TrackAssembly

---

Copyright 2015 ME !

IF YOU HAPPEN TO FIND REUPLOADS WITH DIFFERENT ORIGIN REPORT THEM TO ME IMMIDEATELY !!!

Description

This script can give you the ability to connect prop-segmented track pieces fast. It is optimized and brings the track building time consuming to a minimum. It uses pre-defined active points to snap the segments the best way there is in Garry's Mod.

General FAQ:

Donations

I am supporting this tool in my free time mostly and it was quite a ride since I already first created it. But since my lack of time for playing gmod has been drastically increased some people asked me if I accept donations, here is the link to my PayPal.

How can I install this?

You can subscribe to it in the workshop here or download the latest stable release from here. After downloading the release extracting it in ../GarrysMod/garrysmod/addons and you are practically done.

Why did you consider making this thing ?

I was always annoyed when building a railroad track in-game, spending a lot of time just to align the pieces together, so I thought Here is a bright idea! and there you have it :) Also, another great achievement progress is in place, so 10x guys for helping me, help you, help us all !

What kind of features does this script has?

• Track curve fitting alignment based on ray intersection for precise piece layout
• Extendible database via delimited text file or a lua script
• Extendible database via text file load list and list prefixes categories
• Switching database storage between Lua table and SQL
• Spawning pieces on the map
• Snapping pieces on the map surface ( if checked )
• Snapping the first piece angle to user defined value
• Snapping already spawned pieces by using only the physgun
• Snapping/spawning with custom user offsets
• Snapping/spawning with zero pitch and roll. Good for track leveling
• Snapping/spawning at the mass-center or the active point ( if checked )
• Fast changing the active track ends ( Alt + mouse scroll ). Good switching turns direction
• Custom user defined active radius based snapping
• Custom active point and radius location assistant
• Custom active point position angle and orientation adviser
• Advanced duplicator can be used on the track created
• Custom entity properties ( weld, freeze, no-collide )
• User can disable phys-gun grabbing on a piece. Good for turntables
• Ability to list up the most used pieces on the server ( E + MRIGHT ). Close shortcut (ALT + E)
• Ability to search among the most server popular pieces by Lua patterns
• Ability to export server and client database as a file
• Tool-tips for every button are available and can be translated easily
• Ability to spawn scripted track switches of other dedicated class ( Ron's 2ft )
• Ability to modify the bodygroups and skins of a track piece ( with duping )
• Ability to modify track piece surface behavior ( wood, metal, slime, tire )
• Ability to extend a track piece spawn with additional entities
• Includes integrated wiremod extension for processing and reading the database

Where can I find the tool in-game ?

You can find the tool in the Constriction section of Garry's mod spawn menu under the name of Track assembly. The name of the tool depends on what language are you using when playing Garry's mod. On the right in the tool's menu, you can locate the track pieces tree. Expand the desired piece type to use for building your track by clicking on a node, then select the desired piece.

How can I chose and select a desired track end ?

Just hold KEY_LALT ( Default: LALT ) and turn the mouse scroll around. This will make the script chose the track active point you want. When You hold SPEED ( Def: SHIFT ) the script will switch to adjusting the next active point for the track stacking option. This will affect what point is chosen when you continue the track you build. The current and next active points will not be the same.

How do I use the old way for switching between the active points ?

There is this variable trackassembly_enpntmscr and as its name suggests it controls the enable end-point mouse scroll. Set it to 1 if you want to switch the track ends via the mouse scroll or set it to 0 if you want to use the old-school for the way of changing and selecting track ends.

Hey, I cannot align my track curves properly. Can you help ?

Yep sure. In the right panel, there is a drop-down menu which has a bunch of tool modes listed. Go ahead and select the Active point intersection. After you change the mode, an intersection relation entity is needed to complete the process. Hitting SPEED + RELOAD ( Default: Shift + R ) just like the anchor, will select the relation active point of the entity in question, which is closest to the player hit position. Now trace a track piece and the ghost of the curve will be drawn. You can clamp the spawn position in a box using the primary position flag applinfst ( Apply linear first ) or switch the origin angle with the ray direction angle by using primary angle flag appangfst ( Apply angular first ) In this working mode the angular and linear offsets adjust the piece offsets relative to the ray intersection position where the trace and relation rays meet. Press ATTACK1 ( Def: Left click ) if you are happy with where the ghost is located and where the spawn piece will go at.

The tool has too few track varieties. Can you make the pieces resizable ?

In sorta yes, however, there is no way to add this feature natively and so far I did not found a decent method, which will not potentially break the entire game. While resizing props client-side is quite easy, in the server, this task is very hard, close to impossible. The gmod API does not provide an ellegant solution to this, which meets the real-time performance requirements. Resizing track curves is by far the most complex task of this sort as far as evert single piece is conserned. If you take the track width in consideratoion, the resizing method must not just select X, Y or Z axes, because the piece will get distortions along the curve ( ex. For 90 degree curves streching by X will increase first point lenght, however, it will also adjust the second point width ) In Gmod there is this PhysicsInitConvex API that does just that, but the spawning will take a very long time considering the amount it tates to resize every polygon on the server. When the track is spawned outside the map bounds it will immidiately crash the game. Thus, I beleve that stacking two or more tracks is always better than resizing a prop !

How can I use switchers ? I can't seem to make them work.

Every addon has its own way for dealing with the switchers. Others that are not listed here do not have dedicated track switchers, so to switch them you must use two track pieces inside of each other. Swap their solidness around using the fading door tool, so when one is solid a.k.a CLOSED and you can't pass trough it, the other must be no-collided to all OPENED. Therefore the wheels of the train will follow only the track that is currently set being solid with fading door CLOSED function state:

1. Dedicated entity addition like a lever you must press with your USE key
   • Shinji85's Rails
2. Dedicated switcher entity class you must press with your USE key. You must press the entity custom switcher class itself:
   • Sligwolf's mini trains
   • SligWolf's White Rails
   • Ron's 2ft track pack
3. Dedicated switched/unswitched model. You have to swap the two models around to switch the track by using a script (Lua, E2, EAdv, Starfall)
   • Robster's pack
   • AlexCookie's 2ft track pack
4. Dedicated switcher model and a switcher moving needle that you must assemble to get track switching functionality
   • Mr.Train's M-Gauge
   • Mr.Train's G-Gauge
   • Battleship's abandoned rails

How to use the tool control options when building a track ?

1. Pressing ATTACK1 ( Default: Left mouse button )

• When you are looking at the world the piece will just be spawned on the map.
• When you are looking at one of track piece's pre-defined active points
  • Will snap the piece that you're holding to the trace one.
  • If the traced piece's type is different than the holder piece's type, please check Ignore track type check-box.
  • If Enable advisor is checked, a coordinate system will appear, marking the origin position on the traced piece
  • If Ghosts count is larger than zero ghosted track pieces will be rendered to assist you with the building.
• When you are not looking at one of track piece's pre-defined active points,
  • Pressing USE ( Default: E ) Applies the physical settings/properties on a piece.
  • If not, you will update the piece's bodygroups/skin.

2. Pressing SPEED ( Default: SHIFT ) + ATTACK1 ( Default: Left mouse button )

• Will stack as many pieces as shown by the slider Pieces count.

3. Pressing ATTACK2 ( Default: Right mouse button )

• Will select the trace model to use as a piece for building a track.

4. Pressing USE ( Default: E ) + ATTACK2 ( Default: Right mouse button )

• When pointing to the world will open the Frequent pieces by <PLAYER_NAME_HERE> frame, from where you can select your routine pieces to use again in the track building process as well as searching in the table either by MODEL, TYPE, NAME, LAST_USED to obtain the piece you want to continue your track with.

5. Pressing RELOAD ( Default: R )

• When used in the world exports the database if the console variable trackassembly_exportdb is set to <>0,
• When used on trace it removes it, if it's a track piece.

6. Pressing RELOAD ( Default: R ) + SPEED ( Default: SHIFT )

• When pressing it on the world will clear the tool's selected prop to attach all the track pieces to ( anchor ).
• When pressing it on the trace prop will set it as an anchor for other pieces spawned to be constrained to.

Context menu pieces manipulation

The context menu options are used to manipulate the selected track pieces directly or as an interface to export various entity values to the tool console variables. Explanation of each control option is given in the summary below.

1. Piece model option exports the selected track model to the tool console variables. This is the same as copying the model via right click.
2. Bodygroup/Skin option transfers the generated bodygroup/skin selection to the tool console variables and populates the dedicated value display in the tool panel. The textbox is only a display and cannot be modified manually.
3. Surface material name option will export the surface material name to the tool console variables. This option will also update the properties name combo box to display the new value that is used.
4. Piece mass option exports the selected track mass to the tool console variables. The tool panel mass slider is updated accordingly
5. Ignore physics gun option toggles the physics gun grabbing function on the track piece selected. When the grabbing is disabled, the player cannot interact with the track piece in any way, including grab, shake or unfreeze. This is good when you make turntables or attach moving tracks or needles, which must not be affected by any player's physics gun. If the option is enabled, click it again to disable it or the other way around.
6. Freeze piece option will put the track piece in a frozen state and it will disable its motion. The piece stays in the same position until external fore is applied on it. This is good when you want your track bridge to have fake non-welded pieces. If the option is enabled, click it again to disable it or the other way around.
7. Apply piece gravity option controlls the gravity affecting the selected track piece. If the option is enabled, click it again to disable it or the other way around.

How to use the tool control panel and what function does each item have ?

1. Track surface grip modifier combo box is used if you want to obtain different grip behavior for a wheel-powered/sliding train, you must use the surface material drop-down menu combo boxes as you select first TYPE from the top one to setup the group of properties you want to apply then NAME, to select the actual surface material you want applied.

2. Piece bodygroups and skin selection is used when you want desired bodygroups and/or skins on a piece. The textbox is a display showing the bodygroup/skin selection code (ex. 1,2,3,4/5) generated using the context menu. You cannot change the textbox value manually by tiping. Currently Bodygroup/Skin (ex. English) option name will vary based on the language used. When you click it it will populate the text display in the tool menu.

3. Piece mass setup control slider is used to set the mass of the next track piece to be spawned. The larger the number the havier spawned track piece gets. Larger values are recommended.

4. Active radius control slider is used to set the minimum distance needed to select an active point when pointing at a piece. Keep this maxed out if you don't want to bother with track end selection.

5. Stack count control value shows the maximum number of pieces to be snapped in stacking mode. Change this to something larger than one if you want to extend your track by stacking.

6. Angular alignment control The slider is used to snap the first piece ( Requested by Magnum ) to a user-defined angle ( Usually 45 ) so that the track building process becomes easier. The whole track build will be snapped also because you are building it relative to the first piece.

7. Force limit control ( Requested by The Arbitor 90 ) defines the maximum force to be applied on the weld joint between two pieces connected before it breaks. You can use this to build collapsible track bridges. Set the option to zero if you want it to be unbreakable ( by default ).

8. Options weld, no-collide, freeze, phys-gun grab and gravity are considered basic Gmod knowledge, because they are defined by their own and not going to be explained further.

9. Option Ignore track type if checked, will enable snapping between pieces of a different types.

10. Option Spawn horizontally ( as the name suggests ) if checked, will spawn the next pieces horizontally relative to the map ground if the additional angle offsets are zeros. If not they will be added to the resulting angle.

11. Option Origin from mass-center if checked, will align the piece spawned to its mass-center.

12. Option Snap to trace surface if checked, will snap the chosen track directly to the trace surface.

13. Option Draw adviser if checked, will draw a composition of lines and circles to assist you with the building.

14. Option Draw assistant if checked, will draw circles to assist you where the active points are.

15. Option Ghosts count if greater than zero, will create a ghosts stack client-side to assist you with the track building process. If you set this option to zero, ghosting will be disabled.

16. When building a track using a different than the default way is needed you may use:

• Origin <ang_comp>, where <ang_comp> can be either pitch, yaw or roll are the angle offsets used for orientating the base coordinate system in order to snap the piece as the user desires.
• Offset <vec_comp>, where <vec_comp> can be either X, Y or Z are linear offsets used for additional user offset regarding the next track piece to be spawned.

17. The button V Reset variables V as the name suggests clears the offsets mentioned in (16).

What will happen if something gets updated?

First of all this FAQ will be UPDATED AS THE TOOL GOES. So everything that the tool supports will be represented here as a manual or something. That's what is this FAQ for anyway ( Though most people don't bother to read it before asking )...

Which addons did you work on?

Here they are, with available status, why I did not do some of them ( at the time of developing ). The ones that are included in Garry's mod do not have links and are marked below:

• PHX Monorails (INCLUDED)
• PHX Regular Tracks ( For switcher_2 [X] in the name as it misses collision meshes ) (INCLUDED)
• SligWolf's Retailers old and new(1,2,3)
• SProps
• PHX XQM Coaster tracks (INCLUDED)
• SligWolf's Mini train tracks and switches
• PHX Road Pieces ( including ramps big and small ) (INCLUDED)
• PHX Monorail Iron Beams (INCLUDED)
• PHX XQM BallRails (INCLUDED)
• Magnum's gauge rails ( Owner support has stopped. No updates )
• Metrostroi rails ( Ignore, not designed as prop )
• Shinji85's BodybroupRail pieces
• gm_trainset map props ( Ignore, not designed as prop )
• SligWolf's Railcar
• Bridges pack
• gm_sunsetgulch map props ( Ignore, not designed as prop )
• StevenTechno's Buildings pack
• Mr. Train's M-Gauge rails
• Bobsters's two gauge rails
• Mr. Train's G-Gauge rails
• Ron's 56 gauge rails ( Removed by the addon owner and discontinued )
• Ron's 2ft track pack ( Maintained by the owner )
• PHX Tubes (INCLUDED)
• Magnum's second track pack ( Ignore, not designed as prop )
• qwertyaaa's G Scale Track Pack
• SligWolf's ModelPack ( Mini hover tracks ) ( White rails )
• Ron's Minitrain Props
• Battleship's abandoned rails
• Ron's G-Scale track pack ( Maintained by the owner )
• AlexCookie's 2ft track pack
• SligWolf's Tiny hover racer
• Joe's track pack COMMING SOON

Where are the trains/vehicles, are there any of these?

Dude seriously, make them yourself, what's the point of playing Gmod then ... xD

Dude the rails are not showing in the menu, what should I do ?

SUBSCRIBE TO THE OWNER OF THE ADDON !!!!

Are there going to be more of these?

Yes, I developed my dynamic database, so I can insert any model I want. When I have free time I will make more, because it's a lot of data I insert in the DB

Will you create more models in the future?

Well, It depends on what you mean by create. If it is for the making of the 3D models, then NO ( big one ) I've got no experience in that stuff neither am I a 3D artist. Other than that if the models are created by the 3D artists, I will be more then happy to add them into the Track assembly tool if their collision model meets the minimum requirements. ( Made a model once, but it turned out quite nasty xD, so better leave the job to the right people.)

Hey, do you remember that roller coaster assistant addon ?

Yes, it was snapping pieces when you got them too close to each other and they magically connect. When looking at the panel in the right, there is a check-box labeled Enable physgun snap that you must check. This makes the server to perform some traces relative to the active points of the piece and search for other pieces to snap to. If the snapping conditions are present, it will snap the trace piece on physgun release at that end, which the server trace hits. Check the wiki page for more information.

Can you tell me how to read the physgun snap legend drawn on the screen ?

Easy. Here are some things to know for never getting confused with this:

1. If the line with the middle circle is green, that means a valid prop entity is traced The green circle shows where the trace hits and the yellow what part of trace is inside the prop If in this case the trace is a valid piece, the origin and radius to the point selected are drawn using a yellow circle line, always shorter than the active radius. After that the spawn position and distance are drawn by using cyan circle and magenta line respectively. The forward and the up direction vectors of the origin are drawn using red and blue lines respectively.
2. If the line is yellow, that means the trace has hit something else ( For example the world ) The yellow circle shows again where the trace hits and the red line the part inside the non-prop
3. If there is a red line with yellow circle, then there is an active point there, which is searching for props to snap to when you drop ( release the left click ) the piece with the physgun. You can also disable the drawing by unchecking the Draw adviser check-box or unchecking the option for Enable physgun snap, making it pointless to be drawn without the base option enabled. To enable the drawing, both must be enabled ( Adviser and snapping ).

What is this green line/circle into the base advisor, what is it for ?

Remember when I got suggestions to do the switchers. This is an easy way of indicating which next active position ( of some ) is chosen when stacking is in place. The end of the line with the green circle points to the next active position that is chosen.

Hey, there is a text-box and a drop-down menu next to the ExportDB button. What are these for ?

Well, when a server owners set the trackassembly_maxfruse to a higher value, a slider appears. If the client has used many pieces during his/her routine, he/she cannot possibly locate the ones he/she needs, especially, when they are at the bottom of the list as not frequently used pieces. That's why it was needed some kind of a filter. With the drop-down menu, you can chose whatever field to filter the data on (<Search BY> either Model, Type, Name, Act). Do not bother that the name is displayed in the pieces list. That's normal. For 95% of the models, it is dynamically generated using the *.mdl file, so there is really no point in viewing the model parameter on the pieces panel. If you need the model you can right-click its dedicated line in the list to copy it into the clipboard. In the text-box, to search you have to enter a pattern that you want to perform the filtering with. The result will populate the list view, only with these pieces, whatever desired field value is matched by the pattern given. The pattern is a standard Lua one, which is supported by the string.* library and you can also google it ;)

May I put this thing in another third party website ?

No I will not give you my permission to do that... Why ... That way you will upload some half-baked malicious tool, waste your time with stupid things and confuse everybody with this so-called unofficial version of the Track assembly tool. Not to mention that the stunned people will NOT GET ANY updates ! The best you can do is just point to the original GIT repository avoiding any version mismatches and confusions. So please don't upload the script to any other sites. I mean it!