Trainz Plus Alpha Release

[nugget2225]

I don't mean to sound stupid, But after i import a route in content manager. Where do i convert the route to HD?
My other issue is, How do you pick a texture or object and do a bulk replacement in any route? It used to be in the tools menu at the top.

 

[jjeff1955]

Thank You RoysTrainz for that Info.
Merry Christmas to you to.
Thank You G.M. for your reply and support also.
Holiday Cheers!

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

I don't mean to sound stupid, But after i import a route in content manager. Where do i convert the route to HD?

Guide is here: https://docs.trainzsimulator.com/docs/converting-to-hd-terrain

G.M. - Thanks for the list. I think you'll find there are a lot more showstoppers than those on your list. Bugs are expected (since we haven't finished development or even found all the bugs yet) and we're still working out better ways of doing various things.

That said, you can't get benefits without trade-offs. For example, we could limit the high res data and make things smaller on disk. Of course, that also means less detail will be possible.

In the end, we'll just need to work out the best balance possible.

 

[jjeff1955]

I don't mean to sound stupid, But after i import a route in content manager. Where do i convert the route to HD?
My other issue is, How do you pick a texture or object and do a bulk replacement in any route? It used to be in the tools menu at the top.

Open up the 2.0 Surveyor Tools and then on the upper right there is a square box with 2 arrows lower left top called free move tool, click that and then draw a square area on your map's ground to cover the areas you wan to convert, then in the lower right hand corner on your Map's drawn free move tool there is a tiny white square box left click in that and choose the convert baseboards to. Choices will be 10m, 5m, HD.
Hope this helps you to find it.

 

[RoysTrainz]

@jjeff1955 sorry but my info was wrong i mixed up things. CDP is still the only way to go and only 999 MB limit.

 

[RoysTrainz]

where we live there is no Xmas so life here goes on as usual and we make the best of every given day.

Is there anybody in the community who can update or confirm things to me concerning tzarc to be replacing cdp and be able to package it in new jacket like tzarc?
I remember reading about this not to long ago?

Can we as a community ask n3v to make it a priority to update tzarc if that was the way to go and replace cdp the soonest with a murch larger 4+GB loading capacity?
This would make HD and S20 regular routes with a larger size not banned from participating in usage of any 'new' development.
Yesterday I did install a route 770 MB and cleared all boards with more than '16' textures and change all the boards to HD which was fun at times.
It did worked quiet well just locate first the 'few' most troublemaker boards and overwrite the textures with grid 2.0 and followed by all the other boards with massive mountain ranges and it looked very impressive.
The big downsize of course is the size of the route ending up close to 6x the original size 4.2GB which by itself is not the real issue I could work on it rotate and look around no problem but cdp would OF COURSE not accept any size bigger tahn 999 MB. Case closed.

To end with the 18 years of trainz I never had a year or time that I had to retire or stop and wait for fixes until 2022 November.
My work on greater Calgary came to a screatching halt and ever since no more trainz. Very very nasty bugs like spline refresh by times constant and taking few minutes before displaying things was unacceptable.
On top a feature called pick an asset like intersection and doubleclick to get the entire road included had an even more nasty bug of producing double different textures flickering on the intersection.
I had a repair rate of between 60-80% of my work which is unheard off so at my birthday early november I decided to stop Trainz.
So if this and the new HD stuff and cdp not show any kind of relieve or fix soon my early trainz retirement is not far away.

 

[G.M.]

Roy don't give up so easy
This Alfa test is meant for us to find practical issues/problems with the new HD and TLR
so that n3v can make decisions based on what users encounter.
As experienced Route creator, you already know that you can best build your routes,
in an older version of Trainz that you feel comfy with.
Remember the older version you use, the more users can use your route.


So split your work, work on your route in the build you know works fine
Beside it test this Alfa and give as detailed comment on what you encounter.


For the size issue there will be a solution, examples:
-maybe it is too detailed atm and we fall back to a meter grid
-maybe .tzarc or .zip or .rar will be accepted also on the DLS
-.Cdp can get changed to be larger
-Split a route in more parts
for that I already made a trackmark that can warp you to another route and specific session


Never give up hope or loose your fun with Trainz

 

[capdiamont]

This isn’t the build to get all of your route ready for publication but to test various aspects as all work will be thrown away. This is for bug reporting and reporting how things work and what people want or do not want.

 

[Yorkshire]

I have just converted a single board layout to HD. It is in the Modelz Trainz genre. The one (negative) issue I had was digholes. First thing I noticed was that the turntable well was now filled in with the base board. Later it deleted itself! When I added it again discovered that I could not rotate the whole turntable to align with the tracks. The turntable rotated but not the access tracks. Tunnel digholes also were not created. Added a couple of new 1x1 digholes just to test and they don't create. Obviously early days and am not sure if HD needs a new technique to create a dighole. Anybody else come across this? I'll send up an official report eventually. On a positive note, the smoothing of hills etc is really good.

 

[sister]

I have just converted a single board layout to HD. It is in the Modelz Trainz genre. The one (negative) issue I had was digholes. First thing I noticed was that the turntable well was now filled in with the base board. Later it deleted itself! When I added it again discovered that I could not rotate the whole turntable to align with the tracks. The turntable rotated but not the access tracks. Tunnel digholes also were not created. Added a couple of new 1x1 digholes just to test and they don't create. Obviously early days and am not sure if HD needs a new technique to create a dighole. Anybody else come across this? I'll send up an official report eventually. On a positive note, the smoothing of hills etc is really good.

I discovered that too: no dig hole for the moment

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

Tony H, is it ok to just test the Living Railway features. It was the preference i stated when applying. Not a route builder etc.

Mike.

 

[G.M.]

The Session Options have changed with 2 extra selections
one is Restart Stuck AI : Enabled/disabled
is it implemented yet and which script functions are used?
its cool that the driver interface gives red when stuck
but how to unstuck it beats me lol

No matter what I try in Edit Session, Driver Setup, refuses any function
can't select/change train or driver or add commands
Why is the most important Session Rule disabled or broken in this version?


its like dude here you can borrow my car, but you can't unlock the steering wheel
testing continues without taking curves

 

[sister]

Today I tried to create an automatic session using the kickstarter county route; just 4 trains automated by the living railroad. I found two major troubles with it: 1)the AIs invariably choose the shortest route even if this is already occupied by another AI and there is a free and usable parallel track and 2) if the player intervenes by suspending the automatic task to unblock the situation when the "resume schedule" option is selected, the convoy in question becomes "not assigned" and the player must manually reassign it to automatic management.
There is always the old problem of the AIs getting stuck in front of red signals with "unsignaled track" motivation, unable to trigger the junction (unblocked) which is immediately ahead.
Another thing I think should be implemented in Living Railroad is the automatic use of the "run around the train" command; very useful to prevent the trains from traveling very long distances with a pushing locomotive.

 

[PC_Ace]

Amen to that, Roberto!

is the automatic use of the "run around the train" command

TLR brings back AI drivers behaving badly, with few options for the player to easily intervene.
I found that I could map the path for 'unsupervised' drivers best by actually issuing the sequential driver commands into their schedule list before unleashing them on their TLR-automated journey.
They actually observe all 'drive via track mark's, waits, 'navigate to:' instructions AND 'run around train' AND 'repeat schedule' commands if prompted.
Disadvantage is that you cannot save these preset instructions in the session - only as a game save. You cannot enter the driver commands/ schedule manually into the Driver Setup during Session creation. You have to enter these into the Driver's schedule at the start of the session - in Player Control mode - before switching control back to the automatic scheduler in Available for Dispatch mode for TLR to begin its minor less-impressive than desired magic.
Merry Xmas to all who observe this festival.

 

[lockheed02]

Amen to that, Roberto!
TLR brings back AI drivers behaving badly, with few options for the player to easily intervene.
I found that I could map the path for 'unsupervised' drivers best by actually issuing the sequential driver commands into their schedule list before unleashing them on their TLR-automated journey.
They actually observe all 'drive via track mark's, waits, 'navigate to:' instructions AND 'run around train' AND 'repeat schedule' commands if prompted.
Disadvantage is that you cannot save these preset instructions in the session - only as a game save. You cannot enter the driver commands/ schedule manually into the Driver Setup during Session creation. You have to enter these into the Driver's schedule at the start of the session - in Player Control mode - before switching control back to the automatic scheduler in Available for Dispatch mode for TLR to begin its minor less-impressive than desired magic.
Merry Xmas to all who observe this festival.

I guess those might be subject for later. For now with the things available it works if you want unattended life on your route. However, there is one thing that comes with it: all signals of the route need to be reviewed if they have been set correctly so AI can correctly read and interpret them. Like advance and absolute signals. or consider correctly an end of track to turn around. Especially older routes or ... early route projects of some people might have some weakness here. In my test route I had to remove and replace one.
Furthermore - if you have too many AI drivers competing around too few tasks, they get stuck easily. Even on bigger routes. Also I had some cases where AI took some empty cars from a string of cars in a yard, pulled back (so far so good) but then wanted to take a path out of this yard via the track there the remaining cars were. Resulted in an stuck AI train where you have to manually adjust. Sometimes pausing a task suddenly removed it when I wanted to continue. I expected some other driver got it then but no. I need to play with that some more.

But overall, it works so far with the given command set AI uses at the moment and you have balanced out the number and locations of available cars, industries. and AI trains/drivers.

But so far, so good.

Lockheed
​

 

[RoysTrainz]

@ G.M. Gino correct?
thank you for encouragement posted but it is not that simple as you state like better work on older versions. In the past, years ago I did and the workload to maintain and updat all different old versions is not doable. Making a newer version work until HD arrived was the most practical way of just support 1 version.

Alpha testing:
Today i took the part of greater Calgary 81+ MB and did a total HD,cleanded up to many textures and was succesful in saving the route which now is 251+ MB.
I wanted to check the spline refresh problem if still exists.
Most important for me is S20 v119450 with the almost continues refresh of road splines or with short intervals and display takes between 5 and 10 minutes.
In the HD version i tested and right now that behavior I did not see at the moment.
Display refresh are almost instant or within .5 min when working on splines.

This gives me hope that in 2023 somewhere I can pickup on the route if this 120247 or newer sees daylight and end my forced retirement on trainz for Calgary.

Converting the route to HD was really pleasant working and flawless so to speak.
Of course boards with to many textures I had to paint parts with the pbr grid 2.0 of those areas causing to problem.

The UI I see lots of improvements so the way to go to get a working version in early 2023 if possible.

The major bug when double clicking roadspline to modify or replace multiple segments with a different type in one go, still exist.
The bug makes all the intersections laying inside these splines corrupt with double flickering textures.
Replacement is very time consuming.
You cannot copy an intersection with specific properties settings and have to add each individual asset again and again and again with appropriate settings chosen in those that became corrupt.

Hope to find more positive notes and will report my findings.

 

[G.M.]

Have been playing a bit with the new color and clutter effect layers
in S2 I had a hard crash when trying to save the color to asset


in S1 i got both working, the color is a bit transparent overlay to change any texture placed
I could not get it more intense, had expected you could kinda use it as a notex material but then on ground
fun additions to bring more diversity to the terrain, without using an extra ground texture

 

[RoysTrainz]

@GM i try to understand/ figure out what textures are we able to use with HD as it looks to me most of the PBR textures I used get the 'error' message '"too many textures". This indicates me that quasi only color painting and simple textures are allowed to use which is not really inviting.
I notice you try well to use cover up/blend coloring to diffuse the ugly small texures repetition effect HD produces but ultimately fail because of the endless limitations or simple not ready yet texturing stuff we need to meaningfully test something.

 

[G.M.]

Roy its just an Alfa release so we can test and comment
the HD system requires a new way of thinking and route making
Where we used to tile many textures and rotate/scale them


We now use a few base textures on a board (does not even have to be PBR)
on top of that for variation we use effect layers like color, turfx, clutter
then where needed and close to track we can precise put extra textures
All we now discover by just trying, n3v can use to finetune this new Trainz+
Some of the textures that do not tile well you now clearly see and are best to be avoided


No its not ready yet, but we are all here while it develops

 

[RoysTrainz]

I understand but still like you say discover by just trying, to me trying what with respect to textures not the rest you mention is to me not meaningful and I would not consider helpful for feedback.
If they had in ther concept of the HD thingy also prepared some or at loeast one good example of how all the interactions of texture,turx,clutter and coloring look like than at least it makes some sense, now it is just blindfold darts and a moving target.99% of the existing textures we used in the past not work anymore only if almost uniform one's like gravel at the track an easy one works well.
OK we wait and see how this further develops to something meaningful in 2023.
You have a good one and a healthy and happy 2023 from all of us here in a cold 13-15 at night and nice breezy mountain wind in the back at 26C.
Weather and climate here is 'very' forgiving and nice for older and younger people and dogs.
Many colorful hummingbirds and other kinds makes life extremly beautiful living 'of the grid' only nature no noise other than my wife talking or dog barking and birds chirping.
Air is extremly clean only in wintertime when strong winds from the Himalaya's north of us could bring chinese pollution but never smog(to far away).