Bugs in extreme conditions

[thietavu]

I have developed probably the largest, most detailed and most demanding (hardwarewise) RRT3 map ever, the "Great China" now for a long time. The game has been surprisingly stable even under the most extreme testing: 200 cities, 600 trains, absolutely countless resources moving from one place to another. So stable, actually, that I have only witnessed 1 or 2 crashes ever, and even those may have been caused by other issues in my computer.

But... There is at least one serious bug I face in every long test run. The others are rare and only seem to happen occasionally.

It's about train routing, and it happens after I start electrifying some of the track. Rarely, but still sometimes an electric train suddenly moves to a random other place in the rail network without any apparent reason. To a place with no electricity, that is: so, it gets stuck there. The only way to resolve the situation is either to build an electric track to that place, or to replace the engine with a steam or diesel model so that the train can "return home". This may have something to do with changes in the original track section - for example, changing the original line or its features like water towers etc. Anyway, it's a nuisance expecially when one has 500+ trains running (can't easily find the lost train)...

When you have really lots of track and trains, RRT3/TM can kind of freeze when removing water towers and service sheds. It can then take a long time before anything happens again. In extreme, very rare cases, the whole game can freeze/crash. Probably a memory allocation problem.

Electrifying long sections of track sometimes leaves small sections of track unelectrified, requiring one to check and re-electrify the whole section.

Last, a relatively rare, nasty bug: sometimes the routing just doesn't work. Then the train simply doesn't use the shortest, logical route, but instead wants to take a "long route" - which in China map's case can mean a VERY long route... This is probably related to another bug related to especially electric (but also normal) routes sometimes being unusable when there are many bridges and/or tunnels in the route.

[nedfumpkin]

I agree, for the most part everything is stable, but electric track sometimes goes wonky. I find it most often on maps that weren't started from scratch in TM, but rather 1.06 maps.

[Gumboots]

Last, a relatively rare, nasty bug: sometimes the routing just doesn't work. Then the train simply doesn't use the shortest, logical route, but instead wants to take a "long route" - which in China map's case can mean a VERY long route... This is probably related to another bug related to especially electric (but also normal) routes sometimes being unusable when there are many bridges and/or tunnels in the route.

This happens occasionally even in 1.05, and with steam trains. It's not exlcusive to TM and/or electric trains. It think that sometimes the program just has a hiccup, and train scoots off in the wrong direction.

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

I remember when one of my GG1's "teleported" to a random location far from HSR route I was building between Milwaukee & Chicago on the map "West from Chicago." What a headache that was! I can't even remember what I did to fix it, it was a while ago. But, if that's really the only bug there is for this game, that's alright with me!

BTW: If you haven't yet, you should definitelycheck out the West From Chicago map. Just a tip for new-comers! It's a huge map that is seeded greatly and has a realistic scale. Not like the one where you could walk from Philly to New York!

[Gumboots]

I would, if it was 1.05. Personally, I'm not interested in 1.06. I did look at it. It had some odd behaviour on my box, and the only things it adds that I really want are some extra locos, which I can add myself to 1.05 anyway.

[Blackhawk]

1.06 actually adds more than a few locos. It might be more behind the scenes than you notice but it allows for shipping at a loss, as well as introducing variables into the editor. The use of variables greatly increases the type of events that can be written, and allows for much more complex events. (Ex. Ned used variables to create events that would allow for a randomization of how long a winter would last, and the length of the winter then would affect prices of track for the months that are deemed to be winter for that year. The variables allow for the winter to randomly be a short or average or long winter without the player knowing ahead of time.

[Gumboots]

Yes I know about the variables, and a few other things, but at the moment I'm not greatly concerned about those. Also, to be perfectly honest, I absolutely loathe the fixed camera angle forced by 1.06 and regard that as a significant bug. I've come to expect the free camera angle of 1.05, and earlier versions, as an essential part of gameplay. I rely on it a lot for various things. Having it fixed feels like a major step backwards to me (personal opinion, no offense intended to those who did the work). Since the overall feel of the game is as important as anything else to me, for the moment I'll stay with 1.05.

[Hawk]

I don't have the fixed camera issue on 1.06. Free roam camera works fine for me.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I don't have the fixed camera issue on 1.06. Free roam camera works fine for me.

Me too.

[Gumboots]

What about in TM?

TBH I just assumed the camera was fixed in 1.06 since Ned said it was and I thought he would know.

I did try 1.06 briefly, just to take a quick look around, but it insisted on restarting itself when I shut it down and I wasn't interested in trying to debug that, given that 1.06 doesn't really add anything I want all that much at the moment. So, I just deleted the installation.

[Hawk]

No problem with free roam camera in TM either.

I've never had the problem of any version of RT3 try to restart itself either.

It sounds like you have a few problems with your installs that others don't.

[Gumboots]

Well at the moment I can't be bothered pigging around trying to debug them. There are more fun things to do, so I'll just use the one that works.

[Danger]

600 trains and 200 cities??! Last I tried, I got about 200 before suffering a crash, and the lag was awful.


My biggest pain is that the texture quality of everything ALWAYS seems to be on low, regardless of the actual setting. When I load the map, I sometimes see the high quality buildings, but they go back to low quality within a minute or so.

[Hawk]

My biggest pain is that the texture quality of everything ALWAYS seems to be on low, regardless of the actual setting. When I load the map, I sometimes see the high quality buildings, but they go back to low quality within a minute or so.

RT3 is an old program and from what I understand doesn't play well with modern day graphics cards and drivers. If you have a newer computer, that might be what's causing the degradation in the look of the game.

[thietavu]

A new computer with AMD Radeon graphics does well in RRT3. My own Great China scenario almost certainly demands more than 400 locos, and although the game slows down, it remains quite playable at least up to 450 trains running. The game hasn't crashed in my countless test runs even with more than 700 trains running. My record was 866 trains, but that was, frankly, unplayable.