Does anyone have a use for this?

[handlaidtrack]

OK, so it’s not really a “route”, but it may have some use as part of a route. I created it as a test bed to practice laying out curves and grades. I wanted something that would require a lot of long curves, but also something that I hoped might be useful without ending up as an Achilles’ heel on a major route.

Basically, it’s a glorified staging yard for one end of a four-track main line (right hand running), allowing for a virtually unlimited supply of trains. Occupying just two boards, it contains 65 staging tracks and an independent loop to allow trains to accelerate before merging with the main lines. Also included are 10 portals (8 originating and 2 consuming).

Although by no means realistic operation, I did find it quite fun to see how many trains I could get onto the main loops without crashing any of them.

When I started, I never intended to scenic it. If I had, I would have built it in the middle of 6 boards to allow for some space around the edges.

If anyone thinks they may have a use for it, I’ll upload it to the DLS.

 

[cvkiwi]

From chris sullivan in NEW ZEALAND

OK, so it’s not really a “route”, but it may have some use as part of a route. I created it as a test bed to practice laying out curves and grades. I wanted something that would require a lot of long curves, but also something that I hoped might be useful without ending up as an Achilles’ heel on a major route.

Basically, it’s a glorified staging yard for one end of a four-track main line (right hand running), allowing for a virtually unlimited supply of trains. Occupying just two boards, it contains 65 staging tracks and an independent loop to allow trains to accelerate before merging with the main lines. Also included are 10 portals (8 originating and 2 consuming).

Although by no means realistic operation, I did find it quite fun to see how many trains I could get onto the main loops without crashing any of them.

When I started, I never intended to scenic it. If I had, I would have built it in the middle of 6 boards to allow for some space around the edges.

If anyone thinks they may have a use for it, I’ll upload it to the DLS.

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad47/mpeterll/Trainz%20Screenshots/FourTrackRouteLoader1.jpg?t=1302745690

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad47/mpeterll/Trainz%20Screenshots/FourTrackRouteLoader2.jpg?t=1302745559

Sorry about the tiny pictures. I don't know why I can't get a bigger picture to display like I did in another post yesterday.

Yes mate I am interested in that infact it may just help me out
chris

 

[sawyer811]

I could use this...don't know what for, but i could use it!

 

[Richarde57]

Looks very interesting!

I want to try it.
Always happy to learn from other people.

 

[handlaidtrack]

I'm happy to see that there are some people interested in this.
When I tried to upload it to the DLS, CM says it must have a thumbnail image attached to it.
I have a suitable image of the correct size, but do not know how to attach it. I'd guess there is a tool for it somewhere, but so far, I have not found it.
Please someone, give me a hint. Then you can have the goodies.

 

[arraial]

hi

Open your asset in content manager plus in the left hand on top apear one list of options search for thumbnails and add it, to your asset, then open thumbnails and put in size 240 x 180 pixels , open the add file image and all are ok , save the asset and committed, and you are ready to go..
arraial

 

[handlaidtrack]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not working that way for me.

I open CM and bring up my asset.
There's no option to 'open' it, and no menu option for 'thumbnails'.

 

[Torchy85]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not working that way for me.

I open CM and bring up my asset.
There's no option to 'open' it, and no menu option for 'thumbnails'.

You need to open the asset in CCP(Content Creator Plus) not CM (Content Manager) then follow the instructions Arraial gave. Guess he just got his abreviations mixed up

Pete

 

[AJ_Fox]

A stupid question here because I don't know your image editing program, but is your image in RGB or CMYK color model? Only RGB will work.

Cheers

AJ

 

[mcguirel]

While very difficult to see the fine detail, I have to admit that is on of the best Railyard Section Trackwork I have seen. You should be very proud of your accomplishment, and I am sure there will be a few who will merge that into their route.

I'd like to state other views about Route Building, but people would take offense to it so I will leave with: Expand that great Railyard Section Trackwork into your own masterpiece instead of just offerring it as a module.

If you do release it as a module and if I ever get the desire to rebuild Ohio Central: A Buckey Route ( I had a year worth of Native Mode Work Lost due to HD Crash and it looked amazing ), I'd be very appreciative to use this module as a focal point and give credit where credit is due. The issue I have is I want allot of custom ceated content for this route, and a new track system that will take way to much time/effort to even get to the route building stage.

 

[NikkiA]

Ok... Number 1 rule of creating something:

No matter how frivolous or pointless you think it is, someone, somewhere will see a need for it, and likely be grateful that you created it - even if, as many don't, they never articulate that in the form of thanks.

A lot of us create stuff, and think 'well, it's not perfect' or 'it's just a 10 minute job, noone will want it'. And I think we need to realise, that someone else might not have that 10 minutes, or might find that your 10 minutes is 3 hours for them, and they'd rather someone else did it. So even if it's not the greatest work, upload it to the DLS because every little thing helps.

 

[Richarde57]

Ok... Number 1 rule of creating something:

No matter how frivolous or pointless you think it is, someone, somewhere will see a need for it, and likely be grateful that you created it - even if, as many don't, they never articulate that in the form of thanks.

A lot of us create stuff, and think 'well, it's not perfect' or 'it's just a 10 minute job, noone will want it'. And I think we need to realise, that someone else might not have that 10 minutes, or might find that your 10 minutes is 3 hours for them, and they'd rather someone else did it. So even if it's not the greatest work, upload it to the DLS because every little thing helps.

+1!

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."

Well, that will do the trick, I hope...

 

[handlaidtrack]

Thank-you to mcguirel, nikkia, richarde57, and the others for the compliments. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble actually delivering the goods...

I tried Content Creator Plus, as suggested by Torchy85, and am unable to get beyond the very first screen. It wants the asset type, but "route" is not listed as an option. It must be listed as something else. I tried "region", but that is not correct, so I'm still no closer to being able to upload it.

Then I tried ignoring the message that a thumbnail is required, just to see how far I could get, or if the system would give me an opportunity to attach one later. Anyway, I got a whole load of errors:
"Asset _____ is built-in"
"Asset _____ is already on the dls"
OK, maybe they were just informational statements telling me that the assets in question did not need to be uploaded separately, but they each had a red 'X' next to them, so they sure look like errors.
I tried repeating the process, just to see if it gave me an extra line, saying that my own asset was already on the dls, but no such luck, so I guess it didn't upload.

More worrying this time round...
I noticed two errors stating "Asset _____ is not created by the local user".
I checked to see what they are; one is the tunnel I used, and the other is a ground texture; both by 'sirgibby'.
My guess, is that these came from his 'Murchison' route, of which I currently have the free demo version. I plan on buying the textures and other assets to complete the route, but got sidetracked working on my own section and have yet to buy his payware. Therefore I know that these two assets are freeware, but I believe the system is telling me that I cannot upload them. On second thought... his demo route didn't have any ground textures on it, so I don't know how I got this one unless it was attached to a route that I attempted unsuccessfully to download from the dls a couple of months ago.
I can swap the tunnel for a 'built-in' version easily enough (that is assuming there is a way to tell which they are from surveyor), but removing the texture may be impossible. More than likely, it's no longer visible on the route, because I started by painting small sections of about 100 textures, then selected a few of them to blend in everywhere, completely overwriting the others. Unlike other types of assets, there does not appear to be a tool to delete textures from a route, so as soon as they hit the grid, they are part of the route forever.

Am I to conclude from this that if I ever want to share my work, I have to keep a separate copy of Trainz with ONLY the built-in content so that I don't accidentally include another developer's asset?

I do not intend to give up on this, but for now, I have no idea what to do about it.

 

[RRSignal]

Let me make it easy for you.

Easiest way to get an image is to set up a nice scene in Driver (generally, in the free-roam camera) and hit PrtScrn to capture a screenshot. Download, install and open Irfanview*. Hit CTRL-V to paste the image into the program. Hit CTRL-R to resize it. Under Set New Size set the width to 240 and the height to 180 (although the height should automatically scale to 180 in order to preserve the aspect ration.) Click File then Save. In Save As Type, Select 'JPG - JPG/JPEG Format'. Tick the box down below that says Show Options Dialog and a box will pop up with extra options. Move the Save Quality slider to 80% so you don't get a gigantic image file, small size is more important than quality here. Save with the name thumbnail (.jpg extension will be added.)

Next, made a backup of your route by selecting it, right-clicking and select Save CDP. Just in case something goes awry. I recommend emailing yourself route and other backups.

Now, right-click your route and select Edit->Edit in Explorer. Copy and paste the following text into the end of your config.txt file:

thumbnails
{
0
{
image "thumbnail.jpg"
width 240
height 180
}
}

Now, copy the thumbnail.jpg file you created earlier into the folder with config.txt. Commit the asset. You should see the thumbnail appear in the preview window in CMP. If so, save it to another CDP and upload to the DLS.

*You can do all this with MS Paint though I don't know it by heart. I know you can open Paint, hit CTRL-V to paste the image in off the clipboard, and you can resize the image under the Image->Attributes menu and that you can save it as a JPEG. I don't know that Paint gives you the degree of control Irfanview does, especially when saving.

P.S. To answer your last question, I don't think you can include someone else's assets in the CDP file you upload for copyright reasons. The solution is simple - just put the route alone in the CDP and upload. CMP knows what dependencies are needed; no need to make extra work for yourself.

 

[handlaidtrack]

I think it should be available now.
Thanks to RRSignal for telling me how to get the thumbnail included in the config file.

Will someone please try to download and see if it works?
Look for kuid 487377:100053

I hope I have done it correctly and not included anything I shouldn't.

The tunnel asset is freeware offered by sirgibby, and can be found here: http://www.trainzone.co.nz/rail1.htm
The missing texture is also offered free in his website, but is not needed as it's one I completely covered over.

 

[Richarde57]

At download station AND content manager:

NO DOWNLOADS FOUND

So, no, nothing to find to try it out. :'(

 

[handlaidtrack]

Thanks for letting me know. I'll try again.

OK, tried again... and it still does not appear to be doing anything.

As far as I can tell, I've followed the instructions to the letter.

I've tried the upload two different ways:

1: Right click on my route and hit upload from the menu that appears...
This gives me a whole load of errors "Unable to add _____ as it isn't your content"

2: Select it and use the upload button in the lower left corner...
This gives me the Auran license agreement, followed by the "Asset _____ is built-in" errors I mentioned before.

Either way, the only options from the error list are "view in main list" and "close", with no indication of what to do next.

 

[Richarde57]

I believe you only may upload content that is build-in in Trainz.
If you used stuff from other creators it gives the error "it's not your content"

Make sure everything you used is build-in material.

I'm affraid this will be a very difficult or impossible upload.

........

Or delete all the stuff from other creators and make a kuid list for the things we need to download to make the track work... ?

I don't know... I'm new here too

 

[shaneturner12]

You can only upload content to the DLS that is your own (and has your user ID in the KUID number)

In the case of routes/sessions, simply upload the route and/or session only, without the dependencies - the config.txt file will tell the DLS what dependencies are required.

Shane

EDIT: If you are having problems uploading the route via Content Manager, save the route to a CDP and use the Your Content section in your profile

 

[handlaidtrack]

1) If I have to restrict myself to only the built-in content, then I'm not going to bother. Most of the better stuff is not build-in content. The DLS content is touted as one of the biggest selling points of Trainz. Frankly, there just isn't enough usable content built-in to produce the sort of route I want to create.

2) Most of the dependencies for my module are textures, and it would appear that there is no way to remove a texture once it has been tested on a board. There are dozens of textures listed as dependencies, yet only about six are still in use; the others have been completely overwritten.

3) I am attempting to upload the basic route only, without including any one else's content. If you check back a few posts, I gave a location for downloading the only non-DLS asset needed. This ought to be enough of a clue that I do not want to include other people's assets.

4) I tried using my profile to upload, but this does not work either. The web page contains an obvious contradiction, as it says "welcome back, handlaidtrack", and then a bit further down, says "An error occured. Profile not found"! There is however a "your content" button as reported, which gave some instructions for uploading, but then after clicking on the first step, the only option is "back"!

This is intolerable. Trainz is supposed to be a leisure-time activity. If I want to jump through hoop after frustrating hoop, I'll go to work instead.