Improving the visibility of track ends

[209CATrus]

We all know how horrible it is to lay out long stretches of rail track just to get pathfinding errors over sudden track breaks in the less-than-obvious places. I know that it should be worked on as an actual engine feature, but the other option might be a bit easier to implement - replace buffer stops with red signs or paint the buffer stops red or yellow (or, for example, dark brown. Whatever contrasts the most). It might be out of style with the British style of buffer stops, but thinking about it, for example narrowgauge buffers, due to their small size, are barely visible in the first place. Besides, it's pretty realistic to paint buffer stops in contrasting colors, at least in the modern times on modern lines.

A half-realistic measure would be making the modern track buffer stops more colorful with slightly varying designs, while older buffer stops stay more primitive. That could potentially allow for color-coding different track types, while also allowing the track stops being color-coded according to player color.

[Huitsi]

I wouldn't mind having a bright floating icon on dead-end tracks that are a) not on a station and b) not mothballed. I don't think those really have a use in-game, so they should almost always be a mistake.

Also, a dead-end on a slope doesn't have a buffer at all, looking exactly the same as a connected track. Two slope tiles next to each other can thus completely hide a track disconnect.

[FLN]

a) not on a station and b) not mothballed

That would be a really good approach!
How about: c) two ends on neighboring tiles opposing each other?

Seldom but though sometimes, I build such opposing dead-ends at a station, thus such a bright hovering icon would get annoying after a while.
What if this markers could be turned on/off? Like being part of the block-reservation-view (ctrl+b)?

[prissi]

I think highlighting all single ways would be good too. Only for roads, I would limit them to double single tiles.

[prissi]

There is a new simple tool 43 for highlighting all single ribi ways in Standard.

[Matthew]

I would really like this difficulty to be overcome as well. I have spent so many hours looking for breaks in tracks. It's especially difficult in snow, when the buffer stop graphic becomes almost invisible.

In 2020, I spent sometime searching for a pakset-based solution I could implement, but failed.

One question was whether pak128.britain's current buffer stop graphic is even historically correct. Today buffer stops must must have a bright red border. Metal buffer stops are often a reddish-brown colour (I honestly don't know if this is the natural colour, rust, or paint). These patterns can easily be seen on Gareth Dennis' excellent Twitter account, Rate My Buffers. Red buffer stops would be far easier to see. For earlier periods, many model rail shops sell brownish buffer stops that are intended to look like unpainted wood or painted dull brown, as the pakset's ones are. But is that correct or guesswork?  I am not sure it is but there's very little evidence.  You can see similar buffer stops at disused stations, but that could be due to decay and lack of maintenance. Black-and-white photos aren't really helpful because we're interested in colour, and there seems to be a clear pattern where photographers tend to take photos from 'behind' the buffer stop, whereas we're also interested in the track side of them. Painters just don't seem to be that interested in buffer stops (strange I know!    ) and the railway historian Jack Simmons has written about how there's a lot of variety in how accurately artists reproduce the railway. In 2020, I searched through lots of pictures in the Science Museum gallery and I have been keeping an eye out for buffer stops ever since when I go to museums or read books, without finding anything conclusive. However, the Railsigns website says that in the past (they don't give dates) these buffer stops usually had a bright red light. I think the addition of a bright red light to the buffer stop graphic would mitigate our problem greatly.

However, when I went to look at the pakset and .blend repos, I just couldn't find the files with the buffer stops. Yesterday I tried again, grepping for "buffer stop" and "buffers" (which gets lots of loco stuff), without success; searching for "stop" is obviously hopeless because it's used so much in Simutrans with another meaning. I have looked carefully through the "ways" directory and many of the little "gui" and "misc" directories without success too. I didn't want to waste people's time with what should be a simple search so if I remember correctly, I gave up out of embarrassment.

But since the topic has been raised, can anyone else find the relevant files? I can't do pixel art, but adding a red lantern might be within the possibilities of what I can do with .blend files.

[prissi]

Since there are no buffer stop graphics for slopes, I think just highlighting (as I did) is the best solution. Its is just a few lines of code to change as well.

[209CATrus]

I would really like this difficulty to be overcome as well. I have spent so many hours looking for breaks in tracks. It's especially difficult in snow, when the buffer stop graphic becomes almost invisible.

In 2020, I spent sometime searching for a pakset-based solution I could implement, but failed.

One question was whether pak128.britain's current buffer stop graphic is even historically correct. Today buffer stops must must have a bright red border. Metal buffer stops are often a reddish-brown colour (I honestly don't know if this is the natural colour, rust, or paint). These patterns can easily be seen on Gareth Dennis' excellent Twitter account, Rate My Buffers. Red buffer stops would be far easier to see. For earlier periods, many model rail shops sell brownish buffer stops that are intended to look like unpainted wood or painted dull brown, as the pakset's ones are. But is that correct or guesswork?  I am not sure it is but there's very little evidence.  You can see similar buffer stops at disused stations, but that could be due to decay and lack of maintenance. Black-and-white photos aren't really helpful because we're interested in colour, and there seems to be a clear pattern where photographers tend to take photos from 'behind' the buffer stop, whereas we're also interested in the track side of them. Painters just don't seem to be that interested in buffer stops (strange I know!    ) and the railway historian Jack Simmons has written about how there's a lot of variety in how accurately artists reproduce the railway. In 2020, I searched through lots of pictures in the Science Museum gallery and I have been keeping an eye out for buffer stops ever since when I go to museums or read books, without finding anything conclusive. However, the Railsigns website says that in the past (they don't give dates) these buffer stops usually had a bright red light. I think the addition of a bright red light to the buffer stop graphic would mitigate our problem greatly.

However, when I went to look at the pakset and .blend repos, I just couldn't find the files with the buffer stops. Yesterday I tried again, grepping for "buffer stop" and "buffers" (which gets lots of loco stuff), without success; searching for "stop" is obviously hopeless because it's used so much in Simutrans with another meaning. I have looked carefully through the "ways" directory and many of the little "gui" and "misc" directories without success too. I didn't want to waste people's time with what should be a simple search so if I remember correctly, I gave up out of embarrassment.

But since the topic has been raised, can anyone else find the relevant files? I can't do pixel art, but adding a red lantern might be within the possibilities of what I can do with .blend files.

Just a very quick find, /ways/term.blend. Dunno what it is though, but it has a buffer lol