alias help

[railroaddaddy42]

Hello,can anyone explain a alias kuid to me Please.Im working on a repair for loco up sd40-2#802 <Kuid:113556:51031>It has a missing dependency <Kuid:45324:100033> it is listed as a alias I belive it is some kind of mesh Any help on this would be awesome THANKS

Bob Moyer

 

[JCitron]

Hi Bob,

Aliased assets use a pointer system to reference the mesh that belongs to another asset. In order for the aliased asset to work, you need to have the the other asset. In your case your broken asset shows the missing dependency. Kuid 45324 belongs to Justin Cornell, aka Norfolksouthern37. This asset is most likely also on his website, www.jointedrail.com, and may or may not be a free download.

From what I've seen, aliased assets are being phased out, if they haven't been already, for this very reason because in order for the alias to work, all the components need to be installed separately, and should these items come for a third-party site that is no longer available, then the asset is garbage. A regular asset usually includes all the components with it and may reference included items such as bogeys (wheels and trucks), horn sounds, engine spec, interiors, etc., however, the main mesh is included with the download.

A bit of explanation of the KUID system. This is known as the Kewel User ID, which was developed about 12 years ago, maybe a bit more shortly after Trainz became very successful. This ID is made up of three parts. The User ID, the asset ID, and the version. My User ID is 124863 for example. The asset you are looking for has NS37's User ID of 45324, with the asset ID of 51031. This asset doesn't have a version number since it is version zero (0). A bit later limits were found with the original KUID system and it has since been updated to the KUID2 which works in a similar fashion, but with more features.

Be carefuly with the KUID number with assets. A simple typographical error can inadvertently replace assets on a route. This happened to me when someone typo'd their KUID in an update. Instead of having a factory building, I had UK Canal locks all over the place! All it took was a simple swap of a 6-4 instead of a 4-6.

Hope this helps.

John

 

[xcrossi]

The cfg will list the name of aliased asset.

 

[BuilderBob]

Hello. Can anyone explain a alias kuid to me Please. I'm working on a repair for loco up sd40-2#802 . It has a missing dependency . It is listed as a alias I belive it is some kind of mesh

The alias appears to be a loco of the same type which will contain the body mesh. You have two problems with that asset. The first is finding the aliased item. The second is configuring the asset correctly to use it. You will need to manufacture the mesh container so that it contains the correct references to the mesh in that other asset - that is, use the mesh-asset tag not the mesh tag. Your best source of information is another asset that has already been updated, although finding one can be a slow process (similar assets from the same creator is a good start).You may need to also apply special consideration to other features of the asset, or it may be that they just won't work. For instance, the name suggests that autonumbering is not used ('802') but that might conflict with autonumbering set up in the alias.It's possible that the aliased loco is actually a copy of something else that is more accessible, but if that's so then finding that other version might be difficult. The easiest way to check is to compare the image file for the body - the layout of the parts of that image must exactly match.N3V has advised that they are considering an alternative to this sort of aliasing, but they haven't provided any details yet and it seems still a long way off. In any case, the asset needs to be fixed, if possible.

 

[railroaddaddy42]

OK thanks guys this one might be a little over my head.im new at this.


Bob Moyer

 

[RailwayDave]

I came across the same loco today on the DLS and wanted to see it so I opened the #802 for edit and substituted the Auran asset <kuid2:523:156564:1> for the missing dependency <kuid:45324:100033>.

All worked well and the locomotive appears in Railyard.

Not sure if the mesh is identical, but it is close enough to render. Did not look to be missing paint anywhere...

Note the Auran asset still uses progressive mesh, so you will get warnings in CM.

-RailwayDave

 

[narrowgauge]

John

A bit later limits were found with the original KUID system and it has since been updated to the KUID2 which works in a similar fashion, but with more features.

Please expand a little on this subject, the Wiki says nothing about it and T:ane defaults to CDP when exporting content. I knew CDP2 existed but never seemed to need it.

Thanks

Peter

 

[JCitron]

John



Please expand a little on this subject, the Wiki says nothing about it and T:ane defaults to CDP when exporting content. I knew CDP2 existed but never seemed to need it.

Thanks

Peter

Hi Peter,

Here's something, thanks to Frank Bartus, that explains about the Kuid vs. Kuid2.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/KUIDs

Apparently it has to do with versioning support - the suffix on the end.

CDP2s... I've never seen any of those anywhere, but I found this:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/file_types_by_extensions

Again thanks to Frank and his compilation of info, the CDP2 was used by the Trainz Classics series, which would explain why I never saw it.

John

 

[narrowgauge]

Thanks, John.

That top link is a good one for Newbies. A point that Frank missed (or I didn't see it) is that if an asset is setup with KUID2 and the version is omitted, CM automatically assigns :127> as the version, which means that the associated asset kuid is effectively locked preventing any future updates.

The CDP2 appears to be a pointless exercise, just related to the Classic versions.

Peter

 

[JCitron]

Thanks, John.

That top link is a good one for Newbies. A point that Frank missed (or I didn't see it) is that if an asset is setup with KUID2 and the version is omitted, CM automatically assigns :127> as the version, which means that the associated asset kuid is effectively locked preventing any future updates.

The CDP2 appears to be a pointless exercise, just related to the Classic versions.

Peter

Yikes that sounds like a but in the software actually. I'll mention this to him. I agree he's done a nice job with this and the whole book is great for the new folks. That's his goal to produce a good source for information to be used in conjunction with the Wiki here along with the forums.

John