MSTS - Helpful Facts and Links Discussion

slipperman12 wrote:Hi All,
This is just a word of warning regarding Helpful Facts and Links - Part 28 Converting Mini Routes to a normal MSTS setup.

There are a few routes which have been set up as Mini Routes specifically because they use custom versions of some files.  One which comes to mind immediately is the freeware BerninaBahn route; this uses a special version of tsection.dat, due to the track used, and will not work if one of the 'normal' tsection.dat files (#38, #42UK, etc.) is used.  I believe there is a North American route which uses the Mini Route system for a similar reason, but, unfortunately, I can't recall its name  

Cheers,
Ged

From your decription of the routes, they could run in a normal MSTS setup if Train Store is used to run the route and is set to use that specific tsection.dat file.

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David

Ged
Thanks for the warning. I will add this to the HFL part.
Alec

I had a couple of commercial packages that caused problems with the tsections as well, one was called Japanese routes the other was the maglev add-on, when installed with their supplied tsections they messed up the other routes in MSTS but they wouldn't run properly with a standard tsection, so I created a couple of miniroutes for those, they were commercial add-ons from well known developers but there was no warning in the instructions about their incompatibility with a standard MSTS setup.

Markh5682 wrote:I had a couple of commercial packages that caused problems with the tsections as well, one was called Japanese routes the other was the maglev add-on, when installed with their supplied tsections they messed up the other routes in MSTS but they wouldn't run properly with a standard tsection, so I created a couple of miniroutes for those, they were commercial add-ons from well known developers but there was no warning in the instructions about their incompatibility with a standard MSTS setup.

This is the sort of sittuation where Train Store's ability to set a specific tsection.dat file for a route is very useful.

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David

Yes trainstore is very useful for that   but back when I installed those there was no such thing as trainstore and there were no miniroutes as we know them now, so my solution at the time was to create some cut down MSTS installations specifically to run them, (practically the same as a miniroute but without the trainstore type interface) I did try to set up a route in trainstore using its own tsection but I messed up and gave up on it in the end, so the routes are still in their own mini MSTS installations, they work fine in there so I''m quite happy to leave them where they are.

Hi All,
Thanks for your comments!
It's a year or two ago when I set up the BerninaBahn route and, at the time, tried it in a 'normal' MSTS setup, together with the special tsection.dat, but it wouldn't work. It may have been due to my own inexperience and at that time, I hadn't tried Train Store. It may be worth a revisit  

Cheers,
Ged

I have been less than productive on the HFL front despite having retired. I have produced a further part with massive help from Ged and Justin, and I anticipate uploading this in the next day or two.

To some extent I had lost a little interest in this area as I'm not too sure what value it has? In addition does it actually help anyone? This subject was given some impetus by a post on UKTS where a simmer was effectively abandoning MSTS because of difficulties and a perceived idea that little help was being offered.

It is not unreasonable to say that there is no one set of answers that solve all questions, and it may also be thought that this set of parts duplicates the fine work that exists on Steam4me.

Anyway I shall continue to ponder the merits of continuing the production of HFL parts, and in the meantime I shall concentrate on TSM work.

Hi Alec

I have just read the latest installment RE: folder structure, very informative for the newcomer or someone who has just played the game and not really gone into the workings of MSTS.  

In the section where you wrote...........

NOTE:- *** as each route has its own sigcfg.dat & sigscr.dat files the actual purpose of these files is unclear.

My take on that is (I may be totally wrong here but.........) the sigcfg.dat & sigscr.dat files in the global folder are the MSTS default templates and the sigcfg.dat & sigscr.dat files in the route folders are set up specifically for the type of signalling used in that route, especially where non default signals are used.

When you set up a new route in the route geometry extractor, it will copy the default sigcfg.dat & sigscr.dat files from the global folder into the newly created route, which you will have to change if you don't want to use the default signal. (I haven't used the route geometry extractor for ages now but I think 'if I remember rightly' it is the Japanese colour light signals that are used as the default type).

EDIT:
Just checked on the ones in my global folder and all of the default types are listed in there.

Many thanks for the comments, Mark. I will liaise with Ged as how best to use this information.

Hi Gentlemen,
Thank you, Mark.
Although I've dabbled in route creation, I haven't got as far as signalling ... yet!!

I've replied to your PM, Alec! Thanks.

Cheers,
Ged

I have to disagree with some of the latest comments in this topic. When a new route is created the folders and files in the TEMPLATE folder are copied to the new route, within that folder are two sig dat files which contain only Japanese signals. You could copy the existing EUROPE 1 sig dat files to the TEMPLATE folder along with the two semaphore shape files and thus have UK semaphores as your template. The two sig dat files in the top GLOBAL folder appear to be for reference purposes, most of the signals referenced are North American types.

John

John
Thanks for your input, which will be included in the revised HFL Part 29., and is most valued.

I am only too pleased to receive feedback, as it helps to ensure minimal misinformation.

Thanks for the clarification John  

That explains why I only got the Japanese signals as default on newly created routes.  

Many thanks John and Mark for your illuminating comments, and I have endeavoured to amend Part 29 to suit.

At long last I have plucked up the courage to post a further part to the HFL thread, and this concerns the ROUTE folder content (HFL Part 30). It was reviewed some time ago by Ged, but any errors within it are purely my own. Perhaps this is "old hat" to many of you but certainly in preparing it I was able to better understand what goes into a ROUTE, and if it is of help only to one simmer then it will have been worth posting it.

Obviously I would welcome any comments and pointers to incorrect information.

I've also added a very basic lighting part (HFL Part 31) to the HFL thread, and again any comments would be welcome.