Payware marked in surveyer

Should have put this comment up long ago, been thinking of it for long time.

Is there a way that the content could me marked on the screen like the routes so we know if we are using pay ware. Also the DLS upload should be also able to tell you that you have uploaded content using pay ware and be nice if it could identify it for you to tell the other users on the forum.

Tom

I am in agreement. This has been an issue for some time - you download a route and/or session and then discover it has missing assets. Not an unusual problem but it then turns out that some of the missing assets are payware - you need to buy and install an item from the DLC (or third party payware sites such as JR) to get the missing asset(s). Others have raised this issue before, but, so far, there appears to be no solution.

To be fair, I have been guilty on one occasion of uploading a route that inadvertently contained a single item of payware. The problem was rectified when the creator of the payware item agreed to release it to the DLS. Otherwise I would have had to create and upload a new version of the route. Today I perform a very thorough check before I upload.

I don't know how it would be possible to identify all the assets that are dependencies of a particular asset without first downloading the asset. Perhaps N3Vs asset server (or whatever they use) would need to maintain a separate database. This could (possibly) be downloaded for an asset in much the same way as when you select a DLS asset in CM it downloads its description and a thumbnail image. It would then be up to CM to somehow determine the source (DLS, Builtin, Base, Payware, unknown) of each dependency.

I'd say that would be an option for N3V payware (from the Trainz store) but not sure how it would work for 3rd party payware unless a special tag is added to config files for that purpose.

Shane

I too have flagged this up, but the silence from N3v on the matter is deafening.

The only guaranteed solution is a clean or fresh reinstall of TANE which you immediately stop the DLC from downloading into. However in my case I subsequently relented and downloaded the Mosti route as I wanted the current assets for a Russian/Eastern Europe project I'm working on. Despite the assets from the TS12 default version supposedly all being on the DLS, they aren't - in particular the level crossings which were named "Rup ***" in TS12 but are different in the TANE version and not on the DLS.

So of course I now run the chance that some of the assets that are in the DLC version of Mosti but not on the DLS from TS12 could find themselves in one of my routes (possibly even a UK project!).

Therefore assuming I actually ever finish a route and release it, the only option is to put a big warning in the description and readme file that it *may* require payware xyz to be installed in order to run.

All it needs is filters in surveyor similar to those in CM. That way when you are building a route intended for the DLS you coud set a filter with "On DLS = True OR Built-in = True" in surveyor and ensure there are no missing dependencies.

The other solution could be a colour coding system similar to the kuid numbers that appeared in the corner of the screen in earlier versions. This could be applied to the content lists in surveyor. For example DLS/Built-in content could be white, payware green and all others yellow.

This came up in the Trainz Dev forum awhile ago too. N3V is looking into it, but like a lot of things it's probably at the lower end of priority because nothing is crashing to the desktop.

I don't like the chances - N3V can't even tell payware from freeware. I'm thinking of how many of my own assets, which are all free, became built-ins in TANE (possibly TS12 too) and mis-labelled as payware in CM. I mean they actually changed the configs to insert payware tags and got it wrong.


.

For N3V Payware

Either Filter in CM, payware = True, view in new window, select all, top Content Menu, select Disable and they won't be in surveyor.
Or
Just rename the packages folder to say packages_bak and run a database repair - no N3V payware then.

Non N3V payware and non DLS Items.

Enable show kuids in Surveyor, the Non DLS stuff will have a Red Kuid.

your idea is exactly what I am thinking would be perfect, you could see payware, dls, non dls.

tom

edh6 said:

All it needs is filters in surveyor similar to those in CM. That way when you are building a route intended for the DLS you coud set a filter with "On DLS = True OR Built-in = True" in surveyor and ensure there are no missing dependencies.

The other solution could be a colour coding system similar to the kuid numbers that appeared in the corner of the screen in earlier versions. This could be applied to the content lists in surveyor. For example DLS/Built-in content could be white, payware green and all others yellow.

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