How are DLS downloads calculated.?

[dangavel]

I thought I might have a look to see how many times a route I'd made has been downloaded , to judge whether it was worth the effort of uploading it to the DLS or not. It's confusing. According to the DLS , The route has apparently been downloaded several thousand times , but the assets have only been downloaded about 60 times on average , something doesn't compute here, unless an awful lot of people didn't bother to use it due to a lot of missing assets.
My question is, if one downloads an asset via content manager , is this calculated on the DLS and shown next to the asset , or are downloads made this way not counted ?

 

[HPL]

When a route is downloaded from the DLS, only not already installed dependencies are downloaded too. So, route: 1, already installed dependencies: 0.

 

[johnwhelan]

Going on from here if an asset becomes built in how do you count the number of downloads?

Thanks John

 

[whitepass]

It also counts failed downloads and re-downloads.

 

[kcwright_rm]

when downloading anything, all deps will be downloaded unless it is canceled half way in, or if anything is missing

 

[wreeder]

I've always been suspect of the download count on routes. Some routes that are nothing but a blank baseboard in the thumbnail will have hundreds of downloads. Granted it is possible that there are users that just download everything on the DLS but why wouldn't the dependencies show the same behavior?

In the OP case, his route uses hundreds of custom assets that he uploaded with great effort and time. If the route is being downloaded then those custom assets should show a similar count. The failed or cancelled download theory might be the answer if the route is very large. Without a FCT, downloading a route with many unique dependencies is a pain. I suspect many users start the download and get the route installed only to cancel when they find it is going to take hours to download all the dependencies.

The DLS has always had an issue with grabbing the dependencies of the dependencies of the route. Or to put it another way, the second tier of dependencies.

William

 

[kcwright_rm]

i have done this before so i know this happens a lot, i will make a route, it will save the blank screenshot, and i will use that for the release.

 

[clam1952]

I'm wondering as you have to login to view the Web DLS page, if Content Creator gets the same number of downloads showing as any one else? Or even if everyone gets the same values.

Also may depend on how you download, via CM or via the Web page?

I have noticed that downloads of an assets dependencies never match downloads of asset, often they are more, sometimes less.

I did a test a long while back downloading some of my own stuff in a clean install of TANE, the download numbers never changed, maybe downloading your own stuff doesn't get counted.

Then there are downloads due to those who don't keep backups and have to reinstall everything. Those who have multiple installs and download the same thing several times rather than transferring stuff between versions.

Possibly route dependencies are not counted when included in the route download?

Looking at the numbers of downloads of my FR WHR route, just over 8000 last time I looked, the downloads of dependencies bear no resemblance to to downloads of the route some way to low, some ridiculously high, so I just ignore the figures as being meaningless as everything was on the DLS.

Whatever, I would say Dan that anything you upload is well worth downloading!

 

[dangavel]

It also counts failed downloads and re-downloads.

I know that some had problems when trying to download and had to attempt the task multiple times , which could account for the high number of downloads for the route. I suppose only NV3 will be able to tell us how it's calculated .I am sure that many give up once they realise how many assets have to be found from other sites, I've downloaded a lot of routes only to delete them when I've seen many vital items are missing.its a pity there are no ratings or review options on the DLs although that could open up a can of worms, as some of our less ethical members might use that as an opportunity to even up scores by giving negative reviews or boost the profile of their friends routes. I have no idea how big the trains community actually is , but it would be interesting to see what percentage of users actually were using particular routes and assets. I have pretty much zero time for diesels ( largely because the noise when driving in cab is an utter pain ) but I know I am firmly in the minority just by looking at the number of diesel screenshots there are out there .