That's a good point Ed, and one that some have been leaning towards (a completely new start), and one which many seem to fear.
Personally, I don't mind which way it goes.
If they decide to go the way of no backward compatibility at all, giving everyone a clean start, then at least the sim has moved forward, and we can say goodbye to having content that can trip the game up.
There's nothing stopping people using the original models to release brand new versions of their content so that it meets the new criteria.
I don't think it would be long before a lot of our favourite content was back on the DS in TRS2009 form.
If they choose the other option, and continue to strengthen the rules that CMP, the DS, and Trainz demand for content, while at the same time fixing as many assets on the DS as is possible for use with the new sim, then it's still a good way to proceed.
Of course, a CMP that works as it should will be required for both paths, so I hope they concentrate as much on that as anything else.
One thing that needs to be said again I think.
When I mentioned Auran's plans for the DS, as read on the Dev site forums, it's worth reiterating that they plan to get as much fixed by the original authors as they can, and as much fixed by a team of "DS Cleaners" for the rest, and only then would content that was unable to be brought up to the required standard be kicked off the DS.
Some posts seem to suggest a purge of all faulty assets off the DS, and that's not their plan.
I suspect that most of the content on there will be fixable one way or another, so the biggest concern of mine is how they're going to manage such a mammoth task
I mentioned in another thread last week about the importance of releasing exporters early, and if they combine this with the early release of the documentation of the new standards, once they've been set in stone their end, then we have the means to repair and upload any content of our own that needs fixing well in advance of the release of the game.
If they were to release a small runtime file that allowed us to check our assets at a local level, then we could update our content in no time.
This begs the question (and this is for Tony, or any other Auranite that's allowed to answer), how far away are you from setting the new standards in stone?
The sooner this is done, the better, and I imagine that it will one of the first things you do, seeing as both CMP and Trainz need this coded into them.
And finally, I don't know if you've got your team of "cleaners" sorted yet, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people here who would volunteer.
You can count this as me volunteering if you need people.
But don't use the Beta Testers.
The last thing you want to do is spread these jobs too thin.
Smiley.
Personally, I don't mind which way it goes.
If they decide to go the way of no backward compatibility at all, giving everyone a clean start, then at least the sim has moved forward, and we can say goodbye to having content that can trip the game up.
There's nothing stopping people using the original models to release brand new versions of their content so that it meets the new criteria.
I don't think it would be long before a lot of our favourite content was back on the DS in TRS2009 form.
If they choose the other option, and continue to strengthen the rules that CMP, the DS, and Trainz demand for content, while at the same time fixing as many assets on the DS as is possible for use with the new sim, then it's still a good way to proceed.
Of course, a CMP that works as it should will be required for both paths, so I hope they concentrate as much on that as anything else.
One thing that needs to be said again I think.
When I mentioned Auran's plans for the DS, as read on the Dev site forums, it's worth reiterating that they plan to get as much fixed by the original authors as they can, and as much fixed by a team of "DS Cleaners" for the rest, and only then would content that was unable to be brought up to the required standard be kicked off the DS.
Some posts seem to suggest a purge of all faulty assets off the DS, and that's not their plan.
I suspect that most of the content on there will be fixable one way or another, so the biggest concern of mine is how they're going to manage such a mammoth task
I mentioned in another thread last week about the importance of releasing exporters early, and if they combine this with the early release of the documentation of the new standards, once they've been set in stone their end, then we have the means to repair and upload any content of our own that needs fixing well in advance of the release of the game.
If they were to release a small runtime file that allowed us to check our assets at a local level, then we could update our content in no time.
This begs the question (and this is for Tony, or any other Auranite that's allowed to answer), how far away are you from setting the new standards in stone?
The sooner this is done, the better, and I imagine that it will one of the first things you do, seeing as both CMP and Trainz need this coded into them.
And finally, I don't know if you've got your team of "cleaners" sorted yet, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people here who would volunteer.
You can count this as me volunteering if you need people.
But don't use the Beta Testers.
The last thing you want to do is spread these jobs too thin.
Smiley.
