Trainz/route
This route page is 'a reserved article title' linked into by the Lot's of other pages, and it is the plan that it will cover a topic which needs elaboration for all Trainzers. The article materials should cover:Sessions are the heart and soul of interactive Driving taskings... there is much to discuss! so... Promissary Note... someday soon I'm going to get started on this page!, says Fra nkB It was last edited on 6 June 2024, so construction has yet to really begin! Newly minted page UNDERCONSTRUCTION: Content here is likely to be changed significantly in a short amount of time. All Trainzer's and Wikibookians with knowledge in this subject are welcome to help out. You can remove this tag and replace it with {{Trainz-stub}} or with section stub templates ({{Trainz-sect-stub}}) on unfinished sections when the 'page' has become more mature. |
- combined from Driver and Glossary and Notations
Scenarios and sessions
editDriver Scenarios were modular interactive scripted software elements which acted as a adjunct to Trainz Driver, and provided the first game experience offering task challenges, scoring, and switching operations. Crude ability to load and load trains off-camera enabled distribution of cars and then picking up the same during the same gaming session. Sessions supplanted use of scenarios as the TrainzScript module was not directly integrated into the game, whereas the session editor was part of Surveyor.
- Scenarios were modular interactive scripted software elements which acted as a adjunct to Trainz Driver, and provided the first game experience offering task challenges, scoring, and switching operations. Crude ability to load and load trains off-camera enabled distribution of cars and then picking up the same during the same gaming session. Sessions supplanted use of scenarios as the TrainzScript module was not directly integrated into the game, whereas the session editor was part of Surveyor.
• Support for Scenarios will not be continued after TS12's service packs.
Trainz Driver Sessions are scripted Driver activities that create an interactive game play episode with tasks, conditions, and standards set by the Session creator. Sessions were introduced in Trainz 2004 as a better, easier user friendly replacement for scenarios. Sessions are written using the Session editor API in Surveyor, so were integrated into the game with map features visible, and so easier to make than scenarios which used a separate TrainzScript editor module.
Scenarios
edit- main topic coverage: scenarios
Scenarios were available from Trainz 1.3 (Trainz updated to SP3) into TS12[note 1], but some older scenarios were sometimes defeated (unrunnable, though CM was happy to import them) by changes (usu. mandatory values checks or defines not present in Trainz, UTC nor TRS2004—so had incurable faults) in the script libraries of newer Trainz releases.
Unlike their functional replacement, Sessions, writing a Trainz scenario relied upon the external Auran application TrainzScript, and relied upon a much higher needed level of programming ability and knowledge.
Sessions
edit- main topic coverage: sessions
Sessions came about because the Trainz of the day had trouble keeping context when switched back and forth from the Scenario editor and Surveyor modules, where one had to track what was to happen step by step. The solution was to incorporate the necessary scripts as other Rules configurable in the Session Editor API added to TRS2004 and up, along with an expansion of the standard script libraries made part of Trainz after Trainz 1.3[note 2]. This was not, and is still not an optimal solution, but it beats returning to Trainz Surveyor and only having a black screen displayed, or a disconnected mouse.
This Trainz/Route/route section is a stub placeholder, an outline or marker that this section of the book is otherwise incomplete. You can help the Wikibooks Trainz project by expanding it with fuller discussion of the topic. Work needed: Expand with some coverage of how routes are built, organized, signaled and use trackmarks, triggers, et. al. |
* Setting the 'freeintcam' switch parameter in trainzoptions.txt (TR04—TS12) or checking the clickbox with the same function (Freeing Internal Cameras) in TANE and after, changes the function of the keyboard arrows from rotate and tilt functions, to instead slide the camera position forward and back, or side to side. Freeintcam mode enables the user to move many cameras entirely outside the CAB or to a much better advantaged viewing (and mouse-controlling) angle.
Notes, Footnotes & References
editConfig.txt files are endemic and ever present in Trainz assets, for no asset can be defined without this type of Computer Science container. The keyword-value_of_key pairing must always be kept in mind in editing or creating Trainz content. The TrainzBaseSpec contains values and containers which are most common in asset defining config.txt files.
Notes
- ↑ Scenarios were available from Trainz 1.3 (Trainz updated to SP3) into TS12... but based on personal experience
- ↑ A version by version differential comparison of these using freeware tool kdiff3 shows the script libraries have been astonishingly stable, Trainz release to Trainz release, with at worst, half a dozen script files showing changes. Explorations by computer engineer/author, Fabartus
Footnotes
References
- Trainz printed or pdf file Manuals, applicable version - usually in the ..\extras or ..\extras\manuals folder
- TrainzOnline Wiki Config.txt file page and various other pages
- TrainzOnline Wiki: Content Creator's Guide pages (various)
- Various CCG and Auran websites