Trainz Plus Beta TLR Phase 3 - 132833

n3v_laurence

Moderator
Hello Everyone,

Thank you for all your feedback with the first beta release of TLR Phase 3. Many suggestions have been passed over to the dev team. We have the next TLR Phase 3 build ready for testing. This includes some bug fixes to "Assign Task" for Passenger Lines which was causing issues and confusion in the last build as well as a several Imposter related fixes and improvements including the large transparency shift for foliage assets.

The last beta had a lot to cover with a wide range of new features. As such, the last "How to use" was a little condensed which lead to some confusion, only made worse by some bugs with Assign Task. With this update, I hope to give better instructions and examples to show the different uses for TLR Phase 3 Passenger Line features.

Similar to last build, please give extra time for compiling shaders to complete on first run of the build, however this update should not require the EDBR to be performed.

Key Features:
  • Passenger Support (TLR)
  • Advanced Dispatch Settings
  • Automatic Runaround Support
  • Full Imposter Support
  • S20 Bulk Replace options
  • S20 Inspect Baseboard
  • New Build version 5.7


Understanding Dispatch Manager and Passenger Lines:

Dispatch Manager will assign available trains to tasks both freight and passenger related. Passenger tasks are generated by Passenger Lines. Enabling Dispatch Manager, by default, will generate Passenger Lines as part of the status change (and this can be turned off). It will then assign the tasks to available drivers (which also require available rolling stock). An option to disable Automatic Passenger Dispatch can also be found in the Advanced Living Railroad settings.

Fully Automatic Dispatch example:
  1. Drive KSC2 - Dispatchin the action
  2. Open Driver Control Centre
  3. Assign Kat to Automatic Scheduler
  4. Open Dispatch Manager
  5. Enable Dispatch Status
Observe: After a short period, Dispatch Manager will create several passenger lines for the stations in the route and assign a line (the best rating line) to Kat to perform.
Note: More passenger lines can be assigned by Dispatch Manager, but in the above case, only Kat is available



For those that wish to create specific Passenger Lines, this can be done and still be used with Dispatch Manager or the passenger lines can be completely manually assigned. To prevent unwanted lines being generated, the user can disable auto generation and instead manually create the passenger lines.

Manually created Passenger Lines example:
  1. Drive KSC2 - Dispatchin the action
  2. Open Dispatch Manager
  3. On Dispatch Manager, Select Passenger Stations from the drop down list to list all the stations in the route
  4. Click on the status of a station you wish to create a passenger line for and select "Show Passenger Lines for <Station>"
  5. Right click the Passenger Lines window and select Add Line...
  6. Add required stations and set the type of Line you wish - For this example:
    1. Open Show Passenger Lines Westside
    2. Add Line
    3. Add Westside Station
    4. Add St. Nicolaas Station
    5. Set Type: Loop
    6. Assign a name to the Line if required
    7. Select Save Changes
Using manually created Passenger Lines with Dispatch Manager status enabled:
  1. Manually create a passenger line (as above)
  2. Open Dispatch Manager
  3. On the drop down menu for Dispatch Status, select "Show Advanced Dispatch Settings"
  4. Under Categories, change Global -> Passengers
  5. Disable Automatic Line Generation
  6. Close the Advance Living Railroad Settings
  7. Open Driver Control Centre
  8. Assign Passenger trains to Dispatch Manager - in this example, assign Kat to Automatic Scheduler
  9. Assign any other Freight trains to Dispatch Manager
  10. Enable Dispatch Status

Observe: After a short period, Dispatch Manager will assign the passenger train to a passenger line (along with any freight trains to freight tasks). As the automatic line generation is disabled, it will assign the best match available passenger line, in this case the single loop line manually created.

Note: The above example uses the "Automatic Passenger Dispatch"



Passenger Lines can also be created and assigned as tasks without the use of Dispatch Manager. When the task is assigned to a player, the player will see corresponding navigation points to execute the task, and be left to drive to the navigation points as they see fit.

Using manual Passenger Lines - Assign Task example
  1. Drive KSC2 - Dispatchin the action
  2. Open Dispatch Manager
  3. On Dispatch Manager, Select Passenger Stations from the drop down list to list all the stations in the route
  4. Click on the status of a station you wish to create a passenger line for and select "Show Passenger Lines for <Station>
  5. Create passenger lines either manually (as above) or perform a "Generate Lines"
  6. For a created line, right click and select "Assign Task" ->
    1. Assign to "Myself" - will assign the Passenger Line task a players driver with the appropriate rolling stock available
    2. Assign to "Automatic Scheduler" will assign the Passenger Line to a driver with the appropriate rolling whom is also assigned to Automatic Scheduler
      • Note: This can be done without enabling Dispatch Manager, as long as an appropriate driver has already been assigned to Automatic Scheduler
    3. Assign to specific driver - will assign the Passenger Line to specific driver with the appropriate rolling stock available
Note: In all Assign Task cases - Dispatch will fail if there is not an appropriate driver with the required rolling stock available


Change Log: (132513 to 132833)

  • [Fix] Stall when enabling generating lines
  • [Fix] Failure to Assign Task on first attempt for Passenger Lines
  • [Fix] Driver commands not correctly refreshing
  • [Fix] PF trees placed with incorrect rotation
  • [Fix] Large transparency shift with imposters for foliage assets
  • [Fix] Improvement to Imposters for non-foliage assets
  • [Fix] Undo of a Junction creation causing offset of other trackside assets
  • [Fix] Filter and Asset Palette bugs
  • [Fix] Blue texture after bulk replace on HD Terrain
  • [Fix] Several Inspect Baseboard bugs (incorrect texture % usage, delete textures when multiple versions used, undo after several texture deletes)
  • [Fix] A route specific case which had constantly increasing path searches
  • Added entries to Activity Logs for failed dispatch message (Assign Tasks)
  • New TLR banners

Known Issues:
  • This build lacks precache shaders. Stuttering and small freezes during first loads of routes is to be expected as well as longer initial load times. 'Compiling Shaders' can be seen top of the screen during initial runs and slow performance is to be expected during this process. This process is slower in this build and may take longer than expected
  • Assertion Errors are enabled for this build. Trainz will pause until Assertion Errors are closed. Users can select Continue and Ignore Errors. (Reporting when these occur with bugs will help with troubleshooting)
  • MPS is not supported for this build
  • Some rotation of Imposters may appear slow
  • Saving sessions will occasionally be marked as faulty
  • TurfFX is disabled for pre-release builds
  • Passenger Lines can not be assigned platforms
  • Clutter highly reflective at night
  • Some menus are missing backdrop on first view

REMINDER:
** Please ensure you have a backup of your local data folder before using it with Trainz Plus Beta **

INSTALLING & PATCHING:

For Trainz Plus Beta via the Trainz Plus Beta Stream
Trainz Store Only:

PC: Requires Trainz Plus 132513 (PC). This is a small patch 25 MiB for build 132833

Mac: There is no Mac update at this time

Please report any bugs using this link: https://n3vgames.typeform.com/to/xRdryu
 
Last edited:
Change Log: (132284 to 132513)
  • New Window: Advanced Living Railroad Settings
    • (Global) Dispatch Status, Train Return Tasks, Automatic Run Around, Automatic Driver Spawning, Stuck AI Cooldown Timer, Stuck AI Restarting Attempts
    • (Freight) Automatic Freight Dispatch, Maximum Delivery Distance, Minimum Time Until Empty, Queue Full Percentage
    • (Passengers) Automatic Passenger Dispatch, Automatic Line Generation, Minimum Line Length, Maximum Line Length, Minimum Station Distance, Maximum Station Distance, Allow Mid-Line Start
  • Passenger Stations filter added to Dispatch Manager
  • Dispatch Manager will now display passenger stations
  • New Window: Passenger Lines List
    • Lines are given a scoring which help determine which lines are 'good'
    • New options:
      • Rename Line
      • Edit Line
      • Clone Line
      • Disable Line
      • Import Lines from Session Rules
  • Passenger Lines can be assigned to Automatic Scheduler or to a driver directly
  • Automatic Runaround Support (Enabled by default)
  • S20 Bulk Replace options: Everywhere in the Route, In Current Baseboard, In Selection
  • Inspect Baseboard added to Marquee contextual menu
    • Options added for the listed textures
      • Copy
      • Replace Texture with Selected Asset
      • Delete Texture from Baseboard
      • Focus in world
      • Select in World
      • Select in Assets Palette
      • List Assets in new window
      • Refresh
  • New Window: Validate Route Data - This replaces Delete Missing Assets & Compact Route
    • Delete Missing Ground Textures (Default Enabled)
    • Delete Missing Splines (Default Enabled)
    • Delete Missing Objects (Default Enabled)
    • Delete Invalid Track Objects (Default Enabled)
    • Validate Layer for Track Objects (Default Enabled)
    • Delete Overly Long Splines (Default Enabled)
    • Recalculate Splines (Default Disabled)
    • Rebuild Named Object Tables (Default Enabled)
    • Validate World ID Polarity (Default Warn Only)
    • Compact World IDs (Default Disabled)
  • [Fix] Imposters correctly render with screenshots
  • [Fix] Junction Leaver offset when adjusting position using the Info Palette
  • Assets will show current seasonal version on Asset Palette
  • All compatible scenery will now render using the Imposter System
 
Precaching and first time loading of a route (a large one) took a loooong time. I spent many minutes looking at a white ground devoid of textures. The textures appeared (in stages) and were followed, slowly, over a few more minutes by the other scenery assets. Track splines were amongst the last to appear. This is a known side-effect of the beta versions so don't expect a fast load the first time you a load route.

Imposter display has improved significantly. I initially noticed a few PF trees floating above the terrain but as I moved in to investigate they disappeared, hopefully to ground level.
 
the new Beta was fast to install and didn't take a long time. The precaching also didn't last that long (on a small route) + loading a different route (Milwaukee Road Avery - Drexel) was not a huge deal either. However, SpeedTrees on this route don't render that far away and the FPS still drops to just like 50%-60% when moving around.
(using a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB RAM (improved AMD EXPO settings) and RTX 4070 TI SUPER)
I also loaded a modified version of the route "Legacy of the BN" and replaced some trees with Treez. The FPS are the same, but both 2d and Treez are changing their appearance in circa 50 meters away from the camera. (which looks extremely distracting)
 
Just finished a small test of this version of the beta. pop down a passenger consist. went into driver and told the train driver to go on the auto list, then selected a passenger line and told the dispatcher to assign that drive to that line. And what do you know about 10 seconds the commands pop into that drivers command list and the drive started driving.:):cool:
So my next test was to edit a passenger line and make it a loop, saved it. then told the driver to drive it and without a problem the driver did. started the loop mid way . when the driver got to the end it just stopped and did not continue like 'i thought it would. will have to do more testing tomorrow.
 
You can have more “fun” if you have several passenger trains! I have an old layout which runs with 3 passenger trains, it seems as if their initial assignment to defined routes can be reset at times, so I’ve just had all three try for the same station…
That’s going to need manual sorting!
 
Overall, the performance is much better in this version compared to the last including on my big route that still has some hiccups in the built-up area.

The AI drivers are better behaved too in this version compared to the previous one from what I can see in my initial test.

There is a problem with TRC crossings. They stay down and ring bells weirdly and never return to the open position.

Running with script debugging enabled shows the following error:

Code:
- <kuid2:458053:101541:3> : File trc.gs, Line 38, ER_ThreadError
  ; <kuid2:458053:101541:3> : Script class: ct
  ; <kuid2:458053:101541:3> : MeshObject: <kuid2:458053:101541:3> "TRC US Co 2L scenery"
  ; <kuid2:458053:101541:3> : Script callstack
    ; <kuid2:458053:101541:3> : function $void@ct::MessageHandler1(Message), mobj{id=1352814, ScriptableObject{0x17cd45710; asset:SpecReference{<kuid2:458053:101541:3> "TRC US Co 2L scenery"}, class:GSClass{0xd18c5c88: ct}, refcount:77}}

I missed catching an earlier error related to collision detection for these crossings, but it's related to the scripting too.
 
I just exited the session and I now have a red "!" displayed.

The error is:

- <kuid:124863:100965> : VE45: The tag '?#' is not permitted within a container of type 'profile'.

Where did this garbage tag come from?

Searching the config.txt manually found this at the very bottom:
__#
 
I noticed this as well, that appears to be a false load error, when this latest patch was released as far as living railroad, it was said that the assertions were enabled in the build and there's slow loading, the imposter system, but other than that, there's nothing to worry about, that's part of the bug reporting process that helps content creators and developers.
 
Searching the config.txt manually found this at the very bottom:
__#
I noticed this as well, that appears to be a false load error,
Hmmm. That may explain a similar message CM was showing me about a route/session I had just exited about a week ago. An entire line of text characters, some of which looked like they may have come from my system clipboard, had inserted themselves into the route (or session, I don't remember which) config.txt file, but not at the bottom. Deleting the intruder text resolved the problem. It has not happened since.
 
I would check the errors and warnings tab in content manager, of course I could be wrong but, the last post of mine regarding this said it is a false error, I had no problem loading my railroad up to start building and running trains, of course being slow to render everything but that's all I can come up with.
 
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