User Mods?

[TheGrimReaper]

Sorry for all the newbie questions...but some more.

1) When you download user mods, do they go into a specific directory? Are they somehow kept seperate from the core game objects?

2) When your looking at items within the game, is there a way to tell which items came with the base game versus it was a downloaded mod?

3) If I decided later to remove all user mods but keep all core objects, is there a way to do that? Or does everything just become intermingled at that point?

Thanks!

 

[seeseeme]

You will find you have many questions about Trainz and some of them have been answered so the search feature is handy. Though I am not sure I have seen you questions before :hehe:

1. Any downloads are kept separate from Built-in items in the Folder UserData, in Subfolders Local and Original.

2. Yes, but off hand I can not remember the colours. I will check and come back on this.

3. You can not delete the Built-in content though you can disable it which makes it invisible in the actual game. If a route needs the items it will still use disabled content.

I hope this helps for now.

Craig

 

[TheGrimReaper]

Thank you so much for the quick answers...I typically do my best to search first, but searches don't always come back with the answers

Thanks again!

 

[seeseeme]

No they do not, I quite often give up :hehe::hehe::hehe:

I meant to mention that Content Manager is a very handy tool to learn to use, though the learning curve is rather hard. There is some help on the forum but finding it may not be easy.

All members will try to help out were they can, though sometimes each of us may not have seen a particular situation/problem and are unable to help.

Craig

 

[TheGrimReaper]

No they do not, I quite often give up :hehe::hehe::hehe:

I meant to mention that Content Manager is a very handy tool to learn to use, though the learning curve is rather hard. There is some help on the forum but finding it may not be easy.

All members will try to help out were they can, though sometimes each of us may not have seen a particular situation/problem and are unable to help.

Craig

Thanks...the one kind of option I was looking for in the content manager that I am not sure exists, is just some kind of filter that will list all files that are fully compatible with TS12. Does such a think exist?

 

[MrHAJO]

2) When your looking at items within the game, is there a way to tell which items came with the base game versus it was a downloaded mod?

Open the CM and use the Filters on left side, search for "Build-in" + "true" or search for "location" + "local"

Play a little with the Filters and you will learn about to use them.

 

[sniper297]

Pictures are better than words anyway.

Play with the search filter in content manager, it doesn't quite sing and dance but you can make it do a lot of stuff with multiple filters by clicking the plus buttons.

In game;

Set the options in developer settings to show KUIDs in surveyor;

Numbers for whatever you have selected are at lower right, white is something you downloaded;

Yellow is a built in asset;

Red is usually something you created or got from a 3rd party website since red means it's not built in and can't be found on the DLS either.

Also a filter in surveyor;

Similar to the one in content manager, so for example if I'm looking for a tree spline that's built in I can set the filter for built in = true and type "tree" in the keyword window to weed out all the other weeds.

 

[TheGrimReaper]

Thanks Sniper...that was perfect pictorial example!!! Just one last question I will try and leave you alone If you then decide you want to delete a user mod, do you do that from the content manager as well? I am assuming so since that appears to be swiss army knife of the game

 

[sniper297]

Pretty much, if you have an FCT the process is less painful since you can redownload something if you need to. You can't delete built in assets since it won't let you, but you can disable them so they won't show up in the lists in the game. Delete an engine and then check for missing dependencies, you could find that by deleting that engine you broke three sessions which would also have to be deleted. Then of course you'll have leftover dependencies like engine specs, bogies, sounds, etc. that aren't used for any engine other than the one you deleted. Leaving them in doesn't cause any problems other than cluttering the lists, but after a while it becomes second nature to set the filter for missing dependency = true or faulty = true to clean up garbage.

 

[TheGrimReaper]

Ok, I think I got it now Been playing with it for awhile and it really is powerful. This is going to be fun... Thanks!

 

[seeseeme]

Sniper got to the colours before I could :hehe:

Using Snipers image of Content Manager, there is quite a bit of information there for you. Under the column "Status" you can see some items with a green triangle, this means some alteration may have been made by the user or there just opened the content in "Edit" mode to have a look around.

The black Computer symbol means it is a downloaded item, if it was Yellow then it is a Built-in item.

The Yellow exclamation mark (!) means there is a problem with the item but it is not that serious - this is a Warning. If it was RED though it means the item is FAULTY and will not work in TS12.

You can move the columns around just by holding the left mouse button and drag it along to a new "order". Also if you place you courser over the column headings and holding down the right mouse button you will get a little window up showing additional columns that can be displayed.

All of this though is part of the learning curve and as Sniper says the Search Function features can be used to provide a lot of data type information, it is quite powerful.

Have fun learning, it's one of the best and hardest parts of Trainz.

Craig


BTW you will never stop learning about Trainz :hehe::hehe::hehe:

 

[oknotsen]

Nice one Sniper

[Sniper's pictures.

Posts like that should be cut out and made sticky somewhere nice!

 

[Ghost42]

Posts like that should be cut out and made sticky somewhere nice!

I think Sniper, Shane & co need to run a course BSc(trainz).

Rog
My sticky, ever expanding Bookmarks.

 

[seeseeme]

I think Sniper, Shane & co need to run a course BSc(trainz).

Rog
My sticky, ever expanding Bookmarks.

I like the idea of a BSc(Trainz) :hehe:

Grim have you looked at the available patches for TS12 or has the program told you about them???

Craig

 

[TheGrimReaper]

I like the idea of a BSc(Trainz) :hehe:

Grim have you looked at the available patches for TS12 or has the program told you about them???

Craig

Yep, all patched up to the latest version as far as I can tell...just going through tutorials and learning. So far, everything looking good and I am certainly glad I made the purchase!

 

[Ghost42]

Just to get this clear in my be-fuddled brain, if building a route for release on the DLS, all yellow would be perfectly safe, but a combination white and yellow still ok?
Red obviously a no-no.
Rog ( who may have been needlessly erasing assets )

 

[Dermmy]

'Red' is not a no-no. Some of the best content out there is on third party sites. Many creators won't upload to the DLS because by so doing you essentially hand over all rights to the asset to N3V so their content is only available from sources other than the DLS. There are hundreds of third party sites covering all gamuts of the Trainz experience.

The only issues with using third party content in routes is that

(a) the route can't be used for multiplayer and

(b) some users will complain that to use your free route and the free content they are required to spend a few minutes downloading content manually.

Neither issue particularly concerns many route builders, myself included...

Andy

 

[Ghost42]

'Red' is not a no-no. Some of the best content out there is on third party sites. Many creators won't upload to the DLS because by so doing you essentially hand over all rights to the asset to N3V so their content is only available from sources other than the DLS. There are hundreds of third party sites covering all gamuts of the Trainz experience.

The only issues with using third party content in routes is that

(a) the route can't be used for multiplayer and

(b) some users will complain that to use your free route and the free content they are required to spend a few minutes downloading content manually.

Neither issue particularly concerns many route builders, myself included...

Andy

Thats pretty clear, thanks.
Rog

 

[seeseeme]

Something you may do with such a route is to include a Read-Me file that has a list of locations for the "Red" content, and mention that in your description.

The only problem is that many people do not read the Read-Me file even if told too :hehe::hehe:

Craig

 

[sniper297]

Seems to be the American Way, "When all else fails read the directions", reading the directions first is considered cheating or something. :hehe:

I go the opposite way, if it's not on the DLS or built in I won't use it in my route - main advantage to the red KUID in my case is that it's always something I made but haven't uploaded yet, so serves as a reminder on what I need to finish and upload. I keep multiple copies of Trainz anyway, and in the test versions I set the filter for built in = false, location = local, select all and delete all so I'm back to a virgin copy with nothing but built in assets. Then I import the route or session CDP, make a list of unknown KUIDs in the dependencies so I can switch back to the working copy to package and upload those. Once I have all my own created dependencies uploaded, I again test in a virgin copy to make sure everything it needs can be downloaded. Not foolproof, for example session rules still don't get automatically added to the KUID table, so any session rule you got from the DLS has to be manually added to the KUID table to make sure the end user gets all the dependencies needed.

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=82653

Dunno if they'll ever stop the blame game on that one, doesn't look like it, so the best workaround is to make a note of every non default session rule you use and add it to the KUID table for the route before uploading, that way you don't have to remember to add them to every session config.txt.