Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
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Andysim555
- Getting the hang of things now
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 2:16 am
Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
I know the portals are very good and taking trains but is there a way to make them spawn? Idealy have a train going through its cycle and repeating it infinitely?
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bdy26
- Very Active Forum Member
- Posts: 3854
- Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:34 pm
- Location: Manchester, rain.
Re: Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
Supposed to not be advisable, but rumoured to work. Not sure if it can be done more than once.
B
B
Re: Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
I haven't made it work. It ( seems to ) count as part of the block in front of the portal, so I'm not sure it's really worth it anyway. I'm terrible at scenarios though, so don't rely on me!
My posts are my opinion, and should be read as such.
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transadelaide
- Very Active Forum Member
- Posts: 2659
- Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:30 pm
- Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Re: Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
From my memory, some people have had limited success with starting a train from a portal. Having a train repeat it's instructions over and over again is right out though.
Re: Possible to spawn trains from a portal?
Hi,
Most discussions of this topic warn people off trying this unsupported feature. I have experimented with this in a few simple scenarios for my own amusement.
When it works it is fine.
These are the situations I have found where it works
1. Set up a portal at the entrance to a yard.( I used castle rock). Add AI trains to the portal ( I have used as many as 4 but I have not found an upper limit). Each AI train is programmed to stop at a different siding in the yard. Set the AI trains to spawn at safe intervals ( I used 3min). The trains spawn sequentially and populate the sidings in the yard. I do the manual switching to route them to the correct siding. This is essentially a train spotting type of free roam scenario with me doing the manual switching.
2.On an isolated section of track not connected directly with the mainline. (eg on Oxford Paddington route there is a crossing track between portals at Clapham & Mitre Bridge) . Set up an Ai train on that track and give it a series of instructions to stop at miter bridge -clapham - mitre bridge - clapham ... etc and the train will shuttle between the two portals entering the portal and returning a short time later.The Ai train will shuttle between the 2 portals several times until its instructions are completed . I have tested it up to 6 return journeys. You can drive a player train on the mainline and use AI shutle trains like this to add background interest.
A couple of interesting points. When the train enters the portal and re-emerges it is heading in the correct direction ( ie the train has been turned in the portal it doesn't just reverse out). When the portal covers multiple tracks the train can return on a different track ( it seems to take track direction into account).
3. I have used portals to spawn several AI trains in succession on the mainline ( eg the Scarborough & Doncaster portals Near York) in freeroam scenarios. Allow time for each train to enter a new signal block before spawning the next.
Reliablity/ reproducibility is an issue . I have found that not all portals behave the same.
For example the isolated section of double track between Edgware and Hammersmith ( Ox -Paddington) will let me spawn an AI train from the portals at each end of the track. They can be programmed to stop at Royal Oak. but trying to make a train shuttle between the portals always causes an error.
If the game supported portals which allowed AI trains to be routed and shuttle between portals reliably more interesting scenarios could be designed in RW. The functionality is there ( or was last time I looked- RW updates may affect it) but is unreliable and usually avoided in scenarios.
-John
Most discussions of this topic warn people off trying this unsupported feature. I have experimented with this in a few simple scenarios for my own amusement.
When it works it is fine.
These are the situations I have found where it works
1. Set up a portal at the entrance to a yard.( I used castle rock). Add AI trains to the portal ( I have used as many as 4 but I have not found an upper limit). Each AI train is programmed to stop at a different siding in the yard. Set the AI trains to spawn at safe intervals ( I used 3min). The trains spawn sequentially and populate the sidings in the yard. I do the manual switching to route them to the correct siding. This is essentially a train spotting type of free roam scenario with me doing the manual switching.
2.On an isolated section of track not connected directly with the mainline. (eg on Oxford Paddington route there is a crossing track between portals at Clapham & Mitre Bridge) . Set up an Ai train on that track and give it a series of instructions to stop at miter bridge -clapham - mitre bridge - clapham ... etc and the train will shuttle between the two portals entering the portal and returning a short time later.The Ai train will shuttle between the 2 portals several times until its instructions are completed . I have tested it up to 6 return journeys. You can drive a player train on the mainline and use AI shutle trains like this to add background interest.
A couple of interesting points. When the train enters the portal and re-emerges it is heading in the correct direction ( ie the train has been turned in the portal it doesn't just reverse out). When the portal covers multiple tracks the train can return on a different track ( it seems to take track direction into account).
3. I have used portals to spawn several AI trains in succession on the mainline ( eg the Scarborough & Doncaster portals Near York) in freeroam scenarios. Allow time for each train to enter a new signal block before spawning the next.
Reliablity/ reproducibility is an issue . I have found that not all portals behave the same.
For example the isolated section of double track between Edgware and Hammersmith ( Ox -Paddington) will let me spawn an AI train from the portals at each end of the track. They can be programmed to stop at Royal Oak. but trying to make a train shuttle between the portals always causes an error.
If the game supported portals which allowed AI trains to be routed and shuttle between portals reliably more interesting scenarios could be designed in RW. The functionality is there ( or was last time I looked- RW updates may affect it) but is unreliable and usually avoided in scenarios.
-John