Right now I been playing on sand patch grade. I love the marker feature to tell me how far I have to go to the next step in a scenario to stop or something else. My issue however is it’s a bit misleading because this is for how the crow flights or if I connected the dots in a straight line. It’s a bit misleading. I would like to see something added that tells me how far I have to go still along the track like we have for the different lights or speed limits markers.
If I remember correctly, DTG once said that calculating the real distance would cost too much resources (computing time) and have a negative effect on performance.
I am actually be surprised by this on paper along the lines of the following. Please note I only have basic computer coding knowledge here so this is going to be a bit messy and done without code. The overall principle of my design would be to use the the distance in between locations that they have laid out on their routes. I am going to starting right before sand patch to finishing somewhere after cumberland yard. Variable 1: The distance between stops or locations along the route are fixed. So for example the distance between Sand Patch and Cumberland Yard on Sand Patch Grade. Variable 2: The distance past the last stop in variable 1 to get to your stop, for example going from a fixed distance between Sand Patch and Cumberland Yard Variable 3: The distance you would need to go to get to your next location on route. For example how far to go until Sand patch. Routine 1: Would calculate the physical distance from yourself to the next location on route, Aka calculate variable 3. This would be your most taxing on computing Routine 2: A routine that would calculate variable 2. In theory this should only need to be run twice. 1) when you get past your last fixed location on route, aka past Cumberland Yard in my example, and then 2) right at the beginning to calculate the initial. Otherwise this number should be fixed the rest of the time. The first one of this routine could become routine 1 if done right if you make it so your final destination on this route is the next location on route. Routine 3: A routine that calculates variable 1. These should just be the sum of all the fixed distances between locations on route between you and your destination. This should only need to be done once until you are at a distance that is less than variable 2+variable 3. Once this happens, a routine would to recalculate variable 1 Routine 4: summing up variable 1+variable 2+variable3. Overall the most taxing of this whole process with this method is probably right at the beginning and then just routine 1. They have routine 1 however actively running with the next speed limit and next light processes so it is possible to do the same code but do it with fixed locations along the route as well. Now I won't lie, I do not know how much processing power it takes to do the calculations for the next speed limit and next light but if it is not a lot then on paper my process would not add as much. An alternative just to get a number a bit closer could be still doing the straight line distances inbetween locations and adding them up. It wont give you the exact distance but it will be less misleading than seeing 17 miles to destination on sand patch grade for half the route because of the winding in the track and mislead you on how far you actually still have to go.
