While the engine guys have been been preparing the basic infrastructure for TANE, our other programmers have been developing the new game features. Today, we'll focus on the physics simulation and Engine editing module, codenamed Engineer.
As the TANE user interface is not yet incomplete, the Engineer module is currently hosted in a 'TS12'-derived codebase. Beginning this work early gives us much more testing time and leaves us room to work on those physics bugs identified further down the track.
What you see below is the beginnings of the Engineer module. It is initially similar to the 'Driver' module, but has several extra customisations and certain unnecessary features disabled or removed. For now, everything is being added using placeholder 'programmer' art, so that we can focus on getting the functionality working as quickly as possible. Polished visuals will come later in the schedule once the underlying technical features are complete.
The automatic terrain and track generation tool (shown above) is mostly complete, and allows users to set up test tracks with known lengths, gradients and curves. Using the Train Tab (the tab on the right), users can then place locos and rolling stock on the track. Next, they can choose which data points to graph, and then they’re ready run a variety of tests. Apart from the graph display, additional information is shown on the Driver HUD during the test and data can also be exported to a .csv file format.
This image above shows the graph with various data lines for train speed, brake pressure etc. There are lots of things still to come: time manipulation controls and the engine editing capability are the most important of these, but things are progressing at a good pace.
Two weeks later...
In fact, a couple more weeks have passed since our last diary entry here, so we can now show the time slider, timer and new graph variables such as odometer, engine force and braking force (per traincar and per train) are all now implemented. The driver HUD is also mostly functional as is the Engine editing capability.
The process to get to this stage has involved a number of phases: internal design, internal review, external review by our TEG and TPC groups, initial implementation, internal testing, further implementation and feature expansion, more testing, bug fixing and then preparation for external release to our Alpha testers.
While we still have more variables to add, and we are yet to implement the basic mode of Engine File editing dialog (a wizard type entry to create specs from real world data), this process has meant the tool is robust enough for external testing. We’re very pleased with progress on this system.
Lastly, although we understand not everyone will use these tools, we’re sure the resulting improvements to engine performance and our underlying physics systems will provide everyone with a much more realistic simulation overall.
To find out more about the inner workings of this system, you can check out the work-in-progress wiki entry for Engineer here.
