Missing dependencies - who has the same problem

[switchmaster]

I can not remember how many items I have downloaded from the DLS, only to find that there were missing dependencies. So I try to locate them with a search program I have. About 90% of the times it finds the items. On several occasions It took me to several sites where the items were located only to have my security program give me a warning that the site has possible malaware or virus. So now I have to delete that item. Today I downloaded a nice route, only to find there were 152 missing dependencies. I loaded in my search program and out of the 152 items it found only a couple of the missing items. So again I had to remove all the items from the program. I would like to know how many other TRAINZER's have had the same problem?

switchmaster

 

[Blutorse4792]

My favorite has to be when the only result for a Google search of the KUID number is a 12-year-old comment on some Cyrillic-alphabet forum. Classic.

 

[pware]

It is a constant problem. Some creators (far too few) will include in the description of their route and/or session a list of the 3rd party web sites where the missing content can be found but increasingly those 3rd party sites are starting to vanish from the web.

My policy for many years now has been to immediately delete any downloaded routes that contain missing assets for two reasons:-
1, it is usually not worth my time and effort to hunt them down - like you a Google search will often come up empty handed, and
2. if I do locate and download a 3rd party "missing" asset and use it in one of my creations that I upload to the DLS, then I am inflicting the same misery on others.

 

[philskene]

I strongly agree with the post above. The search to the Far Corners of the Universe for that elusive missing asset is not for me. And yes, I've downloaded routes that require many hundreds of dependencies from the Download Station, and still have hundreds missing.

All the routes and layouts I upload to the Download Station contain only built-in or Download Station dependencies.

Phil

 

[RJArtim]

You can't delete them.
RJ Artim

 

[JCitron]

I agree with what's been said above. I too subscribe to the Trainz Kuid Index and have run into the same roadblocks. Rather than trigger a malware infection, I'll do my search within a Linux virtual machine running either Oracle Redhat, or as I did in the past Solaris 10 with that running its flavor of Firefox. Redhat supports Opera so that's been my choice lately for stuff like that because the latest Firefox is too slow. Using the VM, I can download all I want then transfer the assets to my PC locally.

This isn't, however, the end all of end alls. The other problem is often times the assets themselves within the CDP have a foreign character in their name. This causes Content Manager to barf and not install the assets. If I really wanted to, I could extract the asset separately and then rename the asset if it's really cool and worthy, but I usually don't bother and can the whole route and the downloads anyway.

 

[switchmaster]

Thanks for all the comments. I see that I am not alone with this problem.

 

[1611mac]

I joined Gold Plus program and I downloaded every payware route available. Doing so removed a LOT (MOST) of my missing asset issues when downloading freeware. I also started checking assets after downloads looking for "Open for Edit" assets and that helped also. Having a large SSD E drive I also have downloaded a high number of freeware Routes and missing assets appear much less often. I do try to stick to Freeware routes v4.3 and newer. (Newer Tane and TS19)

 

[Forester1]

As 1611Mac says, it does not help when creators use payware in presumed freeware routes. The other problem I have run into more and more lately is missing Auran assets. These are assets built into earlier versions of Trainz that aren't available to newer versions.

 

[C_Blabsky]

Two months after getting TRS19, I got T:ANE. That, along with getting most payware routes and lots of DLS routes seemed to help the most. At the start, it was very frustrating chasing down KUIDs, but now the route has to deserve the effort.

As a newby, downloading and opening up the routes is a great learning experience and many times just checking out the routes I don't worry about missing dependencies. Scenery (buildings, vehicles, textures) is the most common missing thing and doesn't really affect driving around to recon. If the route is interesting, either I'll look for the culprits or right away clone a copy and delete the missing dependencies. Using UDS to experiment with a route makes it easy. A number of TS12 routes received this treatment as well.
(Some TS12 routes benefit from DL'ing into T:ANE first, then after cloning a copy and deleting the missing dependencies, can be exported/imported in TRS19 where CM can acquire the DLS content. OTOH, some work better going into TRS19 right away. )

All this missing KUID talk shouldn't deter anyone from getting the program with the built-in routes and sessions, as those are really fine showpieces and examples of what can be done. There are those who enjoy hunting down all the examples of how to expand and modify...