Capspawner and Ref file

[douglee]

Hi All,
I have only just realised this. Only took 10 years!!!!!!!

You do not need a Ref file entry if you are only putting vehicles in the Carspawner.

I can not believe this has not been noticed before but nevertheless here is the info for any who do not know.

Shapes and Texture files in the routes folder as usual. Carspawner entry as usual increase the number at the top of the file by the no. of vehicles added.

The Ref file is only needed if the vehicle is to be a static in the Route.

We learn something every day.

Good luck
Doug

[dkightley]

In fact the .ref file is only needed to allow scenery objects to be placed in the Route Editor...and only the shapes referenced in the .ref file can be placed!

Many add-on routes are shipped minus this file....

[mikesimpson]

Hi Doug,

I discovered that many years ago when it was reported that Route_Riter was not reporting cars missing from the car-spawner, and for the 2nd Doug, that is why RR has an option to build you a .ref file if your route does not have one, because without the .ref file you can't modify the route.

Mike

[douglee]

Hi Mike,
I was sure it must have been noticed before. As I said it took me 10 years to realise.
I thought it was the sort of simple info newcomers would use.

I had seen the Make Ref File button but have not had the need to use it yet.

Let me take the opportunity to thank you for Route_Riter. I do not use it as much as I should.
One feature I use a lot is the 5 Fix buttons in the Activities and/Stock page after installing any new stock.

Good luck
Doug

[casperdog]

Hi, Mike

Hi Mike,
Let me take the opportunity to thank you for Route_Riter.
Good luck
Doug

I can only agree.
Where would we be without RR and i would add, Bin and Steam4me(tutorials especially).
I would think that nearly every one that has tried to add content to MSTS, or pushed its boundaries with route building, stock, etc, must have used one of these.
happy new year
clive

[steam4me]

You do not need a Ref file entry if you are only putting vehicles in the Carspawner.
I can not believe this has not been noticed before but nevertheless here is the info for any who do not know.

With respect, it has been noticed before......
http://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/carspawner.html#cars

BTW, that tutorial covers *EVERYTHING* you need to know about car spawners (I wrote it over 5 years ago).

[douglee]

Hi Yuri,

You do not need a Ref file entry if you are only putting vehicles in the Carspawner.
I can not believe this has not been noticed before but nevertheless here is the info for any who do not know.

With respect, it has been noticed before......
http://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/carspawner.html#cars

BTW, that tutorial covers *EVERYTHING* you need to know about car spawners (I wrote it over 5 years ago).

Sorry.
There was no attempt to steal any ones thunder here , just posting something that was new to me.
I tried to say that in the post but obviously it did not read that way, never mind.
I know about, and have used your Tutorials to great effect in the past. Which I thank you for.
Except for the Carspawner one, obviously, as I did not think I needed it ,

It just goes to show there is always something to learn no matter what we are doing.

All the best.
Good luck
Doug

[steam4me]

There was no attempt to steal any ones thunder here , just posting something that was new to me.

Doug, thunder not considered stolen!

I added the links aiming them at newbies to route-building being able to find comprehensive carspawner info when searching the forums (in several months' time when this thread has disappeared off the first ten pages or so).

Happy New Year from down under (recovering from a lovely 41 degree (C) New Year's Eve).

[douglee]

Hi Yuri,
Cool. Thanks.

I'll say Happy New Year but we have the Queensland flooding reports on the BBC News Channel over here.

I don't think you are affected but it looks bad. The world is slowly falling to bits.

Good luck
Doug

[lateagain]

Well just to BUMP this thread as I see no point in duplicating the subject?

Well I read The Steam4Me tutorial and started thinking surely modifying an existing Car Spawner can't be THAT complex? Surely I don't have to start delving into RE?

Here's my problem/aim. The vehicles in many routes car spawners range from excellent models, geographically correct, nice quality match, correct era etc. through to a mish mash of the weird and wonderful with scales all over the place, historically "challenged" and with Paris buses running in the wilds of Central USA.

Now what I didn't see is a tutorial along the following lines? ......BUT in all that is written I just might not have searched the right prompt....

"How to put the vehicles you want into an existing route's car spawner"

Obviously many route authors have already used the best that they can find for their routes but the weird and whacky ones (Morris Minor Panda Cars in Cajon Pass, Model T Fords in GN Hi Line just to mention two that jar in the routes they've been used in....) can surely be replaced by substituting the models and editing the carspawn.dat?

However my attempts so far have caused the routes to crash to desktop so I'm obviously missing a key stage? Of course I back up the stuff I remove and edit so all is easily restored BUT that still leaves me with poor cars and trucks when suitable models are in other routes I own.

Can someone do a Step-by-Step "DUMMIES GUIDE" to the process if it is possible? There are some really good vehicle models in the libraries, as has been mentioned and at least two commercial routes I have also feature excellent period models.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having tried and failed..... ..oh just me as usual then

Geoff

[lateagain]

Duplicate post......

[michaelhendle]

Hi Geoff,
Very basic instruction find a vehicle you want,now open the route you want to put it in,put te vehicle shape in the route shape folder,put the vehicle texture in the route texture folder.
Now go to the carspawner and copy and paste the carspawner line that is in the readme for the vehicle.
If you want to take vehicle out highlight the vehicle you want delete,then delete it,now put in the new vehicle.
If you want to add one. under the total number add the new carspawner line,then increase the number by 1.
If doing multiple vehicles from a pack do the same but increase the number by as many as the new carspawner lines.

[douglee]

Hi Geoff
Michael beat me here but both posts should be useful
To put these two vehicles into a route

AEC Militant Bus Recovery Vehicles [647277 bytes] - AECMilitants_Country.zip File ID: 25817 Date: 30 Jan 2011 - 167 Downloads

Download the Zip Then
UnZip it (Right click 'Extract all') to a Temp Folder. Named for the download this is your back up. Put all of your vehicle downloads into a another folder. named as you like.
READ the read me.

Copy/Paste these files into the SHAPES FOLDER of the Route you want the
vehicle to appear in.

Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY1.s
Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY1.sd
Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY2.s
Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY2.sd

Copy/Paste these files into the TEXTURES FOLDER of the Route you want the
vehicle to appear in.

AECrec2.ace
AECrecC.ace

The read me will explain which file relates to which vehicle.

Add these two lines from the read-me.text to the carspawn.dat File of the

Route you want the vehicle to appear in.

CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY1.s" 8 )
CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_AECMilitantRecoveryY2.s" 8 )

Alwasys ensure the number at the top matches the number of vehicles (lines)

in the list.
LIKE this:-

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0v1t______

4
CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_ERFDropsideBakewell.s" 12 )
CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_ERFDropsideBakewellLoaded.s" 12 )
CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_AECMonarchTanker.s" 12 )
CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_AECMonarchTanker.s" 12 )

)

Note the last line is repeated. That is because the last vehicle never appears
on the roads.
The Quotes and Brackets are cricital.
I would guess this where you error is.
The number in the line 8 or 12 is the space the vehicle takes on the road,


I.E. It's length.

Any vehicle you do not want on the roads just delete the line for that vehicle from the carspawn.dat file
I.E. CarSpawnerItem( "Doc_AECMonarchTanker.s" 12 )

Do not attempt to remove any File relating to any vehicle from the REF file, Shapes Folder OR Texture Folder. The vehicle may be used as a static object in the Route.

Good luck
Doug

[lateagain]

Top Men!!!

Thank's Guy's That's what I had in mind exactly.

I was a tads worried that folk might think I was trashing folks work here, but as with the Panda Cars zooming around California it's not the model but how appropriate it is to the route. Just one of the levels of detail that's been honed over 10 years of uploads and publishing?

Off to Sunny Essex (I Hope ) for some Oysters next week so I'll report back and post some screenies of my results when I get a chance to play. I guess we could upload "custom spawners" for routes like "reskins". That is you'd have to have the models if they're from commercial add-on's (as you need the commercial model for the shape file in many reskins) and also a download list as with activities for freeware vehicles?

The fact is that when many excellent routes were uploaded there was either a lack of suitable models or to populate spawners or they were unusable due to specific EULA's or inclusion in Commercial routes? I'm sure most of us have aliased favourite cabs to and from Freeware or Payware so this is just taking that detail a step further.

Thanks again for the replies

Geoff

[douglee]

Hi Geoff,
No worries mate your'e welcome. For route/period specific vehicles as you suggest. Watch for the up coming long awaited routes I know that they have specially made vehicles in them. (That is why you will not find the vehicles in my example carspawn.dat), I think you will be impressed. I know that the relative scale issue has been addressed.

Enjoy Essex!!

Good luck
Doug