N3V forces me to retain data/assets that I do not want. There are items several years old that waste space on my system. I could see that need for this many years ago but now much of those things are very low resolution and do not look very good. Some things are builtin and others carry some secret marking that prevents their removal. I would appreciate finding some way to allow me to manage the assets on my computer and remove what I do not want....
Forced To Retain Useless Data/Assets/Routes
- Thread starter boleyd
- Start date
ColPrice2002
Well-known member
Hi Dick,
You are correct in that built-in assets can't be deleted; they can however be disabled so that they don't show up, but they will still take up some disc space.
The only reason I can think of for not being able to delete other assets is down to the operating system.
Check that the folder containing the Trainz exe file and its subdirectories are not marked as "read only" by right mouse click on the folder and looking at the properties.
Also check the user rights - it's possible that your Windows setup has user accounts which don't have delete rights.
If you have all your Trainz installed, you'll need to check each installation.
HTH,
Colin
You are correct in that built-in assets can't be deleted; they can however be disabled so that they don't show up, but they will still take up some disc space.
The only reason I can think of for not being able to delete other assets is down to the operating system.
Check that the folder containing the Trainz exe file and its subdirectories are not marked as "read only" by right mouse click on the folder and looking at the properties.
Also check the user rights - it's possible that your Windows setup has user accounts which don't have delete rights.
If you have all your Trainz installed, you'll need to check each installation.
HTH,
Colin
The files are in JA format whatever that is. The Content Manager seems to be the only way to safely and simply delete Trainz files but it will not touch JA files. Otherwise I would have to open each JA file in the Built-in folder with some special program. As is I have no idea which files to delete using normal Windows delete processes. It is certainly not a major issue but is annoying. I just erased RailWorks so that offers lots of space since waiting for CEO Jackson to update the core elements of that thing has been going on for over two years.
ZecMurphy
Community Assistant
Good Morning All
We do not support removal of built-in content from Trainz. The main reason is that we cannot test every combination of built-in content, and as such cannot provide any support if removing built-in content causes issues. Please keep in mind that some built-in content is used by multiple built-in assets, and by many 3rd party assets. As such, removing built-in content may require removing a large number of other assets as well, which in turn may require removing even more assets.
The built-in content is contained within the 'ja' files, which are heavily compressed. It's for this reason that some updates take a long time to install, these files are decompressed and then re-compressed (so as to update files within them). To delete content, well you'd be looking at similar amounts of time as updating the ja files
Regards
We do not support removal of built-in content from Trainz. The main reason is that we cannot test every combination of built-in content, and as such cannot provide any support if removing built-in content causes issues. Please keep in mind that some built-in content is used by multiple built-in assets, and by many 3rd party assets. As such, removing built-in content may require removing a large number of other assets as well, which in turn may require removing even more assets.
The built-in content is contained within the 'ja' files, which are heavily compressed. It's for this reason that some updates take a long time to install, these files are decompressed and then re-compressed (so as to update files within them). To delete content, well you'd be looking at similar amounts of time as updating the ja files
Regards
Zec - Thanks for sharing that insight. Am I correct in thinking that, when running in Surveyor or Driver mode the game accesses built-in content by reading a 'ja' file and extracting the data to a working store, which is destroyed when ending the run?
My desire is to reduce the number of built-in assets on an installation used for developing a dedicated project, so as to speed up the process. I did an analysis of the contents of the 'ja' files with the intention of omitting one or more of them from the game, but decided that the assets are so intermingled as to make it impossible to leave out any of them. Having a stripped down set of 'ja' files could increase performance, don't you think?
What might be useful is to have the ability to create our own custom 'ja' files by selecting and extracting assets from the built-in 'ja' files. Is there any chance that such a utility program might be made available, or at least that the format of the ja file be revealed?
Is the format for T2 going to be different (incompatible) with current TS12 'ja' files?
Thanks for keeping us in the picture.
Trevor
My desire is to reduce the number of built-in assets on an installation used for developing a dedicated project, so as to speed up the process. I did an analysis of the contents of the 'ja' files with the intention of omitting one or more of them from the game, but decided that the assets are so intermingled as to make it impossible to leave out any of them. Having a stripped down set of 'ja' files could increase performance, don't you think?
What might be useful is to have the ability to create our own custom 'ja' files by selecting and extracting assets from the built-in 'ja' files. Is there any chance that such a utility program might be made available, or at least that the format of the ja file be revealed?
Is the format for T2 going to be different (incompatible) with current TS12 'ja' files?
Thanks for keeping us in the picture.
Trevor
No; the content is accessed directly from the JA files.
No. It would free up some disk space, but it wouldn't help with performance. Zec has already noted on a good reason why we don't do it, and we don't feel that the disk space savings are sufficient to outweigh this reason.
No, for the above reasons.
Yes, it will be different.
chris
An annoying thing with built-in assets that are disabled, is that they continue to be displayed in a route. Thus if I disable them to reduce menu clutter I still see them. Normally I would discover the asset and do a replace with a superior asset. However, since it is disabled the inferior asset remains unknown. This is one annoying element of the program where you know the name of the asset (you display it in the route) but you will not tell me what it is since it is disabled. So somewhere in hundreds of disabled assets is the displayed asset but its name remains a mystery to the customer.
This is true for ALL disabled assets not just built-in items.
This is true for ALL disabled assets not just built-in items.
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