T:ANE (cough, cough, I', confused!)

[rjhowie]

At present I am building on TRS12 which is easy for me that lies things straightforward however I have bought T:ANE and been looking at it and with my simple attitude I am a little confused.

I wanted to download a route The Highland Link which is for that system and intimated on the Forum but I cannot fathom how you find it on the DLS which I don't see on this new Trainz. So be patient and can someone explain how you get access to an item or a route on the DLS into T:ANE. Years after I left secondary school I bumped into a techy teacher I had for years and he groaned!

 

[JCitron]

Hi Bobby,

Content Manager is a work in progress.

The filter can be changed easily. Where it says Installed, you can scroll that list for the Download Station.

Once that's done, you can type in the name in the upper right side and it will find what you are looking for (hopefully).

To add to this, where it says name, and the other stuff, right-click and you can add other columns which are most useful such as author, kuid, and so on.

Hope this helps.

John

 

[rjhowie]

Hello John,

Thanks for the reply and bear with me!

I don't see any Content Manager and I see a list of routes that can be bought but no obvious way to get to the DLS to find a route and download it so I am no doubt missing something obvious to ad to my confusion. I launch then I go where actually?

 

[dougtrain]

Hi Bobbie - on the small T:ANE window that opens you should see "manage content". Go there and follow what John said.

Doug

 

[jjslll54]

Hi Guys,

This method works great for me and allows me to search for and download something I might need during construction of my current route. Double click on an item in the list and if the authors did it right you will get a picture and description of the item before downloading. I do this while my game is running and it beats logging into the download station separately outside of the game. The content manager then downloads and installs the item automatically.

Jack

 

[rjhowie]

Hello Doug. My thanks to you and John now getting somewhere. With years of 2004, 6, 10 then 12 took a bit of changing the brain thinking! Now getting that download to T:ANE as I answer. Then back for now to TRS12 with my present project until finished!

 

[Vern]

Hope you've got it sorted and enjoy the route, Bob.

Sadly TANE CMP seems a couple of steps back from previous versions of the utility, IMHO anyway.

 

[Jananton]

I have to agree with you there Vern, the pale gray list of items, that doesn't invite to read through, when filtered for the DLS is one of the things that bothers me. Another is the fact I can't seem to be able to see a thumbnail for a selected item there, unless I'm overlooking something.

Greetings from cloudy Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[Vern]

To view a thumbnail, you need to right click the asset then select View Details.

The old CMP had become a bit buggy in its last iteration (TS12 61388), notably freezing up if you tried to add items or even scroll the list while something was downloading or installing, but at least it looked like a professional asset management utility. The TANE CMP comes across as a glorified spreadsheet, or something from the @1992 Amiga era!

 

[Jananton]

Silly me, didn't think about right clicking apart from activating a download. LOL

I was more thinking about DBase for Dos, but it's about the same I presume for the look and feel.
On the other hand I rather see all effort is put in the core program first what seems to be happening and then tidy up the utility parts to make them more attractive and professional looking.

Greetings from rainy Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[davidbird]

... I can't seem to be able to see a thumbnail for a selected item there, ...

To view a thumbnail, you need to right click the asset then select View Details.

Or simply double-click on the item

 

[JCitron]

I agree that CM needs more than a touch-up to bring it up to standards. That's on the to-do list and the latest test builds now have the short-keys. It's performance is getting better as well which is helpful.

One of the things I neglected to mention is the built-in Rail Yard. Yes, it still exists sort of and it works for nearly all the assets if they are built properly and are not textures.

Right-click on an asset and choose Preview.

This will launch the TANE interface and a mini-T:ANE will load up. In that window will be the asset you want to view. You can rotate it around, look on the bottom, zoom in, zoom, out, look at the top, and so on. It works with consists too so if you have a full consist, you will see all the wagons or carriages hooked up. This can be a bit tricky to get to view properly if the consist is very long, but it does work.

This also works for viewing errors too. You will see borked bogies and other issues with wagons and locomotives, so it makes things easier and less work since you don't have to go through the trouble of opening up the full application to see that something is broken. The interface is being improved and will include more details about the asset as time goes on.

 

[rjhowie]

Yes Vern getting there!

The greying out DL gives an initial impression of not being available! You are so right John about things needing touching up and although T:ANE is an ew thing it takes a little change of mind to nget used to the new routine. Still building my project for now on TRS12 but the answers were a great help in getting used to T:ANE. When one is used to a long term process then suddenly wham it does take getting used to. Being a Glasgow man i mused that maybe someone from Edinburgh was stirring the pot!

 

[JCitron]

Yes Vern getting there!

The greying out DL gives an initial impression of not being available! You are so right John about things needing touching up and although T:ANE is an ew thing it takes a little change of mind to nget used to the new routine. Still building my project for now on TRS12 but the answers were a great help in getting used to T:ANE. When one is used to a long term process then suddenly wham it does take getting used to. Being a Glasgow man i mused that maybe someone from Edinburgh was stirring the pot!

Nicely put. I agree the grey list is a bit like things not being available. It's all like an old pair of shoes I suppose the ones we have now fit well and comfy and don't give us blisters like the new one does.

I've finally ported over two of my rather big routes to T:ANE. They look really amazing and I look forward to doing more and more in T:ANE as the improvements with stability and other fixes are put in.

Below is a view of my modified East Kentucky Route, and below that my old TRS2004 era route which has been updated over the years. In TS12 and below, I could never see the distance and details like this. In the harbor scene, those distant hills would bob up and down and pop in and out, making everything jerky and stutter badly.

So with a little finesse and patience with the patient, we can get some nice work out of T:ANE. Perhaps all in due time.