5 days work

lewisner

Active member
I started playing this game in late 2004. In those days it was unstable and prone to crashing and sometimes I lost months of work. But now it is 2022 and you'd think things would have improved but they haven't.
So tonight I did a lot of work and for some reason the game froze the cursor. I desperately clicked a few buttons and eventually I got things moving and it asked me if I wanted to save before exiting so I did. Then I restarted my PC and opened the game only to find that the route I am working has been utterly destroyed, nothing except patches of colour where fields used to be. The last time I saved to a CDP was 28th of April so that is 5 days of my life utterly wasted. All those hours and hours of work flushed down the toilet.
 
Welcome to the real world of computing. In the past I regularly experienced your situation using a wide variety of productivity software (it is not just a Trainz issue).

Losing months of work because of an error in programming code (code that I wrote so I had no-one else to blame) taught me about doing regular backups i.e. after every few hours of work or when I exited the program for a break. I know it is no comfort after the event, but that was a lifetime learning experience. Incidentally, it took me only week or two, not the months I originally spent, to get back to where I was when the disaster struck because I avoided the mistakes and dead-end paths in my original work.

Have you checked your Train backup folder. Trainz will keep automatic backups for the last 7 days unless, of course, you have turned that option off.
 
But now it is 2022 and you'd think things would have improved but they haven't. All those hours and hours of work flushed down the toilet.

Sorry to read about your misfortune, but

Building in a new "Beta" version of Trainz, that's still under development. Well as the old saying goes, you put your "dollar coin" in the slot, then pull the handle. drums spin... Anything can happen!!!

Save as often as possible...

Cheers, Mac...
 
Check the backups folder and the folder with the current date.

Using Windows Explorer, look for the .tzarc file with your kuid and a recent date and time, but not the most recent and is the largest of the files.

Copy this .tzarc file to the Edit folder. Sometimes there's a sequence of letters and number after the .tzarc. Rename the file and remove that sequence.

Once copied, at the Launcher, run a database repair.

This will restore your route.
 
I understand when users create threads like this they are frustrated, but wow, minor overreaction. Have you even done a database repair or checked your backups folder?

Also: this is still IT. Save incrementally. I always save Routename-01, until i get to about 100 while deleting them every now and then, and then resetting back to 01.
 
Check the backups folder and the folder with the current date.

Using Windows Explorer, look for the .tzarc file with your kuid and a recent date and time, but not the most recent and is the largest of the files.

Copy this .tzarc file to the Edit folder. Sometimes there's a sequence of letters and number after the .tzarc. Rename the file and remove that sequence.

Once copied, at the Launcher, run a database repair.

This will restore your route.

Thanks for the replies all. John I grappled with that for a few hours, read the relevant Wiki page to try and understand it but there was only one KUID for my route and when I opened it there were no tzarc files in it, When I searched for .tzarc the only result was from last year. So I gritted my teeth and imported the 5 day old CDP and several hours work have it nearly back to where it was now. Thanks again.
 
So I gritted my teeth and imported the 5 day old CDP and several hours work have it nearly back to where it was now. Thanks again.

The next step is to remember to save the route or route and session as a .cdp file (or as separate .cdp files) at the end of each day or, better still, every few hours whenever you take a break from Trainz during the day.

There is a sample Backup plan on the Trainz Wiki at https://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/How_to_Manage_Backups#Backup_Plan_Basics
 
I suppose I should also not drink a bottle of wine and have not enough sleep. To be fair to myself, since I installed Windows 10 3 weeks ago my computer has been unpredictable and Trainz has been randomly shutting down without warning.
 
Ahhh yes, those were memorable days of a very callow and shallow youth.

Windows 10 would have had a lot of updates since its original release so you may need to spend a lot of time tending to those, if you have not done so already.

One regular complaint in these forums about Windows updates is that they can replace the manufacturers hardware drivers with the generic "Windows equivalents" and that can cause performance issues. It is also advisable to check that you have the latest manufacturers drivers for all your hardware - for example: many Trainz sound and even train speed issues are caused by out of date and/or generic sound drivers.
 
I suppose I should also not drink a bottle of wine and have not enough sleep. To be fair to myself, since I installed Windows 10 3 weeks ago my computer has been unpredictable and Trainz has been randomly shutting down without warning.

What build is your Windows 10? Run Winver to check.

Currently it should be version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1682) last 4 may be lower as I'm on an Insider preview build so I am a patch in advance or thereabouts.

There were a lot of issues with early builds re stability and graphics issues, it seems pretty much rock solid now.
 
sometimes it happens to me, usually when working on splines (disjoining single pieces of them from the whole lenght): sudenly the soft closes to desktop and all the not saved work is gone... I learned to manually save my works often to avoid losses and, of course, every couple of day to save all to cdp. Of course I'd prefer to have a more stable software with TRS but that's how it comes...
 
What build is your Windows 10? Run Winver to check.

Currently it should be version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1682) last 4 may be lower as I'm on an Insider preview build so I am a patch in advance or thereabouts.

There were a lot of issues with early builds re stability and graphics issues, it seems pretty much rock solid now.

My build is 21H2, I know because it was a large patch and I had done a manual update check.

"sometimes it happens to me, usually when working on splines (disjoining single pieces of them from the whole lenght): sudenly the soft closes to desktop and all the not saved work is gone... I learned to manually save my works often to avoid losses and, of course, every couple of day to save all to cdp. Of course I'd prefer to have a more stable software with TRS but that's how it comes..."

I resolved years ago to save to CDP every day but I have drifted in and out of Trainz with very long periods inbetween so I get lazy. But I have learned my lesson so now I am saving frequently and saving to CDP every single day.
 
What build is your Windows 10? Run Winver to check.

Currently it should be version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1682)

I'm intrigued to discover that I'm on version 21H1, OS build 19043.1645.

Strange thing is that it hasn't asked to install updates so I assumed I was up to date. (I've checked - it's there waiting to download and install!)

Paul
 
Back
Top