SrrTrains – News – English

Dear Reader

It’s the intention of this thread to host news about SrrTrains (simulated railroad trains) from time to time.

SrrTrains is an idea that is described on http://simulrr.wordpress.com/simul-rr and the latest step of SRR v0.01 is published at http://simulrr.wordpress.com/download-area#release.

SRR v0.01 is currently being a hobby project, completely done for free.

Latest release is “step 0021″, which is called “Tracer Enhancements”.

The tracer is a nice, little tool that helps to

– debug SrrTrains software
– analyse SrrTrains software
– document SrrTrains software

Next step should be the implementation of a locomotive (in autumn 2009).

Yours
Christoph

SrrTrains – News – German

S.g. Leserinnen und Leser dieses Blogs

Dieser Thread ist dazu gedacht, in den Kommentaren von Zeit zu Zeit Neuigkeiten über SrrTrains (Simulated Railroad Trains) in deutscher Sprache aufzunehmen.

Zur Zeit ist “step 0021″ in Entwicklung, der Verbesserungen des Tracers bringen soll.

Der Tracer ist dann ein brauchbares kleines Hilfstool, mit dem man

• SrrTrains Software debuggen
• SrrTrains Software erforschen
• SrrTrains Software dokumentieren

kann.

Weiterhin gilt das Ziel, im Laufe des Herbstes eine Lokomotive fertigzustellen.

Die neueste Version des Konzeptpapieres (immerhin schon 49 Seiten und 18 Abbildungen) werde ich heute noch auf der Konzept-Seite http://simulrr.wordpress.com/simul-rr-german veröffentlichen.

Euer
Christoph

SrrTrains – outlook

Hi all

The step 0020 of my hobby project has been finished, so the current status of the project looks like

0010 – basics – done
0020 – tracks and turnouts – done
0030 – locomotives – in autumn 2009
0040 – diverse topics (wagons, trains) – around Christmas
0050 – high level editor (Blender scripts) – somewhen in 2010

The X3D prototypes have been published on a web space (in version “step 0020″, of course), the interface description is online available (SRR Framework and “ABI” Track Geometry).

If you would like to start building model railroad layouts by using SRR, you could find a short introduction here.

CU there
Christoph

Tracks and Turnouts – SrrTrains

According to the findings of the rollercoaster project, I defined the basic track geometry of the “do-it-yourself-multiplayer-virtual-model-railroad” on X3D/VRML basis as follows.

A…..starting point
B…..end point
I…..intermediate points
nomalA…..vector to define cross slope at point A
normalB…..vector to define cross slope at point B

Currently the coordinates of those vectors must be calculated and entered manually, but it is planned to use Blender as editor for the track layout.

If you would like to know more about the concepts for tracks and turnouts, please feel free to download the “Howto build my own SrrTrains tracks and turnouts” documents from the download area.

ht_tracks-and-turnouts_1.pdf (English)
ht_gleise-und-weichen_1.pdf (German)

Vehicles will follow soon.

CU
Christoph

Multibrowser Support

Currently I’m trying to adapt my – unfinished – model railroad framework to support Octaga Player and Octaga Collaboration Server in addition to BS Contact and BS Collaborate.

I’m facing some problems, but I have decided to release the current state of the software on the download area (search for “step 0011″).

Feel free to try it out and to post your feed back.

cu
Christoph

Multiuser Scenes with VRML/X3D – III

OK, SrrTrains has only finished the first of four steps, and the next two steps, “tracks and turnouts” and “locomotives” will be essential for SrrTrains to be useful.

However, the framework already provides a few “SRR objects”

• SrrSwitchA: a switch whose switching process can be animated. Can be locked by SrrLock.

• SrrDriveA: A carousel drive that delivers as output a parameter angle and that can be switched on and off.

• SrrKeyContainer: an object that can create and contain keys. Keys can be taken and put.

• SrrLock: An object whose locked state is influenced by the carried keys and by the contained keys.

• Avatar Container: are special SRR objects that help to solve the „bouncing avatars“ problem..

And now, …….

A “Howto” document has been added that describes “How to Build My Own SRR objects”

You’ll find it at the DOWNLOAD AREA

Christoph

Multiuser Scenes with VRML/X3D – II

Hi all

The hobby has reached a further step.

Now the 3D chat and the console interface are part of the hobby model railroad.

See SrrTrains and download area

Greetinx
Christoph

SIMUL-RR step 0003 – houses and keys

Dear all

The step 0003 “Houses and Keys” of the hobby virtual multiplayer model railroad has been released.

You can find the latest release document (contains a zip with the X3D files) in the table in column “Release” on the download area.

You can find the “How to build my own house” document in the table in column “Howto’s” on the download area.

Sincerely yours
Christoph

Multiuser Scenes with VRML/X3D

Hi all

After having read the book “X3D – Extensible 3D Graphics for Web Authors”, I thought it would be a good idea to use this technology for a hobby model railroad (a virtual one, a multiplayer one).

I found a description of BS Collaborate at the Web, a collaboration server that enables the Web Author to build multiuser X3D/VRML scenes, based on the Network Sensor proposal from Web3D.

Well, I began with some single-user Java Script studies – the 3D Rollercoaster.

Beginning of this year I switched to start with the virtual model railroad – already multi-player but currently only supporting a carousel – currently no trains, tracks.

However, if you’re interested in building multi-player virtual model railroads – have a look at the Java Script X3D prototypes and give me a feed back, if you would use such concept –> see Download Area and Simulated Model Railroad Concept Page.

Best Regards
Christoph

Pages Moved -> SrrTrains, SrrTrains-German and Download-Area available

Hi all

As announced in the “Hello World” posting, I moved the SrrTrains pages from my old blog to this one –> they’re available now.

Have fun
Christoph