Asset Database Backup: Wow! Over 20,000 files!

[JCitron]

Congrats on your accomplishment, it always feels great when a large Project finally completes!

I need your help on something, TrainzUtil.exe

Supposedly this is supposed to open by command line? Do I use a Dos Window CMD to start this file?

Was this supposed to run under Content Manager?

Yes, you can run that from the command line with the Launcher running. You need to navigate to program files/n3v games/TRS19 or whatever that folder is called.

If you open up a terminal window in Windows 11 or even Windows 10 today, you need to use ./trainzutil.exe to execute the program since that opens up PowerShell unless you've configured that differently.

Typing trainzutil help or ./trainzutil help will give you a list of the available commands. Very helpful and very powerful too.

 

[JCitron]

I also have nearly all of Dave's content as well. I also recommend Ben Dorsey bendorsey (rip), and MSGSAPPER.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Far from it. all I finished was redownloading davesnow content. I still have a fair amount to go, as the list was sorted alphabetically author handle. I`m well into the F range at the moment. Dave was just the biggest slice of the pie. All the same, I appreciate the congratulations, as I did finish a very large chunk.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Oops, I didn`t see your posts yet when I replied to blueodessy. When I hit Submit, surprise!

Regarding "most of Dave`s content", I only have 2161 assets out of a total of 9423, which hardly qualifies as "nearly all" as "I also have" implies you thought I have. I have a lot of it, but there is far more that I don`t have. It`ll grow, though. I also have reason to look for their content, as I had a fair amount of it in the Olde Dayes. I`ve also recognized some other names from Back Then. I only mentioned Dave specifically because of how large a percentage of my current content is from him.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I seem to be having a very flaky connection the last few hours, Content Manager telling me Too Many Connections, my computer just barely whispering that my DSL connection to the outside had died yet again, having to reset the DSL connection and exit Trainz entirely and try again, etc..

Ya suppose that all this flakeyness has anything to do with all the flakes in the air today?

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Well, that was fun. We lost power here for not less than about 3.5 hours and not more than 6.5 hours. Fortunately, it came back about fifty minutes ago. My laptop`s battery id only good for about an hour`s use, depending on what I`m doing, AND the machine did NOT power back up, like it usually does, so I expected to have to deal with the consequences of an "improperly shut down" Windows system.

My fears were confirmed when hitting the button did not wake the computer, but rather booted it from a powered-off condition.

Imagine my surprise when the log-in sequence terminated and presented me with an intact workspace, including a Notepad window, complete with unsaved edits!

I will soon be attempting to resume my redownloading, with which I was having, shall we say, "technical difficulties" near the end of my previous session.

Meanwhile, prior to leaving, I had performed a database repair after those difficulties and skimmed through some of those errors and warnings variously flash or crawl by, and noticed that it will take a LOT of work to make some of those assets usable, some of which I am not currently ABLE to perform. Many reported as having a build-number that was so low that the database repair apparently wouldn`t look at the asset. Many reported as having images in a format that was no longer supported (I don`t yet know if they still work anyway). Many reported that "phong shading" was no longer supported. Many had other errors and warnings that I no longer recall. I think that there issues with meshes, too.

In pursuit of updating some of these for personal use, does anyone have a free command-line program that can convert some or all of those images into suitable formats? Does anyone have any free command-line programs that can automatically handle any of the other esoterica of the conversions? If I can find those, I should be able to cobble together a script that can auto-update a number of long-dead assets that were never retrofitted to current standards. Wouldn`t nearly every Trainzer love something like that? If I can acquire the requisite command-line converters, I intend to automate as much of the update as I can, for my own use, It occurs to me that other people might like to be able to do that, too.

 

[blueodessey]

Well, that was fun. We lost power here for not less than about 3.5 hours and not more than 6.5 hours. Fortunately, it came back about fifty minutes ago. My laptop`s battery id only good for about an hour`s use, depending on what I`m doing, AND the machine did NOT power back up, like it usually does, so I expected to have to deal with the consequences of an "improperly shut down" Windows system.

My fears were confirmed when hitting the button did not wake the computer, but rather booted it from a powered-off condition.

Imagine my surprise when the log-in sequence terminated and presented me with an intact workspace, including a Notepad window, complete with unsaved edits!

I will soon be attempting to resume my re-downloading, with which I was having, shall we say, "technical difficulties" near the end of my previous session.

Meanwhile, prior to leaving, I had performed a database repair after those difficulties and skimmed through some of those errors and warnings variously flash or crawl by, and noticed that it will take a LOT of work to make some of those assets usable, some of which I am not currently ABLE to perform. Many reported as having a build-number that was so low that the database repair apparently wouldn`t look at the asset. Many reported as having images in a format that was no longer supported (I don`t yet know if they still work anyway). Many reported that "phong shading" was no longer supported. Many had other errors and warnings that I no longer recall. I think that there issues with meshes, too.

In pursuit of updating some of these for personal use, does anyone have a free command-line program that can convert some or all of those images into suitable formats? Does anyone have any free command-line programs that can automatically handle any of the other esoterica of the conversions? If I can find those, I should be able to cobble together a script that can auto-update a number of long-dead assets that were never retrofitted to current standards. Wouldn`t nearly every Trainzer love something like that? If I can acquire the requisite command-line converters, I intend to automate as much of the update as I can, for my own use, It occurs to me that other people might like to be able to do that, too.

Glad to hear your Computer came back and Windows didn't produce a Bag of Charcoal. Your one lucky person, I know all to well how Windows can act producing one massive headache, Repair time unknown.

As far as Asset Programs some of more learned ones will probably have some suggestions for you. Those errors are above my pay grade. Probably a lot of it is OLD Mesh issues, and if the Asset files are encrypted, and the Author is not around or doesn't want to be bothered you'll not be able to completely fix them.

 

[JCitron]

Well, that went to crap didn't it!

Errors though, need to be resolved otherwise content won't load or cause other problems.

Run an Extended Database Repair by holding down the CTRL key while selecting Rebuild Database. This can take a long time, so let it run and hopefully the problem can be resolved.

Repairs for older content, take experience and time so be warned.

A useful set of tools is here:

PevSoft Trainz Tools | Shane's Trainz Information and Tutorial Site

These tools need to be installed and run as administrator due to their age but they run fine right through Windows 11. These fix image issues as well as convert .pm files to .im and do other things such as remove uniform color warnings and errors.

For other tools I recommend:

Notepad++
Gimp or Paint.net

Use Notepad++ for editing/repairing config.txt files
and the photo editors for updating or repairing images. (Resizing, etc.)

The Phong issue can be ignored, at least for now.
Ignore all warnings - those yellow triangles with a "!" in the middle.

This needs to be a new topic, elsewhere outside of the TRS22 forum.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

@blueodessy:

Thank you, and I hope so; I`ve had enough bad luck in my life that some good luck occasionally is never unwelcome.

Agreed, mine too at the moment, agreed, and bleep certain!

@JCitron:

???

Agreed.

I already ran a regular database repair, and all of the errors that I saw looked like nothing an extended repair could possibly fix, except for the type I mentioned wanting to (try to) script.

Expected, which is why I would like to automate as much of it as I can.

I`ve seen that mentioned in the Wiki. Are any of these tools suitable for use inside a *.bat file or similar? That`s what a script that attempts to automate upgrades would need.

I`ve already installed JEdit, one of my favorite programmable programmers` editors (if only because I`m already familiar with it), and the current version is too new to run on the latest Java machine I was able to install. I`ll have to go back and download an older one that can. Like Windows, Gimp is easy to get lost in at first, and I`m not quite ready to learn that, either. I may have heard of Paint.net, but I cannot be sure.

Of course, except I`d prefer to not have to learn another text editor if I don`t have to. Command-line programs that can substitute for the graphics editors is more the speed I`m looking for, until I decide to start creating my own content, anyway.

Yes; deal with the outright errors before being overly concerned about the warnings. I only mentioned them at all as an example of what the repair job (attempted only because I thought Trainz might have screwed with the database while I was trying to deal with flakey-internet-connection issues) had thrown my way; I wasn`t seriously asking for serious help right-here-right-now. General pointers like you provided was the limit of the help I was asking for here.

Agreed; its only relevance here is that it is stuff that relates to the number of filesystem objects in my trainzbase: Lots of old stuff in need of repair helps to inflate the number, so SOMEthing is going to have to be done about them, the details of which, I agree, are much better discussed elsewhere. This thread has three main topics, as far as I am concerned: How big people`s trainzbase is, which we have already covered for ourselves, what filters they like/use, and a superficial discussion of the trials and tribulations of my upgrade. When I finish that, that topic is dead. The other two need fresh blood to keep the thread alive, so I fear the entire thread will just die when my upgrade finishes. Whatever. No big deal.

Edit: Corrected an offensive spelling of a brand name. Other minor edits.

 

[JCitron]

Paint.net is easier to use - less fluff and more straight forward.

An EDBR will work deeper into the database than a regular DBR. It's not used in all situations but since you had a hard crash like this it's warranted.

Use whatever editor you want. Notepad++ is a nice one though and worth looking at.

Yes, PEV's Tools can be automated. Peter provides some extensive documentation to go with his nifty utilities.

The rest you got right. Scrape the top, clean up the dirt, and then dig deeper to repair whatever's been totally wrecked.

Agreed setup something else.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Ok, but I`m not ready to do that until I finish reinstalling, and even then, graphics are low on my list, as I`m not really that kind of artist.

Actually, I did not have a hard crash; I just feared that multiple soft aborts might have messed with it.

Fair enough. I just happen to already be familiar with the other one already..

Great! I will absolutely HAVE to go there and get some, after I finish my reinstall.

Exactly. It`s the only way to go.

Will do, when the time is right.

Meanwhile, the asset redownload is going, just going very slowly. As I type, Content Manager is reporting a download speed of 11.78KB/sec and climbing. The last time I had peeked before that, it was more like TWO-point-something KB/sec. Oh, while looking for last-minute edits/corrections, the last batch completed. Time to go prime the pump again.

Edit: I shoulda known: eight errors, all "could not download, too many connections"! Arrgh!

 

[blueodessey]

Ok, but I`m not ready to do that until I finish reinstalling, and even then, graphics are low on my list, as I`m not really that kind of artist.

Actually, I did not have a hard crash; I just feared that multiple soft aborts might have messed with it.

Fair enough. I just happen to already be familiar with the other one already..

Great! I will absolutely HAVE to go there and get some, after I finish my reinstall.

Exactly. It`s the only way to go.

Will do, when the time is right.

Meanwhile, the asset redownload is going, just going very slowly. As I type, Content Manager is reporting a download speed of 11.78KB/sec and climbing. The last time I had peeked before that, it was more like TWO-point-something KB/sec. Oh, while looking for last-minute edits/corrections, the last batch completed. Time to go prime the pump again.

Edit: I shoulda known: eight errors, all "could not download, too many connections"! Arrgh!

Whats with the too many connections, you should have only one connection on a download thru your ISP....Something is not right there?

Just wondering, do you have a bunch of Tabs open on your Browser while awaiting downloads.

12 Ways to Fix Slow Download Speeds on Chrome

Slow download speeds are one of the biggest nightmares online. Here are ways to fix the problem on Google Chrome.

www.makeuseof.com

1. Close Unused Tabs While Downloading Files​

Each open tab in your browser consumes some resources. Chrome has very few resources to utilize when so many tabs are open, and you're downloading files. Therefore, a lack of RAM resources can slow down the download process.


Chrome has its Task Manager that enables you to identify which processes use the most network resources on your browser. Open the Chrome Task Manager by clicking on the three vertical dots in the top-right corner and navigating to More tools > Task manager.


To identify the processes consuming the most network resources, click on the Network to arrange the column in ascending order. To close any task in the Task Manager, select

 

[MasterTracklayer]

It looks like your message got cut off.

My best guess, blueodessey, is that the slow and flakey DSL pipeline I use caused Content Manager to time out and/or otherwise drop the connection to the DLS, while the DLS, not knowing that Content Manager had given up, continued to pour bytes through the now-broken connection. Meanwhile, Connection Manager, thinking that the connection had been closed and was therefor available for another download, would attempt to open that available connection for that next attempt, upon which the DLS would complain that I already had too many open connections. The only cure that I am aware of is 100% reliable, if somewhat time consuming: totally disconnect from the Internet, forcing both ends to note that the other end is unreachable and as a result close all open connections. I typically exit Trainz entirely at my end, in case physically unplugging isn`t enough. Even if I exit Trainz entirely, if I don`t physically disconnect, the lights on the modem look like something is dumping bytes through the pipe at a high rate. The DSL modem takes a while to restart, so I`ve learned to unplug the phone line instead. Unfortunately, if I do not wait long enough to reconnect, I sometimes continue to have those errors after reconnecting. When my DLS is being particularly obnoxious, even that will not help much. I deal.

Yes, I do. My DSL is slow enough that they hardly have any impact on downloading.

Right now, with two browser WINDOWS open and 17 tabs in this window and 12 in the other, my Content Manager is flying along at a speedy 168+ KB/sec, by its own estimate. It typically hovers nearer 140. I do not get anything significantly faster with the browser totally closed. I have browsed through the Settings options for my browser, and know about the option to have the browser dump resources being held for open tabs. I didn`t bother, because that isn`t where the bottleneck is located. I`ve seen references to the browser`s own task manager, but I`ve got the real thing running in the background, and it doesn`t seem to have much bad to say about the browser.

Meanwhile, I have downloaded the entirety of potential useful tools from PEV. Between them and trainzutil.exe, it looks like I will be able to create a tool to autorepair many of the issues with ancient content. I doubt that people would enjoy having to download JEdit to run the script, so I`ll probably write it in PowerShell instead.

Something much more likely to interfere, but which does not seem to actually BE interfering, is that both my browser and my OS currently want me to allow them to restart to finish installing updates that I never told them to go looking for (though neither did I specifically prohibit it, either). Currently, the timing is inconvenient.

 

[blueodessey]

It looks like your message got cut off.

My best guess, blueodessey, is that the slow and flakey DSL pipeline I use caused Content Manager to time out and/or otherwise drop the connection to the DLS, while the DLS, not knowing that Content Manager had given up, continued to pour bytes through the now-broken connection. Meanwhile, Connection Manager, thinking that the connection had been closed and was therefor available for another download, would attempt to open that available connection for that next attempt, upon which the DLS would complain that I already had too many open connections. The only cure that I am aware of is 100% reliable, if somewhat time consuming: totally disconnect from the Internet, forcing both ends to note that the other end is unreachable and as a result close all open connections. I typically exit Trainz entirely at my end, in case physically unplugging isn`t enough. Even if I exit Trainz entirely, if I don`t physically disconnect, the lights on the modem look like something is dumping bytes through the pipe at a high rate. The DSL modem takes a while to restart, so I`ve learned to unplug the phone line instead. Unfortunately, if I do not wait long enough to reconnect, I sometimes continue to have those errors after reconnecting. When my DLS is being particularly obnoxious, even that will not help much. I deal.

Yes, I do. My DSL is slow enough that they hardly have any impact on downloading.

Right now, with two browser WINDOWS open and 17 tabs in this window and 12 in the other, my Content Manager is flying along at a speedy 168+ KB/sec, by its own estimate. It typically hovers nearer 140. I do not get anything significantly faster with the browser totally closed. I have browsed through the Settings options for my browser, and know about the option to have the browser dump resources being held for open tabs. I didn`t bother, because that isn`t where the bottleneck is located. I`ve seen references to the browser`s own task manager, but I`ve got the real thing running in the background, and it doesn`t seem to have much bad to say about the browser.

Meanwhile, I have downloaded the entirety of potential useful tools from PEV. Between them and trainzutil.exe, it looks like I will be able to create a tool to autorepair many of the issues with ancient content. I doubt that people would enjoy having to download JEdit to run the script, so I`ll probably write it in PowerShell instead.

Something much more likely to interfere, but which does not seem to actually BE interfering, is that both my browser and my OS currently want me to allow them to restart to finish installing updates that I never told them to go looking for (though neither did I specifically prohibit it, either). Currently, the timing is inconvenient.

MasterTracklayer,

Try this site, I have used them for decades, and I think this particular ques and answered may be the issue. Worth a try anyway.

Losing internet connection during large downloads, need help!

Hey guys! For a while I have been getting an odd problem, when I am downloading a large file, usually a steam game, the internet connection drops across my whole house, and then comes back up within a minute or two. This is very annoying when i am trying to download a game and do something...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Thank you for trying to help, but I`m pretty sure that we`re having different issues. I`ve already discussed this with my ISP and their DSL provider, and they don`t seem to be able to do anything. As slow as it is, it is still far faster than the acoustic modem I used to use, and far less expensive than anything I can replace it with. It serves me adequately enough for my purposes, at least most of the time. Meanwhile, time to go back to Content Manager and prime the pump for another batch. Is is going slowly, but by bleep it sure enough IS censored going! (At least when I remember to go tap it on the shoulder when needed.)

 

[MasterTracklayer]

While redownloading content today, I was lurking around in the forum and came across a thread (JCitron has posted there, as I recall) about someone who thought that Living Railroad was supposed to be included in his/her Trainz installation. Somewhere in that thread was posted instructions about how to check/set the update stream that the program is supposed to use to self-update from. I followed those instructions, just out of curiosity, and discovered in the process that an update is available for my installed program.

I hope that downloading this update doesn`t take another twelve hours, and if it does, that I don`t have to download it with the nonrestartable FTP protocol. That would set my reinstall back quite a bit, something that would be rather annoying at this juncture; even worse if I have to redown all my content again.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Status update: Just starting the second-to-last batch of DLS content. After the last batch, I will take a closer look at that update, but I`d appreciate anything anyone can tell me about it in advance.

 

[JCitron]

I hope that downloading this update doesn`t take another twelve hours, and if it does, that I don`t have to download it with the nonrestartable FTP protocol. That would set my reinstall back quite a bit, something that would be rather annoying at this juncture; even worse if I have to redown all my content again.

The update will be a full 9.8 GB download. Your best bet is to download the full install from your My Trainz account and download the full install, and use that version rather than do the update over the web.

TRS22 Base or PE editions do not have TLR. That is only currently available in Plus due to TLR being in beta. Plus is the subscription version, FYI.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I guess I`ll just have to take your advice. I`ve done that once already (the downloading and installation of an update), as you have been reading about here at length, but this one is expected to break far less, because the gap between the old and the new is far smaller. Will this one have the desire to create yet another trainzbase? I`m assuming that this version is similar enough to my current version that I won`t have to go through all this again. At least I censored well hope I won`t! This time around, though, at least I`m familiar enough with the process to not need my hand held through it.

THANK YOU for warning me; if you hadn`t distracted me before I got back to it, I`d probably be downloading it via FTP by now. I assume that you`re telling me that I can download it via restartable SHTTP from the same place I got the hast one. I think that this time, though, I`ll install it alongside the current install instead of just overwriting it. Safer if something goes wrong. I know that they don`t. If you look closer, you`ll notice that all I did was click through the dialog that sets the update stream, just to see what it said about my installation. For what it`s worth, the relevant identifier is ts22, and there were no other options to select.

Status update: When I went back to Content Manager, and loaded the last batch of kuids into the first window, I discovered that the dependencies of the earlier assets had preloaded all of the entries in what was expected to be one last batch, leaving me with nothing more to download. I`ll be back for a brief note on how the third install in about as many weeks has gone, but I foresee no other reason for me to return, unless someone else posts something worth replying to.

Thank you to everyone. It has been entertaining, informative, and useful. Please feel free to continue using this thread to post your trainzbase sizes and your favorite filters, and I hope that all my various issues are found to be helpful and/or entertaining to other people in similar boats.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Ok, something definitely weird is going on here.

I went to download the update manually, only to discover that is the same version as my second download.

I load Trainz from my usual shortcut, which I thought pointed to where the new download had overwritten the original install.

I look at the build number in the bottom left of the window, and find the build number of the old version!

I look in the Start Menu and see two sets of Trainz icons.

I launch the one marked New, and get what I thought was the only version, the new one.

I try the usual icon again, and get the old version again.

I even had both launch windows open at once, and compared the build numbers back and forth. Yes, it appears that I have both versions installed. I thought I had overwritten the first install!

Here is the weird part: While trying to open the Settings, trying to check/set the trainzbase location, I found (I forget which tab) that Trainz thought my account was not authorized for this version of something.

I have forgotten which content folder is which, and can tell me which build each is for. The names are build kf0optjq1 and build sbnlt0ba1.

I tried to back out and exit both programs, but one of them told me that I had an update available, and offered to install it.

I tried to decline, and thought I had, but a window popped up trying to get information about where I wanted to install the patch.

Not knowing what to do about it, I ended up clicking through a series of dialogs wanting further details.

Now the Online Patch window is downloading the patch, and estimates eighteen hours left.

Pardon my "shouting", but WHAT THE CENSORED BLEEP DO I DO NOW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Edit: Ok, I see what I did: One got installed into .../N3V/Games/... (probably the new one) and the other into .../Games/N3V/... (Should be the old one). Note the transposition of the directory names. I also think I have differentiated between the trainzbases on the basis of timestamps. I should have thought of this sooner, but I fear I was slightly panicked. I still need to know what to do about the in-progress download. Should I cancel it? (I hope yes.) If so, how?

Edit 2: Ok, I finally noticed the Cancel button. I`m clicking it as soon as I finish posting this. I`d still like to know more about the Not Authorized message. I`ll also try to find it again and identify it more specifically.

Edit 3: On the Settings dialog, My Trainz tab, My Trainz Account, the clickable link reads Your My Trains account lacks authorization for this product.

Edit 4: I forgot to mention that the dialog does know that I have a First Class Ticket with 10 days remaining.