Surveyor 2.0 Hangs After Update

[skittlekicks]

I've already submitted this as a bug report. In my version of Trainz 22 P.E 131986 (Steam), I began noticing in Surveyor 2.0 that if I use the eye dropper tool to get an asset (doesn't matter which) the game will hang for a few seconds which didn't happen before the update. As I mentioned in the bug report this hang also causes a massive spike to my GPU (red lines it). The asset list also doesn't always want to load as quickly as before. As I have mentioned in a few other posts I run the DBR and prebuild tool all the time just before closing the launcher. This is a brand new one 5m baseboard which does load quite fast, but it's the assets that are not. It doesn't seem to cause issues if I hand select assets from my pick lists, but only with the eye dropper tool.

For the record. I do not have scans going, I don't have viruses/malware/spyware on my system, I don't run a ton of applications (or browser tabs). I don't have a This all started after the tree update. My system isn't some mega uber rocket of a machine, but it does meet the requirements to play and build. Also to mentioned I do not have a ton of free DLS (or free 3rd party) assets. Those that I do have are all current up to date versions.

I don't know if I am the only one experiencing this, but as I told them in my report this does affect my work flow. Again I go back to QC, and the lack of it these updates.

SK

 

[JCitron]

It's possible that content is still being validated and cached. This can cause freezing and apparent lockups as your content is being checked. It can take a bit of time for this to finish.

Click on the Launcher and then Developer. Under Developer, choose Show Client Logs. If Trainz is hiding the Launcher, click on the 3-bar menu that's hidden from view until you click on it in the upper left corner and choose Show Launcher Window.

What you'll see is stuff scrolling by with yellow warnings about precaching data and unable to pre-cache obsolete content. You can safely ignore these messages, but if these are scrolling by quickly and there's a lot of them, this explains the slow up.

Even with the gross state of my large route, I was still able to load up Surveyor 2.0. There were apparent freezes but that was data loading both in view and being cached. After the caching stopped, I was able to move around and then had to wait for content to load, but that's another story.

 

[skittlekicks]

Hey John

One thing I forgot to mention is I wait to load in fully once I see the birds flying between buildings. I have checked the logs, but nothing out of the ordinary caught my eye (the 17 errors are related to this platform thing I have found, but that's been there since I bought the game. My last option is run the eDBR and then a new precache/prebuild and see if that clears this out. Though I am dubious that it will to be honest.

I've been slowing clearing out obsoleted items, but that's never caused this issue before. I'm really convinced that something with this update wonked things up. SInce mine is the Steam version, I'll add the verify files task.
I'll report back one all of these tasks completed.

Much appreciated.

SK

 

[skittlekicks]

So somethings to note. The eRDB and prebuild did not solve this issue. The eRDB scanned 730,248 assets, and only 17 errors. Those errors are related to failing to precache data from platform, 31. Those errors have been a thing since I bought the game. The precache managed just about 35,000 assets, but no errors generated.

Next I verified the files through Steam and all 4000+ files were fine (no corruption).

I went into the game, waited until I saw the birds flying before I went into Surveyor/Driver. I opened my 1 baseboard route, and as I predicted it still locks up. Though it was a tiny bit faster with the eye dropper. Going into one of my picklists it lagged harder than ever. In fact my computer locked for about 2 seconds as it tried to load the assets. That again was not an issue before this tree update.

I also went ahead and deleted all 10 of my backup files (the ones located in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\N3V Games\trs22\build mge5bium1/backups). Which was not a big deal because I have master copies saved on another drive.

When running the eDBR there were a ton of polygon errors. Low poly at 500 and high poly at 10000. While warnings are not errors, these assets create a ton of lag. Detail is one thing, but creating excessive poly assets is unnecessary. Other issues are MESH related, .im files, missing thumbnails, assets showing NaN (no idea what that even is), outdated meshes, unused meshes and so on. This to me is sloppy.

A reinstall is not the solution because this is game is over 13 GB and I have extremely slow Internet (10 down 1 up), and not waiting 5 hours to download.

So my conclusion is that the trees update has wonked up the game for me. I think I have mentioned I had a long IT tech history. I've seen the wonkiest things in that world (looking at you M$), but nothing like Trainz.

At this point, I think I am going to have to call it quits with Trainz, and move on to other train games (Simrail is very appealing) at this point. It will also mean giving up on the entire Trainz franchise going forward. No other game in my library has caused this much grief in the 47 years I have been playing video games. What a shame too, because I REALLY believed Trainz offered the best of both worlds (builder and driver). But again, two SP releases over the year have failed on so many levels for me.

I think N3V should prioritize bug fixes and QC more vigorously. I know the Plus Sub program is squashing bugs (thank you volunteers), but they can only go so far if the entire game core is nerfed. Maybe Trainz is heading for the great depot in the sky. You can't keep releasing broken SPs and expect a userbase to stick around for long. One guy maybe saved this game a long time ago, but how things seem to have fallen.

 

[JCitron]

The version has changed how assets are managed, which I have noticed as well. The problem is an eDBR will clear any cache and will force precaching all over again and only cause a longer loading cycle. An eDBR is generally a last resort case and not necessary for what you are seeing as you saw. With my 1.5 TB of content, it takes 17-hours at least to precache all my content, therefore I don't run an eDBR unless I really have to. This may have something to do with running on hard disks instead of SSDs, but given the cost of 8TB SSDs now, I can wait until the tariffs are removed. They are not worth $750 each!

If you want to try a precache without an eDBR, you can do that using Trainz Util. Make sure you have enabled advanced debugging options in the Dev tab.

With Trainzutil running, type this in the open space.

prebuild

The process will run with no signs of doing anything (lovely). You can get around that by using the Show Logs on the Developer menu. Remember to clear logs first before starting. The buffer will fill at some point unfortunately and there's no way to clear it. Another bug that was reported 10 years ago when T: ANE came out.

I agree, this one is pure crap. Hopefully with enough community complaints, this will be remedied. There's no response from them today because they don't work weekends. Believe me, I'm not giving them any excuses, we have to remember that they are 14-plus hours ahead for most of us and it's already the weekend and at the time of this post, Saturday morning.

I returned to the previous version and I will not upgrade until there's a fix. As far as beta-testing goes, I'm done with that. I gave up a few versions ago. It wasn't worth putting in my 2-cents to be told it's my system, my route, or something else that's causing a problem when it is an actual program version. This was what happened with the previous SP that required a hot-fix to repair the stupid track issue. I reported that ages ago. I'm done doing that. I'm too old, don't feel well most of the time, and too tired.