Full Version: activity help
just put in a activity on the free cajon route. works good but no engine headlights on the player engine. when i hit the light switch the building lights up, but not the headlight. also the signal lights dont work. i have all the train sim updates and msts bin. also redid the activity with another engine but still no lights. when i explore the route all the lights work. thanks for any help and merry christmas to everyone. also is there a west pacific route?
Can't honestly say a West Pacific, however, if you mean Western Pacific Locomotive, I believe an excellent freeware units are available from this website's locomotive area, take a gander.
Hopefully, responses will come your way later on Xmas day with respect to the lights issues.
Merry Xmas.
Hopefully, responses will come your way later on Xmas day with respect to the lights issues.
Merry Xmas.
QUOTE(harley1380 @ Dec 24 2008, 4:23 PM) 
just put in a activity on the free cajon route. works good but no engine headlights on the player engine. when i hit the light switch the building lights up, but not the headlight. also the signal lights dont work. i have all the train sim updates and msts bin. also redid the activity with another engine but still no lights. when i explore the route all the lights work. thanks for any help and merry christmas to everyone. also is there a west pacific route?
First question: Does the engine display lights on other routes? If so, then you have too many light points in the particular area of the route you're working.
Light points include headlights, step lights, walkway lights, beacons, etc. on the engine(s), taillights on cars or EOT devices, and signals, switch indicators, and other small lights on the ground. The number may have improved with BIN, but it was originally around 500, and if you had more than that, you might have no headlight points on engines (though you'd still have the illuminating cones), or unexpected dark signals that still showed as active on F4, or any combination.
500 can add up in a hurry. If you have one of the superdetailed engines with step lights, truck lights, running board lights, headlights, ditchlights, and a beacon or strobes, you can have up to 50 lights on one engine! It just gets worse if you run multiple engines. Even though a particular light may not be on due to switch position or engine location, MSTS still reserves the light data and adds it to the count.
Another thing I've discovered, is that if you reserve more lights than a piece of rolling stock actually has, MSTS will run it, but reserve all those non-existant lights.
To try to clear up what I'm saying, in the .eng or .wag file, as you start the lighting section, the first line is "Lights ( 13" (the number will vary on each item) If you only have 8 lighting instructions on the item, MSTS still reserves 13 lights for that item.
The answer? Try to reduce the lighting requirements. In my case, though it's not protypical, I remove truck lights, running board lights, step lights, etc. and only leave the headlights, ditch lights, beacons etc. I mean REMOVE (delete) the unneeded light instructions. ...and change the light count at the beginning of the section. If you leave them in place and try to "comment" them out, MSTS still counts them, and if they cause a disparity between the number of instructions and the light count, you get a "phone home" or a lockup.
Hope this helps.
I kept running into this on routes where trian lengths and loose consist lengths were numbering 300-400 cars. The answer, as time consuming as it sounds, was to eliminate the light statements in each wag file of the freight equipment. I leave caboose, MOW, and Passenger cars(carriages) alone, just do this to regular freight cars.
An example. One of the activities for the Pocohontas route had over 500 freight cars placed. Each hopper had 2 lights in its wag file. Just these cars amounted to 1000 lights!! No signals, along with other lighting issues. Removed the light statement from these cars and all was good again. I now place a FRED on the end of the Player train, and AI trains. I now remove any reference to lights on new downloads, before putting them in MSTS.
An example. One of the activities for the Pocohontas route had over 500 freight cars placed. Each hopper had 2 lights in its wag file. Just these cars amounted to 1000 lights!! No signals, along with other lighting issues. Removed the light statement from these cars and all was good again. I now place a FRED on the end of the Player train, and AI trains. I now remove any reference to lights on new downloads, before putting them in MSTS.
QUOTE(bandorr2000 @ Dec 25 2008, 1:04 PM)
I kept running into this on routes where trian lengths and loose consist lengths were numbering 300-400 cars. The answer, as time consuming as it sounds, was to eliminate the light statements in each wag file of the freight equipment. I leave caboose, MOW, and Passenger cars(carriages) alone, just do this to regular freight cars.
An example. One of the activities for the Pocohontas route had over 500 freight cars placed. Each hopper had 2 lights in its wag file. Just these cars amounted to 1000 lights!! No signals, along with other lighting issues. Removed the light statement from these cars and all was good again. I now place a FRED on the end of the Player train, and AI trains. I now remove any reference to lights on new downloads, before putting them in MSTS.
Bandorr - you are absolutely right, and I forgot to mention it. I do the same thing. There are plenty of FRED's out there...
Even with the FRED's and other EOT lights, you only need one light instruction per point. the "taillights" on trains do not change with the headlight setting, so a "conditions" setting of :
Conditions (
Headlight ( 0 )
Unit ( 3 )
)
turns on a FRED or other rear light on a player train.
If you set a second light with:
Conditions (
Control ( 1 )
Unit ( 3 )
Service ( 2 )
)
and with the same location instruction, that light also comes on if the rear light is on an AI train, and IIRC, if you set Control ( 0 ) the one light works for both AI and Player trains. (It has been a while since I did a re-write of the lights on a FRED, and I can't immediately find the one I have with an "all modes" light)
QUOTE(bandorr2000 @ Dec 25 2008, 10:04 AM)
The answer, as time consuming as it sounds, was to eliminate the light statements in each wag file of the freight equipment. I leave caboose, MOW, and Passenger cars(carriages) alone, just do this to regular freight cars.
You can use Route-Riter to delete the lights on the rolling stock of your choice, hundreds or even thousands at a time, in a matter of seconds. It will even make back up files for you, if you so desire.
QUOTE(oldrailfan @ Dec 25 2008, 7:32 AM)
First question: Does the engine display lights on other routes? If so, then you have too many light points in the particular area of the route you're working.
Light points include headlights, step lights, walkway lights, beacons, etc. on the engine(s), taillights on cars or EOT devices, and signals, switch indicators, and other small lights on the ground. The number may have improved with BIN, but it was originally around 500, and if you had more than that, you might have no headlight points on engines (though you'd still have the illuminating cones), or unexpected dark signals that still showed as active on F4, or any combination.
500 can add up in a hurry. If you have one of the superdetailed engines with step lights, truck lights, running board lights, headlights, ditchlights, and a beacon or strobes, you can have up to 50 lights on one engine! It just gets worse if you run multiple engines. Even though a particular light may not be on due to switch position or engine location, MSTS still reserves the light data and adds it to the count.
Another thing I've discovered, is that if you reserve more lights than a piece of rolling stock actually has, MSTS will run it, but reserve all those non-existant lights.
To try to clear up what I'm saying, in the .eng or .wag file, as you start the lighting section, the first line is "Lights ( 13" (the number will vary on each item) If you only have 8 lighting instructions on the item, MSTS still reserves 13 lights for that item.
The answer? Try to reduce the lighting requirements. In my case, though it's not protypical, I remove truck lights, running board lights, step lights, etc. and only leave the headlights, ditch lights, beacons etc. I mean REMOVE (delete) the unneeded light instructions. ...and change the light count at the beginning of the section. If you leave them in place and try to "comment" them out, MSTS still counts them, and if they cause a disparity between the number of instructions and the light count, you get a "phone home" or a lockup.
Hope this helps.
thanks for your help john. have not tryed with other routes yet, just cajon. what i did do was take out just one trainset and the lights work. also i broke up the activity in 3 parts. la to fullterton, then to san bernardino, then to barstow. i will try your advice on clearing up lights. see how that works. thanks again bob
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