Mystery Routes and Sessions

pware

Trainz Veteran
I just did a search of TRS22 only routes and sessions using the Web based DLS (the so-called "White Pages") and have discovered a number of "mysteries".

There are, at the time of this post, only 16 routes and 25 sessions for TRS22 - but it is early days.

  • 6 of those 16 routes have no description or a very brief and nonsensical one (e.g. "BUILDING ROUTE 31/7/22 .G"). Some of the routes have a title that indicates they are some sort of test or sample but without a description and with no interest in downloading them to find out, you have no idea what they are about. One has the word "Session" in its title, but it is a route and, to be fair, it has a very detailed description (in German) that when translated is quite informative so the "Session" could be a translation error or language based typo.
  • 19 (yes 19!) of the 25 sessions have no descriptions or a very brief uninformative one and some have a nonsensical title (e.g. "2022 Niles").

There is a parallel thread in these forums dealing with the issue of uploads to the DLS that do not have a "genuine" thumbnail (e.g. have an image that says "This is not a thumbnail") at https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?168720-Never-will-I-download and the general consensus of those who have responded is that if the creator does not take the time and effort to create a representative thumbnail then the asset cannot be any good. I have decided to adopt the same rule for routes and sessions that lack an informative description (even a brief one).

My rant for the week.
 
Last edited:
I find I have almost more routes than I can handle, and I only get DLC or routes featured here on the forums with screenshots and indications of support from the author. Way too many routes are just junk saves from mobile or other users.
 
That source of "stuff" is an embarrassment It seems that anybody can post anything. I think that it should be locked where it is and the "stuff" cleaned out. It shows that there will always be people that will do almost anything for almost any reason. It is irrational, but their name is being seen by hundreds of people and that is satisfying to them. Perhaps some enhancement to the Download Station would allow that file system to disappear. The DLS is moderated. That other thing is not. The result is the proverbial Tower of Babel.

I stopped looking at it. However, I did look recently and saw some good things, but the overall character of the content is very mixed and can't be trusted..
 
I just did a search of TRS22 only routes and sessions using the Web based DLS (the so-called "White Pages") and have discovered a number of "mysteries".

There are, at the time of this post, only 16 routes and 25 sessions for TRS22 - but it is early days.

  • 6 of those 16 routes have no description or a very brief and nonsensical one (e.g. "BUILDING ROUTE 31/7/22 .G"). Some of the routes have a title that indicates they are some sort of test or sample but without a description and with no interest in downloading them to find out, you have no idea what they are about. One has the word "Session" in its title, but it is a route and, to be fair, it has a very detailed description (in German) that when translated is quite informative so the "Session" could be a translation error or language based typo.
  • 19 (yes 19!) of the 25 sessions have no descriptions or a very brief uninformative one and some have a nonsensical title (e.g. "2022 Niles").

There is a parallel thread in these forums dealing with the issue of uploads to the DLS that do not have a "genuine" thumbnail (e.g. have an image that says "This is not a thumbnail") at https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?168720-Never-will-I-download and the general consensus of those who have responded is that if the creator does not take the time and effort to create a representative thumbnail then the asset cannot be any good. I have decided to adopt the same rule for routes and sessions that lack an informative description (even a brief one).

My rant for the week.

I am not sure if the rules and sessions I have uploaded have thumbnails or not, have not checked lately. Seems to me the description section is much more important. But if some of you do not wish to utilize them, then so be it.

Insofar as naming sessions, I have uploaded many of these also. However, there is a problem with the length of the new name if the route and session need descriptive names. For example, some of Philskene's wonderful routes, when a session name is added, probably do not even fully appear on the CM. If I am interested in a route, I simply use the "show dependents" feature in CM and off I go (if there are any).
 
Last edited:
On a positive note, I think there are many Trainzers who would love to know about quality sessions because they are reluctant to "get started" with a new route. I am thinking about starting a thread where users can post references to their routes with sessions of which they enjoyed. ( I would start with the ones I uploaded, of course:)). Anyone think this is worthwhile?
 
Yes! Often it is very hard to find sessions for routes. Philskene's are very good, and I know FDL for FondDuLac, but a lot of sessions with names like "6AM switching", give me no clue at all.
 
However, there is a problem with the length of the new name if the route and session need descriptive names.

I agree. The titles should be informative but as brief as possible. The details should be left to the description.

My session titles include enough of the route name to make it clear that the session is a dependency of the route. The full route name I add to the session description.

I am thinking about starting a thread where users can post references to their routes with sessions of which they enjoyed.

That would be a good start but there have been other such threads in the past and they tend to get easily lost in the forum "clutter". There is a Freeware Announcements forum where some users have started threads about their newly uploaded routes and sessions - and other freeware assets as it is not exclusively for routes and sessions. I have used this to post about my more recent DLS route uploads and it provides a very good method of getting feedback, "bug" reports and suggestions.

If a creator has spent time and effort creating a route and/or session then they could surely spend a few minutes adding a worthwhile description and a non-cryptic title. If they are genuinely proud of their work, even if they are being modest, then they should post about it in the Freeware forum. So far all the comments I have received in that forum have been positive and encouraging.

My thoughts.
 
I only use the freeware announcement forum to find new content. If it isn't worth a post with images and a detailed description than it isn't worth my time.
 
"I only use the freeware announcement forum to find new content. If it isn't worth a post with images and a detailed description than it isn't worth my time."

I agree. Wholeheartedly. It does take some time, but only a fraction of the time to actually do a route or layout. And I certainly don't expect anybody to download any of my uploads without a good understanding of what it is, how it works and what is expected of the player.

If anybody wants to see how it can be done, see some of my threads where I make an announcement of a route/layout plus sessions. Do an Advanced Search, thus:

Advanced%20Search.jpg


Phil
 
The thing I found most disconcerting is that when I view the white pages dls, TRS22 is unchecked and all TRS22 routes tell me I need a serial number even though I have a gold subscription
 
Ditto here. I do not know what it means. Those same assets will download and install using CM without any problems. Most browsers no longer support the FTP download system used by the DLS "White Pages" and N3V do not encourage its use for that purpose. I only use it to check the download numbers.
 
For those rare occasions when I need to use the White Pages, I enable the Internet Explorer mode for Edge. This is found under the browser settings.

edge://settings/defaultBrowser

This needs to be re-enabled ever 30-days and specific sites can be added to the list to use that mode.

Using this allowed me to use the FTP to download assets.

The alternative is to use an FTP downloader such as Filezilla.
 
Back
Top