Network Diagnostics from CM (TS2012)

[HiBaller]

Why does Network Diagnostics for TS2012/HF/SP bother to have a "Cancel" button on it? It does nothing at all as you simply cannot 'cancel' a diagnostic in progress. If the diag gets into trouble then you're just out of luck until IT decided to terminate itself (unless, of course, you kill the sucker using Task Manager).

Case in point: today, CM and Trains itself, is continually lagging and struggling to keep running. Every few seconds, it goes out and tries to connect to the servers, hangs, and fails. This causes the game and CM to hang also. Even pulling the network connection doesn't help as the game still tries to phone home, causing said lagging.

What is desperately needed is a "I don't care WHAT the state of the network is,, play the game!" button or Options checkbox.

Haven't the programmers ever heard of using threads that allow the OS to go about its business instead of hanging the entire system just to make a connection? Good grief! I learned that years ago. If we ever get another "update" to TS2012 (which I doubt), make this an imperative change.

Bill

 

[JCitron]

Why does Network Diagnostics for TS2012/HF/SP bother to have a "Cancel" button on it? It does nothing at all as you simply cannot 'cancel' a diagnostic in progress. If the diag gets into trouble then you're just out of luck until IT decided to terminate itself (unless, of course, you kill the sucker using Task Manager).

Case in point: today, CM and Trains itself, is continually lagging and struggling to keep running. Every few seconds, it goes out and tries to connect to the servers, hangs, and fails. This causes the game and CM to hang also. Even pulling the network connection doesn't help as the game still tries to phone home, causing said lagging.

What is desperately needed is a "I don't care WHAT the state of the network is,, play the game!" button or Options checkbox.

Haven't the programmers ever heard of using threads that allow the OS to go about its business instead of hanging the entire system just to make a connection? Good grief! I learned that years ago. If we ever get another "update" to TS2012 (which I doubt), make this an imperative change.

Bill

I agree! I think we've asked for this before a few times and of course this has landed on deaf ears. We should connect to the servers when there's a network available rather than retrying every few seconds or so.

I have even experienced this myself when using Trainz when connected to a very poor wireless network. The service was enough to allow a connection, but would die as soon as TS12 attempted to connect to the server. This caused TS12 to continuously retry the network, which only caused the program to stutter and pause as it tested the connection.

My solution was to disconnect from the network prior to starting TS12. The program then couldn't connect and even though it kept trying in the background, the performance hit wasn't as bad, but it was still noticeable.

John

 

[HiBaller]

Yeah, my point exactly, John. Try to connect ONCE. If unsuccessful, then GIVE UP until MANUALLY attempted again by some sort of button. In fact, your OS keeps a flag handy that indicates the status of the network card (up/down) and normally will tell software they cannot make a connection. Trains doesn't care, it tries and tries and keeps trying until we get teed off enough to give up and go read a book or fix a cup of tea. The overall problem is that N3V uses wind-up servers from Mattell that need a good swift kick every two or three days. Man, what cruddy servers! I maintain a web site that hasn't gone down in three years.

Bill

 

[blueodessey]

Yeah, my point exactly, John. Try to connect ONCE. If unsuccessful, then GIVE UP until MANUALLY attempted again by some sort of button. In fact, your OS keeps a flag handy that indicates the status of the network card (up/down) and normally will tell software they cannot make a connection. Trains doesn't care, it tries and tries and keeps trying until we get teed off enough to give up and go read a book or fix a cup of tea. The overall problem is that N3V uses wind-up servers from Mattell that need a good swift kick every two or three days. Man, what cruddy servers! I maintain a web site that hasn't gone down in three years.

Bill

Evening Gents, you R the perfect example of what I need help for.....

I'm new to the Trainz software but not to train Sims, here's the dilemma, and where I could use your expertise! I bought Trainz 2 prog for iPad I have,,been making a layout from one of the downloads to learn surveyor, which I love to a point. But as you ..Folks have stated IPad only has so much horses under the hood, and I can see where it has memory and or graphic issues when doing certain things in Trains2 and surveyor, so to the point, I have a dell laptop Pavilion dv7, original new, I love the darn thing, best laptop I've ever owned, bar none.....Friend in 2012 gave me Microsoft train sim and Steam account for Xmas,,,,enjoyed it immensely till now,,,,question is what version of Trainz do I purchase ,,,certainly not the latest as I keep hearing bug complaints,

Do I keep steam, and buy Trainz and put into steam account, do I toss steam out and train sim 2012,,,,and just go with with vanilla Trainz account ,,,,etc......I run win7 and absolutely will not run piece of junk win 8,,,,you can bet your skippy on that, I have a lot of broken hearted friends fumbling with win 8,s problems and systemic issues with their software not running correctly ....

Please give this ole coot some good advice,,,would really appreciate from you Folks......

Respectfully yours,

blueodessey......

 

[dstelley]

My advice is based on my experience alone. I would absolutely NOT by a steam powered anything. I've had several games that were purchased through steam and its just to kludgy for me. If you don't have a good internet it just doesnt work well.
I have used MSTS & TS12 but not train sim. The differences are really huge. The graphics MAY be better in the sim game but the support and options in TS12 are enormous. DLS / Payware & freeware from dozens of trainz shops the world over offers just about anything you would want.
Wehter you want to just drive, or maybe be a conductor, engineer or a geek like me who dabbles in all of it. Its really the best time waster I've ever had!
I have it running on 2 devices, a monstrous workstation (read server) and a Dell TS17 with an i5 CPU, 1gb GPU and 8 GB memory. Windows 7 64bit on each. They both run at 35 FPS without too much stutter except in really specific areas where there's just a large amount going on in scene.

 

[dstelley]

gahhh, I forgot to mention. If possible buy a hard copy edition. I got this a few years ago and after all the SP's and patches, It works very well for me.
http://www.amazon.com/PC-Railroad-Simulator-Powered-Trainz-12/dp/B005D5XTT6

 

[jkinzel]

Better price here: http://jointedrail.com/index.php/payware/trainz-software.html

 

[HiBaller]

Welcome to the Forum, Blueodyssey. I've been with Trainz for almost 10 years now and, like you, I don't plan on buying T:ANE until most of the bugs are worked out (and maybe not even then). Like Dstelly, I used to have a Steam account long ago for the game "The Ship". I got so exasperated by Steam failures, lack of support, and unannounced updates to the software I vowed never to buy another Steam game. As you can tell by my track diagram, I have a few versions (not all, though). I would definitely reccomend buying a DVD-version of TS2012 and updating it with the Service packs and Hot Fixes. Some say that the upgrades made their game go funny, but mine sort of improved a bit. Now that TS2010 is out of support, I figure TS2012 will be following soon. At that point, I will probably fold my tent and get away from Trainz altogether OR simply shut off its Internet connection and live with what I already have (around 18GB of content).

It's possible that T:ANE will get its act together and become the latest offering from N3V, but judging by the lack of response from vociferous complaints about certain ascpects of the latest couple of versions, I don't hold much hope for any better support of T:ANE. Up to now, Trainz has been ported to just about every device known to man EXCEPT for any flavor of Linux. I find that very strange and disconcerting considering the huge upswing of new Linux users after Microsoft's latest fiasco in Windows 8.0, 8.1, and beyond. I would really like to see a Linux version of Trainz as I feel it would have a huge response. I might even be coaxed into buying T:ANE if it were to be ported to Linux. I have 5 machines in use here - designed for specialized use as office, database, gaming, Internet, and "other". All of them are dual-boot so I could support either Windows or Linux.

But, that's neither here nor there. To answer your question in a nutshell: locate a copy of TS2012 (non-Steam), install it, and then update it with all the updates and hot fixes. By all means get a First Class Ticket if you don't already have one. You will never be sorry you did.

Bill

 

[blueodessey]

Advice appreciated, thank you so much

Welcome to the Forum, Blueodyssey. I've been with Trainz for almost 10 years now and, like you, I don't plan on buying T:ANE until most of the bugs are worked out (and maybe not even then). Like Dstelly, I used to have a Steam account long ago for the game "The Ship". I got so exasperated by Steam failures, lack of support, and unannounced updates to the software I vowed never to buy another Steam game. As you can tell by my track diagram, I have a few versions (not all, though). I would definitely reccomend buying a DVD-version of TS2012 and updating it with the Service packs and Hot Fixes. Some say that the upgrades made their game go funny, but mine sort of improved a bit. Now that TS2010 is out of support, I figure TS2012 will be following soon. At that point, I will probably fold my tent and get away from Trainz altogether OR simply shut off its Internet connection and live with what I already have (around 18GB of content).

It's possible that T:ANE will get its act together and become the latest offering from N3V, but judging by the lack of response from vociferous complaints about certain ascpects of the latest couple of versions, I don't hold much hope for any better support of T:ANE. Up to now, Trainz has been ported to just about every device known to man EXCEPT for any flavor of Linux. I find that very strange and disconcerting considering the huge upswing of new Linux users after Microsoft's latest fiasco in Windows 8.0, 8.1, and beyond. I would really like to see a Linux version of Trainz as I feel it would have a huge response. I might even be coaxed into buying T:ANE if it were to be ported to Linux. I have 5 machines in use here - designed for specialized use as office, database, gaming, Internet, and "other". All of them are dual-boot so I could support either Windows or Linux.

But, that's neither here nor there. To answer your question in a nutshell: locate a copy of TS2012 (non-Steam), install it, and then update it with all the updates and hot fixes. By all means get a First Class Ticket if you don't already have one. You will never be sorry you did.

Bill

Gentleman,


Thank you for the down to earth info, I had heard things about Steam before, so it doesn't hurt me to make the change....besides I can still go back and fool with my steam account.....it was free and a gift.....

Ill be back with other questions for advice, I have to do some house cleaning with the computer so it's going to take a while.

Really enjoy your forums here ,,,I try to read over the immense material here a little each day to garner a grasp on how work in the Trainz world.....I'm a geek and love to dabble everywhere, building, conductor, the whole deal, it is truly an immersing in what can be done in a virtual world, who would have thought this was possible 50 yrs ago.....


Night all....


Blueodessey

 

[shaneturner12]

I can see to some extent why there's a Cancel button on that box. It appears that N3V are using the same box for multiple processes but adding/removing the progress bar etc accordingly.

Shane

 

[HiBaller]

True, Shane. I can see that also, but if they took the trouble to remove the progress bar from the Network Diagnostic panel, then the least they could ahve done was grey out the Cancel button because it has no function. What I would have done (and probably a lot of other programmers) was check to see if the Cancel button was clicked between each stage of the testing. Alternatively, inside the handler for the button itself, set a flag ordering the rest of the testing to be canceled. If a test failed, which would have taken up a LOT of time, the operator might have clicked the button to kill the rest of the testing.

None of this is going to happen as N3V has washed their hands of TS2012 and are thinking only of T:ANE and how to make to work for them.

Bill