Behind the Scenes during a Build Update
This is the third time I've posted this information and it keeps getting buried. ZEC please make this a sticky and add whatever additional information that is necessary to clarify the install process.
If you look in the Builtin folder you will see a number of .ja files that are quite large. For a basic installation out of the box these are 1.ja through 8.ja. If you have addons loaded as well each has its ja file. cabon_city.ja, murchison.ja, snc.ja and treez.ja. Now of course Blue Comet can be in the mix too. In total up to 10GB.
TS2010 SP3 is a code update to build 43434. This is the number bottom right hand corner of Launcher.
TS2010 SP3 is also a content update. You can see what your content state is in Launcher Options General. The numbers in brackets after your CD keys is the build number.
All this plus your original folder and local folder have to be committed and then validated. The long wait at 50% point is where this is happening. There are two ways you can ensure progress is occurring (In my case 350GB+. The more content the longer the process) :
1. In Launcher Options Developer select 'show database process windows'. When loading Trainz either as a game or to access Content Manager TADDAEMON is first to run and gets the logon to Planet Auran and dump list downloads started. If necessary and it always is when an update occurs it will start a utility called TrainzUtil. This latter does the committing and validating. The process can take some time, and as others have recommended an overnight load is far less stressful on you and less likely that you will interfere with the process. KEEP YOUR STICKY FINGERS AWAY FROM THE MOUSE AND KEYBOARD until the process is complete. Your system is NOT frozen, it is very, very busy.
2. A useful guide to progress is to start Windows Task Manager (WTM), go to Performance tab and run 'Resource Monitor' (WIN 7).
In Resource Monitor CPU display you will see TADDAEMON, TrainzUtil, Content Manager plus all the supporting Windows processes hammering away at getting Trainz settled in. You can also see how heavily involved your CPU is by observing CPU%. Your memory may also be maxed out. Trainz can use up to 2GB (32 bit limit) and any other processes running at same time will reduce that amount. In a WIN 7 64 bit instal with 12GB of RAM I often see up to 8GB being used. Trainz can still only use 2GB but all the other processes can access the additional memory.
In Resource Monitor Disk display you will find it very busy reading and writing the Trainz content as it is committed and validated.
Watch in the file column for TrainzUtil activity in the 'Original' and 'Local' folders. Every now and again Windows does some housekeeping and you will also see Windows search indexer at work. Please note that when you are importing from legacy Trainz versions that there has been a change in the role of the 'Local' folder. Also if backing up your TS2010 before updating it is necessary to back up 'Original" folder as well as the 'local' folder. See Zec Murphy's recent advice on this.
When all this horrendous amount of work is completed then you can play.
Two things:
This update seems to be more sensitive to antivirus running and it is better to kill it before updating.
If you interrupt the commit/validation process before it is complete, the next time you run Trainz or Content Manager this process starts again. In meantime you may not see content you know you have because as yet Trainz hasn't found it.
SAVE YOURSELF THE HEARTACHE AND DO THE UPDATE OVERNIGHT.
If you have followed the above advice and still have problems you may well have hardware issues eg not enough RAM, or you are running a graphics driver that is incompatable.
As a beta tester I can assure you that despite its warts Trainz and Content Manager are very robust.
There should be only rare occasions where it is necessary to re-instal Trainz. Database repair is now automatic and so you should not need to run Quick or Extended Database Repair manually.
Yes, this should be made a sticky...we need a common thread...!