UK themed iportal group

peterwise said:

You obviously mean in TS12, right?

This is the same I get in TS12: within the computer (to same of different route) - no problem. Via the Internet: nothing - no message (in the message window) that anything is arriving, no train (built-in or not) - nothing comes back.

The protocol is turn off (or there is a code error in TS12).

I'll raise a ticket with Auran on it, but obviously nothing can happen until at least the next patch.

Peter.

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Same thing with me in TS2010, with the multiplayer patch. My Online bar is also red.

guys i like to iportal with all but please make sure that we all have the engines & cars... if some one send me some car that i don't have it lockes my iportal up.......

Yes we really do need to hear from the top ranks on this one now. Are we fighting a losing battle with this or not? Only you guys in Oz can tell us for sure.
By the way, I'm still using 06 if anyone wants to i-portal on that. :wave:

Hello again guys,

It's taken a long, long time I know, but I did finally get a response from Zec about why iPortals don't work in TS12. In essence, they are aware of the problem but said they can do nothing as the scripts are encrypted, i.e. 'iportallib.gse' instead of 'iportallib.gs' and 'iportalbasic.gse' instead of 'iportalbasic.gs'. Apparently, iPortals use the iTrainz system (that chat uses) to pass messages, between computers.

After several attempts I managed to get Lars Ljungberg (username 'llj') to seek out and send me the sourcecode for iPortals including the .gs files. I am permitted to modify the code and upload the KUIDs to the DLS provided only the encrypted script files (.gsx) are uploaded (and I would of course credit Lars with the original work). I am permitted to pass the work onto another, provided they will keep to the same conditions.

However, I have been trying to find a tutorial or simply a spec. giving details of the script-iTrainz interface, so far without success[1]. (Anyone?) During my search, I noticed that Zec (in 11-May-12) was saying on the TS2010 forum that Auran is trying to solve problems on iTrainz server. He was answering a question about chat (for TS2010), but I bumped the thread to ask if there has been any progress and ask if these problems would have any bearing on the TS12 iPortal problem. I await a reply.

Also, though, thinking about the iTrainz/Chat connection, I wondered whether my test was carried out with chat off! It does seem reasonable that I did not want to be interrupted mid-test (the test, remember, involved sending a train to another of my own iPortals over the Internet, so I didn't need to communicate with anyone else). The problem, of course, is that I don't know whether turning off chat would stop the iPortals from communicating with each other - ideally not, but ...

I'll redo the test again within the next few days and report back. Maybe Auran have fixed something or maybe I just reported a false negative earlier.

Also, thinking about this iTrainz communication, one could program a signal box to signal box communication KUID which could also provide other inter-player communications and announcements as I note that you have had trouble with that.

Though, I'm posting this on the Auran forums' "UK themed iportal group", I'll post a link to it on the British Trains Forum's theme of the same name which, I note, has re-invigorated some interest in the idea of the group

Peter.

[1] Later online.ts2009.com came back and I found http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/ITrainz , however I believe I will need more detailed info and specs.

I was wondering why nobody had responded to this thread but me and then realised that I had not, as I thought, reported back my re-testing of iPortals in TS12 as I had promised I would. (So here goes...).

I re-tested self-to-self (one iPortal OUT, one iPortal IN) over the Internet (which does work in TS2010) again ensuring I had iChat enabled (in case failure to do that had given a false negative earlier) and iPortals still patently do not work in TS12. No train is returned to the IN iPortal and there is no notification of its impending arrival.

Is there still any interest in getting iPortals working in TS12? Let me know or I probably won't start the laborious work of ploughing through the scripts and other source code that I now have in my possession (with the blessing of the author).

Equally, is anything happening with regard to the UK-themed iPortal Group at all?

Peter.

Peter,

As one of the originators of this thread I feel rather guilty for not having contributed for a long time, however after 40 odd years of computer use RSI caught me in the neck (literally) and I had to restrict my computer time to essential use only. Now, I have no magic cure but finally I have some some effective, if not complete, pain relief and I'll try and make up for my absence! But enough of my moans and groans...

Thanks for doing that testing and for contacting Zec about TS12. From the earlier responses and trials my gut feeling is that Iportal Groups are best suited to UK railway enthusiasts (or perhaps a better way to put this is - suited to people that are interested in railways that have much the same operating practices as the potential partipants). It may be that people who have operated a prototype style model railway in a club (i.e. multi operator) environment would appreciated how this could work and could be good fun and potentially challenging.

I would love to see Iportals working in TS12 but I can only speak for myself. I hope you get some more support from others on this forum and the British Trainz forum as I fully understand the work involved in going through somebody else's code to find a problem! I don't know Trainzscript (always hated those B*** curly brackets {} in 'C') but if you do decide to have a go I will to do my best to assist, feel free to PM me if you wish. I love the idea of a signal box to signal box communication asset, working over Iportal this would be spot on!

Regards

Chris

Chris,

Special thanks also goes to Lars Ljungberg (username LLJ), the author of the iPortal assets, who gave me the sourcecode for these assets, so that I (or someone I nominate) can modify and upload them to the DLS, provided we do not upload the unencrypted scripts (and, of course, credit him as original author).

So. who else is interested in iPortals for TS12? Speak Up!

Peter.

Just doing a little digging around, and I have all ways kicked around my own idea for how to do iPotal. Trying to see if it works in TRS12 or not. Reading a big chunk of this forum I see it dose not. But at peterwise said if there is interest, he'd work on the iPortals, and I am intrested in seeing them working.

Funny, I could have sworn that I answered this already, but here goes (again?)...


Zack,


Thanks for the support. I hope to get on to trawling through the code in mid-August.


Meanwhile, is anyone else interested in using iPortals in TS12 (especially for UK-based operations - i.e. signal box section to signal box section)?


Peter.

I was just wondering why the IPortal didn’t work in 12. Now I know why. I would definitely be interested in having them working, please.
/ Tommy

Tommy,

As is often the case, something changed in the code at the server (Auran/N3V) end, which means that some communication protocol that the scripts involved use no longer works.

Maybe I will get time to see where the problem lies, now I have the software off the person who developed it.

Peter.

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tom0308 said:

I was just wondering why the IPortal didn’t work in 12. Now I know why. I would definitely be interested in having them working, please.
/ Tommy

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iPortals for TS12 are back!

OK Guys & Gals,

Here is one of the very best reasons to "bump a thread":

iPortals for TS12 are back and working (I just tested them) thanks to LLJ providing an updated library (on the DLS/CM today)- welcome back to Trainz Lars (as a developer)!

Wonderful! Where do we go from here?

Peter.

Very good news indeed. now, do they work with/to older versions of Trainz?

As in, can I send a train to some one in TRS09?

And, dose the other person have to be online to receive the train?

JIb228,

The new iPortal library was for TS12, but as I usually use TS12 only, I am a little unclear as to how earlier versions pick up only the dependent assets that they need, but imagine that they do only "see" the assets on the DLS versioned at or below their version.

So, as iPortals worked in TS2010 before (with the iPortal library that was in force at that version), one imagines that iPortals would work as before in TS2010.

As for TS2009, I am not sure whether iPortals ever worked at that level. My guess is that they did.

So the best way to find out is probably "suck it and see"! (Try it out for yourself, for those unfamiliar with the idiom). If you do, please let us know your results, but also bear in mind that you must make 100% sure that sender and recipient both have the same locos and rolling stock installed when sending consists (or they cannot be received, of course). Given that, I don't believe the recipient needs to be online when the consist is sent to them. Once they go online and start the route/session with the receiving iPortal, the consist should arrive within 1-2 minutes (it is never instantaneous in my experience - fastest so far was about 20 seconds to self over the Internet).

On the other hand, I do have TS2009 and TS2010 installations which I have been keeping to test compatibility and dependency issues, so I could use this opportunity to update them and test the iPortals across the 3 versions, but, given how far out-of-date they are, it may take a day of two before I can do the tests.

Peter.

Don't try testing iPortals at present - they probably will not work as there is maintenance on the servers:

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...tance-January-22nd-2013&p=1101697#post1101697

I've wasted a lot of time in the last couple of days trying to find out why iPortals weren't working in TS2009, TS2010 and even in TS2012 where I had said they are now working. I thought it must be my fault, then finally I remembered the posting above that I had associated with DLS problems! Arrrh!

I let you know when things seem to be working again.

Peter.

Welcome to June 2014! I had been away from Trainz for awhile, but I'm working with TS12 right now. I set up four different in iportals on my layout, then made a master "yard" that could direct trains to four outgoing iportals so that I could choose which iportal on my layout. All iportal use was in my computer and not via the internet. This system worked with Trainz 2010, but is still not working in TS12. Has a fix been found yet? I saw that mention of Lars finding a cure, is that something I need to download? I would like to get that iportal system running again, it was the only way I could add new rolling stock to a saved session.

Johnda1237 said:

Welcome to June 2014! I had been away from Trainz for awhile, but I'm working with TS12 right now. I set up four different in iportals on my layout, then made a master "yard" that could direct trains to four outgoing iportals so that I could choose which iportal on my layout. All iportal use was in my computer and not via the internet. This system worked with Trainz 2010, but is still not working in TS12. Has a fix been found yet? I saw that mention of Lars finding a cure, is that something I need to download? I would like to get that iportal system running again, it was the only way I could add new rolling stock to a saved session.

Click to expand...

John (I presume),

Welcome back to Trainz!

Which version of TS12 are you using? TS12 SP1hf4?

The reason I ask is that I seem to remember that at sometime in my transition from TS12 noSP to TS12 SP1hf4, iPortals stopped working again (as it had from their use in TS2010 and then in TS12). It seems that relatively minor changes to the Trainz code (with new SP or even HF versions) impact Lars' scripts dramatically. I have to say this is almost certainly unavoidable as Auran/N3V has traditionally not given out much (if any) information (to script programmers) about calls into their code and so they almost never give advance information about changes that might, therefore, adversely impact working scripts. This means, of course, that what works with one Trainz sub-version may not work with the next and, worse, it becomes a matter of guesswork (with, no doubt some help from N3V) as to what has changed, what is going wrong and so how to fix it.

Hopefully, this will all be properly documented (and prior notice to changes given) in T:ANE. This documentation really needs to be provided in advance of release of main and subversions, so that script programmers can work on new scripts and adjust earlier ones.

The last time I sucessfully tested iPortals (after they were first fixed for TS12 noSP) they seemed to work in TS2009, TS2010 and TS12, but only within the same Trainz full version (TS2009 to TS2009, TS2010 to TS2010 and TS12 to TS12), if you see what I mean. For example, you could not portal from an iPortal on a route which you were using in TS12 to another iPortal on a route which you were using in TS2010 (with the same locos & Rolling stock of course). This makes it pretty useless for groups as, not only do you have to have the same locos and rolling stock (as far as I remember you did not need the same KUID versions), but you would also need to be using the same Trainz version (and it seems now, quite probably, subversion).

Note that I have been referring to use of iPortals over the Internet. When you say that your iPortals are on the same computer (the same route in fact, by the sound of it), you are aware, of course, that there would still be two different ways of configuring their use even in that situation - something like "on this computer" and "via the Internet" (I don't remember the specific terminology). You appear to be referring to the former. Is that so? All my tests were for group use, so the system was deemed "not working" if one could not send and receive "via the Internet". My initial tests would be done from a portal on a route "via the Internet" to another portal on the same route. If that simple test worked, the later tests would then be from one route to another (both on only one version of Trainz) and then later still from one version of Trainz to another (which, as I said above, did not appear to work with the TS12 noSP update of iPortals). I am not sure whether I would have noticed if they were or were not working between iPortals "on this computer".

Lars, if you're around, can you add more to that?

John, can you not use traditional Auran portals as N3V would be in a better position to test these prior to release. Having said that, I seem to have noticed that those portals (and other things) do not always function properly after the resumption of a saved session.

Peter.

Just to add my 2 cents, iPortals do work in TS12 SP1 HF4 to send trains to other players via the outerweb. With the same stipulations as the old iPortals. The receiver must have the same content, cars can only be loaded with their default loads, and they must have a locomotive. All this is true from what I have tested/done.

But I have gotten reports that cars can be sent with non default loads, and that as long as the KUID is the same, even modified equipment can be sent. But in both case's, I'd say use at your own risk.

Jib (sorry can't find your name),

That's interesting. Maybe there was just a temporary glitch with iPortals then; either between two sub-versions or (as I suggested in my posting of 25-Jan-13 - 2013 note - during some maintenance).

I might get back to some more organised testing soon and give a report, but I'm too busy at present).

Meanwhile, let me be quite clear as to your findings. Do the two users need the same KUID version of loco and rolling stock or just the same KUID (of potentially different versions)? Clearly any loco must match, but what happens when one or more pieces of rolling stock in the consist (or their products) do not match,. Is that piece of rolling stock just removed from the consist or is the whole consist lost?

John, could you let us know your TS12 subversion, answer my other questions and maybe comment further?

Peter.