Problems & Frustration with Importing Routes in TRS19 (NA Version)

OK, I'm going to rant a little here about my new latest-greatest TRS19 (N American Version). My latest version before TRS19 was TS12, build 3.5. I also have TRS2006 & TS2010 installed with lots of content in them.

First, the TRS19 graphics are great but getting routes or sessions to work in it are a pain in the butt. I'm going to use Dave Snow's TANE version Cotton Belt Route to demonstrate my frustration. But first, I'll summarize what I think N3V needs to do to prevent new gamers buying their first version of Trainz from throwing in the towel and just deleting the game due to utter frustration. I've had TRS19 only 2-3 weeks and I considered doing just that. Fortunately, I've done a lot of "fixing" of faulty content but I'd pity the poor sole just starting out who knows nothing about nor has the tools required to drive square nails into round holes.

N3V: When a new "latest-greatest" comes out, all built-ins of previous versions should be moved to the DLS and/or the latest version of the built-ins need to be built-in in the latest game. In the Cotton Belt Route I found 55 assets that had a one or two version number higher than what was on the DLS or wherever else I found the asset. Possibly some of these are built-in in TANE but not in TRS19?? Why would assets in a now "obsolete/outdated" game (TS12 & TANE) have built-ins with higher version numbers than those found in TRS19 and why TS12 or TANE built-ins are not in or available to TRS19?

Now for the details of my Cotton Belt Route experience in TRS19:

I installed the route and session and immediately had 161 "unknown" route kuids and 4 "unknown" session kuids. I wanted this route so badly that I was willing to put myself through hell to get it as complete as possible.

I have been searching for "unknown" kuids for about a week now. I noticed that many of these "unknowns" were in TRS19, but at a lower version number than those used in the TANE Cotton Belt Route. 55 of the 161 "unknowns" were already in TRS19 but at a lower version number. This required 55 corrections to the route's config file to "backdate" Dave's kuids to what was already in TRS19. Then I had only 106 "unknowns".

Next, I started searching through my TRS2006 through TS12 (Build 3.5) games looking for any version of these remaining "unknown" kuids. I found 49 of them and imported them into TRS19. Many of these older versions were "faulty" in TRS19 and required repair. Again, Dave's config file had to be "backdated" for these to work. 4 of the 49 were "faulty" and could not be repaired and a later version was not available. This left me with 57 "unknowns" and by now I was getting more and more pissed.

So, I began to "dumpster dive" using the KUID Search tool. As of this writing, I am down to 28 "unknown" and 4 "faulty, cannot repair" kuids. I am including a list of these. 3 were said by KUID Search to be on a Russian/E European site(s) but I have not been able to locate them there. 6 were identified by name as being part of the Settle & Carlisle Route. 14 simply returned "Nothing Found". 1 was identified as Container ISO 20ft 8ft6 White but the site link no longer works. 6, including the 4 "faulty, cannot fix" ones, appear to be TS12 (Build 3.7) and TANE built-ins available only to those who own those games.

Final tally is that I'm missing/need 3 session and 29 route kuids, as follows:

As of 30May19
Cotton Belt Session in TRS19
Unknown Assets (3)

<kuid:523:19723465> NF = Nothing Found using KUID Search tool
<kuid:523:19723461> NF
<kuid:523:19723443> Kuid not in Trainz Romania Market, DEP1.cdp

Cotton Belt Route in TRS19
Unknown Assets (25)

<kuid:523:19723410> NF
<kuid:478358:100050> RU = Russian or E European site, cannot locate kuid
<kuid2:84609:28433:1> Ford Transit Grey (in Settle & Carlisle Route)
<kuid:303612:1> NF
<kuid:57230:21629> NF
<kuid:124863:100029> NF
<kuid:106916:10420> NF
<kuid2:38408:10051:1> NF
<kuid:523:19723371> TANE built-in, according to KUID Search tool
<kuid:124863:100031> NF
<kuid2:303612:41:1> NF
<kuid:75805:60009> NF
<kuid:57230:25551> NF
<kuid2:84609:28615:1> Jaguar MK2 Red (Settle & Carlisle Route)
<kuid2:84609:28701:1> Hillman Imp Blue (S&C Route)
<kuid2:523:1972804:1> Built-in in TS12 (3.7) & TANE
<kuid2:68787:200409:1> NF
<kuid:-25:1212> NF
<kuid:523:19723413> RU = (Site Says it's for TANE, Cannot locate kuid)
<kuid:106916:10468> NF
<kuid2:303612:62:1> NF
<kuid2:84609:28617:1> Ford Lotis Cortina (S&C Route)
<kuid2:84609:28430:1> Ford Transit Red (S&C Route)
<kuid2:84609:28600:1> Land Rover S1 80 HT (S&C Route)
<kuid2:60850:27120:1> Container ISO 20ft 8ft6 White (Link to site broken)

These 4 are faulty, Unfixable (by me), and Built-In in TANE (Mine were original versions, the route calls for the :2 version only available as built-in in TANE; the :1 version is built-in in TS12, Build 3.7)

<kuid:523:1524> Plant ElephantEar 02
<kuid:523:1076> Plant BostonFern 01
<kuid:523:1326> Rock Quartzite 01
<kuid:523:1214> Plant ElephantEar 01

All errors in the 4 above are similar to this:

; <kuid:523:1214> Validating <kuid:523:1214>
! <kuid:523:1214> VE48: This asset uses an obsolete trainz-build number. Trainz-build
numbers below 3.5 are no longer supported.
; <kuid:523:1214> TNIRenderPluginThread:oLoadAssetMesh
; <kuid:523:1214> TNISpeedTreeApp> Failed to load 523:1214:0: CParser:arseHeader,
expected header [SRT 06.0.0] but got [SRT 05.0.1]
- <kuid:523:1214> TNIRenderPluginThread::ThreadCommandLoadAssetMesh> Failed to load mesh
<kuid:523:1214>-0
; <kuid:523:1214> TNISpeedTreeApp> Failed to load 523:1214:0: CParser:arseHeader,
expected header [SRT 06.0.0] but got [SRT 05.0.1]
- <kuid:523:1214> TNIRenderPluginThread::ThreadCommandLoadAssetMesh> Failed to load mesh
<kuid:523:1214>-0
! <kuid:523:1214> VE61: Required tag 'category-class' was missing and has been set to
default.
! <kuid:523:1214> VE62: Required container 'thumbnails' is missing.

torino72 said:

N3V: When a new "latest-greatest" comes out, all built-ins of previous versions should be moved to the DLS and/or the latest version of the built-ins need to be built-in in the latest game.

Click to expand...

I can see only two that fall into this category -
<kuid:523:19723371> TANE built-in, according to KUID Search tool
< kuid2:523:1972804:1> Built-in in TS12 (3.7) & TANE
There might be a reason for these not being on the DLS - similar to:
<kuid:523:1524> Plant ElephantEar 02
< kuid:523:1076> Plant BostonFern 01
< kuid:523:1326> Rock Quartzite 01
< kuid:523:1214> Plant ElephantEar 01
Older version speedtrees are not supported in TRS2019. This was apparently unavoidable. The trick is to choose some replacement trees or shrubs that do exist in TRS2019, and edit the config to obsolete these KUIDS. The game will then automatically upgrade the route or session to the replacements.

Everything else seems to be assets that were never built-in or on the DLS. IIRC that route had many assets which the route creator had bumped the version number to versions that weren't available anywhere, but if you searched TKI without nominating a version number you could find them.

Whoa there...it appears that you've gone about this the hard way (and it's true, we're partly at fault for not making it more obvious the correct ways to do things). We're also open to suggestions how to improve the information available so that people don't attempt to import builtin content from older versions of Trainz for example.

First issue. I asume you tried this all using your username torino72?

This account doesn't own TANE and therefore doesn't benefit from from the ability to install pretty much all the content that you have missing. That is something we're addressing by uploading all builtin content from older versions to the DLS (that vast majority are already done and an active task currently underway which includes upversioning assets where necessary).

We also currently provide an "Additional items" DLC package for TANE owners who also own TRS19 (this installs items not acutally used in TANE routes but are part of the builtin content set).

I have now set this up to include this pacakge for all TRS19 users as it includes, for example, the Speedtree assets you have the errors for. Hopefully that will now appear for you in TRS19 and will resolve a bunch of your issues.

Second issue, you haven't mentioned if the route had any missing items in the earlier install. Unknown assets are unavoidable in the case of users providing content that references content not on the DLS. I suspect that is the case here, and in that case, let the content creator know (or as you've done, advise the forum and people often have links). It is a pain, and the best solution is for all content to be uploaded to the DLS (which will sadly never occur).

Anyway, here's my experience attempting to install Dave Snows Cotton Belt route using an account that owns TANE and TRS19:

1. Install TRS19
2. Install all my TANE DLC items using the in-game downloader (including the "TANE Additional Items" package item)
3. Install <kuid2:101046:105057:1> Cotton Belt Route Ver 1303.9.2 TRS2019 from the DLS (I figured I'd start here as he's gone to the trouble of updating it for TRS19, so I'll check that out first, and I couldn't find another version on the DLS)
4. After downloading just the route (using "Download this version") I listed dependencies.
5. That showed 2228 were "Available on the DLS". I have two options to install these - either download them, or copy paste the list into TANE and import them from there. I chose to open these for edit in TANE, drag the editing folder into TRS19, submit the edits and I was done.
6. There were 44 "Unknown items". Listing the 44 items in TRS19 and pasting that list into TANE showed that I had all these installed. They were all Status = "modified" so that generally indicates I found them elsewhere, so they should be locatable for you. I imported these the same was as for the DLS items.

End result, not one faulty or missing item and no pain at all.