Just about ready to give it all up!

[sonicm]

Well I have spent the best part of a month now trying to get my Brighton - London route going, as yet I'm still flapping round Brighton station trying to get the tracks to bend when I need them not in (almost) a straight line. I have tried changing the track blueprint and now can't get points to work on the curve to hove out of Brighton station. The whole thing is just far far far far far too un-user friendly, I tell you it makes my day job as a .NET developer seem like a breeze, I hoped the Mk1 would sort the issues out but nope I have found myself going back and playing MSTS more and more in the past week or so as Rail Simulator just seems a bit of a lost cause. I am sure the asset editor is very powerful but it should also be able to handle the basics. Every time I lay a piece of track it says speed limit 125 and no 3rd rail even though my track blueprint says the correct readings.

arggghhh pretty peed off with it right now I really wanted this to work and have used Trainz in the past for route creation (not driving) to great success but 1 month on and only 100yards or so of track laid is just useless (i'm sure it's me but I just don't have the time and am unable to see the light).

Here's hoping to vast improvements to the dev pack over the coming Months and I might give it another go.

Mike.

[mearle73]

post deleted

[swt455]

and if you want to wait that long you could also wait until someone gets a 377, 319, 375, 455 and 171 out

[Retro]

Every time I lay a piece of track it says speed limit 125 and no 3rd rail even though my track blueprint says the correct readings.
Mike.

Have you checked your track blueprint has exported correctly and the details are exact. If you have specified a speed of say 90 primary and 60 secondary that is what you will get when you lay the track when you have selected your Track Rule in the bottom left hand flyout. Be carefull not to touch your scroll wheel on your mouse as this can go through the track rules and select the wrong one without you knowing it.
It took me about a month to get the grips with the Route Editor and blueprints over 2 months later I have 80 miles of track 24 stations and about 4 Yards plus buildings,roads, rivers,canals. I am just starting the signaling.
I felt like giving in a number of times but had a break and then came back to it again. I am glad I did keep trying
because the end result has been worth it IMHO.
My advice would be have a break and come back to it in a while.
Regards James.

[SavV1]

Every time I lay a piece of track it says speed limit 125 and no 3rd rail even though my track blueprint says the correct readings.

Speed limits must be set in the track rules, and depending what you have as the max this is generally what is applied route wide unless you specify different speeds.

The reason for no 3rd rail is simple. Your rail shape has no 3rd rail. The sim can't generate it from nowhere, so you'll have to wait till some clever person figures out how to make a track section with them. Curves/straights would be easy enough, however, points would be the issue, no idea how one would go about that...

[sonicm]

I think it's the blueprint/asset editor that gives me the most grief, it's a developer tool not really an end user tool and is therefore not very forgiving. A proper debug window would be good to make sure you are picking up all the right assets in your route as the track blueprint just does not seem to want to go across. Also the textures for the route gave a lot of trouble with texture not known errors in the editor, and all this time my DVD is starting to sound like a sick pony as it's into the editor then out into the asset editor and out and on and on. I know we have to have protection but for developers the must be a better way?

Then on the track, why is the turning circle so bad? I have played around with the blueprint but again having trouble to get my route to pick it up, on the positives I really like the offset tool for putting the platforms down, can't really be positive about anything else though as I have not got that far!

Your right, I'll give it a month or so and hopefully someone will come up with a 3rd rail track and some rolling stock that would look at home on the route then maybe give it another go. After the commercial inaccurate attempt for the route on MSTS I would like to see a real representation for the route and think for passenger runs with frequent stops it would be a lot more interesting than bombing at 125 between Oxford and Paddington... then again I might be biased on that one

[Retro]

You don't need to launch the Asset Editor if you are just doing Blueprints you can just use BlueprintEditor.exe in C:\Program Files\Rail Simulator. I can't take any credit for this idea as Matt our host discovered this one.
SavV1 is correct about the Third Rail. I forgot to answer that one. AFAIK someone is attempting to produce one. It would have been nice to have one already in the SIm as the Overhead Wires are. Apparently it will work with Locomotives that draw power from a third rail even if you can't see it. I also think that points would prove difficult for anyone producing a Third Rail Graphic. From memory the Old Bury to Manchester line which had a trackside third rail contained in a wooden U shape box had gaps on certain points and Level Crossings becauese the train had several pick up points along its length so it could always get power from some part of the line. It use to spark and light everything up around it as it crossed these gaps and reconnected. This Line is now the Metrolink with overhead wires and the original Bolton Street Station is part of the E.L.R.
Regards James