Agatha's Country I - New route

Wonderful!

Did you say just uploaded? There is no revision on DLS at this time unfortunately :( .
I'll be waiting impatiently for... :)

Eugene.
 
RANT RANT RANT

The new layout has now been approved HOWEVER.......
:o :mad: :confused: :eek: :rolleyes:

Hi gang

I am getting increasingly frustrated with Trainz, having just checked over and then uploaded a newer updated version of Agatha to the DLS, I received the following missive from our 'colleagues' down under.

---------------------------------
Your uploaded content is currently waiting approval, during the automated processing of your file the dependencies where checked and the below report was produced.

This report lists your content that has dependencies which are not currently on the Download Station:

Content: Agatha's country I (KUID 89759:1022:1)
Dependencies:
* skipper1945 <george.bailes@ntlworld.com>
- KUID 116296:16030:127
- KUID 116296:16031:127
- KUID 116296:16037:127
- KUID 116296:16039:127
- KUID 116296:16044:127
- KUID 116296:16048:127
- KUID 116296:16071:127
- KUID 116296:16120:127
* Partyman79 <Partyman79@gmx.de>
- KUID 239249:100151
- KUID 239249:100153
- KUID 239249:100283
- KUID 239249:100363
- KUID 239249:100366

Please Note: The above creators have been notified and a request has been sent for them to upload their content.

Regards,
www.auran.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussions earlier in the thread explain the saga behind the partyman stuff.
However the skipper items show up in both interface versions, 2004 and 2006. Some if not all carry the '2' prefix on the kuid and show as installed on my machine and they are not 'as supplied on the disc' items:

THEREFORE

DOWNLOADED FROM THE DLS,

I do not use payware on principle. I assumed (apparantly a mistake) - that the '2' versions would automatically supercede the previous version.

I do enjoy Trainz, research, investigation, layout creation etc etc, but the shear bloomin hard work in getting the stuff on to the DLS - I am seriously considering jacking the whole thing in.

Keith
tkeithmat
 
BTW

I did attach a thumbnail to both route and session when I uploaded them but they are not showing in the DLS

Keith:confused:
 
The new layout has now been approved HOWEVER.......
:o :mad: :confused: :eek: :rolleyes:

Hi gang

I am getting increasingly frustrated with Trainz, having just checked over and then uploaded a newer updated version of Agatha to the DLS, I received the following missive from our 'colleagues' down under.

I do enjoy Trainz, research, investigation, layout creation etc etc, but the shear bloomin hard work in getting the stuff on to the DLS - I am seriously considering jacking the whole thing in.

Keith
tkeithmat

What you are creating is very good. For people who have problems locating the items there is always the delete missing objects. The ambiance of your layouts remains and you never know in a day or two some of the missing items will be made available on the DLS.

My personal view is there are very few perfect items in Trainz, most locos, wagons and carriages don't have shadows, running numbers and working couplings yet all are technically possible.

I suggest have a beer and a rest then gently continue.

Cheerio John
 
Hi!

I have a little trouble. The revision of layout is present on DLS. But it's not downloadable :( .

What's your opinion? What's wrong?

Eugene.
 
I do not understand how it can be on the DLS and not downloadable, it does not make sense to me perhaps the techies at the help desk can help. It went through the usual upload approval system.

The DLS is not even showing the thumbnail even though it was present when uploaded.

Keith :( :confused:
 
I do not understand how it can be on the DLS and not downloadable, it does not make sense to me perhaps the techies at the help desk can help. It went through the usual upload approval system.

The DLS is not even showing the thumbnail even though it was present when uploaded.

Keith :( :confused:

Bob and I have seen this before. Our usual technique ins to try downloading via ftp if that works leave a note in the forum and then drop a line to helpdesk otherwise we tend to up the version number then reupload. The DLS upload process is not as reliable as it could be.

Cheerio John
 
Eugene, the new updated version is only for download by users who have SP1 patch installed on their TRS2006, that is why I cannot download it and play with it unfortunately. If you do have the patch installed, then I am afraid I cannot give another reason why you are having download difficulties with this route.

Cheers. ex-railwayman.
 
Hi Eugene, yes I do have a problem downloading this route, that is why I gave up. LOL But because the other version was done using SP1 by tkeithmat, I thought that this newer layout was done the same way, which is why I cannot download successfully. I have to face it that by not using my SP1 patch, I have restricted myself as to which new stuff on TRS2006 I can download, and I have tried to install SP1 so many times with lots of problems, that I have given up now and run TRS2006 without it.

Cheers. ex-railwayman.
 
Hi Eugene, yes I do have a problem downloading this route, that is why I gave up. LOL But because the other version was done using SP1 by tkeithmat, I thought that this newer layout was done the same way, which is why I cannot download successfully. I have to face it that by not using my SP1 patch, I have restricted myself as to which new stuff on TRS2006 I can download, and I have tried to install SP1 so many times with lots of problems, that I have given up now and run TRS2006 without it.

Cheers. ex-railwayman.

I also have no SP-1 not because I had problems with it but because its not available for my version of TRS2006, this route when I tryed to DL showed up in CMP and said it was ready to DL but when I press START the little red arrow jumps up and down but nothing happens ( ni incoming data) I have not had this problem before they normaly load and show in surveyor just wont run ( Missing Map ) but I can normaly work around this !
 
Hi Guys,

I fixed most of the dmdrake assets that were reported faulty by CMP SP1 (~1700) and uploaded them to www.trainzhaven.com. However Trainzhaven is in recovery mode after an electrical storm in Alberta, Canada and Steve reckons about 2 weeks before it is fully functional again.

Can't remember what I did to City of Truro. From the annotations on my notes I think they were simple config.txt faults. So just check what CMP recommends and do it.

Having fixed over 16,000 CMP redX'd faults out of ~102,000 assets I have on my machine I can positively say most are caused by textures that were in a different TRS2004 folder than TRS2006 and are therefore not found by TRS2006, or by our old friend (" ") the double quotes being misplaced or one of them missing in the config.txt. This is a little simplistic but generally most will work or not be noticed in Surveyor or Driver. CMP can be quite unforgiving in reporting these faults whereas TRS2004 did not check for them. Remember we needed Tafweb's Trainzobjects to do that.
In the long term the CMP checks are good news for us users but frustrating for the creators as the uploading to DLS is more critical. Most of the redX faults are in pre TRS2006 assets that weren't subject to this stricter regime. Very few new assets (since Aug06) have redX. Layouts will of course suffer from whatever faults are in their dependencies. There are two major problems with more recent downloads: Missing Dependencies particularly on European originated assets, and can't download the asset from DLS including Agatha's country I in my case.

Currently I have 268 assets stuck on DLS that I can't DL either by CMP or direct by FTP from DLS. The number of assets that have missing dependencies is over 2,000 and grows at a rapid rate, More so as I explore external websites looking for them.

Having had my PC freeze many thousands of times while repairing assets in CMP database and had to reboot my machine, I can reassure that rarely do you get corruptions unless the asset is already corrupt. The usual freeze problem is 100%CPU useage so OS doesn't get round to actioning your latest.

Another problem you may strike is that Trainz won't start. This is usually due to assets.tdx going walkabout and you have to manually move assets.bku (backup file) which is in a different folder to the TRS2006 root folder and amend its extension to tdx. I recommend you instal TAD Monitor from www.trainzhaven.com utilities folder. This utility takes care of this little problem on a fit and forget basis. I am not a fan of reinstalling TRS2006 and frankly for 99% of the time it is not necessary or helpful. I havent done it since Aug06 when I installed TRS2006. When you have 150GB of files in your local folder like I do, it is a positively daunting prospect.

A more recent problem I struck was nVidia graphics driver 93.81 randomly stalled my machine and would not allow me to carry out selections. Graphics icons on Desktop and toolbar reverted to DOS icons. Other programs besides Trainz were affected. Reverting to 93.71 on my machine which runs WIN XP Pro and dual 6800GT graphics boards fixed this problem. The new beta 94.24 appears OK too.

My recommendation to tkeithmat is that you do not fiddle with your layout unless you are absolutely sure it is a fault you have induced in building it. There are too many external variables that you have no control over and I've highlighted some of them above.

When DLS decides to allow me to DL your layout then I shall be able to appreciate what is Im sure a fine layout based on a great theme.:)

EDIT:

I was able to DL your :1022 layout but not :1022:1. Also :1026 The Tour and :1033 tour 2a. I could load :1022 and the Tour session in Surveyor and Driver but they take a helluva long time to load even on my machine in SLI mode. 8.5 mins to appearance of engine at platforn in The Tour session followed by 3-4 mins before train leaves platform after other train is off main line. This is too long waiting for something to happen and will be longer for lower spec machines. Part of this is the 2000+ assets that have to be loaded. I have 2GB memory but think I need at least 3GB if not 4GB. I still get stuttering and this coincides with the rendering of mid to far ground. I haven't yet adjusted performance settings. There also appears to be speed surging with train exceeding the speed limit particularly as it uses the first crossover.

The missing Ds on my machine are all 2:116296:nnnn:127 only. (This will be different for others depending on what assets they have.)

This is an insidious problem where the assets are generally listed on DLS as 116296:nnnn but actually DL in the :127 form for reasons unknown. :127 is the highest number update you can have but while CMP will report it unknown and missing the game will actually choose the highest update so should in fact work.

Amend the :1022 config.txt tag kuid-table as follows:
item 532 kuid:116296:16120
item 557 kuid:116296:16037
item 570 kuid:116296:16031
item 691 kuid:116296:16030
item 1466 kuid:116296:16039

item 1183 kuid2:116296:16044:1


NOTE:
The above changes should then clear ALL missing Ds from :1022 and sessions and presumably from :1022:1 if kuid-table is the same.
I actually amended some of my kuid:116296 assets that had :127 endings by amending tag kuid accordingly. This doesn't always work as a fix, presumably if the mesh has the wrong kuids in it. But did work in these instances.

DO NOT amend other :127 entries in tag kuid-table.

You also have a script fault showing up. I get a script warning in both :1022 and the sessions:

Thread Exception ER ArrayOutofBounds,line140,file

and several other lines associated with chameleon and scarecrow. These are custom scripts that require the appropriate assets and will need entries in config.txt. I've not yet got into scripts so can't help but from my repair investigations Note they will have to be in an extensions container else CMP will throw a fit.
 
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Hi Eugene, yes I do have a problem downloading this route, that is why I gave up. LOL But because the other version was done using SP1 by tkeithmat, I thought that this newer layout was done the same way, which is why I cannot download successfully. I have to face it that by not using my SP1 patch, I have restricted myself as to which new stuff on TRS2006 I can download, and I have tried to install SP1 so many times with lots of problems, that I have given up now and run TRS2006 without it.

Cheers. ex-railwayman.

It was exactly the same version of trainz - same route with a few tweaks here and there - updated tour to allow for a renamed track mark or two.

Trainz 2.6 build 3092

Keith
 
Ian (trainspotter)
Thanks doctor for the very detailed analysis and diagnosis of the symptoms. I think I understand it, being a trainzer of very small brain.

I think in future I should not be so enthusiastic with landscaping and trying to reproduce the real world in too great a detail, and where possible I shall only use assets created in and for 2006.

Keith
 
Ian (trainspotter)
Thanks doctor for the very detailed analysis and diagnosis of the symptoms. I think I understand it, being a trainzer of very small brain.

I think in future I should not be so enthusiastic with landscaping and trying to reproduce the real world in too great a detail, and where possible I shall only use assets created in and for 2006.

Keith

But on the other hand one of the things I like about your layouts is the real world detail and landscaping.

Cheerio John
 
Me too.

But like some other creators perhaps you should explore some of the tricks they use to give the impression of detail yet reduce the image weight. If your main emphasis is on trains then it is not necessary to have great detail away from the track. On a large layout like this using the same trees over and over doesn't detract much from the overall enjoyment. Similarly lower poly assets further away from the tracks simulates the way we see the real world anyway. I believe that some of the new track assets have a considerable impact on improving FPS and reducing stutter.
As has been said before you have to decide who your target audience is. Is your layout for the high end machines, or for the lower performance machines. If the latter then there has to be tradeoffs. You could of course have the best of both worlds by using your high performance layout as the theme and experiment with improved techniques and produce an Agathas Country Basic layout that can be used on lower performance machines. Bear in mind though that by the time you finish it many of your audience will have upgraded their machines and the newbies entry level machines will be more capable if for no other reason than they have to because of Microsoft Vista.
By the way if you used only 2006 designed assets you would have a very bleak countryside. The majority of assets are pre2006. Once repaired most will work in 2006 provided the textures are in the right folder and the script and config.txt don't abuse the rules. Just don't try to use any pre-1.3 assets. There are thousands of version 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 assets that will work OK in both 2004 and 2006. There aren't that many techniques that are unique to 2006 that won't work in 2004. By and large 2006 is a refined 2004 with CMP added. Don't have any knowledge of what Trainz Classics has in store for us so can't comment.

Creators correct me if I'm wrong please. I'm not yet clever enough to design and build my first asset or layout, or perhaps I don't yet have the courage. I've concentrated on reading the CCG and other documentation then applying that to fixing errors created by those who didn't follow the rules. That's actually taken up most of my time in the last 12 months.:)
 
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Further testing of The Tour session in Driver in non-SLI mode shows more script non-fatal errors.

Speed surging occurs in more than one area and the speed changes at signals after a stop, when traversing a crossover, or stop/start at a station are very sudden and not typical of a train with considerable inertia.

Approaching Westlem outbound I get script error associated with passengers but train stops and starts OK.

However at Clegg Nth outbound it gets more complicated. A similar script error but train does not stop at station or unload. It continues through station and switches to a a dead end siding just short of buffers. There is no way that a runaround can occur from there so engine does nothing further. As a consequence, unable to test return journey. During the outbound leg I tried manual performance settings to vary detail, distance train polys, and particles. Some minor improvement in reducing stuttering. Definite improvement in engine smoke appearance.
 
Hi!

I just finished work (downloading, fixing objects etc.) with this layout (1-st revision). Now I loading it in TRS2006. Magnificent!!!

tkeithmat thank you very much again and again for this route!!! :)

Eugene.
 
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