I have now converted three of my 12 routes from TRS2012 to T:ANE specific routes which utilize procedural track with animated junctions. I thought I would share some of the lessons I have learned along the way with other route developers facing this conversion process.
FYI I decided to keep TRS2012 versions for my users and "clone" them, make changes, and then upload T:ANE specific versions. The TRS2012 routes would stay as they are and the T:ANE routes would be the ones that would continue to be supported into the future. The problems with SpeedTrees and the new procedural track only found in T:ANE made this approach necessary.
Some lessons I learned:
1. Do as much of your updating work in TRS2012 as you can. The surveyor in T:ANE is a bit buggy, especially involving texture replacement.
2. Old vintage content such as the power lines seems to be causing rendering problems in T:ANE. I had to replace all three types of powerlines I use in my routes with new updated ones that match the old ones. Unfortunately I found out that the using "replace assets" caused some siting issues with powerlines that I wasn't expecting. After replacing them I had to go back and ensure that the power lines were properly sited and not in the middle of roads or tracks. You can find my replacement powerlines listed under "MSGSapper" on the DLS. Just lay the pylons or poles. The wire attachments will automatically be done correctly....
3. Replacing my old track with the new procedural track brought up a few issues but mostly went ok. The issues were:
a. Check your rail from one end to the other and look for red circles at junctions. If you see a red circle you will need to fix that junction until it appears yellow or white. If you don't do this the junction will not look or function right.
b. On some sections of track you might see shadows. This was interesting as it meant the track was not exactly flush to the ground and you will need to fix it. I found this useful as it was harder to tell in TRS2012 which was why I missed the track height problems.
4. The water color didn't look right on any of my routes which were imported into T:ANE. You will need to reset the color in the T:ANE environment popup menu dialog to fix this (Menu>Edit Environment>Time Tab). It took me a while to figure out how to do this. Around the clock you will see some small dull green round marker beads. Click on any one of these to enable the spin dials. Click on the black line of the dial and drag it as far as it will go to the left on the dial. Repeat for the other two. After doing this you will need to reset the time on the clock. I also recommend:
a. Re-set the fog. I drag this to the far left to turn it off.
b. You may also need to adjust items in the "Environment" tab.
5. SpeedTrees really negatively effects performance in T:ANE (as well as in TRS2012). Consider replacing as many of these as you can with either Malc's non-seasonal billboard trees (CLAM1952) or my own seasonal billboard trees (MSGSapper). It will make a big performance difference on your route.
6. Expect to replace a number of items that were previously built into TRS2012 but not into T:ANE. N3V will eventually makes these available on the DLS but you might die of old age before that happens because they are so tied up on everything else and probably will be for some time. It's easier to replace these items, if that is an option. Same goes for content by other developers. Some are good at keeping their stuff up but many are not because they are no longer interested in Trainz or something has happened to them. Don't fight this, just replace the content with newer stuff. Look at this as an opportunity to update and keep your Trainz route current.
7. You can "upload to the DLS" your build 4.2 (T:ANE) routes using the T:ANE CMP. For now though they will not show up on the DLS white pages, but can be downloaded by people searching for routes using the T:ANE CMP. Note: If you clone an older route and decide to use the new procedural track you will probably need to edit the config.txt file for that route and manually change the build number to 4.2.
Bob
FYI I decided to keep TRS2012 versions for my users and "clone" them, make changes, and then upload T:ANE specific versions. The TRS2012 routes would stay as they are and the T:ANE routes would be the ones that would continue to be supported into the future. The problems with SpeedTrees and the new procedural track only found in T:ANE made this approach necessary.
Some lessons I learned:
1. Do as much of your updating work in TRS2012 as you can. The surveyor in T:ANE is a bit buggy, especially involving texture replacement.
2. Old vintage content such as the power lines seems to be causing rendering problems in T:ANE. I had to replace all three types of powerlines I use in my routes with new updated ones that match the old ones. Unfortunately I found out that the using "replace assets" caused some siting issues with powerlines that I wasn't expecting. After replacing them I had to go back and ensure that the power lines were properly sited and not in the middle of roads or tracks. You can find my replacement powerlines listed under "MSGSapper" on the DLS. Just lay the pylons or poles. The wire attachments will automatically be done correctly....
3. Replacing my old track with the new procedural track brought up a few issues but mostly went ok. The issues were:
a. Check your rail from one end to the other and look for red circles at junctions. If you see a red circle you will need to fix that junction until it appears yellow or white. If you don't do this the junction will not look or function right.
b. On some sections of track you might see shadows. This was interesting as it meant the track was not exactly flush to the ground and you will need to fix it. I found this useful as it was harder to tell in TRS2012 which was why I missed the track height problems.
4. The water color didn't look right on any of my routes which were imported into T:ANE. You will need to reset the color in the T:ANE environment popup menu dialog to fix this (Menu>Edit Environment>Time Tab). It took me a while to figure out how to do this. Around the clock you will see some small dull green round marker beads. Click on any one of these to enable the spin dials. Click on the black line of the dial and drag it as far as it will go to the left on the dial. Repeat for the other two. After doing this you will need to reset the time on the clock. I also recommend:
a. Re-set the fog. I drag this to the far left to turn it off.
b. You may also need to adjust items in the "Environment" tab.
5. SpeedTrees really negatively effects performance in T:ANE (as well as in TRS2012). Consider replacing as many of these as you can with either Malc's non-seasonal billboard trees (CLAM1952) or my own seasonal billboard trees (MSGSapper). It will make a big performance difference on your route.
6. Expect to replace a number of items that were previously built into TRS2012 but not into T:ANE. N3V will eventually makes these available on the DLS but you might die of old age before that happens because they are so tied up on everything else and probably will be for some time. It's easier to replace these items, if that is an option. Same goes for content by other developers. Some are good at keeping their stuff up but many are not because they are no longer interested in Trainz or something has happened to them. Don't fight this, just replace the content with newer stuff. Look at this as an opportunity to update and keep your Trainz route current.
7. You can "upload to the DLS" your build 4.2 (T:ANE) routes using the T:ANE CMP. For now though they will not show up on the DLS white pages, but can be downloaded by people searching for routes using the T:ANE CMP. Note: If you clone an older route and decide to use the new procedural track you will probably need to edit the config.txt file for that route and manually change the build number to 4.2.
Bob
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