Chasing Down Missing and Faulty Assets?

[geez4]

I now have T:ANE. I've downloaded a bunch of possibly interesting freeware routes and sessions from DLS and I am now starting an ambitious (and possibly fruitless) effort to resolve missing and faulty dependencies in these assets. Let's take a very simple example I'm working with. I have the Robe River 2012 -v7 (no multiplayer) route, <kuid2:302602:100011:8> from alcaron. There are two missing assets in this particular route at this time -- <kuid2:124017:30014:2> and <kuid2:30501:1005:2>.

I'll start with the most basic question(s) and drill down later if that's appropriate.

Is there any way to determine what a missing asset might be, even as broadly as its category? I don't see any way in Surveyor to find references to objects by kuid. Is there some way to locate object references in Surveyor so I might at least see where in the 3D world a missing asset was intended to live (which would at least give me a clue)?

On a more general note, are there any suggestions on how to proceed on a project like this, chasing down (and then possibly replacing) missing and faulty dependencies? The example I gave above is the simplest I'm facing. Several of the routes and sessions I've downloaded have a _lot_ of missing dependencies. And these routes and sessions were uploaded to DLS relatively recently. Am I wasting my time trying to resolve these issues, or is there some hope of my "fixing" these problems?

TIA!

--Gary

 

[colin55]

If you can't find missing items on the DLS have you tried www.trainzkuidindex.com ?

 

[BuilderBob]

Is there some way to locate object references in Surveyor so I might at least see where in the 3D world a missing asset was intended to live (which would at least give me a clue)?

For a route or session you can create an asset with the same KUID (something like a large red blob would work) and then look at the route in Surveyor and see where it appears and take a guess at what it might be. If it's not the correct type (eg, your blob is scenery, but the missing asset is track) then that won't work, but I guess you could try different asset types until something looks likely. But at best it's a guess.

For other assets you look inside the config file and see what tag or container references the missing asset.

 

[boleyd]

In TANE we now have the missing asset red indicators. BUT, N3V does not give us the identification of that asset. I have complained about this many times. Someone even responded to the effect that N3V does not know the ID of the missing asset. While we now have the ability to sort a list that shows the IDs of missing assets, where does each of these fit in the route. There is a disconnect from the list to the red indicators.

Maybe someday N3V can make a quite small change that tags the ID of the asset alongside the red indicator, or the white dashed lines, so the customer can decide to search for or ignore the missing item.

Also, the ability to easily change a missing (unknown) asset to something else would be nice. A piece of vegetation is missing in a forest. If I know its ID I may elect to simply substitute something else in the mass replace function. But, N3V can't do that unless the missing item is found and installed into TANE. Another fix that is not very costly.

 

[geez4]

Thanks to all of you for the advice and comments. Here's my feedback...

Colin55's pointer to the trainzkuidindex was helpful, even though I missed the free access and had to buy a subscription It has pointed me to _some_ of my missing dependencies, for which I am grateful. However, it has brought a disturbing issue to light. Some of the unknowns I have in my system are reported in the index as T:ANE SP1 (build 80349) builtins, but they are not in my build 84473 system (acquired recently from Steam). In one case (just as an example), the index says version 2 of an asset is a builtin, but my build only has version 1 installed. In many other cases, the assets are shown in the index as builtin but don't exist at all in my build and are not on DLS (presumably because they are built in). I'm starting to fear that as N3V releases patches they may be deleting builtins that they find to be incompatible with the new patch(es). Is that possible, or is there something else going on?

I'm not sure BuilderBob's suggestion of creating a temporary blob stand-in asset is going to work for me. How would I do that without spending a fortune to license 3DS Max?

Dick says T:ANE now has missing asset red indicators. How do I find those in Surveyor when the route I'm dealing with is really huge? Is there a way to navigate directly to such indicators?

Thanks again to everyone for your help.

--Gary

 

[Roine]

I now have T:ANE. I've downloaded a bunch of possibly interesting freeware routes and sessions from DLS and I am now starting an ambitious (and possibly fruitless) effort to resolve missing and faulty dependencies in these assets. Let's take a very simple example I'm working with. I have the Robe River 2012 -v7 (no multiplayer) route, <kuid2:302602:100011:8> from alcaron. There are two missing assets in this particular route at this time -- <kuid2:124017:30014:2> and <kuid2:30501:1005:2>.

I'll start with the most basic question(s) and drill down later if that's appropriate.

Is there any way to determine what a missing asset might be, even as broadly as its category? I don't see any way in Surveyor to find references to objects by kuid. Is there some way to locate object references in Surveyor so I might at least see where in the 3D world a missing asset was intended to live (which would at least give me a clue)?

On a more general note, are there any suggestions on how to proceed on a project like this, chasing down (and then possibly replacing) missing and faulty dependencies? The example I gave above is the simplest I'm facing. Several of the routes and sessions I've downloaded have a _lot_ of missing dependencies. And these routes and sessions were uploaded to DLS relatively recently. Am I wasting my time trying to resolve these issues, or is there some hope of my "fixing" these problems?

TIA!

--Gary

<kuid2:124017:30014:2> is on the DLS as <kuid2:124017:30014:1>
<kuid2:30501:1005:2> is also on the DLS as <kuid2:30501:1005:1>
Regards,
Roine

 

[SailorDan]

How would I do that without spending a fortune to license 3DS Max?

You clone a suitable existing asset. If you want something custom, use Blender - it's free.

 

[geez4]

<kuid2:124017:30014:2> is on the DLS as <kuid2:124017:30014:1>
<kuid2:30501:1005:2> is also on the DLS as <kuid2:30501:1005:1>
Regards,
Roine

Thanks, Roine. I did a little checking, now that I understand the search mechanism a little better, and confirmed that these two version 1 assets are actually installed in my build. But since they're not the version that the route is calling for the route still shows the version 2 assets as missing dependencies. I guess I would have to go into surveyor and do a mass replace of the version 2 kuids with the version 1 kuids _but_ that would first require me to physically locate the bad objects in the route, which I haven't been able to figure out how to do in a huge, sprawling route. Any further suggestions?

--Gary

 

[colin55]

Don't edit the route. Open the config and change those kuids from 2 to 1 there.

 

[BuilderBob]

I did a little checking, now that I understand the search mechanism a little better, and confirmed that these two version 1 assets are actually installed in my build.

Then you know which assets you need to clone - no need to guess what they might be.

 

[Alcaron]

Hi geez4!

<kuid2:124017:30014:2> and <kuid2:30501:1005:2> is build-in... in my Tane.



Edit:
Sorry, I've looked again. This two kuids are objects of payware maps.
I will make a update in the next days...