Atomic Systems

Rose & Gareth have posted UKTS 32714, 'A scenario for the Angus Route Dundee to Montrose http://caledonianrailworks.blogspot.co.uk/ '.

This led me to a very pleasant new route by Darren Harvey on the aforementioned website; it currently links Dundee and Montrose (yes, it's golfing country ) but, all going well, will extend to Aberdeen & Dyce. It comes with scenarios; the one I tried was just fine.

RW_Tools suggests that there are some "Dazza" livestock assets which I haven't yet found, as well as some Just Trains scenery that I ought to have - but don't (may need to look for updates on the JT site). Missing assets notwithstanding, the route provides a very pleasant drive along the East Coast. Recommended!

And, by the by, Darren would like some donations...

Kind regards,

John M

Hi,

Looks a nice route seems a shame that you have to spend up to over £100.00 on other routes just to get scenery assetts and other items, not all of us have botttomless pockets,especially some pensioners my state pension has just gone up £2.00 a week.

Mike

RW Tools

Easy enough to swap scenery assets, and the argument of "why do I have to spend £100...." can be turned on it's head to "why should a route author have to spend £100 in order to be able to use the most appropriate assets giving us the best possible gaming experience...."

It is a slight downside when assets are used that are no longer available so you have to swap them out with RW Tools or something.
But because it's not available you don't know what the orginal looks like to change it with something similar and you have to look for gaps to see if a milk bottle is there.
Assets from Phorum Peninsula (Project Platform) are used on this route.

But it's not as bad as the Bournemouth Route - one of the most expensive Free routes available.

Hi All

I have all the listed requirements installed but I have numerous Just Trains/Modern Objects & the Dazza Wildlife assets missing.

The Route however is wonderful and loads up OK in the Sim

Regards

Mike

749006 wrote:But because it's not available you don't know what the orginal looks like to change it with something similar

The file name of the reported 'missing' item in RW Tools tends to give a clue as to what it is.

749006 wrote:But it's not as bad as the Bournemouth Route - one of the most expensive Free routes available.

But only if you don't have the assets used. mentioning the Bournemouth Route prompts a question as yet unasked here nor in the similar ongoing thread:

Why do people make routes?

The thread about the Bournemouth Route at http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... mouth+line (well worth reading if you're contemplating getting the route) contains a post from one of the co-authors of the route, which contains:

"I suspect most of the problems you are experiencing are my fault because the route was started by my cousin and I as novices to TS2013 for our own amusement."

Suely nobody is suggesting that anyone who is 'playing about' with the world editor should only use the assets the majority have just in case what they're playing about with turns out good enough to be considered worthwhile sharing?

Route builders will, and should, use whatever assets they think best or have available; afterall the primary reason most freeware routes get built is because the guy doing the building wants to because it gives him pleasure. (and of course any 'hers' who might be busy building routes...sorry ladies)
To expect or demand otherwise will only stifle the creative types who we should thank for allowing us to use the fruits of their labours. Likewise for scenario writers, what is used is up to them!

When presented with a route you don't have all the assets for you have a number of choices:

Walk away
Buy the routes you don't have
Download it anyway and see how it looks/runs and if necessary swap assets with RW Tools
Use the World Editor to build your own version from scratch---there are lots of useful posts in here to guide you on your way

What 'not to do' is post complaints about *missing* assets, a post along the lines of

"Hi, I'd like to get the ABC route but it says on the download page that it needs XYZ route which I don't have. Does anybody know how critical the XYZ route is to ABC working?...could I get by without it or is it possible to use RW Tools or something to use assets I do have?"

A post like that is guaranteed to get a response, even responses, detailing exactly what is used from where and which 'whats' can be easily swapped for alternatives.

Have to say I fully agree with the above post.

My opinion is that the route is made for the person who builds if,my WHL for instance will require a ridiculous amount of pay ware,if it didn't then the route wouldn't be anywhere near as good. Similarity I would prefer freeware builders to use a lot of assets from other routes,makes more value for money in the other products I have bought,IMHO.

Regards
Mark

gptech wrote:

749006 wrote:But because it's not available you don't know what the orginal looks like to change it with something similar

The file name of the reported 'missing' item in RW Tools tends to give a clue as to what it is.

When presented with a route you don't have all the assets for you have a number of choices:

[1]Walk away
[2]Buy the routes you don't have
[3]Download it anyway and see how it looks/runs and if necessary swap assets with RW Tools.

Ok,
[1] I usually give the route a go to see what works and what does not. I like the WCML EN-BHM but although good it was not for me.
[2] I have done this in the past, IOW comes to mind.
[3] Although RW Tools will tell me I'm missing Building/cottage it does not tell me where I should place the alternative.

Swapping a loco/coach/wagon for something I don't have for something I do is easy - swapping buildings is not if you don't know where to place them.

When you swap an item of stock you don't know, nor need to know it's location. Same holds for scenic assets.
All RW Tools does is edit the file name and path referenced to that of the replacement asset, positioning is unchanged. You may find that if the items being swapped are of disparate sizes that you have overlapping assets or gaps between assets. As the missing assets report shows the tile number it's easy to fly to that tile for fine adjustment or the simpler alternative is to just drive the route and tweak any oddities as you find them.

Hello... Firstly I'd like to Thank you everyone for taking the time to visit the site and/or play the route.

I know I left out the Dazza assets as I had a friend make me some livestock and I just forgot to add the asset to the last version of the .zip file I made. This was accidental and will be sorted in future versions.

I'm also sorry for making you all need to have a million payware packs to run it, but I went for authenticity as im using this project as an art portfolio. (No bottomless pockects here - signed, staving artist). I shall be phasing out some asset packs over time as I become more adept at making my own models and importing them into game but I'm still at a very novice level at all that.

Just Trains assets shouldn't really be an issue though. I obviously couldn't include the payware items but I'm pretty sure the assets are from one of the Bristol packs (not 100% sure) best check that one.

Once again - thanks for the kind (and critical) words

Darren Harvey.

Hi Darren,
don't worry about how many DLC routes are *needed*, despite there being two views on it expressed here the choice of assets is entirely up to you. The missing livestock isn't a problem, we'll just have to pretend they went to market...

I haven't had a particularly long look at it, but what I've seen in a quick fly through looks rather nice; OK, there's a few bits of dodgy pointwork with badly rendered frogs but I defy anybody to create a route of any length without some of those creeping in!
My only critique so far is having two provider folders for the same route, AA and DarrenHarvey and the number of empty folders in the latter. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference to how the route looks or runs but it does make the Assets folder a little *untidy*---and harder to trouble shoot!

After having had a more leisurely look at the route, and without giving anything away---those who have it, do go and find the animated billboards and watch them

(or drop them into a nice empty test route of your own)

Glad someone took the time to read the animated billboards - there was a huge issue with the route when i 1st created it and had to remake a 2nd version and port folders across with some help via internet chat - hence the untidyness of the folder tree.

Still got a couple of tile issues when I import terrain - it bugs out with the DEM from the ukts collection (50mx50m) however it loads up with the 90mx90m shuttle topography dem files, but needs smoothed out as theres a height difference on the tiles when they allign. no worries though - all to be ironed out in time hopefully

I know I left out the Dazza assets as I had a friend make me some livestock and I just forgot to add the asset to the last version of the .zip file I made. This was accidental and will be sorted in future versions.

Can you maybe upload this content now as a patch or addon for the route please.

Hi

Could someone help me with this route, I can only get it to load by deleting the darren harvey folder, but then I have no track or terrain. Is anyone aware of any asset that is causing a conflict like with the SWW route?

I have all the payware & RW tools only shows the files that no one else has as missing

Kelvin