Proposed changes to CMP

[Lots_Trains]

I was reading in the Trainz Dev Wiki about the changes to be implimented in CMP, there it states that access to modify default content and content from the DLS will not be allowed ie not possible. All like the locked content in 06

I think this a really bad idea, the reason for me, when I download a route I quite often tweak a few things for my own personal preferances, ie change a Industry Queue size add another allowed product, on rolling stock sometimes I change a bogy to one of my preferance change a loco engine file add a different horn sound , I know with some objects I download they have been way over built for my use and I reduce the texture size so I can keep my performance up.

Now it appears the this is going to be taken away in the new version of CMP in my view a totally bad idea its not just all about uploading and downloading from the DLS its about own personal enjoyment of the game:'(

Cheers

 

[dragonharh]

boy that going bite. man thing go form bad to worse I'm with you 100% on this

I'll keep my site open for aney ones uploads if I don't run out of room:hehe:

 

[S301]

Remember guys, a lot of the built-in content will be created by 3rd party groups... A lot of these people may not want their hard work being messed with.
This being said, I think it should be up to the 3rd party creator to make this choice, not have it implemented as an overall thing.

One option might be to allow it to be cloned, and have the option for 3rd party guys to stop the cloning of their objects as well. But only if they want to block this.

Zec

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I don't mind if they lock everything except for the tags that you identify and find assets with (the name, region and type - to use TRS2004 terminology). These don't infringe on anyone's intellectual property in any substantial way, but make a big difference to the user's ability to find stuff where they think it should be. If Auran were really listening they would have picked up at least that much from the feedback.

 

[StorkNest]

The one thing I don't like about it regards keywords. TRS2006 allowed keywords through CMP with Backup and Restore, my Classics doesn't Backup or Restore so the one time I tried using keywords they got wiped somehow. I now add Category-Keyword lines to configs so I can find stuff.
And sometimes I need to modify an item's name just so a setting I make with the Content Search Filter in Surveyor will find it.

 

[wreeder]

You are wrong. Here is what the Wiki says:

Ideology Content Manager is designed to allow content creators to produce new content, and to allow end-users to download with a minimal of hassle. It is tightly integrated with the Download Station (DLS) to allow content to be uploaded and downloaded in a reliable fashion.
Conent Manager is specifically not intended for users to perform regular editing of content created by others; this behavior is considered fairly counter-productive for the following reasons:

• It is expected that DLS content will be available in a working format, and that Content Manager will transfer the content to the local machine in a working format. (This is historically inaccurate, please see the Download Station Cleanup page.)
• It is required that local content maintains parity with the original DLS content, such that dependencies and updates continue to work appropriately. By editing DLS content locally, the user is establishing that they will take responsibility for maintaining not only the edited asset, but potentially all assets which share some kind of dependency on the edited asset.
• When a user downloads or purchases a new item of content, they have a reasonable expectation that it will work "out of the box". This expectation is in direct conflict with the user performing significant edits to other content.

There are some obvious cases where edits are harmless, and CMP attempts to allow for the most useful of these- such as renaming or hiding an asset.
It is expected that the Trainz environment will be optimised and extended with each new version release. To allow existing custom content to work with newer versions of Trainz, Auran has adopted an "installation" process for custom content, in favor of the original "drop it in a folder" process. During this process, the Trainz environment performs the following steps:

• Validates that the content will work with the current Trainz installation.
• Precaches various metrics from the content that Trainz requires at runtime such that the entire item of content does not need to be loaded at game startup (as was the case in the earliest Trainz versions.)
• Upgrades files within the content to the latest file formats, such that the upgrade process does need to not occur during loading.
• Converts some files from human-readable form to a machine-optimized format.
• Moves the raw content files to storage within the Trainz Asset Database.
• Notifies running Trainz executables of any changes.

Users are no longer provided with direct access to installed custom content, for the following reasons:

• Installed content may be stored in a custom internal format, rather than in the public distribution format.
• Edits made to files which have supposedly been pre-processed will result in runtime errors where the cached data no longer matches the actual content on disk.

Since direct access is not possible, Content Manager provides a mechanism for users to 'check out' items for editing, and to check them in again after the edits are complete. The normal installation steps are performed during the check-in process allowing Trainz to use the updated content safely.





This is more or less the same process involved in TRS2006 and TC now. You are free to clone and edit almost everything or you can edit non-locked items by using "Open for edit in Explorer" or "Open for edit in CCP". What isn't allowed is to edit an item outside of CMP by opening the asset's folder directly and making changes. This hasn't been allowed since TRS2004.


William

 

[Paulsw2]

The one thing I don't like about it regards keywords. TRS2006 allowed keywords through CMP with Backup and Restore, my Classics doesn't Backup or Restore so the one time I tried using keywords they got wiped somehow. ....

well that's the first I've heard of that. Why haven't they retained the backup and restore keywords function in CMP successfully implemented by SP1 for TRS06? The ability to save and backup keywords is essential to my use of Trainz, so if this is not available in TC3, that's a big setback.

I think I may start a thread about this......

 

[PerRock]

shouldn't this be in the trainzdev forum not this one?

peter