Article: Open Letter to the Trainz Content Creator Community

[HSSRAIL]

May 25, 2015

Going forward the biggest problem I see for content creators is the creation of routes that will take many years to create. I see a need for trainz to create an area of the community where Trainz surveyor can be run on line. That is that a route can be created and worked on and reside on a computer overseen by Trainz.

1) This will allow for multiple people to get together and work on the same route at one time.
2) Having that route on a computer under control of Trainz would give the creators of the Trainz software an overview of what routes are still being created and the option to support those routes and assets into the new versions.

It is a problem that the developers of Trainz do not know what routes are being impacted by their changes as only finished routes are generally uploaded to the Download Station.

 

[martinvk]

Interesting idea, sort of like multiplayer during the design stage. If it's a prototypical route, this might work, since there would be a common goal and known standard to aim for.

For routes just inspired by real life or total fantasy routes, not so sure this would work. Something along the lines of too many cooks spoiling the broth. But who knows, it might work in some cases so if it was made possible, why not.

 

[samplaire]

Not sure where the stupid policy is but having the same asset with two different Kuid values is asking for trouble as you so ably explained. If you really want to maintain separate versions for TRS2004 and TS2010, why not use different kuid values? Much less confusion.

In your explanation, you say John has TS2010 but can't download the TS12 version. This is normal. Why should he be able to download an asset for a version of Trainz he doesn't have?

Much more confusion. Imagine a user wanting to d/l everything. Your solution doubles the amount of data in surveyor.

 

[samplaire]

In your explanation, you say John has TS2010 but can't download the TS12 version. This is normal. Why should he be able to download an asset for a version of Trainz he doesn't have?

Please, read my post once again to realize John doesn't want a thing for TS12...

 

[martinvk]

A man called John has TS2010 so he downloads the DLS version.

* This year: I update the Fence 1 because it is too green. I upload KUID2:xxx:yyy:1 to my site and KUID2:xxx:yyy:11 (but TS12!) to DLS.

John can't download the DLS version because he is on TS2010. John is smart so he downloads the TRS2004 version from my site. ZONK it has an obsolete KUID beacuse the last year DLS Fence 1 has :10 at the end while the new on has :1! Hmmm, what to do... YES, he deletes the DLS version and the newly installed TRS2004 version should be not obsolete! HA! It should but life teaches us all the time - nobody knows why but CM+ sometimes still remembers it had a higher KUID installed! John can't use my asset. End of the story.

Please stop this stupid policy.

How did this hypothetical John even see let alone download the TS12 version since he only has TS2010? Even if, had they been given independent kuid numbers and not just a version increment, there would not be any confusion. As for doubling the content, since they are different so there should be two.

I think if someone is intent on downloading everything, then it's up to them to watch for these issues.

 

[samplaire]

I think if someone is intent on downloading everything, then it's up to them to watch for these issues.

I care for users.

 

[shaneturner12]

The system works well as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, one should not have two different sets of versions for an asset as it will cause problems for T:ANE users.

Shane