Subject: Hey, trains
For: Ruslan1 #minetest
Image: Advanced Trains Detailed Steam Engine
Short link: https://dansu.org/advtrains-261112
Ruslan1, who many Minetest people will know, asked recently for Advanced Trains to be set up for his world. Note: The world is a restored copy from 2019 that already includes train tracks, but the train mods need to be set up again.
I’ve hosted Advanced Trains worlds before, but I haven’t configured the trains myself. This post explains what’s working so far. If Ruslan1 or I do more, I’ll post or edit further for the benefit of others.
Ruslan1: Read this and try train things. If there’s a crash, report it in IRC.
I started by installing two modpacks from git:
https://git.bananach.space/advtrains.git/
https://git.bananach.space/basic_trains.git/
Warnings: a. The two git repos are quite slow. b. The current git snapshots might need patches to fix crashes with Final Minetest. We’ll see.
On restart, I observed the following error message in-game:
Mesh not found: advtrains_signals_japan_5_60.objBoth the git copy and the Luanti ContentDB copy of the associated mod [advtrains signals japan] were missing required “.obj” files. I wasn’t able to find the missing files online, so I removed the mod.
Note: The Final MT mirror of the ContentDB is located at:
https://contentdb.minetest.org/
I executed the following in-game command:
/giveme advtrains:detailed_steam_engineA train spawner appeared in my inventory. I stood next to an existing Advtrains track, wielded the spawner, pointed to the track, and right-clicked.
Hey, a steam engine. Complete with steam. See the attached screenshot.
I wasn’t especially a “trains” fan 60 years ago, but I do remember visiting a retired train that had been placed in a San Francisco park. I didn’t have much fun in the 1960s, but the train was sort of fun.
The Advtrains train control interface is one of the least intuitive UIs that I’ve seen in MT. The instructions for the Detailed Steam Engine aren’t in the obvious places. But eventually I figured out the following:
The Detailed Steam Engine is electrical. It doesn’t need wood or coal. So, it isn’t clear where the steam comes from, but that’s fine.
To start that type of train, one proceeds as follows:
Right-click on the train to get into it. Press the Up arrow key to start the train. To adjust the speed, use the Up and Down arrow keys as necessary. Right-click to bring up a short train menu. Select Get off.
I did all of that and it worked. A Detailed Steam Engine is now chugging along in the world. Note: The world is Ruslan1’s Grand Test Auto. We’ll post the connect parameters after the world is stable.
