Strange Downloading Error(s)?

[MasterTracklayer]

I was downloading a big bunch of content by majekear yesterday (all railcars), and came across some unusual things.

1) Something unknown happened to close the Downloading window and terminate the download. (The program did not exit, however.) I`ve been told that there is no convenient way to terminate a download once started. It is unknown if the assets that were actively being downloaded at that moment finished downloading, but it strongly appears that the remainder of the list never downloaded. I add all my downloads to a Pick List and run that through a filter that only lists assets that are in that list and are either non-installed assets or installed assets with missing dependencies. Not sure why, but it also lists Open for Edit assets while the downloader is in the process of installing them. I start my downloads from the output of this filter. The items being downloaded disappear from this as they are committed to the trainzbase. The strange here is that something (that was not my sometimes-flakey Internet connection) apparently terminated the downloading process. I was able to restart it by right-clicking on the still-selected assets in my filter output and reselecting Download, so this strange is just a mystery, not a problem.

When that list finished, I added another batch of railcars by the same creator, and left the download running overnight. When that finished this morning, I started a third batch. While preparing that batch, I noticed that 37 assets had remained Open for Edit. Looking more closely, I think that they were from the batch that got interrupted. Does anyone have any idea why 37 downloaded assets would have remained open for editing after downloading, or opinions regarding what I should do about them?

While yesterday`s downloading was in progress, I occasionally looked at the details in the bottom of the Downloading window and noticed that some of the railcars had errors with their Normal maps. Would this explain the Open for Edit assets? Nine of these Open for Edit assets also list as Faulty, and an additional Installed from DLS asset also lists as Faulty. The error was something to the effect that the Normal maps consisted of entirely the same value. All I can find when looking at the assets that currently list as Faulty are warnings that the Normal map contains NaN values.

While typing this, the first strange happened again, and additional assets list as Open for edit, Faulty and Open for edit. I restarted the download for the undownloaded assets.

I have never seen the like before. Does anyone know what the bleep is going on here?

 

[pware]

"Open for edit" will appear on an asset after a download if that asset (with the same kuid code) was already present before the download started. You normally resolve this by simply selecting the assets labelled "Open for edit" and submit them (they will then lose the label "Open for edit" and disappear from the "Open for Editing" search filter). In this case it could have been caused by their partial or incomplete install.

If a connection is interrupted and you have ruled out ISP issues then other possibilities to look at would be your AV program (have you added TRSxx.exe to your AV's realtime scan exclusion list?) and a VPN (in my experience some will cause problems for DLS downloads - disable the VPN before downloading).

 

[MasterTracklayer]

The way I do my downloading, the filter that I run everything through before downloading guarantees that the assets in question could not have been already installed. This does not mean that the assets in question could not have been abandoned mid-install. What do think would happen if I tell Content Manager to download those assets again? I think that I`ll try it on one and get back to you. Meanwhile, my Faulty filter seems to have gone crazy. The filter is very busy trying to update its output while showing a large number of assets that apparently are not faulty. I had it open when about 300 or so Missing dependency assets had their last missing asset install.

As for anti-virus programs, I`m not sure; this is a previously-owned computer, and I don`t know much about the programs that were already installed when the machine was given to me. I am fairly sure, however, that I am not using any form of Virtual Private Network.

I do not believe that your suggestions are relevant to my case, pware, but I do appreciate your attempt to help.

P.S.: the Faulty filter has settled down and currently displays 38 Open for edit, Faulty, three Installed from DLS, Missing dependencies, and one Installed from FLS, Faulty. All but two are from this group of download batches. One of the other two is mine, and the other is someone else`s.

So what did happen when I attempted to redownload that one example asset? Nothing visible.

When I try to submit that same asset I get Error, T18972: FindInvalidDataProcess fails on mesh uvcoords: All vectors are identical twenty times on that single asset.

When I attempt to View Errors and Warnings on the asset, I get zero errors and eight warnings. The only warnings of note mention degenerate triangles in the Index buffer and NaNs in the Normal maps. I do not think that this would have anything to do with the accidental interruption of the download, but might have something to do with the failure to commit.

I do not know what exactly is going on here, but it certainly seems strange to me. If the download termination is unrelated, it certainly is an odd coincidence.

 

[JCitron]

In the assets that are open for edit and faulty, look for .fbx files and delete them. The asset will submit fine after that error free. It's a bug, I believe and has been reported.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Ok, I`ll look into that. Thank you.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I`ve looked in several chosen at random and was unable to find any *.fbx files to delete in any that I looked in. I tried to use the Windows search function, but the best I could get out of that was for a Windows Explorer window to open (which immediately closed the Search window) and immediately close again (the Explorer window) without time for me to see the contents of said window. I could write a search function in Python, but I`m not interested in doing that at the moment. (I`m also reading Stickies in the Content Creator Support forum.)

 

[JCitron]

If they're not located in the root of the open asset, then check any subfolders.

It's not worth using Windows search for this to delete three fbx file.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Yeah, I`ve started checking subdirectories after checking the first couple or so assets. None there, either. I`ve just found a few more assets with errors in my last batch of downloads. No mention of those *.fbx files in the install logs in the Downloading window, but I don`t know if there would be.

Three? I haven`t found any yet, but if that were the problem, there would be a lot more than three. I`m thinking of writing my 327th (or so) (Actually, much closer to 27th, but who`s counting? Not me.) Python find-the-files search function just to know conclusively how many *.fbx files I have in those problematic assets. I`m still reading the CCS Stickies, though, so not yet. Meanwhile, it has become somewhat difficult to locate things I want to shovel into my trainzbase while I still have an active First Class Ticket.

 

[pware]

I don't believe that the .fbx files are the issue. In another thread on a similar (possibly identical or not??) issue I submitted a bug report on the problem I was having and included in the report the presence of the .fbx files.

N3V QA responded with:-

I suspect something causes some form of breakage in the DB, which leads to the assets installing incorrectly, rather than the assets themselves having a fault. I suspect it isn't the assets with .fbx file in them itself the issue, but rather the state the DB was in when they were being installed.

A Google search for .fbx files revealed the following

An FBX file is a 3D model saved in the Autodesk Filmbox format. It contains a model that can be used and shared across a variety of digital modeling and content creation programs. FBX files are often used in game development and animation.

In my original problem deleting the .fbx files from the troublesome assets made no difference - not even an error message as it seems these files are not referenced by the assets at all.

My problem was resolved (so far at least) by doing a DBR and reinstalling the assets.

From N3V:-

They asked if the problem still occurs after doing a DBR. I was able to test this by performing a DBR and then downloading the assets again. They installed without errors and were labelled as "Installed from DLS".

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Ok, I`ll try that.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

It`s a bit difficult to tell for sure, but it doesn`t seem to have helped. Attempting to redownload a sample asset doesn`t seem to have done anything, and now is not a good time for me to examine the results more closely.

 

[pware]

It`s a bit difficult to tell for sure, but it doesn`t seem to have helped. Attempting to redownload a sample asset doesn`t seem to have done anything, and now is not a good time for me to examine the results more closely.

I found that deleting the "faulty" installed assets, doing a DBR and then downloading those same assets worked. But my problem may not be the same as yours.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I`ve already done a DBR; does this mean to do another one after the delete, or will the one I just did suffice?

Edit: I just tried to delete and redownload <kuid2:56063:130014:1>, which was listed as Open for edit, Faulty. It redownloaded the same. I`m going to try it with one that currently lists as Open for edit without the Faulty.

Edit: Asset <kuid2:56063:130429:1>, which listed as Open for edit before the redownload now lists as Open for edit, Faulty.

 

[JCitron]

I`ve already done a DBR; does this mean to do another one after the delete, or will the one I just did suffice?

Edit: I just tried to delete and redownload <kuid2:56063:130014:1>, which was listed as Open for edit, Faulty. It redownloaded the same. I`m going to try it with one that currently lists as Open for edit without the Faulty.

Edit: Asset <kuid2:56063:130429:1>, which listed as Open for edit before the redownload now lists as Open for edit, Faulty.

Look for the the *.fbx files. Seriously, I removed those and the assets loaded without issue.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

As far as I can tell, all of the Open for edit assets have some kind of fault, but not all the same fault, some have one, some have another. This aspect seems to be unrelated to the aborted downloads after all. On the other hand, I now have several railcars that I cannot use.

I`ll look closer after my FCT expires, JCitron, but right now it is looking unlikely to be my problem. One thing I don`t get, though, and I think that this is a bug in Trainz, is that View errors and warnings and Submit asset give entirely different opinions on the assets in question. What results do you get when you try to download the kuid I gave above? Are there NANs in the normals? Do some parts of the meshes have all entries the same? Are there degenerate triangles?

 

[JCitron]

I think we're seeing two different things occurring that produce the same results. Don't you like that!

You may have corrupted assets caused by your download interruption. Run a DBR and try the downloads again. The assets for me that have had the error were all of "recent" vintage with build numbers in the 4.6-plus range. You can ignore any warnings but the errors will be the thing to look at. The errors I saw are related to being unable to submit the asset due to something to do with the meshes. When I removed the .fbx files, the assets submitted fine. But before we get this far, try the DBR first. DBRs in TRS22 are far quicker than they were in TS12 or below.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I think we're seeing two different things occurring that produce the same results. Don't you like that!

Absolutely love it. Well, at least it keeps life interesting.

Run a DBR and try the downloads again.

Did that hours ago. Didn`t seem to help. I believe that the asset whose kuid I posted is around there, possibly slightly lower. I was downloading hundreds of freight cars then, and while some were older, these particular assets were among the newer ones I downloaded. The errors and warnings in these particular vehicles are all of a kind. Please take a look at that sample asset. There are a few other assets with different problems Open for edit (plus a couple of my own that are not relevant), but these are currently by far the most numerous on the list, over 90%, I`m sure. I just started yet another DBR, as I happen to be between download batches at the moment. Lately, my Faulty assets filter has been acting peculiar. The last time I looked at it, it was cranking away and had at least a page of unknown assets showing. I closed it to reduce the possibility of that and the DBR interfering with one another. The trouble with the errors is when they show: they show when Submitting the asset, but not when Viewing errors and warnings. Earlier, it was showing a bunch of normal non-faulty assets. I think that inappropriate entries were leftovers from the previous filter.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Odd. The latest Database Repair found NO relevant errors. I`ll have to see what I can do with those railcars when next I have an opportunity.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Gah! Post reply ate my message! I`ll be back in a bit, with an attempt to recreate what I can. Meanwhile, redownloading one of the Open for editing assets did nothing, and attempting to Submit it generated errors complaining about the uvmesh having all of the vectors identical.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

The latest DBR generated errors, but none that are relevant here. Doing a DBR followed by a delete-and-redownload didn`t help. Neither did doing Delete-DBR-Redownload. Always with the following error present multiple times:

Error: T#####: FindInvalidDataProcess fails on mesh uvcoords: All vectors are identical.

The ##### is a five-digit number, different each time I Submit an asset, but every instance within a single Submit has the same numbers. (Don`t know if one or two numbers would appears if I Submitted two assets at once; I figure two, though)