Upgrading to TRS 2004 / 2006

[Bista]

Evening all!

Having toyed around for ages with UTC I have finally taken the plunge and orderd a package with 2004 and 2006 in it.

Question is (in laymans terms, I don't really do computers) what should I be aware of when stepping up.

The PC obviously has UTC on it, do I need to remove this?

I have been creating some bits and bobs using G-MAX and the Creation Studio. Will these still export to 2004 / 2006 and will stuff I've already created work???

Will worlds I've created in UTC work in 2004 / 2006? There's no scripting in them (not sussed that out yet) but some, including a West Midlands one I'm part way through, are quite large. I'd hate to have to start again.

I take it the new sims will establish thier own directories for content. Do I need to save down-loaded content to disc out of the way or will it be safe in the existing directories?

Am I likely to get any nasty surprises????

Cheers for any advice

Ian Hudson
Birmingham UK

 

[stagecoach]

2004 is quite happy with most content from earlier versions. 2006 tends to pick up on errors in content a lot more and some animation might not work. In a lot of cases these assets have been updated to work in 06, in others you might need to do a bit of editing of the config files.

2004 has a dispatcher/download folder which contains all the downloaded content, 2006 does'nt. You need to use the CMP to import content from 04 and this and all custom content is in the local folder, but it uses its own naming system so you wont be able to tell what folder is what by looking at them.

You dont need to uninstall utc.

Backup in all cases its safer, once lost its heartbreak and start again. No directory is safe.

 

[Bista]

OOH-UM!

Sounds like your saying I'd best stick 2004 in first and see how it goes.

Been reading some of the older comments on here but seem to be some conflicting info. Is 2006 a massive step forward from 2004 feature wise or just a bit of a "clean up" to solve problems. In which case am I better off using 2004 with an SP (presumng there is one)?

Cheers

Ian Hudson
Birmingham UK

 

[john259]

The last service pack for TRS2004 was SP4.

The last service pack for TRS2006 was SP1.

Service packs must be installed by following the instructions precisely or they won't work. In the case of TRS2006 this is a right pain but there is no alternative.

You may be lucky and get versions which are already patched up to SP4 and SP1 respectively. The only way to know is to install them and then check the build numbers, for example against the list in the Trainz wikibook.

John

 

[Bista]

Many Thanks!

Will wait for the postman to deliver the goods and start plugging away at 2004.

I may be back on here shortly after:hehe:

Cheers

Ian Hudson
Birmingham UK

 

[Bista]

EEER! HELP!

Got stiched by the Amazon supplier who couldn't supply Trainz Complete Collection after all.

Fortunatly got a brand new copy of TRS2006 so dived in head first as it were. This is VER2.6 build 3337 straight out the box which according to the "Wikibook" suggested is the latest version with all updates.

WOW! What an improvement over UTC, however:

As I have gotr more involved, I seem to be encountering problems.

Firtsly I down loaded some assets from the DLS; no prob got the hang of the CMP. BUT! When starting a layout containing the assets I started getting a dialogue box first in what apperaed to be Spanish, I think warning about missing dependancies.

For example, first down load was a green class 40 D326. This caused the message although the loco works perfectly when used. Down loading missing dependancies seemed to solve the Spanish message but it then returned when I downloaded a bogie bolster.

When trying to down load missing dependancies again it tells me "green bogie" for the 40 is defective (even though it works ok) and that for the bolster it trys to down load "bricks on pallet" but says it is superceeded by a later version and stops.

Later I downloaded the superb UKLB 9f and this bought back the message along with a dialogue in surveyor when trying to place it saying "assent is not a mesh item". CLicking OK caused the loco to appear ok and it worked perfectly. If the loco was requested in a consist from a portal the same messge appears but again clicking OK causes the loco to appear OK.

I went back and found the some dependancies to do with "bluestar" (or couple star what ever it is) were suspect so I down loaded again and the "asset not a mesh item" no longer appears!

Roll forward a bit and having experimented I've got AI stuff working but with problems.

A few test layout have been doen and ran well (appart from my incompitence with laying track marks) even when they got quite large with a lot of trains operating. So, I went for the big one and put together a mixed layout of open country, town, junctions etc, checking how well it ran as I went and no problem. Then I added Driver Commands and boy did it F##K up! Suddenly it goes to stop frame movement (like seconds between movement stop frame!) when you run it from Surveyor.

If you shut Trainz down and re-start it with the scenary and landscape distances turned down and the the train ploys turned down slightly it runs perfectly as long as you do it in DRIVER. But as soon as you enter Surveyor and change anything, no matter what you do it runs stop frame again (sometimes even collapsong Trains completely) whether run from Surveyor or Driver. If you shut Trainz down and restart it will run ok again in Driver until you update things through Surveyor and then it goes all jumpy "what the butler saw" again.

OH and as an aside, like a pillock I tried importing a load of old assets from UTC without thinking so;
1. Could that mass of data be causing the problem?
2. Is there some kind of search "hunter killer" I can use to get shot of it and start again? Without loosing the newly down loaded stuff which is difficult to locate in the local file due to the "odd" naming convention.

This is driving me barmy, not least because (as ever) it's probebly something I've done that's causing the problem!

If you've had the pateince to read all this, thankyou.

If you have any suggestions, even better!

AARRGH!:'(

Bista

 

[Skrogsgorks]

As Stagecoach said, you will need to learn how to edit your assets. There are threads here on the forum and webites with Tutorials dedicated to 'fixing' assets. While it may seem you are experiencing bad vibrations with 2006, by your last post you seem more than capable of working through most of the problems it has presented. That in itself tells me that once you get settled into the new version, learn all the tweaks and twips (they are many) you should gain positive experience and enjoyment. I myself have no other trainz version experience, having worked only with 2006. Try not to be impatient with it. TRS2006 'tries' to be a labor intensive beast but, once you've tamed it, it purrs.

P.S. There might be some that disagree but, frame rate = video card performance and RAM. The faster and bigger the better performance.

 

[Bista]

VISITORS>>>IF YOU'VE GOT THIS FAR LOOKING AT STOP FRAME ISSUES, LOOK AT THREAD How much detali? (YES IT IS SPELT LIKE THAT) AS I WAS BEING OVER AMBITIOUS WITH MY USE OF ASSETS AND THE ADVICE ON THAT THREAD PUT ME RIGHT!<<<<

Cheers for the advice.

I need to get a better handle on the CMP I think plus, as I have no current way of reading .chump files I can't read configs to indetify individual assets in the local (was easy with .wps configs) so I'm going to have to settle down and sort meself out.

A mate of mine is bulding me a laptop up dedicated for gaming so when that arrives I'll have to knuckle down and get everything in order.

Many thanks

Bista