Couplers similar to the ones on trailers would be useful too. I don't know if that's possible though.
possibly, but if its like inside inside the dock the collision between it and the dock is gunna cause it to move, especially when the barge gets connected and force it out through the wall, plus, a small trailer might not be able to hold the barge onto the dock while a train is being loaded due to the force acting onto the rails
Good points, maybe making the hitch indestructible, static, and separate from the trailer would work?
I believe that @Car8john is correct: Couplers can't exist outside of a vehicle/prop. Coupler tags are node properties, so it's probably not possible to have couplers without nodes. So, we can't build static objects that have couplers, but we can use the "fixed" property of nodes to make node-based objects immovable. If we want a node to be fixed in space, so that it doesn't move ever, set "fixed":"true" and the node won't move. I'm going to create an object (The Railbarge Docking Object, or something) with just enough nodes to have reference nodes (required for all node-based objects), couplers, and a camera (so that the player knows when it's the selected vehicle). @SmokeyDokey, as many of the object's nodes as possible will be fixed, making it effectively static. The object will be aligned with the end of a section of track to allow the barge to hook-up to the couplers and the deck rails will be perfectly aligned with the docking rails. Of course the docking rails will have to be set at the proper height. This might take a little bit of experimentation. The couplers on the barge are strong enough to hold together a barge carrier with an AN-12 slamming down, so they should be strong enough to hold to the docking rails while loading a train. The friction of the object's nodes will be set to zero, and their collisions will be turned off, so that the barge can align couplers and reach its goal position without resistance.
What do I have going on here? Is this a cargo center (and occasional naval base) with rail service? I think it is. The tracks even go through the hangar to make air/rail cargo transfers faster. The tracks are part of the MRK (Modular Road Kit) railroad pack. The rail-equipped cargo center has a full assortment of track switches to access all tracks. If you need to turn your train around so that it faces the other direction, there's even a carousel. Don't go too much faster than 20 mph around the carousel or the train might derail. The stub in this photo will have more track extended from it that travels away from the cargo center. There's another stub at the other side of the cargo center that will have track extending away from the cargo center in the other direction. Those tracks will meet on the other side of the north island, just across the channel from the main Italy island. Eventually, I'll have a rail loop around the main Italy island as well, with a switched spur connecting the two loops. All tracks have been positioned with 1-mm precision or better. It is a very smooth track. There's even a bonus UPS 747! LOOK BELOW! Are those ZIP files with some cargo center rail parts and a config file? I think they are. The file HighBeam9000_NorthFjordCargoCtr.zip contains the MRK Railroad Tracks with the texture file already prepared, the UPS 747, and a script to spawn/place the railroad switches. Drop this into your mods folder. The file North_Fjord_Cargo_Centre_CONFIG.zip contains the modified Italy configuration files that bring the extra parts into the map. This CANNOT be simply dropped into your mods folder. Instructions: Download the Fysher Pryce Cargo Centre mod. Download the Railroad Switch mod. Download the file HighBeam9000_NorthFjordCargoCtr.zip below. This can be dropped into your mod folder like normal. Download the file North_Fjord_Cargo_Centre_CONFIG.zip below. This file requires special processing. It is not a normal mod. Do not simply place it in your mods folder. It won't work. Find the folder C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\BeamNG.drive\0.28\. The version number is currently 0.28. If you're reading this much further in the future, then this number might be higher. The folder YourUserName will be whatever your user name is. Inside this folder might be a "levels" folder (...\BeamNG.drive\0.28\levels). If it does not exist, then create it. Inside the file North_Fjord_Cargo_Centre_CONFIG.zip is a folder named "italy". Put this folder in the "levels" folder referenced above. These files will override the normal Italy config files while they're in here. Spawn in Italy. Invoke the debug window, be sure GE Lua is selected, and execute the script scripts_HighBeam9000__NorthFjordCargoCtr_HighBeam9000__NorthFjordCargoCtr.SpawnRRSwitches(). This will place the track switches. Head to the fjord that's north of the main Italy island and check out your new cargo center (and occasional naval base). If you woluld like to restore Italy's normal config: quit the game, move the "italy" folder that you placed in step 7 above to a different folder, somewhere else that's not in the BeamNG directory structure, then restart the game. If you would like to play the modified config again, then put the special "italy" folder back in that "levels" folder. Have fun and enjoy this stuff. I'll be working on closing the rail loop around the north island. Other than that (and adding a bunch of car/truck roads around the north island), the cargo center is ready for rail service. UPDATE 1: I've added a LOT more tracks and a bunch of other stuff, including lots of lights. Most don't cast shadows, so the computational expense is minimized. Some of the roads are not yet complete. I added a quaint, little cabin on a private island (aircraft minicarrier not included). This is what it looks like at night: A "radio station" (definitely NOT an intelligence-gathering station) is perched atop a mountain above the cargo center (and occasional naval base). It has good signals coverage of the main Italy island: There's a new unobtainium mine nestled in a bowl that looks kinda like a mountain was hollowed-out by open-pit mining, and it's lit for round-the-clock operations: There's a set of rocks at the end of the dirt road into the mine that you can drop an explosive barrel with a timer/detonator into: Drop some rocks (the spawnable "vehicle" type) on top of the barrel, then detonate the barrel to free-up some unobtainium ore: Scoop-up the rocks with the loader from the farming pack... ...then dump the rocks into a dump truck: There's a processing station with rail service and overhead lighting: ...and a hopper to dump the ore into: The ore is crushed, dissolved into a special solvent, then dispensed into tanker trucks or railcars. The "Generic Particle Generator" vehicle is included in the file HighBeam9000_NorthFjordCargoCtr.zip. Although the particles generated are visible, the particle emitter is not. Press Ctrl-B to make the beams visible. Visible beams make placement easier. Later, press Shift-Ctrl-B to make the beams invisible again. The particles are emitted in the downward direction. The emitter defaults to a configuration that dispenses unobtainium ore solution: The North Fjord rail loop is not yet complete. Track placement takes much time. This is one end of the current track, west of the North Fjord Cargo Centre: ...and this is the other end, to the east of the cargo centre: Check it out.
I implemented these map modifications in the way I did to avoid having to make a full map mod. However, I experienced some weird effects when attempting to use the edited map in multiplayer: Some textures were missing in multiplayer but are there in single-player when other textures in the same file work in both single- and multiplayer: There's a cabin on a private island right next to the main Italy island. The streetlights on the driveway have no texture in multiplayer. The cabin itself looks fine in both single- and multiplayer. The B747 at the cargo center has no texture in multiplayer. When I spawned the Fire mod, it appeared and worked on my machine, but a magenta sphere appeared on other players' machines. I have spawned Fire successfully in multiplayer before. I'm planning to package the edited Italy map into a proper mod map and put it on the Repository. I've requested permission to include the rail track DAEs in the map. I'm currently awaiting a response. UPDATES: No response yet regarding inclusion of the railroad tracks in a mod map. I figured out why the streetlights on the cabin's driveway didn't have textures. The materials file was referencing textures in a folder that wasn't there all the time. Ima gonna fix that. Still haven't figured out why Fire didn't spawn in multiplayer in the modded Italy map.
OK... I figured it all out: The "No Texture" problem was due to the wrong path in a materials file. Fire's failure to spawn in BeamMP was due to a zero-height bounding box. Fire has barely enough nodes to exist, and they're arranged in a box. The nodes comprising the top rectangle of the box were set to NOT collide so that any vehicle running through the fire wouldn't step-up on an invisible box. The nodes of the bottom rectangle were set to collide so that the object wouldn't fall through every surface down to infinity. The problem was that BeamNG creates an initial bounding box (search for "initialBB" in the lua) early in the spawn process, and only collision-enabled nodes are considered. The top nodes in Fire wouldn't be included in the bounding box solution, resulting in a zero-height box. The object eventually spawns on my machine, but with a bunch of red text in the debug console window. On my friend's machine, it never spawned in multiplayer even though it spawned on my machine. Once upon a time, I was able to spawn Fire in multiplayer, and it would appear on other players' machines, but something changed in the way vehicles are spawned, probably for performance or stability reasons. So, flat vehicles are no longer spawnable in multiplayer. Not a big deal. So, nevermind about my suspicions that playing multiplayer with map override files had an issue. Everything that was weird in that gaming session seems to be caused by other factors. The fact that we were using World Editor-generated config override files appears to have nothing to do with any of it. I'll be confirming all of this on Saturday, but I'm a lot more confident that everything's just fine. Later this evening I'm going to post the latest incarnation of the North Fjord Cargo Centre config files. I've added a lot more stuff. I still haven't heard anything from the author regarding distribution of the railroad tracks in a mod map, but the current method seems to work, so no big deal.
I’m sorry I didn’t get the files posted last night. We had a family event that took priority. I’ll get those posted as soon as the chaos stops.
UPDATE: The current version of the North Fjord Cargo Centre has been posted! It's in Naval Warfare post #327 I'm going to continue to work on it after a short break to work on some top secret mod building for the BeamNG.navy. Since you're all BeamNG.naval officers, then I can tell you and not have to make you disappear: I'm going to build two new barge carrier accessories for which the BeamNG.navy has determined a need: A carrier island superstructure Lower-profile than islands on regular carriers because barge carriers are low-profile. The carrier is helmed from the island bridge via control over the drive systems of multiple barges in the carrier, not just the drive system of the currently-selected barge. This system could yield significantly higher carrier speeds. A radar antenna or two that rotate. 3 runway barge deck skins Left runway edge Right runway edge Runway center
Skins aren't too hard to implement. I have some prototypes of new barge carrier runway deck skins. Here's a small carrier with a single-wide runway: The stripe width looks ok for this scale. However, triple-wide runways need wider stripes than what I currently have: I'm going to thicken the stripes on the triple-wide runway skins and roll those into the file HighBeam9000_SpawnCarrier.zip in Naval Warfare post #72. The carrier spawn scripts will be updated to spawn barge carriers with the new skins. After the skins, the next update to that ZIP file will be the new carrier island. At first, it will only be for looks and the camera on the bridge. The next update after that will contain the new propulsion system controls. After releasing the skins and island, I'm going to work on the North Fjord Railway some more. When I next pause railway work, it will be to build STOL conversion kits for the B25, Cessplane, and Fligeon. Then comes more railway work. The next railway work pause after that will be for CATOBAR mods. I'm talking catapults and arresting cables! The prototype equipment that we'll be testing will come in both static and mobile versions for use on both static carriers (CVN-75) and installed on barge carriers. Reinforced nose gear for the AN-12, ME262, and B25 will be installed withstand the launch, and retractable arresting hooks will be installed on the same aircraft for recovery. CATOBAR conversion kits for other aircraft will be built later. These prototype CATOBAR systems will be integrated into a future DRIVEABLE Nimitz-class supercarrier, with elevators and a hangar deck.
In addition, the following can also be controlled from the carrier island bridge: Catapult launch force (if installed) Arresting cable resistance (if installed) I'm sure I'll think of more stuff. --- Post updated --- The barge carrier goodies in the file HighBeam9000_SpawnCarrier.zip in Naval Warfare Post #72 have been updated with the new runway skins, including the spawning script. The new triple-wide runway skins look better than they did yesterday: I've attached a video of landing an AN-12 on a new-skinned Leviathan-class supercarrier.
We were finally able to get to the new ore seam in the unobtainium mine. This stuff is soooooo radioactive! I attached a sample to this post. Just drop it into your mods folder. We think we can use it to power our naval reactors. It's one of the types of "Rocks" in the Vehicles menu. UPDATE: I-Beams cast from molten unobtainium have been added. I retextured the I-Beam bundle that comes with the CRGZ TC42 crane.
Be careful. Don’t store too much unobtainium too close together or it could precipitate a criticality accident. That’s what we call “bad”.
Last night I found a public server with ME262s available, so I thought I’d provide air support for police chases. Then some of the other players started throwing busses at me. Not nice. So, I locked missiles and returned fire. It was in West Coast, which has no airstrip, so I was launching from the drag strip. One of the other players figured this out and blocked the strip with a car. So, I started dropping the 262 from 10000 feet. No problems gaining speed from there.
Yeah... 'Tis unfortunate. I need to implement port forwarding on my router so I can host a BeamMP server on the weekends & whenever. It'll be our server (none of those d-bags allowed), with all of the naval and other goodies that we like, and probably even some prototype stuff for multiplayer testing. I also need to figure out how to create a Discord channel/server/something so we can have voice comms during gameplay. I would very much like to behold the glory of multiple aircraft operating simultaneously from a carrier, and all of the other fun to be had.
Can you include the base in it's owns Map ? Maybe beta release it on the beammp server and then , release it on the repository? Also , when STOLgeon ?
The STOL conversion for the Fligeon is on the mod list. I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but I will, you can be sure of that. If the base that you're referring to is the one with rail service, I have to receive permission from the creator of the railroad tracks in order to include the tracks in a level that I distribute on the Repository. However, I believe that I can have whatever map I want on my own server. While you're playing on that server, the map ZIP file will be resident in your /mods/multplayer/ folder. You could make a copy of that file while you're on that map. So, yes I can roll it up into a normal map and put it on my own server, but I can't distribute it on the Repository.
