|
 At
Version
7.0 (2019), we did a complete overhaul of our system for simulated railroad
operations. The resulting system is called Advanced Ops
(AO), and we have been expanding and improving it ever since.
For the history leading up to it, see
Ops History below.
For the most complete and up-to-date guides to AO, see
Reading Matter below. All of
this was updated at Version 8.3 (2024).
There are two levels of AO. For the operator,
the idea is to simulate a day's work on the railroad (or a
weekly session at the railroad club) -- you report for duty, are
assigned your engine and tasked with a list of cars to be
transported, and your job is to deliver the cars.
Completion of the task gets you a virtual pat on the back and a
new switchlist for next session. No two sessions are
alike, and there are plenty of varied switching challenges to
test your skills.
For the builder, there is a lot more -- a full set
of tools to set up your own railroad plan and operations
database, with a built-in checklist to guide you and measure
your progress, organized in a single central dialog. Data
from older layouts can be converted for AO use. Testing
and debugging tools are available.
-
Flexible train
management -- plans can include passenger
runs, custom special service trains, regular industry-driven
waybill tasks. Each active car has a waybill.
-
State-of-the-art
generation engine -- car movements are
dictated by detailed logic based on current car locations,
industry requests, special runs, author-specified train
sequences.
-
Ops Central
-- a single compact multi-tab dialog for viewing layout
instructions, managing databases, preparing layouts for ops.
<click picture to enlarge>
-
Ops development tools
-- a set of specialized commands is available for layout
preparation, including testing tools, statistics, generation
and import of data.
-
Map View
-- a new dockable window showing a miniature view of the
layout, with features shown by symbols, draggable view box,
tooltips -- a great way to find your way around a new
layout.
-
Car monitor
-- a new window on the control panel shows status of
the current switchlist.
-
Waybill --
another new window, available by right-click on most cars
-
Rewards --
complete a switchlist and get a visual treat, different
every time.
youts
The AO system includes a generous and completely new set of
layouts designed specifically for TrainPlayer ops. These layouts are organized in three
folders under Layouts/Advanced Ops
in your Layout Chooser. Each set has a
gallery page on the web showing thumbnails and layout
descriptions:
- Shelf-sized – smaller
layouts you can complete in 30 minutes or less (see
Shelf gallery)
- Room-sized – larger
layouts you can complete in an hour or less (see
Room gallery)
- Club-sized– very large
which will usually require more than an hour to
complete (see Club gallery)
A shelf-sized layout would be a good place to learn
the basic switching moves while dealing with a smaller
more manageable number of cars to shunt about. Club-sized plans may demand some management skills as well as
you may need to work through 100+ cars to move
or spot on a layout.
The AO system is a complete rewrite of the original ops system
introduced over the years. In Version 1.0 (2005) there were
stations and simple tools for monitoring train moves in and out. Car loads were introduced in Version 2 (2006), then
the first complete system called Ops in 4.0 (2011). Along the way,
scripting features were being developed, so that in Version 6
(2016) we brought out a series of script-based systems, from the
Directed Ops Generator (DOG) to the full-featured YardMaster
system in 6.4.
In TrainPlayer 7 the evolution took a
final large step. The extensive body of scripting code from
YardMaster was converted to c++ and incorporated directly into
the program. Older facilities were scrapped -- waybill
generator,
color codes, stations, ops windows -- and new ones introduced,
including Ops Central, locations specified by track labels, new
waybill logic built from the ground
up.
The ingenuity and expertise behind these
developments comes from two fine gentlemen and computer
railroaders: Richard Fletcher (Merseyside, England), who
persevered to become the world's leading expert on TP scripting,
with which he developed the logic and algorithms underlying AO;
and the late Bruno Pigozzo (Ontario, Canada), who spent a year
lovingly designing, tracking, scenicking, and equipping over two
hundred ops-ready track plans, each with its own theme and
story.
The AO system has its own chapter in the online manual (TrainPlayer
> Operations).
This provides basic instructions for using the UI devices, but
not much in the way of detail or background. For that, see
the web documentation as follows.
Authoritative guide to the AO
system
with detailed instructions for how to develop your own plan,
fully illustrated with examples. Written by the system
designer.
Reference manuals at three levels:
Detailed tutorials:
Script subroutines handling AO-oriented procedures (click to
see the code):
-
FixOps:
for building an AO setup
-
TryOps: for testing the setup
-
AxeOps: for deleting the setup
|
