First, I apologize for opening this thread for an issue which has been discussed on this forum over and over. Perhaps I am too stupid to use the Search function, because I either get 0 or 500+ results and nothing in between. If I try to be more specific I get an error that the keywords entered are either too short or too long.
Now to the problem - I tried to download some content from DLS, specifically for TC 1&2, as the latter flavor of Trainz comes with very little built-in content that can be used to build anything else than few miles from Boston and New York (the version should be renamed as "New Heaven" or similar). I ticked the appropriate box and searched for the content. Then I opened my Content Manager Plus utility and there I keyed in kuid found on the download station. I always do so, because I found DLS page very inefficient for downloading, plus it does not show asset view which is worth more than ambiguous description. After downloading I found that some assets have errors. I am not particularly upset about the errors, but about lack of commitment to fix them by their authors and lack of mechanism to show if an asset has an error prior to downloading. Situation was the same six years ago when I joined in and nothing has been done to improve it. It is very hard to live knowing that the future won't be any better.
For instance, asset "Water Tower 1", <kuid2:60238:27149:2> by vulcan. It has three type of errors:
1/ Non-permitted tags
2/ Missing textures
3/ Discrepancy in the size of the primary and alpha textures
Usually I can fix the error type 1 by removing the offending tags from the asset configuration file. Still, it would be better if DLS run periodical check for this kind of errors and flag them.
Error type 2 I used to fix by scanning files in my local content containing the name of the missing textures and if I get a match, including one of the files found in the asset content. But this method is a bit like assuming that a person by the name John Smith is the one you know.
For error type 3 I read many excellent tutorials how easy it is to fix and I spend great deal of time to teach myself how to do it. But it was few years ago when I did it last time and I don't want to go through the same pain again.
The only practical solution is to remove the erroneous assets from my local content. What a shame, as some are of such good quality and they could be valuable addition to my routes.
Now to the problem - I tried to download some content from DLS, specifically for TC 1&2, as the latter flavor of Trainz comes with very little built-in content that can be used to build anything else than few miles from Boston and New York (the version should be renamed as "New Heaven" or similar). I ticked the appropriate box and searched for the content. Then I opened my Content Manager Plus utility and there I keyed in kuid found on the download station. I always do so, because I found DLS page very inefficient for downloading, plus it does not show asset view which is worth more than ambiguous description. After downloading I found that some assets have errors. I am not particularly upset about the errors, but about lack of commitment to fix them by their authors and lack of mechanism to show if an asset has an error prior to downloading. Situation was the same six years ago when I joined in and nothing has been done to improve it. It is very hard to live knowing that the future won't be any better.
For instance, asset "Water Tower 1", <kuid2:60238:27149:2> by vulcan. It has three type of errors:
1/ Non-permitted tags
2/ Missing textures
3/ Discrepancy in the size of the primary and alpha textures
Usually I can fix the error type 1 by removing the offending tags from the asset configuration file. Still, it would be better if DLS run periodical check for this kind of errors and flag them.
Error type 2 I used to fix by scanning files in my local content containing the name of the missing textures and if I get a match, including one of the files found in the asset content. But this method is a bit like assuming that a person by the name John Smith is the one you know.
For error type 3 I read many excellent tutorials how easy it is to fix and I spend great deal of time to teach myself how to do it. But it was few years ago when I did it last time and I don't want to go through the same pain again.
The only practical solution is to remove the erroneous assets from my local content. What a shame, as some are of such good quality and they could be valuable addition to my routes.