The Mystery Of The Frozen Points (Switches) Solved!
by Stephen Masters (images by Otto Wipfel)

Overview

I have noticed that some switches/points in various routes don't animate when you press the "G" key. Whether it has the line or not, the train will follow the indicated path but it doesn't look right. The image below shows the points aligned for the straight line, but the points indicator is showing diverge: the train will correctly diverge at these points.

 

Cause Of The Problem

Points that do not move are missing the JNodePosn line in the world file definition for that section.

Here's an example of a Bad definition:

TrackObj (
UiD ( 85 )
SectionIdx ( 29054 )
Elevation ( 0 )
CollideFlags ( 551 )
FileName ( A1tPnt10d150rLftMnl.s )
StaticFlags ( 00200180 )
Position ( -157.209 10.3635 -554.669 )
QDirection ( 0 -0.411933 0 0.911214 )
VDbId ( 4294967294 )
)

Editing and replacing the missing line fixes the errant problem.

Proper definition:

TrackObj (
UiD ( 85 )
SectionIdx ( 29054 )
Elevation ( 0 )
JNodePosn ( -12034 14800 -157.209 10.3635 -554.669 )
CollideFlags ( 551 )
FileName ( A1tPnt10d150rLftMnl.s )
StaticFlags ( 00200180 )
Position ( -157.209 10.3635 -554.669 )
QDirection ( 0 -0.411933 0 0.911214 )
VDbId ( 4294967294 )
)

JNodePosn definition:
JNodePosn ( -12034 14800 -157.209 10.3635 -554.669 )
where

  • -12034 14800 - this is the world file it is located in (its the world filename you are editing).
  • -157.209 10.3635 -554.669 - notice that this matches the Position () of the shape.

 

Repair Method #1 - The Hard Way

To repair all the points/switches in a route involves working your way through all the route's WORLD files and inserting the JNodePosn ( .... ) line wherever it is missing. This could involve many points/switches.

 

Repair Method #2 - The Easy Way

Open your donation-ware version of Route Riter, version 7.0.62 or higher.

  1. Select your route and double-click;
  2. Click on "Confirm Route";
  3. Click on the MSTS File Utils Tab;

  4. Click on the "Correct Stuck Points" button:

  5. Route Riter commences checking all the World Files, uncompressing them and examining them. This may take a while in the case of large routes, so go get a cup of coffeee while it works trough the .W files (as a guide, on my Pentium 3MHz, 2G memory, SATA hard-drive equipped machine, RR can check about 120 W files per minute).

  6. When Route Riter has finished checking the files, it presents a report, detailing the points it has "unstuck":