Atomic Systems

I know, it’s been asked a 100 times before... but with Welsh Marches and S Wales coastal sharing the same origin (and already having been merged), I’m weighing up whether to re-start a couple of routes with either SWC or WM as the base...

So, is it possible... or better to start again??

It's possible...but possibly/probably easier to start again.

If it means that your route can be added to the preexisting network then please use the common origin.

jetstream wrote:If it means that your route can be added to the preexisting network then please use the common origin.

Can anyone direct me to a thread or guidance on “how to”...

rkk01 wrote:

jetstream wrote:If it means that your route can be added to the preexisting network then please use the common origin.

Can anyone direct me to a thread or guidance on “how to”...

The origin is specified in the RouteProperties.xml so I would suggest that you take the lat and long from, say, the Welsh Marches route, and use it in your route. Of course, if you are adding to the SWC/WM merge, just crack on from wherever you are going to build using the SWC/WM RouteProperties.xml

Can't help jumping in here before I loose all my marbles.
I have / am adding to routes all the time, it's a thing of mine, and I wish more publishers would do it, example DTG ADD please too Waterloo - Portsmouth most of the suburbs that were originally there but without scenery or add some more of the South Coast.

Rkk. To answer your question, the easiest way is to clone the route, then in the editor just carry on doing what you want, where you want, Ive done that to the Chiltern Line (JT) to add all the MOD Depots.

All the assets will be there, as well (if you choose) the scenarios, which you can use, to extend into your scenery, for example if you were adding the route from Swansea to Pembroke you could have some great scenerios half done for you, some from Bristol if you clone the full version. (always polite to ask first) if you know who did it, they may also be adding even more and you dont want to clash or duplicate their work, lifes too short.

CLONE, don't COPY in windows, because TS20xx will give your version and, if you choose, the scenarios new GUID numbers, so they don't clash.

AND DONT FORGET to keep backing your work up and saving it on a REGULAR basis, use a timer to remind you, have lost chunks when something goes wrong and I hadn't saved it for 10 mins. about every 5 mins is good especially if its complicated trackwork.

Good luck.,.

John

johnrossetti wrote:I have / am adding to routes all the time, it's a thing of mine, and I wish more publishers would do it, example DTG ADD please too Waterloo - Portsmouth most of the suburbs that were originally there but without scenery or add some more of the South Coast.

That's extending/augmenting a route by building on to it though; completely different from making two separate routes that have different start coordinates (origins) into one by way of a merging operation.
Unfortunately it's not as simple as just copying tiles across, as the asset placement is also "fine tuned" within each tile.

To be clear, my original question relates to changing the origin coords on an existing part built route to fit with DTG routes...
I started building before South Wales Coastal or Welsh Marches were released.

It may still be the case that starting from scratch is the answer

rkk01 wrote:To be clear, my original question relates to changing the origin coords on an existing part built route to fit with DTG routes...
I started building before South Wales Coastal or Welsh Marches were released.

It may still be the case that starting from scratch is the answer

Yes, it is possible, but involves a lot of work in addition to just changing the Route coordinates.
You have to determine the full tile offset (to do with the differing route coordinates) between your route and the recipient route. Then apply that offset to ALL the tiles (Mixmap, Network set, Scenery, Terrain), and then go into each individual tile and amend the <X> and <Z> tile coordinates. You then need to merge the Tracks.bin files (making sure that there is no overlap). And hope that the track ends between each original route is not too far apart when you come to join them.

Best advice - start from scratch. You will have gained some experience building your original route, so the work should not take as long

Another tip would be run two pc's side by side so that the first (doesn't have to be a high spec pc) could show you your work on the original routes that you can visually copy to the new version.
Much quicker than trying to remember what you did before, or worse still flipping between the two routes on the same pc.

I tried to change the point of origin on LMR, because I wanted to marry it to Portsmouth line at Bordon,,,,that was when I could remember what and how to do things.

My advice, , , DONT TRY IT, you will go mad.

Just saying !! John

Now you have clarified your problem I would suggest that unless you can come up with a program that can apply the offset from your route origin to the WM/SWC origin, and that means for EVERY element in your route.................you're stuffed!

jetstream wrote:Now you have clarified your problem I would suggest that unless you can come up with a program that can apply the offset from your route origin to the WM/SWC origin, and that means for EVERY element in your route.................you're stuffed!

I tried that while writing RW_Tools and after months came to the conclusion that it was just about impossible. Problem is that the world is round(ish) so the distance between each degree of latitude in a tile is identical, this is not the case with degrees of longitude. Therefore each tile actually covers a different area on the ground.

Maybe someone has a really fancy algorithm which will enable the offsets to be calculated, but I found that even with 2 tiles one above the other the differences in offsets were enough to throw off tracks.

Rebuild the route from scratch with a fixed start point if you want to merge it.

Mike

Thanks all.

Much as I expected