TARDIS - A Trainz Asset Repair Management Tool - Part 7

ianwoodmore

Active member

Edit: Under Revision

MESHTABLE BUILDER


This is a completely new section that is under development to provide automation of mesh repairs, but also to give creators and curious Trainzers an opportunity to experiment with various mesh formats, attachments, effects, and specific tag interactions with some automated or semi-automated assist.

A sub-set of this tool is in operation in TARDIS TS12 and TANE superscripts.

Caveat – While every effort has been made to failsafe scripts in this area and has been tested extensively to confirm this, Murphy’s Law prevails. So start small and work your way up to batch runs after you have gained confidence that nothing will be irrevocably damaged. Please report any inconsistent or contrary behaviour.

Major areas to be wary of are:

a. LOD, particularly Endcaps and variants.
b. Digits and Running Numbers and associated fonts.
c. Soundscript. Generally this uses an instance list scraped from CM errors and warnings.
d. Normal-Textures. Not automated yet. A workaround is offered that uses the main texture. This will produce shiny groundtextures but at least it enables you to play until you can obtain or make correct images. These can be generated in AssetX but it is manpower intensive and manual with semi-automatic assist.
e. Wild card use.

Most of these scripts are still in the suite in their developmental form so you can see what’s involved. Hopefully they are inactive in the automated sections of TARDIS.

If all else fails use CM Revert or Revert to Original and start again.

BUT always backup your own work.

Conclusion

The combination of AssetX, PEVTools and TARDIS scripts provides trainzers with a powerful tool to overcome and tame the immense repair task required in Trainz to bring about compliance to the latest validation. TARDIS has extended this capability so that a wider range of Trainzers can attempt asset repair without extensive knowledge or repair experience. In addition, it provides creators with the means to UPDATE, UPVERSION, and FUTURE-PROOF their creations in far less time than in the past allowing them to get on with the interesting stuff.

One of its outstanding consequences is that assets can be repaired consistently in the full knowledge that compliance has been met.

It has been stated by N3V that TANE will ensure some level of backward compatability with legacy versions of Trainz. We should consider all current versions of Trainz as legacy from here on.

A final warning – Sorry Multiplayers, this is not for you. Any repair you make will result in you being unable to play in MP sessions until the modifications are shunted to the backup folder. Only DLS and Builtin assets in their original condition (warts and all) can be used for MP in order to ensure everyone is playing within the same environment and with common assets. Kind of an oxymoron really as many assets will need fixing before than can be used in routes and sessions.
 
Looking good - I look forward to it's release, so I can sort out some issues with my content (and be able to upload it to my site)...

Shane
 
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Thanks for all the hard work that you, Andi and PEV have put into this venture, Ian. With you three as part of the Trainz community the future looks bright, not forgetting Shane and others too numerous to mention who go out of their way to help others get as much out of the game as possible. You shame the continual moaners.
 
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