Making 1.06.1: any interest?

[Gumboots]

Yeah I got it to work with the shortcut. I'd borked the syntax before. It needs the space between the last " and the -d. However, even though it would open the game once that was sorted I still couldn't see any debug menus. It just looked like the standard game. I must be missing something.

[Tomix]

Just a thought, but maybe for the next patch we could change the sounds for the trains? I tried to unpack and repack the PK4 with new sounds, however the game didn't read them.

[Gumboots]

Did you use the same file names?

[Tomix]

Yup. Same bit rate, everything.

[Stoker]

Interesting. I was trying to brush away the cobwebs surrounding my RT3 sound fixes I had done some years ago last night, and as best as I can recall I extracted a copy of the sound .PK4 and copied the sound file, and then after modifying it placed the new version in the User Extra Content folder, leaving the original .PK4 intact. I think I actually put the non-.PK4'd sound file in the UEC folder and it worked. A member here did this a few months ago, but I don't recall exactly what method he used. A search of the forum should turn this up.

[Blackhawk]

I think you are referring to this thread Stoker. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3474&

[Stoker]

Ya, that's the one Blackhawk. I guess it was a couple years ago, not a couple months ago.

It sounds like he re-packed the sound into the original .PK4 after modifying it, but I am pretty sure I never did this, as I can not recall ever creating a .PK4.

Remember: Time flies like arrow, but fruit flies like a banana!

[Blackhawk]

I was surprised it was from May of last year. I thought it was just a couple months ago as well not almost a year ago.

[Stoker]

Ah. I was looking at his join date. Still, a year ago is a lot longer than I thought it was. The older I get the more I believe that the passage of time is indeed accelerating.

[Tomix]

I'm curious whether the game has a "backup" file in-case one of the files doesn't match the criteria it was programmed for. Obviously this isn't for everything, but I noticed it with the music files as well. I tried to swap the menu music with the RT2 menu music, and it didn't play. When I went into game however, it did play, once Shuffling Train Blues started playing.

EDIT: Just tried added a replacement .wav file in the UserExtraContent folder, and it worked! Thanks for that thread.

[Gumboots]

Hey hang on, does this mean that if we add a duplicate copy (meaning same file name and type) in either PopTopExtraContent or UserExtraContent, it will override the default file of the same name that is stashed in those huge PK4's?

If that works, it opens up tricks for debugging default stuff without requiring people to unpack and repack those huge PK4's, which would be nice (thinking of the Class A1 here, for a start).

[Stoker]

Hey hang on, does this mean that if we add a duplicate copy (meaning same file name and type) in either PopTopExtraContent or UserExtraContent, it will override the default file of the same name that is stashed in those huge PK4's?

If that works, it opens up tricks for debugging default stuff without requiring people to unpack and repack those huge PK4's, which would be nice (thinking of the Class A1 here, for a start).

Yes, this is the way I had been adding things in the past. When the final version is ready it can all be packed up to simplify things for the end users. I had assumed that you were inserting your loco fixes this way instead of repacking the entire lot every time. It appears that my muddling ways of working with RT3 may be of some use to this project after all.

[Gumboots]

I like packing things up in PK4's just to keep it all neat. It takes a bit longer when testing, but not much since I already have the folders open and the cmd evil open, with all files ready to go. So I can PK4 a new version in about ten seconds flat, which means my game folders don't become a maze to navigate and I don't have to clean them up later. I just prefer working that way.

Anyway, that's really handy since we can debug all default loco stuff that needs it, and just do it all as a patch for PopTopExtraContent instead of complete 3D directory replacement. I like it.

[AdmiralHalsey]

If you can't change the loco whistles you think you could add some more music? Also i've got a little brother who can code and he'd be willing to hack it for you. All he'd need is the game's source code.

[Gumboots]

We don't have the source code. It's closed source.

[AdmiralHalsey]

We don't have the source code. It's closed source.

Dang. Might make it harder but give him time and he'll figure it out.

[Gumboots]

You can add music or change music anyway AFAIK. You shouldn't need to hack the source code for that. You can change whistle files if you want to, but you can't add any more. Again, you don't need to hack the source code to do this.

[Stoker]

@ AH: I have over 1,000 albums of music I can hear when I play RT3 simply by clicking "Play" on my media player and does not require adding anything to the game at all. In addition to that I can hear pretty much any song ever recorded by clicking one of the thousands of internet channels. There is simply no need to bloat the mod and waste time with something people already have. In addition to that there is the copyright issue with any music that could be added and distributed for free with a mod, so I think we can put that idea to bed.

Also, you might want to read about Milo's experience with modifying the RT3 game engine. He is a gifted professional programmer and the tiny bit he managed to change took him about a year. Just browse through all of the development threads here concerning 1.06 for information on how he did things and what was possible. If your little brother has a spare year or two to add to Milo's work then let him have at it. The general consensus is that it would be a lot easier and quicker to simply start from scratch on a new game than to go beyond what Milo did to modify the RT3 game engine.

[Hawk]

For whatever it's worth, I've made the old Rail Mogul forums available for reading, in case some of milo's work may be of some help to you folks working on this mod/patch.
I thought it best to make the forums readable but not open for new posts.

It's down near the bottom of the main board index.

Rail Mogul.jpg (69.48 KiB) Viewed 6326 times

[Stoker]

Thanks, Hawk. I was wondering where that was. The scope of what we are trying to accomplish with this patch is fairly limited compared to the complete redux proposed with RM, but the RM ideas will certainly help, especially if we proceed beyond the 1.06 patch and make a full blown Mod. I am almost ready to post the proposed changes to the cargoes for this patch for public scrutiny and input. Nothing too drastic, and mostly backwards compatible with existing scenarios, but I am sure there will be a few howls about what I am proposing...