Why are routes downloaded from the DLS incomplete?

[trainz2019simplayer]

Every time I download a route from the DLS that looks so great in the images it ends up about 30% complete with only topography and little to no detail after I spend DAYS waiting for it to download. Does anyone know what's up?
Thanks

 

[marky7890]

Are there any dependencies being reported as missing?

 

[pware]

Every time I download a route from the DLS that looks so great in the images it ends up about 30% complete with only topography and little to no detail

Giving us an example or two (list the kuid codes) would be a great help.

 

[afe_uy]

Let's see if I explain it ... (I guess that's what you mean)
When you download a Route, it is mostly a list of things (Assets or Dependencies) that are placed in specific places along it and geographic data (location and heights).
A large part of these Assets are included in the Game (Built-In) and others are created by third parties and have normally been uploaded to the DS by the creator.
In other cases, it usually happens that the Assets are on sites other than n3v, and may or may not be paid.
If you do not have installed the Assets that the Route indicates, it will be marked as "Faulty,Missing Deps" until you obtain them by downloading, although it can be solved by deleting and replacing them with similar ones or others of your preference.

 

[dangavel]

Sounds like you don't have a first class ticket if downloads are taking days, buy one, you won't regret it. you also will probably need to download the DLC routes that come bundled with trainz, you also may find that some assets are also included in payware routes. The really annoying thing is, content manager doesn't give you any indication as to which routes that any missing assets are installed , so it's matter of downloading as many as possible and hoping they will fill the gaps.
Also some routes include assets from third party sites, some of those are no longer around, overall it's a hot mess trying to get complete routes installed, especially if they are older routes, as more and more routes contain assets that used to be freeware , but which have now become payware or which bundled into DLC . You can assume unknown assets are either DLC items or hosted on other sites, but you won't be able to tell which is which.

Great isn't it ?

 

[pdkoester]

Routes on the DLS (download station) are not required to include DLC and pay ware content. Some people like to use the content outside of the DLS for assets. I don't know if there's a standard way to have the missing items be listed somewhere when downloading has completed.

 

[ricomon35]

@trainz2019simplayer


1.) Buy your FCT here (First Class Ticket) - Gives you access to higher speed downloads. Choose the 1 year option, (it's the best price per day) - Trainz First Class Tickets - FCT
2.) Like @dangavel said, d-load the DLC routes via the launcher Content Store button

3.) After downloading any route, right clik the route and choose download, and the content manager will download all of the missing dependencies that are on the DLS. After that process finishes, you may have sub-dependencies to download. Right-clik the route again, choose show dependencies. Go down the new list of deps and download the sub-deps for each as needed. Right clik, download.
4.) After all that, you may have missing deps that are NOT on the DLS.
5.) Setup your CM window with all the available tabs. Right clik the area in this pic and add all the available tabs except modification date. That one's not very useful for most Trainzers.

6.) To find (non-DLS) missing deps > Use Google to search the kuids, you can highlight a missing kuid in CM, use Ctrl-C to copy the kuid info, then paste into Google. Go to the website and download the missing dep(s). They are often inside .ZIP files, and will have to decompressed with WinRAR or 7-ZIP. Inside you will find CDP files (orange) that can be drag-dropped onto your CM window to install. You can also subscribe to Trainz Kuid Index @15 USD per year to make the annoying task of kuid hunting significantly easier.
7.) Lastly, if there any faulty (Red), errors for any deps, you can right-clik each faulty dep and choose "View errors and warnings" > Yellow warnings can be left alone. High light the red errors and paste into a post on this forum (post in General thread), asking for help resolving the error(s). This may require you to edit the asset config file, fix an image in an image editor (i.e Phostoshop, GIMP, or use a PEVSoft app to edit/fix another asset file.

This should be enough info to get you going, I hope
I'm sure other Trainzers will add addendums/corrections to this post, they always do ! LOL (You know Who You Are)

 

[pware]

I don't know if there's a standard way to have the missing items be listed somewhere when downloading has completed.

Unfortunately not. It is very much the responsibility of the route or asset creator to identify where the missing assets can be found. Some include that information in the asset description but most do not leaving the downloader with the often impossible task of trying to find them.

 

[davesnow]

There are hundreds, nay, Thousands of routes on the DLS that should be removed. Just plain junk. A couple or three blocks, many times unpainted, several strips of track with no real plan. Maybe a few buildings and the "creator" uploads it as a route. Has some kind of silly name like "Fun Route" or "Big Train Crash" or whatever. Blah.

 

[pware]

What I would like to see is a way of identifying which DLC package contains an asset that is labelled as "Packaged" (and not on the DLS) or "MIssing" in Content Manager. The current Report Containing Packages option in the Content Manager Content menu gives you a cryptic code name for the source packages that means nothing to me. For example the packaged asset in my CM <kuid:45176:100508> icon change driver end is in the DLC package code-named 651.tzarc which I just happen to know is "Liskeard to Looe, UK" and I know that because I created the asset and gave permission for it to be used in that DLC package - and that asset is also on the DLS with the same name and kuid so you don't need to download the DLC route to get it. I don't have a clue which DLC items contain the other 33,000+ Packaged assets that CM is reporting that I have installed - some are on the DLS but others are not.

My initial understanding of the concept behind "Packaged" assets was that they are on the DLS and also bundled into a DLC package. When a user purchased a DLC item all its assets, the payware ones found only in the DLC package and the freeware ones found on the DLS, would be downloaded and installed in a single operation. This was to avoid the constant complaints from users who would get the DLC package downloaded at the maximum available speed but, if they did not have an FCT, then had to download all the DLS assets at a "snails pace" with download restrictions.

Thus, I thought, any asset labelled as "Packaged" should also be available on the DLS. If it is labelled as "Payware" then it is only found in a DLC download. Unfortunately this does not appear to be the case for a whole variety of reasons many of which have been raked over in these forums, so I won't rake over them again.

The combined status label "Packaged, Payware" that is on just over 1,000 of my installed assets totally confuses me - is it payware (available from the DLC only) that is also freeware (on the DLS)? I have one asset labelled "Built-in, Payware" but that is an example of a DLC route that came installed for free in Trainz.

The other problem of assets that are missing because their creator has only made them available on a third-party web site is much more difficult to solve. There are a few well known third-party web sites that host Trainz content, both payware and freeware, but many hosting sites have addresses that are unknown to all but a few (not including the poor users who have downloaded a route that needs that asset) or they simply do not exist any more.

My philosophy, as I have stated several times in these forums, is to only upload routes/sessions that use assets that are labelled as "Built-in" or "Installed from DLS".

 

[pware]

There are hundreds, nay, Thousands of routes on the DLS that should be removed. Just plain junk. A couple or three blocks, many times unpainted, several strips of track with no real plan. Maybe a few buildings and the "creator" uploads it as a route. Has some kind of silly name like "Fun Route" or "Big Train Crash" or whatever. Blah.

Many (most?) of those came from the early Mobile Phone app version of Trainz. The DLS was, apparently, the only place that they could store routes that they had created using the app. But I agree, they need to be "weeded out" but who wants to volunteer for that job - you are bound to cop a mass of hate mail from someone because you deleted their "best ever" route.

 

[p-dehnert]

To find the DLC matching the code shown by Report Containing Package, enter the code in the search field of the Content Store or Trainz Store. Another place to search for the code is https://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Help:In-game_Downloading .

Peter

 

[pware]

To find the DLC matching the code shown by Report Containing Package, enter the code in the search field of the Content Store or Trainz Store. Another place to search for the code is https://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Help:In-game_Downloading .

Thanks for that info, I did not know about those options.
I just tried them. The Wiki link initially had very few (almost none) DLC codes listed but after I while I found the "magic" + buttons to open up the listings. Those buttons need to be bigger and more obvious - replacing them with <span style="font-size: 17px; font-weight: 700; color: white; background-color: blue;">&#160;+&#160;</span> would make them "bleedingly obvious" to hyperopic people like me .

The trick with the Content Store method is to drop the ".tzarc" from the name when entering the magic code into the search box.

Your namesake, Peter.

 

[ajrf]

There are hundreds, nay, Thousands of routes on the DLS that should be removed. Just plain junk. A couple or three blocks, many times unpainted, several strips of track with no real plan. Maybe a few buildings and the "creator" uploads it as a route. Has some kind of silly name like "Fun Route" or "Big Train Crash" or whatever. Blah.

I agree. And more if I try to find routes for benchmarking purposes and gather ideas, or even improve them as a route builder. Especially in urban areas.

 

[trainz2019simplayer]

@trainz2019simplayer


1.) Buy your FCT here (First Class Ticket) - Gives you access to higher speed downloads. Choose the 1 year option, (it's the best price per day) - Trainz First Class Tickets - FCT
2.) Like @dangavel said, d-load the DLC routes via the launcher Content Store button

3.) After downloading any route, right clik the route and choose download, and the content manager will download all of the missing dependencies that are on the DLS. After that process finishes, you may have sub-dependencies to download. Right-clik the route again, choose show dependencies. Go down the new list of deps and download the sub-deps for each as needed. Right clik, download.
4.) After all that, you may have missing deps that are NOT on the DLS.
5.) Setup your CM window with all the available tabs. Right clik the area in this pic and add all the available tabs except modification date. That one's not very useful for most Trainzers.

6.) To find (non-DLS) missing deps > Use Google to search the kuids, you can highlight a missing kuid in CM, use Ctrl-C to copy the kuid info, then paste into Google. Go to the website and download the missing dep(s). They are often inside .ZIP files, and will have to decompressed with WinRAR or 7-ZIP. Inside you will find CDP files (orange) that can be drag-dropped onto your CM window to install. You can also subscribe to Trainz Kuid Index @15 USD per year to make the annoying task of kuid hunting significantly easier.
7.) Lastly, if there any faulty (Red), errors for any deps, you can right-clik each faulty dep and choose "View errors and warnings" > Yellow warnings can be left alone. High light the red errors and paste into a post on this forum (post in General thread), asking for help resolving the error(s). This may require you to edit the asset config file, fix an image in an image editor (i.e Phostoshop, GIMP, or use a PEVSoft app to edit/fix another asset file.

This should be enough info to get you going, I hope
I'm sure other Trainzers will add addendums/corrections to this post, they always do ! LOL (You know Who You Are)

Thank you! I am on Mac so I am not sure I'll be able to do all those things but your response was very helpful in understanding how complicated it all is good to know there is a community here to ask for stuff like this.

 

[trainz2019simplayer]

Can you please explain what a CM window is and how I access it? Your last screenshot looks unfamiliar to me probably because I am on Mac.

 

[trainz2019simplayer]

Sounds like you don't have a first class ticket if downloads are taking days, buy one, you won't regret it. you also will probably need to download the DLC routes that come bundled with trainz, you also may find that some assets are also included in payware routes. The really annoying thing is, content manager doesn't give you any indication as to which routes that any missing assets are installed , so it's matter of downloading as many as possible and hoping they will fill the gaps.
Also some routes include assets from third party sites, some of those are no longer around, overall it's a hot mess trying to get complete routes installed, especially if they are older routes, as more and more routes contain assets that used to be freeware , but which have now become payware or which bundled into DLC . You can assume unknown assets are either DLC items or hosted on other sites, but you won't be able to tell which is which.

Great isn't it ?

Ah, I see. Thank you!

 

[Re57k]

Can you please explain what a CM window is and how I access it? Your last screenshot looks unfamiliar to me probably because I am on Mac.

CM Window = content manager window. This is where you manage content (locomotives, wagons, routes, session, anything) that is either free, or comes with the game.

To access it, click on Manage Content from the Trainz launcher.

 

[trainz2019simplayer]

CM Window = content manager window. This is where you manage content (locomotives, wagons, routes, session, anything) that is either free, or comes with the game.

To access it, click on Manage Content from the Trainz launcher.

Oh ok, thanks for your help.

 

[JCitron]

Can you please explain what a CM window is and how I access it? Your last screenshot looks unfamiliar to me probably because I am on Mac.

At the Launcher, click on Manage Content. This will open up Content Manager, aka CM for short. Sometimes, you need more than one Content Manager window. You can open up more than one window by depressing Command and n at the same time (CTRL and n on the PC) for New window.

I recommend revealing all the columns. Right-click on the title bar of one of the columns, i.e. Name, and there will be many other columns to add. They will be placed to the right of the one shown and subsequently for each column you add. You can then drag these around to the order that you find useful and you can also resize the columns so that they don't go off the edge of your screen.