Today I Learned.....

[Matthew]

Simutrans-Extended has a steep learning curve and players not only have to master the hand-made UI and the quirks of a detailed simulation, but must also have an encyclopedic knowledge of (British|Czech|Japanese|Swedish) transport history. I learn something new about  Simutrans and transport almost every day that I play. 

So I thought it might be nice to start a thread where we can share our ignorance and our discoveries, in the same spirit as the 'Today I Learned' (TIL) subreddit. I know that there is a stickied thread for 'Tips and Tricks', but I feel that posting in there suggests that you are some kind of expert who knows what they're doing, which I for one am not. 

To get the ball rolling:

TIL that mixing narrowboats and barges on a barge canal's passenger service is a bad idea. Although they have the same nominal maximum speed (the boat horses' 7 kmph), the lighter narrowboats have better acceleration and therefore soon overtake the barges, causing very dead locks (deadlocks at canal locks). 

[Matthew]

TIL that adding carriages with brakes reduces the stopping distance of passenger trains (and therefore increases their effective maximum speed and frequency). I knew that carriages with brakes increased costs (because of the monthly salary of the guard) and reduced revenue (because they have less space for passengers), but I thought that the benefit was simply the ability to 'complete' a train. I did not know that the locomotion physics took account of the extra braking power. I am impressed by the realism of the movement physics!

[Matthew]

TIL that station signals using "time interval with telegraph" create directional reservations and trains will not depart without them.

Some day, I hope to learn how far and why those directional reservations are created. 

[Vladki]

Time interval with telegraph is used for single track lines. Telegraph was used to negotiate direction of travel, then the trains were dispatched in time intervals. So directional reservation is needed as far as next station.

[Phystam]

I learned old signal systems used in Japan...
They used:
time interval (1872 -- 1873),
with telegraph (1873 --  ),
train staff and ticket (1877 -- )
for the early years.
The absolute block ( ~1885 -- ) was imported from England firstly, and some engineers improved it, which is called double-communicate(双信) block in 1899.
After that, they introduced an automatic track circuit block system for center of Tokyo to improve train capacity in 1904.
First automatic signals were disc-shaped. however it was very hard to see it in the city, so they started to introduce semaphore signals in 1909.
After more several years, the semaphore signals were also replaced to color light signals in 1925. The signals have been used until now.



hm, is Simutrans-Extended signal simulator game?

[Matthew]

TIL that Blender will make any object the active camera if you press <Ctrl>+<Numpad0>.  It does not have a sanity check, so it will not stop you from setting a mesh (without camera properties) as the active camera. You can get your camera back by going to 'Properties Window > Scene > Scene > Camera:' and choosing 'Camera'.

I learned old signal systems used in Japan...
They used:
time interval (1872 -- 1873),
with telegraph (1873 --  ),
train staff and ticket (1877 -- )
for the early years.
The absolute block ( ~1885 -- ) was imported from England firstly, and some engineers improved it, which is called double-communicate(双信) block in 1899.
After that, they introduced an automatic track circuit block system for center of Tokyo to improve train capacity in 1904.
First automatic signals were disc-shaped. however it was very hard to see it in the city, so they started to introduce semaphore signals in 1909.
After more several years, the semaphore signals were also replaced to color light signals in 1925. The signals have been used until now.

The first generation of Japanese railway engineers must have had very eventful lives. They never saw trains as children, but went on to introduce four different signalling systems.

hm, is Simutrans-Extended signal simulator game?

Sometimes it feels like one! 

TIL:

Time interval with telegraph is used for single track lines. Telegraph was used to negotiate direction of travel, then the trains were dispatched in time intervals. So directional reservation is needed as far as next station.

Thank you, Vladki.

[Matthew]

TIL that a pair of Friesian horses cannot pull a small horse omnibus up a slope. A four-in-hand can just about do it.
(Yes, I know that Clydesdales are usually a better choice for a small horse omnibus, but I didn't want to consign a stable full of Friesians to the knacker's yard ).

TIL, I suspect, why most (all?) of pak128.Britain's building .blends use black planes for windows. If you cut a hole in a wall to make a window using the Knife Project tool, then Blender divides the wall into several irregular polygons (so that the window hole is actually a gap between those planes). Those irregular polygons are very unhelpful if you are using rectangular textures (such as the photos of bricks and slates in the pakset textures repository). Possible solutions:

• Follow the lead of the pakset's founding fathers by using black planes for windows. 
• Use the Knife tool to cut the wall into rectangles before you cut the window hole.
• As 2, but construct the building in horizontal layers, like Lego bricks or a 3D printer, with the window Edges aligned to the layer Edges, so that you only need to use the Knife tool for vertical cuts.

[Matthew]

TIL that if time_interval_to_caution is < the time it takes for trains to reverse, then (time interval) Choose Signals at terminal stations will happily send trains to a platform that already has a train in it. 

TIL that one of the main sources for locomotives in pak128.Britain, E.L.Ahrons' The British Steam Locomotive 1825-1925, is out of copyright and available online. 

[Mariculous]

TIL that, if a functions name in simutrans states to do something, it doesn't mean it really does what it states -.-

TIL one can create diagonal level crossings.

[freddyhayward]

TIL that, if a functions name in simutrans states to do something, it doesn't mean it really does what it states -.-

TIL one can create diagonal level crossings.

HOW? Apart from using tramways.

[Mariculous]

As there are some of these glitches, I have just created a new thread to answer your question:
https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,19245.0.html

[freddyhayward]

TIL you do not have to *click* *click* *click* every time to place a signal in the right direction: just click and drag in the direction of travel, and the signal will face the opposite direction.

[jamespetts]

TIL that adding carriages with brakes reduces the stopping distance of passenger trains (and therefore increases their effective maximum speed and frequency). I knew that carriages with brakes increased costs (because of the monthly salary of the guard) and reduced revenue (because they have less space for passengers), but I thought that the benefit was simply the ability to 'complete' a train. I did not know that the locomotion physics took account of the extra braking power. I am impressed by the realism of the movement physics!

Note that this is only so for older railway carriages that are not continuously braked. Later, continuously braked carriages do not have this advantage, as all carriages are braked in any event.

[Sarrus]

TIL That directional reservation doesn't work properly and causing deadlocks when single track section ends with choose signal (before station). It needs to be at least one section of double track.

[Matthew]

TIL that, under the time interval working method, it is better not to put junction signals before junctions. In the past, I have signalled junctions something like this (X and Y are leftwards signals; y is a distant signal):
         ^
         ^
         ^
<<<X<Y<<<<<y<<<<<<<

My thought was that Y should be as close to the junction as possible, so that the trains are slowed down for as short a time as possible. But I've now realized that it's better to signal like so:
         ^
         ^
         ^
<<<X<<<<xZ<<<<<z<<

This means that after the train can start to speed up again as soon as it has passed Z and is in sight of Xx.

TIL you do not have to *click* *click* *click* every time to place a signal in the right direction: just click and drag in the direction of travel, and the signal will face the opposite direction.

I have played the game for soooo long without knowing this!  I have now put it into the Quick Reference Guide.

If you had a cent for every click you're going to save me, you'd be able to buy a lot of beers......

Note that this is only so for older railway carriages that are not continuously braked. Later, continuously braked carriages do not have this advantage, as all carriages are braked in any event.

Noted, thank you.

[Matthew]

TIL that screenshots can be uploaded to Imgur in seconds using a Linux package called Flameshot. This is very useful for adding Simutrans images to this forum.

[Matthew]

TIL that the Git command git checkout uses "check out" in the sense of "to look at a person or thing", rather than the much more common meanings of "to be found to be true or acceptable after being examined", "to pay your bill and leave a hotel, etc.", or 'the last part of an online shopping process'. 

Once I realized this, then the whole Git workflow made much, much more sense.

Mr Torvalds, you're a programming genius, but please get your UI checked out by a wider range of people before you inflict them on the world... 

[Roboron]

screenshots can be uploaded to Imgur in seconds using a Linux

This functionallity is built-in in the Plasma Desktop! Moreover, it is present in the "Share with..." right-click option in Dolphin file manager.

TIL that the Git command git checkout uses "check out" in the sense of "to look at a person or thing"

That remembers me of  this toot. We use git so many times, yet we don't take the time to stop and think about what those commands actually mean.

[Matthew]

TIL that if you change the threads settings in /simutrans/config/simuconf.tab, then it can have strange effects:

• It apparently causes crashes (segmentation fault) when you try to play online. If Stephenson-Siemens is set to threads=6, then it would seem plausible that server and client must have identical numbers of threads.
• It appears that you get vastly more passengers generated in a mature saved game with threads=6 than you do with threads=2

At the moment, the simuconf.tab comment says that "It is best not to set this number higher than the number of physical cores on your computer.". If other players can replicate these phenomena, perhaps additional warnings should be added there for the benefit of newbies.

This functionallity is built-in in the Plasma Desktop! Moreover, it is present in the "Share with..." right-click option in Dolphin file manager.

Full marks to the KDE team!

That remembers me of  this toot. We use git so many times, yet we don't take the time to stop and think about what those commands actually mean.

Yes, that conversation confirms my point. So many people (including the OP there) so confused by ambiguous language in Git. It's good to know I'm not the only one, but it's sad that such a widely-used tool is so confusing.

[Mariculous]

TIL

This functionallity is built-in in the Plasma Desktop! Moreover, it is present in the "Share with..." right-click option in Dolphin file manager.

I'm using opensuse/KDE/Dolphin for over 10 years now and did not know this xD
Maybe I'm working a little too much on the terminal.