i guess this would count as ‘content’ and I understand it’s not a route. As a newcomer I’ve a lot to learn and I think any responses to this thread are going to be explaining to (me) the uninformed why this wouldn’t be possible. My basic contention is that the scenario editor is a rather ungainly piece of product. I know that there are many with lots of experience that derive a lot of pleasure in mastering it. However, the ability, fairly simply, to add your own choice of AI trains moving or otherwise to Quick Drive sessions would be interesting. Even the ability to build Quick Drives beyond what exist in the drop downs for each route would potentially be a useful add to the game. It might even allow the building of more complex scenarios. Now, changing the existing Scenario Editor would likely be a huge undertaking and at least a major rewrite. So my thought was could an external program exist that would read the Train Simulator content and then allow, through a graphical interface, the adding of content, the setting of points and signals for a route? It might also be a lot faster in execution in that it would be reading, say, a digital map, of the content rather than moving ‘inside’ the content as the existing editor does. Once complete the code would be checked and generated back into the users content. Other than presumably not needing any change to the existing system (presumably inserting a scenario could be like downloading one) the external program (other than the resulting generation) wouldn’t need to be 32 bit or tied to the existing program. You get some of this concept within flight simulation programs for example. The ability to schedule and insert AI traffic into the program. That I agree is easier, but fundamentally the idea of external add ons to legacy code isn’t that ground breaking. This idea may have been suggested and debunked before for which I apologize in advance. So what basic concepts am I missing?
I thoroughly agree with you @Medellinexpat.I think this has got a good range of possibility . If DTG explore in this direction this certainly become a reality.If the dispatcher thing can be run by an external program and send back flags to internal dispatcher (Player) and the player can run online scenarios.This would also take some load off the player computer. If DTG is listening this feature can be implemented .
TRAINFAN since I wrote the original post I’ve started to use the editor, firstly by building Quick Drives and now onto scenarios. I guess with experience I’ve come to love it more although the documentation to get you started (videos) is time consuming and then as you progress there’s a huge leap to the developers documentation. I hadn’t thought about something like the dispatcher control being outside the main program, but that’s very interesting. I’d wondered whether something like more complex weather could be injected by an external program as is the case with say FSX. Even if it isn’t having some external or overlay programs might be a way to potentially use idle cores which, if 64 bit is coming, results in CPU throughput being the new main constraint on the program. But back to the editor having an overlay would allow simple switching of consists or schedule building. That for experienced builders might take some of the fun away but it might a ) save the experts time b) open up scenario building to a wider group. The ability to set signals or points easily, even during the session would add depth. Perhaps a ‘despatcher/signal box’ utility sitting outside the main program?
