Login validation broke my DLC and routes.

KotangaGirl

Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
I started up my pre-SP1 install of TS2019 this afternoon and it looks like the validation process has broken all kinds of things. When I last started up this installation earlier this week everything was fine. Now DLC which I purchased is either showing as 'payware not active' or is painted in red for having faulty dependencies. On top of that the screen resolution has been dumbed down with no other settings available. I run TS2012 at a higher screen resolution than that!
Also a metre gauge route that I had to hunt all over the internet to find dependencies for is now showing faulty dependencies when it was perfectly fault free before.

I did an extended database repair and it did exactly nothing. Everything is still messed up.

I'm sick and tired of all this. All I have ever done since starting to use TS2019 is fix things. Every so often things would be fine for a while so I'd keep on using it hopeful that the soon (TM) to be released update would fix things. After a lot of messing around I now have a SP1 install that seems to be working Ok and is fault free, but I never expected that my pre-SP1 install was going to get sabotaged by the simple act of me starting it up and logging in. I am sorely tempted to just delete TS2019 entirely off my computer and forget it ever existed.
Trainz in a new light? - didn't they call Lucifer the 'light bringer'.
 
If the resolution has changed you have an issue with your userdata folder, check the path is correct in settings and your login details are holding before doing anything else.
 
A shot in the dark: If you have virus software running disable it for your Trainz app folder and your user data folder.
 
Yes don't forget you need to re-run the Settings a second time. By some quirk if you change anything on the initial setup it goes back to 1024 resolution, blanks your user details and resets the insidious daily backups to 7.
 
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If the resolution has changed you have an issue with your userdata folder, check the path is correct in settings and your login details are holding before doing anything else.

The data folder path checks out Ok Malc. It's a different path to my other install so there shouldn't be any confusion between them. My login details are as they should be as well. I have no idea why the resolution changed and it seems determined to remain stuck at 1024 resolution. I've decided I really don't care about it and it can stay as it is.

My antivirus software, - Emsisoft, - is already set to leave all my Trainz folders alone so that's not an issue.

I ended up installing the SP1 update and that was painless. I found the problem with my ECML DLC was two fairly minor dependencies suddenly showing up faulty that had never given problems before and they turned out to be an easy fix. Any other DLC Payware routes and sessions that were showing as 'payware not active' I simply disabled them. I wasn't that fussed about them in the first place and they won't be missed.

The French metre gauge route had its own single dependency that had suddenly decided to come up faulty and I was able to fix that. I was pleased that it's all good again because I'd spent a lot of time getting it sorted out so it had no problems so it was a bit of a blow when it went into the red yesterday.

All my upgraded to TS2019 legacy routes seem to be fine and are showing no problems. These are the ones that I was most worried about since a lot of work had gone into them.

So it looks like I'll be keeping TS2019 afterall, but very much on my terms with everything unwanted that can't be deleted disabled and anything faulty that can't be fixed deleted and got rid of. The new Platinum version interests me not at all since it would be full of yet more unwanted routes and assets that are no use to me and paying out that much money just for the new trick surveyor-driver tool is simply not worth it.

I know I got a bit upset yesterday, but I do wonder sometimes how the average N3V customer who never comes anywhere near the forums and knows very little about how to fix Trainz when it's broke gets on when their version of Trainz goes bad.
 
... but I do wonder sometimes how the average N3V customer who never comes anywhere near the forums and knows very little about how to fix Trainz when it's broke gets on when their version of Trainz goes bad.

I suspect not well. I sometimes have problems after installing or updating other software applications and, on the odd occasion, with Windows as well. With a few apps I have had to simply uninstall and forget it because I could not find any worthwhile help, even when using Dr Google. At the other end of the spectrum, I have had trouble navigating the enormous labyrinth that is the Microsoft online support system and knowledge base, even with help from Dr Google.

This is where small niche developers are at a significant disadvantage - how much time and money do you spend setting up and running help desks and online support? Ultimately, the customer has to pay for that.

For my one and only commercial software package that I developed (specifically for one corporate customer), I spent a significant slice of the development time writing an extensive user manual covering every possible aspect of using the program, including troubleshooting. That time was included in the invoice I submitted.
 
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This is where small niche developers are at a significant disadvantage - how much time and money do you spend setting up and running help desks and online support? Ultimately, the customer has to pay for that.
-snip-

I have yet to find any help desk or online support system that really helps. I don't care how large or small the entity. My best support experiences has always come from forums or sites such as GitHub, etc. And Youtube videos have helped me more than any vendor support. Sadly, many people don't take advantage of these (and other) resources. As far as TRS19, I can't image trying to understand it without using all resources available and knowing how to use Google site specific search on the Wiki and Forums.
 
The more I read about all these issues with 2019, the more I'm glad I've just stuck with TANE SP3. It is probably always a wise thing to wait until new service packs have been around a while before moving to them anyway, as we all know ,they can create more problems than they solve.
I have 2019 installed but I'm not using it , I just don't need the hassle, at least I know the problems with SP3. They hardly affect route building, which is 95% of what i do, and a lot of 2019's feature set don't work unless one has a NVIDEA card , so I figure why bother with something that I see very little benefit in using.
 
It's TS2012 and TANE that I seriously use Dan, but with TS2019 I gave it a go on a gold sub and converted some of my old favourite legacy routes over to it. That seemed to go well so I was happy with TS2019 for a while. When the Uk Edition was released I purchased a copy and stopped my gold sub, but not before I purchased all the DLC I wanted in an N3V sale using my gold sub discount.
It was really after that when a lot of the problems started with N3V pushing the regional editions and then the plus and beta streams came along in addition to the the gold sub and things started to get really mixed up. The issue of freeware becoming payware in TS2019 didn't help either. The SP1 update seems to work Ok, but now the surveyor tools have become harder to use if you're a route builder since the familiar buttons on the menu bar have been hidden inside menus. And then there's the fact of code for Platinum and Plus versions being put into the tinware Classic versions as well so that Pause and Unpause don't work in surveyor anymore.

I've just downloaded pflindley's GCR V12 : Joint GCR/GWR route into TANE and all is good, no missing dependencies, nothing faulty. When I tried the same thing in TS2019 I got faulty assets being reported as well as dependencies not being available because they are now payware. The sessions still ran ok, but I was back with the old 'the sun's just gone supernova' lighting problem and some of the engines looked like they were black chrome plated instead of having any kind of realistic finish. Even the made for TS2019 latest versions of pflindley's GCR route turns up faults as well as missing dependencies due to the 'payware not active' mess that's a part of TS2019 these days.

The old legacy routes I've got in TS2019 run fine though. But then they aren't using any of the magic new stuff in TS2019 and all their dependencies are from the DLS. So that's why I've gone and cut TS2019 right back by disabling most of the DLC. What's left was originally made for TC3 anyway so no surprise that it doesn't give any problems. A 64 bit version of TS2012 is how I use TS2019 and provided I can manage to get the lighting tamed it's good for that. For what is supposed to be 'Trainz in a whole new light' it's odd that the first thing I have to do to tame the lighting is paint the sun almost completely black.
 
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