet (to scale

) in the AE..just takes a few seconds as you don't have to redo the path..you just click and slide and then 'save as'.

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 9:20 pm

I decided to scrap it and start again. All those hours of work I put down to learning the intricacies of the Activity Editor

Sadly though I seem to be unable to make one of my planned drops

. Im trying to make a drop at Hayes whilst heading north towards Pilkington on the NWE route. Trouble is the light just before the Hayes sidings (and my reverse point) will not change in the AE sim and as its near the end of my activity I dont want to go through the route (again!!) and see if its ok outside AE. So I'll just drop that one and carry on with the rest of it

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:03 am

bpbill wrote:I decided to scrap it and start again. All those hours of work I put down to learning the intricacies of the Activity Editor

Sadly though I seem to be unable to make one of my planned drops . Im trying to make a drop at Hayes whilst heading north towards Pilkington on the NWE route. Trouble is the light just before the Hayes sidings (and my reverse point) will not change in the AE sim and as its near the end of my activity I dont want to go through the route (again!!) and see if its ok outside AE. So I'll just drop that one and carry on with the rest of it

Mmmm... Is it the signal at the exit of the Hayes / Leathers sidings the one causing the difficulties?
If so, if you know how to, in RE, change the signal from 2 light to 3 light aspect.
Please let me know if this solves the problem (I suspect it will!) and I'll incorperate this into NWE V2.
If you don't know how to amend, drop me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you a 'patch' to try.
Feedback like this is ALWAYS welcome!

Cheers,
Terry

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:50 am

Ok I'll give it a go later see what happens could be interesting

[edit] Just to clarify and for peace of mind I'm obviously going to backup the NWE folder before I attack it, but isa there anythings else it is likely to or could change that will need backing up ? BTW I'm one of those guys that love to try it for themselves first and then comes crying for help when it all goes wrong :drinking:

[/edit]

suffolk · Post by **suffolk** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:26 am

The AE sim is notorious for throwing up signalling problems that don't actually occur when you run the activity. Sorry to state the obvious but have you tried running the activity in MSTS to see if the problem still happens.

Lad491 · Post by **Lad491** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:57 pm

The opposite also happens. I have written activities which perform fine in the Editor but fall to bits when tried for real. Ive had the red light problem several times now which doesnt show up in the editor but does when you run the route.

Ive found from experience that you need to use both methods, several times to be absolutely sure you've covered all the angles.

kevarc · Post by **kevarc** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 2:30 pm

One thing - in the AE playback (which is really .), trains will NOT pass a tabable signal.

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:10 am

kevarc wrote:One thing - in the AE playback (which is really .), trains will NOT pass a tabable signal.

That is possible what the problem is.

Sadly I've had to postpone finding out if it was or not

. The family decided I needed to spend less time swearing at my monitor

, also there seemed to be problems with other reversing points.

However theres no way this is going to beat me, I will get this activity out some time. What I decided to do was split the workload into parts so that I could test the player train at each of the significant points (ie reversing and consist changes) and then put the exact locations into the activity proper. This enables me to a) not have to run the train over 30 minutes before discovering something is wrong and b) allow me to spend shorter times on it and appease the family

I should be getting to the Hayes and Leather sidings over the next two days Terry, so will let you know if everythings ok or if any changes are needed.

jimmyladd · Post by **jimmyladd** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 10:03 am

I am having all sorts of simillar problems writing activities for the Cannock Chase Route. My policy now is to put the route in and before I put any traffic or loose consists drive the route at high speed just to check the signaling. The down side of this is that by the time you have put all the traffic in and sorted the timings you are sick of the sight of that particular activity! Hope this is of some help
Jim

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:27 am

bpbill wrote:
kevarc wrote:One thing - in the AE playback (which is really .), trains will NOT pass a tabable signal.
That is possible what the problem is.

Sadly I've had to postpone finding out if it was or not . The family decided I needed to spend less time swearing at my monitor , also there seemed to be problems with other reversing points.

However theres no way this is going to beat me, I will get this activity out some time. What I decided to do was split the workload into parts so that I could test the player train at each of the significant points (ie reversing and consist changes) and then put the exact locations into the activity proper. This enables me to a) not have to run the train over 30 minutes before discovering something is wrong and b) allow me to spend shorter times on it and appease the family

I should be getting to the Hayes and Leather sidings over the next two days Terry, so will let you know if everythings ok or if any changes are needed.

Have changed the signals anyway for v2, also smoothed out a few curves S of Preston.
Don't worry, The activity should still run on V2... Will just probably need opening and re-saving in AE. (I hope!

)
Terry

bpbill · Post by **bpbill** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 5:52 pm

[quote="terrycunliffeHave changed the signals anyway for v2, also smoothed out a few curves S of Preston.
Don't worry, The activity should still run on V2... Will just probably need opening and re-saving in AE. (I hope!

)
Terry[/quote]

Lol I can see me finishing this activity the day you release V2, discovering you made changes that completly decimate my activity and throwing my PC out the window

Only kidding

Its all set around the SW corner of the map and nowhere near any Preston changes you are making :drinking: