Rail3dWiki — Frequently Asked Questions

1 Questions about this site

Q I’ve found this page by accident - where can I find the Rail3d program?

Go to rail3d.net to find the downloads.

Q Can I add something to the Wiki?

Yes, if you have something useful or interesting to add, please do so. The idea is that this wiki should benefit from the experience of the whole Rail3d community, not just one or two “experts”. If you’re not sure whether something is suitable for this wiki, have a look at Guidelines for Content first.

Q ok, but how do I make a new page for my project?

See Quick Start Guide for Editing

2 Bugs and general problems

Q What is the difference between Rail3d Classic, Rail3d 2kd and Railway32?

All three are programs written by Mark Goodspeed.

• Railway32 is a screensaver, which makes trains cross your screen in side view. Railway32 is shareware — you need to pay for a licence to use it.
• Rail3d Classic is a railway network simulator based on a fixed grid and an isometric view. It is no longer being developed, but the last version is still available for traditionalists.
• Rail3d 2kd is a true 3d railway network simulator that evolved out of Rail3d Classic. Rail3d 2kd is still being developed (and probably always will be) — users have to accept that there will be things in it that don’t work properly (yet).

Q What can I do to support the development of Rail3d?

• Give us feedback about your experience with Rail3d — please post to the Rail3d Yahoo Group or contribute to this Wiki. Don’t feel shy about posting because you’re new to Rail3d — if you encounter problems as a first-time user, the chances are that the user interface or the documentation isn’t clear, and needs to be improved.
• Develop content, especially stock and scenery models. Have a look at the library on www.rail3d.net to see where the gaps are, and have a go at some of the missing items. We’re usually short of “dull” items like simple houses and wagons, so all contributions will be most welcome. If you get stuck, just ask for help in the Rail3d Group.
• If you have relevant skills or technical knowledge, you might be able to help with developing and/or extending particular features of Rail3d — get in touch with Mark Goodspeed through the Rail3d Group.

Q Why am I getting poor framerates?

Because you’re asking Rail 3 D to do too much at once. See FrameRates for tips on how to diagnose the problem.

Q Why do trains “wobble” on some layouts?

Positions in Rail3d 2kD are specified using floating-point numbers, so the error in positioning is a fixed proportion of the distance from the origin, and increases as you move away from (0,0). The wobble effect becomes visible when the program can only calculate the position of the train to a precision of a few cm, which happens when you are several hundred km from (0,0) - one way to avoid it is thus to build your layouts closer to the origin. mrg is working on a solution to this.

Q What do I do if I get the msvcrt.dll error message?

Please tell us about it, via the Rail3d Yahoo Group or direct to the mods coordinator.

• Bug reports are useful.
• msvcrt.dll is the Microsoft Visual C Run Time library. An invalid page fault in msvcrt rarely tells me what is going on as the site of the crash is not within the Rail3d code, very very rarely it is possible to read the stack dump and trace that back to the code in Rail3d - but this is so rare it’s usually not worth trying.
• A page fault (or similar) report in module Rail3d 2kd.exe or in the dxim.dll or the editor is useful and the dump information can be traced to the rail3d code - not that this always helps.
• When reporting bugs, always include the program version number and windows version. If you can’t get to the version number, please give the exe file date and size.
• When reporting bugs, you need to let us know what is happening when it crashes, eg “Start program : splash screen appears : main window appears : program crashes”
• It often needs great patience to trace and fix a bug - please be prepared to help test different configurations and options until the fault is traced.
• The development team does not always have access to every version of Windows and sometimes will need your help in tracking bugs.
• Please be patient, we only do this in our spare time. We do treat bug reports seriously and will deal with them as soon as we can.

Q Are there plans for Rail3d 2kD to support sound?

Yes — the main difficulty at present is assembling a bunch of basic sounds and getting permission to use them. Alan is putting together a collection — see his Sound page.

3 Layouts

Q Where can I find some layouts to download?

A good starting point is the Projects section of this site. A few pages describe work-in-progress that will never be finished and released, but most have a link to the author’s download site.

Q I’ve downloaded Rail3d and some layouts. How do I put the layouts into the main program?

Check that the layouts match the version of Rail3d you have.

• Rail3d 2kD (the current version) can only open layouts with file extension trk3 or packaged layouts with extension trp.
• The old Rail3d Classic can only open layouts in the trk format.

Q Can I use downloaded layouts “out of the box”, or will I have to spend hours trawling the web for missing stock and scenery components?

If the layout is in .trp (packaged layout) format, it should contain all the bits you need within the package. Note that there are sometimes problems with layouts that have been packaged with older versions of the packager — if you have difficulties, try to contact the layout author. You should be able to find any missing components in the library on www.rail3d.net.

Q Can layouts from Rail 3 D Classic be converted for use with Rail3d 2kD?

Not at present. The two programs are very different in many respects, and conversion might be tricky. The results probably wouldn’t justify the effort — in particular the excessively wide track spacing and sharp curves imposed by the grid in Rail3d Classic wouldn’t look very good in Rail3d 2kD.

4 Rolling Stock

Q How can I find extra stock and scenery for Rail 3 D

The easiest way is to use the Rail 3 D Update Tool. This will check the library on rail3d.net for any models you don’t have in your local library, and download and install the ones you select automatically. Alternatively, you can browse the online library and download the models you want as zip files. If you install models by hand, you will need to update your indexes before you can use the new models — use Tools: Rebuild Stock Index in Rail3d, or Library: Update in the Editor.

See the Library FAQ for more information about the library.

Q I downloaded some stock and it looks terrible — is it from an old version?

The rapid evolution of the Rail3d project over the last few years has sometimes left the content creators behind. The older stock from Rail3d Classic didn’t have to be very detailed, and it doesn’t look very good in Rail3d 2kd. Most of these old models have been replaced by new “made for 2kd” stock, but there is still some way to go — offers of help will be gratefully received! Another problem is with stock made for the D 3 D version of Rail 3 D Classic. These models are very detailed but use lots of small panels instead of textures to create the fine detail, which makes them very slow to render. Again, work is needed to bring them up to the latest standards.

5  Model Building

Q Why is there no graphical editor for Rail 3 D models?

• The text-based format looks very unfriendly at first, but you get used to it very quickly. It’s fast to use, it does exactly what you want it to - my experience with graphical 3D editing programs is that you spend most of your time fighting with the user interface, trying to work out how to move a 2D mouse pointer in three dimensions, and that the only really useful command is undo. (In other words, 3D modelling on a computer is a skill you have to spend time learning, whatever software you use to do it.)
• It wouldn’t be very hard to build some kind of graphical front end for the Rail 3 D Editor. Various people (including me Mark Hodson) have started, but no-one so far has been keen enough to get very far. Richard Southey is currently working on some useful add-ons that will take some of the tedium out of modelling — see Other Software.
• If you want to write a program that makes models easier to build, you are welcome to do so - all it has to be able to do is output a text file in Rail 3 D format.
• Since Build 100, it has become relatively straightforward to export into Rail3d format from existing 3d modelling programs. A plugin exists for 3d Canvas (see Building Rail3d Models in 3dCanvas), and it should be easy enough to do the same with any scriptable modelling program.
• It has also been suggested that the Lightwave *.obj format should be easy to convert into Rail3d’s vertex buffer/indexed triangle format.

Q How can I get started building my own stock?

The tutorials for stock building are in a bit of a mess at the moment, because so much has changed - and is still changing - and we’re still in the process of learning how best to use the new features.

• Such as they are, have a look at the Rail3d 2kD Tutorials.
• The Editor User Guide for the old version of Rail 3 D still contains a good basic tutorial on stock building.
• There is an Advanced Stock Tutorial taking you through the steps of building a steam loco with full valvegear. This needs to be updated to include new features like Strips.
• There are some developing Tutorials on this Wiki (please add more!)

QCan I convert Rail3d models for use with another simulator (or vice-versa)?

In principle, yes, but it may be more work and less fun than starting from scratch with a new model.

• Obviously, you will need to get the permission of the original authors of the models first. You are more likely to get permission if you have something to offer in exchange. For example, Rail3d has had a mutually-beneficial exchange with eeec - Detlev Schmidt has converted Rail 3 D models to eeec format and eeec models to Rail3d , so we have all gained.
• Before starting, it’s also worth checking the technical feasibility of the exchange. Some simulators (e.g. bve, Zusi) use very simple models that wouldn’t look good in Rail3d ; others, (msts and Trainz) might be too detailed for us. Remember that there are a lot of features and parameters that are treated in completely different ways by different programs, and will be difficult or impossible to translate.
• See also Converting MSTS Models