Finding Sessions for Routes

Hi Folks,

I've had trainz for a while now, though I'm still a novice if I'm honest. I've downloaded and installed a few routes from the DLS. Some of these brought sessions with them, others say to search for them on the DLS.

I was wondering, is there some sort of black magic you can do with the search filter in the Content Manager to make it find sessions on the DLS for the routes you have on your PC?

Actually, I have the same question. A large number of sessions on the DLS have no indicator as to which route they're written for.

There currently is no such filter in Content Manager.

That is why I suggested to add this option in the future.

It is up to the route/session creator to use a naming system that identifies a session as belonging to a particular route. Alternatively, reading the description of a session can sometimes give a clue as to the route it belongs to but this, unfortunately, cannot be auto-filtered.

Well that's a shame.

I thought that, seeing as the Content Manager can find the dependencies an asset requires, it might be able to find the assets for a given dependency.

That said, now that I've been thinking about it some more, the config file for any given dependency does not list the assets the dependency is for, only the ones it needs, so I suppose that is why.


To make it possible to find sessions for a route Content Manager would have to search its directories (local, DLS or otherwise) and check the config files lists of each asset for 'hits' of a particular KUID. I can imagine that it would be difficult to facilitate that kind of search and that it would take a long time for a search like that to be done.

I suppose you could limit what category of assets you were searching to find, so if you were searching a KUID of a route or locomotive CM would look for sessions, if it was an enginespec or bogey - a locomotive etc.

It's basically the reverse of what the CM does when finding the dependencies of an asset you've installed. As I said earlier, you don't have the list of KUIDs in the config when you're working backwards.

It would be a fantastic and extremely useful feature if Auran could come up with a way to make it work though.

This is one of them pondering imponderables thoughts I often have - if a session creator is not bright enough to include what route the session is for in the description, what are the odds that the session is gonna be any good?

In content manager, on a route, right click, view dependants (NOT DEPENDENCIES), it should tell you the sessions for the route.

boyerm25 said:

In content manager, on a route, right click, view dependants (NOT DEPENDENCIES), it should tell you the sessions for the route.

Click to expand...

I see what you're thinking, but that only finds local sessions for local routes. I'm trying to find sessions on the DLS for local routes.

Yeah, view dependent assets only shows the dependent assets you already have installed. It would be nice if it could trawl the DLS to see what other sessions are available for a given route. Without that, what I generally do is look at the route author, then set the filter for author = philskene category = sessions, even when a route creator has a bunch of different routes it's usually not hard to figure out which sessions go with which route. Anyone who writes a session for someone else's route really should include that route name in the name of the session.

On that note then, I don't suppose you could recommend a few routes with sessions from the author? I prefer switching/shunting and shorter runs, like the Hawes Junction sessions that're built in.

Thanks

A reply to your original post, using the cm search function. Author=whoever, under that category=session. This should bring up any sessions made and looking at the description should tell you which route they are for.

" ... recommend a few routes with sessions from the author? I prefer switching/shunting and shorter runs ... ."

If US style routes are acceptable, search for routes and sessions by "philskene", eg Krashnburne, IntenCity, DowntownTractionCo.

Make sure you read the warning labels, if you play more than two of Phil's sessions per week they can be habit forming.

Edweird said:

On that note then, I don't suppose you could recommend a few routes with sessions from the author? I prefer switching/shunting and shorter runs, like the Hawes Junction sessions that're built in.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Take a look at my contibutions for 2012. Lots of switching/shunting. Each session is 7 days of operations.

Long Island Western CMTM,<kuid2:32711:100076:1> - route
Long Island Western Operations,<kuid2:32711:100026:1> - session

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...ute-and-Session&highlight=Long+Island+Western

and

Cattaraugus Creek & Lake Erie CMTM3,<kuid:32711:100377> - route
CC&LE week of operations,<kuid:32711:100380> - session

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...!&highlight=Cattaraugus+Creek+Lake+Erie+CMTM3

All assets on the DLS

Edweird said:

I prefer switching/shunting

Click to expand...

For a 10-25 minute (depending on your "skill") taking operation fitting that preference, take a look at my "Woodridge shunting" session (kuid:645812:100072). Both route and session are completely build with built-in assets (with the exception of the HTML file of course), so should be an easy and quick download. A score is being kept. 100 point for doing it correct and see if you can get the bonus points .

Fantastic, thanks guys. That should give me plenty to be getting on with.