Many Crash to desktop events

Version: 105096
Many crashes/disappearance of program events. Usually when changing from Edit to Driver. Reported....

There is little in the bug report. Change modes and POOF! I loose all the work and MY TIME.

I know most customers are not annoyed at failures but this constant set of bugs seems to show a desperate attempt to balance revenue enhancing features against fixing problems. At some point I look at my cash outlay to N3V versus the FUNCTIONAL QUALITY and I feel I am not getting value for my money.

Allegedly the program is intended to replicate a working railroad scenario. However, the customer is burdened with constant issues (at least in my case). Consumers rationalize shoddy products these days. Developments of exotic electronic gadgets and their issues has created a climate acceptance.

Instead of the amateurish rearrangement of the customer facing menu the majority of the time should be devoted to the expensive, and no cash flow, fixing problems. If the funding for the product is low then we can continue to expect to be unpaid problem finders.

Enough of all that. The programs looks good and plays poorly, wasting my time with problems. Now the defenders of the realm may wish to respond.

I think that providing the Edit Trains tab in Driver was a huge step forward, as train situations could be updated if they needed to be without resorting to surveyor; not to mention that [driver] sessions cannot be edited. I think that if the same ability would have been added to adjust commodity levels in Driver, that would be sufficient for most users.

Being able to edit the route in the unified release seems to me to be error prone and have diminishing gains.

I did bug report the CTD when doing a replace assets operation on a very large route. It works okay in sections and in selected areas, but try this on a large route and we're left facing the desktop. The QA team is testing this now so hopefully this will be fixed sooner than later.

Outside of that, knocking on wood, I haven't had any CTDs while working in Surveyor. I worked on my big route yesterday for the better part of the day - probably a good 6 hours or longer as I rebuilt a section of this route that was created in early 2005 (Enfield and Eastern Rev 3), and rebuilt in places over time as my route building skills have improved. I can't say that I'm not apprehensive and save early and often when I make a big change.

I am not familiar with the testing strategies today. Whatever they are they seem ineffective. Not relative to solving the problem but to locate it. People who chase simulator bugs need to use the program. There has always been a suspicion that may not be the case. Why run choo-choos when you can stave off monsters and save the world , or at least a partially naked female. Just had another crash. The flight sim worked ok. Browsers are ok. $$$ manager is ok. TV is ok. Otherwise, I would rebuild the PC immediately.

boleyd said:

I am not familiar with the testing strategies today. Whatever they are they seem ineffective. Not relative to solving the problem but to locate it. People who chase simulator bugs need to use the program. There has always been a suspicion that may not be the case. Why run choo-choos when you can stave off monsters and save the world , or at least a partially naked female. Just had another crash. The flight sim worked ok. Browsers are ok. $$$ manager is ok. TV is ok. Otherwise, I would rebuild the PC immediately.

Click to expand...

If we remember back from the olden days, testing was done quite differently with extensive in-house testing done prior to a beta release done by selected individuals to be then followed on later by a community testing program. Like anything else these days, it boils down to money. In order to generate sales, aka revenue, products need to be on the market sooner - nuff said.

N3V isn't the only one caught up in this pattern. How many recalls do we see now from big automakers such as Toyota, Honda, and Ford? What about other products that have somehow had major issues slip through the cracks? Operating systems from both Microsoft and Apple going tits up when a customer looks the wrong way at them or doesn't, and even food that needs to be pulled back from the shelves because a step was bypassed that would have prevented a catastrophic incident.

In your case now you're caught up in the failure loop. Something has now become corrupted due to the constant failures and the only way out of that is to do a database repair over and above the ones started automatically when coming back from a crash. I would also run an EDR, with its implications attached, and view the log as it goes along. I had some corrupted assets listed that I had to delete and redownload, which I use and couldn't substitute, that became unusable due to the failure. The only way I found this was to watch the log and caught the red X's go by.

I also have had and continue to have a number of CTD's. I have come to the conclusion that it relates to a delay in releasing completed work to disk leaving work "Open For Edit"
Check items open for edit before continuing to next task.

CTDs have been an ongoing problem in Trainz - their frequency varies with different builds, among other factors. What I have found that helps considerably (not 100% but enough to make a noticeable difference) is to run a DBR every now and then at a time that is convenient to me, unlike the CTDs. Likewise, as suggested in the previous post, check for assets that are "open for edit".

I have the regular version of TRS2019 Build 100240 and a few days ago I was prompted to upgrade which I postponed. If I had accepted, would this have gotten me to Build 105096 (which has problems discussed above and in other posts?)

If so, I will resist any upgrade until this all plays out. Thanks.

My sympathies to all those experiencing issues with Build 105096.
I've had my fair share of CTDs in the past with previous builds.
However, this SP1 build is rock-solid for me, with none of the issues mentioned above being encountered.
Perhaps this is a hardware-specific-related problem? Is there any commonality in the actions/ behaviours of the Users experiencing these crashes?
JackDownUnder's suggestion above seems plausible to me and wonder if anyone has been able to test this?
pware's suggestion of running frequent DBRs as a preemptive strategy also has merits. My habit is to run a QDBR ahead of virtually every Trainz run-time - whether in Driver or Surveyor mode.
Additionally, I always check for 'Open for Edit' and 'Faulty' items prior to any gameplay.

Likewise, I've had no problems here so it's definitely not an issue for everyone.

PC_Ace said:

My sympathies to all those experiencing issues with Build 105096.
I've had my fair share of CTDs in the past with previous builds.
However, this SP1 build is rock-solid for me, with none of the issues mentioned above being encountered.

Click to expand...

I am getting CTD's on a modified version of the Baltimore Route after upgrading to Build 105096. I can't say if these would have occurred in the previous version as I just started running AIs.

If you are still running the previous version, do you still have the Quick Drive and Undo icons on the toolbar? I can't remember which upgrade placed them into the new menus.

Further to my previous missives on this subject I can confirm this morning that CTD in my case IS due to the game leaving current work "Open for Edit" even though the operation was saved and exited correctly.

ecco

I am getting CTD's on a modified version of the Baltimore Route after upgrading to Build 105096.

Click to expand...

That suggests that there are faulty assets somewhere in that route and dependent sessions. (i.e. Not necessarily a function of Build 105096, though it's possible that particular route spotlights a code issue with the new build).

That's the same build I'm on and mine too has had the Quick Drive and Undo/ redo icons removed from the toolbar.
Doesn't worry me at all as I have always used the keyboard shortcuts in preference to mouse clicks. Accordingly, I didn't pay much attention to this interface change until others complained about it.
I do have copies of all preceding builds stashed on my hard drives, but have never had the need to revert to any of them due to the failure of a new build. Occasionally, I will check one of more of these old builds to answer historical questions like the one you posed above, but now consider keeping builds older than the immediate predecessor a waste of time and disk space.
Accordingly, my New Years Trainz resolution is to stop being so anal about backups!