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rtjstevens · Post by **rtjstevens** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:40 am

With a plethora of people 'modelling' such an impressive number of routes will it not be possible soon to 'join them all up'? I'd love to drive The Pines Express from Sheffield Midland to B'mouth West for example... (Even better; stop at Templecombe and catch a Bulleid to Waterloo!)

Has anyone given any thought to this? Obviously route-builders would need to work to the same guidelines/parameters esp dealing with lat. long and altitude; finescale etc.
Thanks,

Richard Stevens (http://www.sdjr.co.uk)

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:02 pm

Utopia...

But alas, not possible.
Various reasons...
1) Each route would need to be 'joined'. The likelyhood of each route finishing at x y z co-ordinates to enable that to happen 'smoothly' would be extremely remote.
2) All routes would need to be built using only 1 track 'media'
3) All routes that needed to be 'moved' would need to contain no dynamic track.
And even assuming the million-to-one chance that all the above could be achieved, the new 'super route' would then need to survive a complete TDB re-build, again a near impossibility.

Oh, and someone willing to do it!!

Compromise, will need to be several activities for each route... each one starting where the previous leaves off...

Terry

MichaelGreenhill · Post by **MichaelGreenhill** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:10 pm

Oh, and the hdd space would be enormous!

LucaZone · Post by **LucaZone** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:28 pm

The search function comes to mind....

been asked a million times
been considered a thousand times
found atleast a hundred problems and hurdles
been attempted less than ten times since MSTS was released

Simple fact - MSTS was never designed to cater for more than 1 route in any one play session. There is also just too much it MSTS cant do or handle.

If MSTS2 contains spline track that doesnt involve the laying of track pieces, then this idea would potentially be 100% possible.

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:36 pm

One useful job would be for route builders to make join up routes for thru activities.

Using the new DEM data and keeping it simple with the buildings from the routes at either end (with permission), would be a good way to learn before tackling that super route that everyone seems to be planning.

rtjstevens · Post by **rtjstevens** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 2:57 pm

Just asking...but thanks anyway.

BTW the search engine threw up no useful sites, perhaps 'cos of the complexity of how to word the buzz terms

Richard

LucaZone · Post by **LucaZone** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:22 pm

Search = 'merging'

Gave me at least 4 with 'Joining routes' in the title. Could make for interesting read

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:22 pm

It *has* been done I think but it is extreamly hard and very dodgy.

rtjstevens · Post by **rtjstevens** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 5:02 pm

LucaZone wrote:Search = 'merging'

Gave me at least 4 with 'Joining routes' in the title. Could make for interesting read

Thanks again,

Richard

jjules · Post by **jjules** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:26 pm

Well, there is to be an attempt at this sort of thing very soon. The approach will be a little different, but the concept is similar.

You may have noticed my signature below each of my posts stating work on Central England starts tomorrow. I'm not going to detail the plans for CE again here, as it has been done several times already. Basically though it is going to be one massive route, forming a large part of Central England, with some parts in Wales too to allow full-length FGW Swansea to London services.

Why is this relevant to the topic at hand? Because CE will take on the form of one super-route, thus making the dream of one super-network slightly more possible.

I cannot start work as such yet though, as the guy I will be co-operating with to make this route is rarely online at the same time as me at the moment. An e-mail will suffice in this instance.

I will alter my signature tomorrow to announce work has started. Hopefully things will go OK...

Horgy · Post by **Horgy** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:41 pm

LucaZone wrote:The search function comes to mind....
been asked a million times
been considered a thousand times
found atleast a hundred problems and hurdles
been attempted less than ten times since MSTS was released
Simple fact - MSTS was never designed to cater for more than 1 route in any one play session. There is also just too much it MSTS cant do or handle.

If MSTS2 contains spline track that doesnt involve the laying of track pieces, then this idea would potentially be 100% possible.

It probably took you longer to type your sarcastic remark than it would have done to actually reply!

One possible answer i'm developing its "modulising" routes. It's only a rough idea at present but my routes will be able to be extended with a few common tiles and different installations distributed according to however many routes you have. That way if you want to buy the next route, you can simply install it and it will detect what you already have, and "tack on" to the existing routes.

Horgy

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 6:40 pm

I like the way MS has done the world in the Flight Simulator series, the whole of the world is there and you simply customise it.

If MSTS2 shipped with the whole world done in basic terrain (less accurate than 90 m DEM) then all you would have to do is provide modified terrain tiles which could incorporate higher detail terrain.

Routes could then be joined up just by altering the tiles around the join.

A station can then be selected on the area and maybe the route name defined in the tile. By allowing the tile to have more than one route assigned to it it would allow a terminus to be used as the starting point for multiple routes.

Ah but you can always dream!

regards

Dan Hamblin

Atomic Systems

Joined-up-thinking ... joined-up National Network

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