Clogging DLS

[HiBaller]

Moot point just now. The DLS has been useless all day for me - and for others. How about that, Zec? Any progress being made on that?

I started my browser thirty minutes ago and it is just now showing the banner at the top of the page; nothing else.

Bill

 

[ZecMurphy]

How about that, Zec? Any progress being made on that?

Please see this thread: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=64018

When I have news on it, I will post an update.

Thank you for your patience.

 

[HiBaller]

Thanks, Zec. Appreciate that.

Bill

 

[narrowgauge]

With increased use of large texture pages and mesh libraries, the 'pack problem' will occur. It will no longer be sufficient to download one item, as, if it is related to a library, the asset KUID will only contain the config.txt, the mesh is in the library which could probably be a multi-megabyte download.

This is where TS2010 is going.

The sign collection comment that started this thread will still be valid, even if that collection of a family of signs was in a mesh library for greater efficiency, there will still be multiple instances of similar signs to sort through, any one of which will entail downloading the library.

It may not be evident yet but a single multi-texture page with an associated normals page which itself has an alpha page attached, could easily be more that 7 mb, imagine how your file collection will blow out if every single item carries that sort of overhead.

Peter

 

[paulzmay]

With increased use of large texture pages and mesh libraries, the 'pack problem' will occur. It will no longer be sufficient to download one item, as, if it is related to a library, the asset KUID will only contain the config.txt, the mesh is in the library which could probably be a multi-megabyte download.

This is where TS2010 is going.

The sign collection comment that started this thread will still be valid, even if that collection of a family of signs was in a mesh library for greater efficiency, there will still be multiple instances of similar signs to sort through, any one of which will entail downloading the library.

It may not be evident yet but a single multi-texture page with an associated normals page which itself has an alpha page attached, could easily be more that 7 mb, imagine how your file collection will blow out if every single item carries that sort of overhead.

Peter

It's a good point, but in many cases the library won't be much bigger than a single asset would be. It all depends on whether assets are using discrete sections of a texture page (which is therfore larger), or whether they are sharing the same areas. The trampoles I earlier alluded to (over 220 now) mostly use a single 8x8 texture, as I'm mostly just using it as a plain colour pallette. I hope creators are sensible about this...

Paul

p.s. note that my trampole library uses a lot less than 220 meshes, as it loads poles (a choice of 5 styles) crosswires and arms seperately.

 

[narrowgauge]

Paul

I isn't clear if your trampoles are in a library or or single meshes with a single 8x8 texture for each one. If they are single units then you will have a 200 poly load for each one that is loaded, despite the small texture size, and my abacus tells me that represents 44000 polys. Even with a small texture there is a substantial gain with the use of a library.

Either way, you will have 220 items each with its own KUID which is what the OP was complaining about and I don't see any way out. I think a cluttered DLS is unavoidable.

Peter

 

[paulzmay]

Paul

I isn't clear if your trampoles are in a library or or single meshes with a single 8x8 texture for each one. If they are single units then you will have a 200 poly load for each one that is loaded, despite the small texture size, and my abacus tells me that represents 44000 polys. Even with a small texture there is a substantial gain with the use of a library.

Either way, you will have 220 items each with its own KUID which is what the OP was complaining about and I don't see any way out. I think a cluttered DLS is unavoidable.

Peter

They are a development of what I already have on the DLS, this time using a mesh library - as you say a substantial win in terms of performance, but unavoidably a LOT of separate kuids.

It would be possible for Auran to implement a way of using packs (separate downloads but linked), so that they appeared in the web DLS as a single line with a big '+' button for those who want to select individual items (via a popup or similar). It would need some substantial changes, and wouldn't return NV3 a cent, so I don't expect to see it unless the do a general revamp of the black pages.

Paul

 

[mezzoprezzo]

I can be mildly frustrating to see so many "lookalikes".

What I do is to set my results page to 10 thumbnailed items, then leapfrog several pages until I find a varied selection, then work backwards.

It's no big deal really.

Having said that, for me and other 04/06 users, it's no longer a problem for new items - we no longer get them!

Cheers
Casper

 

[narrowgauge]

Paul

I know it sounds like 'I'm all right Jack' but really, CM takes care of the problem, the sort routines there are much better than the DLS. Just another reason to upgrade to TS2010 even if it's used just for downloading content.

Peter

 

[paulzmay]

True - I use TS2010 on one machine, and TS09 on the other. I do still find it easier to browse the black pages, even if only because I can load a page of 100 thumbnails in the time it takes CM to load about 2. I would certainly recommend anyone on broadband to use 100 items per page thumbnail mode...

Paul

 

[mezzoprezzo]

~snip~ I would certainly recommend anyone on broadband to use 100 items per page thumbnail mode...

Paul

Thanks for that Paul - what a great tip!

I've not looked at Download Settings for two years and had totally forgotten about it.

100 at a time it is from now on .. it's so easy to pull the scroll bar down to by-pass repeat thumbnails. It also saves having to select subsequent pages and waiting for them to load up.

Cheers
Casper