How to make REALDRIVES
A short manual.
First a point of importance: If you’ve never programmed a quick drive, seek out a tutorial. I recommend this one https://youtu.be/uTSwEuWPZH8 it’s long but informative.
Secondly; remember that the aim of Real Drives is to generate random red signals for the player train in quick drives.
Then a word of caution: Making Real Drives takes a long time and can be frustrating, since you are likely to encounter problems (such random error messages) caused by a highly sensitive dispatcher code. It is also a very good idea to keep notes of everything you do. It’ll make troubleshooting easier. You still want to go on? Then proceed.
1; Real Drives are essentially quick drives with AI trains placed in the path of the player train. So you need to find out if there are any quick drive AI consists avaible for the route.
Start with driving the quick drive that come with the route. If you see any moving trains then you can proceed.
2: Go into the Scenario editor and make a new quick drive. Name it “AI test”. Then set a player spawn. Give the player train somewhere to go. Preferably just the nearest destination marker you can route it to. In the starting point box you type the same name as you gave the scenario. This is important. On a different track you drop an AI spawn point. On page 2 of the spawn point fly-out you can see the different categories of trains. Start with setting the first category to 100%. Give the AI train a short route, otherwise it wont spawn.
Now it becomes a bit tedious. Save the scenario by clicking on the big orange triangle. Clear cache and start the scenario from the quick drive menu. If an AI train spawns, make a note that this category of train spawns.
Then proceed with opening the scenario in the editor again, set the AI to the next category in the spawn and make that category 100% and the one you just used to 0%. Save, clear cache, open from quick drive menu, see if the new category spawns an AI train....and so forth and so forth.
Keep going at least till you reach the “Costum 2” category. The rest are hardly ever used.
Now you know what (if any) AI trains are available for you. If none has spawned, you can’t make a Real Drive.
2; Next step is the player train route. Open the scenario editor, make a new real drive. Call it “RD London Moscow version 1” (if you are making a drive for London Moscow). Place the Player train spawn. Give it the same name in the starting point box!!!! Then use the markers in the scenario to route the train. IMPORTANT: put in extra markers at every spot where the dispatcher code has a choice of routing. NEVER give the dispatcher a choice for any moving train. That means both player trains and AI trains. The dispatcher will eventually get it wrong if you are not thorough with this.
3; Save, clear cache, open from the quick drive menu to test if there are no errors, clear cache again. Open the scenario editor, find Real Drive London Moscow 1. Select clone. Name it “RD Drive London Moscow version 2”. Push the edit button and rename the player spawnpoint accordingly.
YOU MUST REPEAT THIS PROCEDURE FROM NOW ON EVERY TIME YOU GO THROUGH A STEP Ofcourse raising the last number by one each time. I can not stress how important this is because if you run into an error, or the scenario corrputs, then you will not have a previous version to revert to.
4; Now the fun starts. Put in AI traffic that come against the player train on the opposite track. Ofcouse only do this if it is a two track railway. AI spawn points should be placed so that the AI train doesn’t “sit” on a switch or a signal. Give the train a category, set it to 100% (or if you want variation divide by the available cstegories that you tested but make it sum up to 100%)
Give the AI train a route that is more than two km long and then into a portal.
If you are brave and experienced, do this for all AI traffic that is on the opposite track in one go. If not repeat step 3 each time youset in an AI train.
5; Now it’s time to set in AI trains that are in the path of the player train. Sometimes you can’t do this on the first 5km of the route, sometimes you can. Place the AI spawn just after a main signal. Set the “front,back,middle” box to “back”. For now the spawn probability must be 100%. Give the AI train a route.
A note on this. You can ofcourse make it disappear into a portal, but for the sake of realism i never do that unless the AI train leaves the line for a different imaginary end destination. If this is not the case i route the AI train to a platform or siding that is NOT in the path of the player train OR crosses the path of another AI train(!) Note that AI traffic only starts moving if the player the is closer than 2km.
Repeat this procedure with step 3 in between each time. If putting an AI train at a certain section of the line gives you problems; give up on that section. It is either the dispatcher being mad at you (for good or for no reason) or a problem with wrong signal links. Either way, give up on that section.
A note. Don’t go overboard with this. For a 70 km line 4 or 5 AI trains in the path of the player train is more than enough. Remember it is fun to be behind slower trains, so perhaps make regional and commuter trains stop at stations before you route them out of the way.
6; Now you are probably at “RD London Moscow version 12” or thereabouts. You have set all your AI spawn points. It is time for a test drive. Drive all the way! It’s the only way to find out if there are problems. If your test drive is succesful then onto step 7....
7; Now edit all AI spawn points that are in the path of the player train so that they are at 50% spawn probability. This way you have a scenario that always changes. If you have 7 AI trains in the path of the player train then your scenario will have 128 different possible permutations.
Test drive again!
8; Now put some stationary rolling stock here and there on sidings. Do not put it in the path of any trains! Beware that this will impact fps in large stations. Sometimes a little goes a long way.
Test again! If successful move on to point 8.
8; Clone the scenario. Name it REAL DRIVE London - Moscow. Edit the name in the player spawn too.
Then you are done and you’ve made a REAL DRIVE.
If you are thinking about publishing your Real Drives these are points to consider: Have someone else test drive it. Never publish scenarios that are untested by others. Also have in mind that if you’ve enabled AI consists yourself via the blueprint editor or re_tools then these will only work at your own TS setup. So only use what the builders of the route has used as AI traffic. If you are not publishing the drives the above does not matter.