How to browse the download station

[treblesum81]

Hi All,

As a new train driver, naturally, I want to add a million new items into my simulation. That being said, I'm having a horrible time just trying to get the most basic search done in the content manager on the download station... Namely, how do I filter the results so I can only find "assets" which are made for TS2006 or newer, or for TS2009 specifically for that matter? I can't seem to find any identifier or search filter for this, and I can't seem to find any indicator in the information given to me through the content manager stating which simulator the "asset" was created for.

Any help would be appreciated, as I'd really like to get down to the driving rather than spending time looking through endless "assets" which I'm not sure if I can use or not, and don't know if they are any good or not.

Also, I'd really like to know if there is a way to access the DS through the website rather than through the content manager, as I'm thinking that a web-based interface might be a little easier to work with.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[wmmeyer]

In Content Manager v2.0, select the "Search" option, and then open the drop down menu for the left of the two parameters. Select "Minimum Build Version" from the drop-down. (Its toward the bottom of the list, out of alphabetic order). The version for TRS2006 is 2.6, and TS2009 is 2.9. Not sure about Classics. If you select 2.6, it will display everything for '06 and laater.

To search the DLS via the webpage, there is a button at the top of this page that says "Download Station" or go to http://www.auran.com/TRS2004/DLS.php

 

[treblesum81]

Thanks for the help

Greg

 

[wmmeyer]

Glad to. Don't hesitate to ask questions, thats why we're here.

 

[rweber95]

For TRS2006, CMP doesn't have the Search by Minimum Build Number. The best you can do is to make sure that you have the Installation Time column enabled and then click the Download Station tab to display everything you haven't got. Now click the Installation Time column to order the list by date and look for things dated 2009 or late 2008 to get the latest assets.

Bob

 

[ex-railwayman]

To search the DLS via the webpage, there is a button at the top of this page that says "Download Station" or go to http://www.auran.com/TRS2004/DLS.php

Hello again Greg, when you click on the download station create a shortcut onto your desktop, then you can gain access to it immediately, and once you enter your name and password, don't ever log out, just click on exit every time and when you go into it the next time it'll be all ready for you to start searching.....
You can also download assets into your "My Documents" area on your PC from the DLS, if you wish to keep stuff for archiving onto a CD in the future....When you go into your CMP look in the top left hand corner where it says File and then in the drop down box go to where it says Import Cdp's and you can click on all the assets you hold in your My Documents area, especially if you've downloaded quite a lot and can transfer the whole lot in one go and they'll magically appear in your CMP, go into the Open For Edit section and commit them.....

Cheerz. ex. :wave:

 

[NICKEL]

The only place to search properly for versions on the DLS is the download station found at top of this forum which is the old 2004 download station. It does work for all versions.

The version number does not yet come across for any of the CMP version for files that are on the DLS. They have stated that will be a future addition. Once yoy have downloaded the asset then the version will shop up.

 

[treblesum81]

Thanks again for the tips, I'm starting to get the hang of things, but I've run into another problem: How to find what you want when what you want isn't something specific?

What I mean here is that I'm not really looking for a specific RR in a specific region, but more like a category or type of layout. I'm looking for large, long, well detailed, and well made maps with lots of economic activity and/or good scenarios. Unfortunately, I can't filter my search results by file size (usually a good indication of these things), route length, number of downloads, or quantity of "sessions" using a layout. Is there some way to figure this out using the tools available? Or is there instead a good list of layouts / sessions / scenarios which fit the above bill?

Another thing I've found is that even when I do know what I'm looking for, its really hard to find it on the download station... Montana Rail Link, for example, which is something that I found in my previous exploring of available downloads, is available on the DS, but I couldn't find it using either the Content Manager, or the Download Station website, and ultimately had to go to the external site to get the file. I searched both places for "montana", "MRL", "montana rail link", etc., with no hits, so I'm a little concerned that some other railways I'd like to find (Rio-Grande(EDIT: I think its the Rio-Grande... the one that goes through the Rockies in Colorado), Trans-Siberian, and Orient Express, among others... all of which returned no pertinent results in searching), might be hiding in plain sight because I'm not finessing the search filters correctly. Is there something I'm missing? Or do any of these even really exist on the DS? Am I just crazy?

Thanks again for all of the help,
Greg

 

[johnwhelan]

Some items are on the DLS but are not listed in the normal way the only way to get them is when something else uses them as a dependency or through an external link.

Finding things is difficult, if you restrict yourself to layouts at first that will remove quite a few items that get in the way but be aware that not all layouts are correctly classified as a layout.

I'd go a play with Murchison layout until you have come to terms with how things work or don't quite work in the way you' like them to.

Cheerio John

 

[ex-railwayman]

Hello again Greg,

Sometimes, it is difficult to find what you want on the DLS, if you type in a route and click on search, in the layouts section with all the little boxes ticked, it will chuck up all layouts with that name in the Title, or click on description for a more advanced search. We rely heavily on creators putting as much information on their routes when they upload them, generally you can see from the picture what the route looks like and they sometimes tell you how many baseboards it is or the length of the route, etc, etc. The one you mention Montana Rail Link is on the website belonging to Trainz Pro Routes see here - http://www.trainzproroutes.org/routemain.html and there are other routes as well from other websites that you can also download, the only thing is that as well as requiring assets off the DLS, you may also need stuff from other websites, which can be a pain if you don't know where to look - as you're a newbie.....If you come across any missing assets, do a kuid number search on Google for them or come on here and go into the search function above to see if anyone previously has requested help in finding them.....I have never seen a Trans-Siberian layout or Orient Express layout on the DLS in all these years.

Cheerz. ex.

 

[wmmeyer]

One of the ways to find out about layouts is to search here on the forums, by your keywords, rather than search the DLS directly. For example, key in a forum search for "Long Routes" and you'll get a lot of info to look over. If you'd entered a forum search for "Montana Rail Link", you could have dug thru the resullts and eventually found where to get it.

As mentioned above, a lot of content creators will have you searching all over the world to find all the assets. Check thru this thread http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=9437 to find routes that have everything certified to be on the DLS.

May I suggest you check out some of the routes created by "philskene"? Long, detailed, beautifully adorned, everything on the DLS, and he has created many sessions to go along with them. Running the sessions can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.

 

[treblesum81]

Some items are on the DLS but are not listed in the normal way the only way to get them is when something else uses them as a dependency or through an external link.

Finding things is difficult, if you restrict yourself to layouts at first that will remove quite a few items that get in the way but be aware that not all layouts are correctly classified as a layout.

I'd go a play with Murchison layout until you have come to terms with how things work or don't quite work in the way you' like them to.

Cheerio John

I've got a question about this one... the makers say on their website that Murchison is a fully functional layout and you only need to buy their package to get the scenic detail, but when I open it up in driver and/or surveyor, I've got functional track and terrain, but absolutely no textures. Is this what passes for a "fully functional" layout, or am I missing something. I've gone through their whole website downloading all of their free ware textures and such, so I'm a little lost. With something like this, do I have to paint on my own textures if I have any interest in really using the freeware versions, especially since I've already pointed out on several occasions that I won't be buying payware, or at the very least, I won't be buying payware 24 hours after I got the original paid program...

EDIT: another possibility: does this just mean that TS2009 isn't compatible (they say it is so...)

Thanks,
Greg

 

[johnwhelan]

If you pick up the TRS2009 version should work fine. The payware bit is basically some scenery objects such as water spray but the grassy hill sides etc. should all be there without the payware.

I'm still uncertain where your interests lie, Trainproroutes have some very reasonable US routes if that takes your fancy.

Cheerio John

 

[ex-railwayman]

I'm looking for large, long, well detailed, and well made maps with lots of economic activity and/or good scenarios. Unfortunately, I can't filter my search results by file size (usually a good indication of these things), route length, number of downloads, or quantity of "sessions" using a layout. Is there some way to figure this out using the tools available? Or is there instead a good list of layouts / sessions / scenarios which fit the above bill?

Greg

Hello Greg,

There isn't a list of long routes available as such I'm afraid, it all comes down to knowledge and experience. As a Brit I've been fascinated with North American railways since I joined Trainz about 5 years ago, so, you get to know who creates the more detailed, longer routes, over a period of time. I always look for large mb's when I search in the layout section, generally speaking anything over 6 or 7 mb is large-ish, and some routes go up to 30-40mb or higher. As has been mentioned already, philskene has made some great routes over the years, that run very well on low-mid range computers, and some are very long with lots of industries and sessions, that's why his routes are such a favourite with everyone. Also look for neilsmith749, who built a few Canadian layouts and gfisher who has built a few American routes, both use a lot of "eye candy" on their layouts and are quite long and highly detailed. There was an old layout called Feather River, which was very, very long, but, I didn't like the tracks that were used, so ripped them up and replaced them with something I liked more, it's a great template if you want to do something similar, it's just pure freight, no passenger stations, and not much industry either, you can put your own in if you wish, but, was fabulous for running whopping great long consists with several trains running from one end to the other, it's double track all the way, and was great to just sit and watch them as they ran from yard to yard.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[treblesum81]

If you pick up the TRS2009 version should work fine. The payware bit is basically some scenery objects such as water spray but the grassy hill sides etc. should all be there without the payware.

Thats just the thing, I've been downloading every file I could find from their website, and looking all over for KUID's from their dependancies list and I keep coming back to their payware stuff. In fact, I've downloaded every last file available from the site, plus everything that is available on the DS and I still end up with rolling hills and valleys of grid. I'm starting to think this may have to do with an error I receive quite often when installing items saying something to the effect of "could not load texture 'X' in hash blah blah blah". At first I thought this might be normal, but it occurs to me that it might be on my end. Do I need to be running anything for Trainz in any compatibility mode or as an administrator (I tend to do it automatically, but maybe thats causing the problem) to make sure things work?

I'm still uncertain where your interests lie, Trainproroutes have some very reasonable US routes if that takes your fancy.

I'm really a general railroad fan... Its hard to describe really, but I'm one of those who sees a train... almost any train... and thinks to myself: "That would be fun to drive!". As such, I don't have a specific area of interest, once I get all of this sorted out, I will be jumping from freight hauls in Montana to high speed runs on the TGV (If I can find it) to steam powered logging runs in NZ (if I can get it to work) and anywhere else I can find. I only have a distinct preference for longer runs and quality work.

Hello Greg,

There isn't a list of long routes available as such I'm afraid, it all comes down to knowledge and experience. As a Brit I've been fascinated with North American railways since I joined Trainz about 5 years ago, so, you get to know who creates the more detailed, longer routes, over a period of time. I always look for large mb's when I search in the layout section, generally speaking anything over 6 or 7 mb is large-ish, and some routes go up to 30-40mb or higher. As has been mentioned already, philskene has made some great routes over the years, that run very well on low-mid range computers, and some are very long with lots of industries and sessions, that's why his routes are such a favourite with everyone. Also look for neilsmith749, who built a few Canadian layouts and gfisher who has built a few American routes, both use a lot of "eye candy" on their layouts and are quite long and highly detailed. There was an old layout called Feather River, which was very, very long, but, I didn't like the tracks that were used, so ripped them up and replaced them with something I liked more, it's a great template if you want to do something similar, it's just pure freight, no passenger stations, and not much industry either, you can put your own in if you wish, but, was fabulous for running whopping great long consists with several trains running from one end to the other, it's double track all the way, and was great to just sit and watch them as they ran from yard to yard.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Thanks, I'll have to check out those names as I'm starting to get a little frustrated with trying to get Murchison to work right... though as I said above, it might be due to errors on my end...

Greg

 

[treblesum81]

I'm curious... is there some sort of general texture package that I need to go out and download that a lot of content designers use as a basis? If so, what KUIDs should I look for?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[sirgibby]

I've got a question about this one... the makers say on their website that Murchison is a fully functional layout and you only need to buy their package to get the scenic detail, but when I open it up in driver and/or surveyor, I've got functional track and terrain, but absolutely no textures. Is this what passes for a "fully functional" layout, or am I missing something

By Fully functional layout it means that the layout is fully operational and all the scenic objects such as track, buildings, bridges, roads, trees etc are installed.

---------------------------------

Once you have in installed all the freeware content you have 2 choices......

- save your money and complete the texturing, form the railway ledges under the tracks, paint in waterfalls and rivers etc

OR

- purchase the Nature Series payware content which contains 1000's of highly detailed and animated scenic Nature items & Textures

• NATURE SERIES 1 - animated waterfalls / River splines / 200 textures
• NATURE SERIES 2 - cliff splines / rail ledge splines /rock splines

There have been 1000s of downloads of the Nature Series and Murchison. Installation is simple, straightforward and COMPLETE with no reported errors or missing assets

cheers
Michael

 

[treblesum81]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me... 3 reinstalls later, I was starting to think my computer wasn't compatible or something like that.