North East Rails (extended)

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi,
me ed is beginning to hurt.
First off, have not done any route scenery mods nor in any scenario editing.
OK went to folder for route 0......112 etc, found I had already extracted the main content .AP. So I cut all files/ folders (other than existing .AP files and the Route Prop.xml), from this folder and placed within a folder on the desk top.
Attachments show what transpired on trying to use RWTools as you suggested. No1 first error message after instigating " Check Route", No2 Result of pressing "OK" on the first message. Finally N03 result on pressing OK on No2 message.
Asked about this problem to DTG - stock reply Clear Cache and verify files, at my age to verify my files would probably see me out, I'll do without the bridge in that case.

Regards JohnT

[gptech]

Messages from RW Tools about missing files is to be expected, as the route is now effectively just a shareholder. RW Tools knows something there as it sees the RouteProperties.xml but can't find any of the files referenced-----so of course can't tell what should be anywhere. Apologies for sending you off on a wild goose chase......or at least half of one; now you're back to a default installation drop into the route in editor mode and check the bridge again, if the scenery tile the bridge lives in had been altered in any way that alteration will now be wiped out by reverting to the file inside the .ap archive.

[whittaker]

Joe, no matter what you set the visibility to on your installation it may be overridden on other's systems.

Sorry its taken a while to get back to you.just got back for the weekend.

all im going to do is up the rating from 1 which they are placed as default to 6 or 7 so they have more chance of showing when people have there settings a tad lower. to my knowledge ,if i change them in the route editor for NERs they wont be overridden on other systems or am i wrong !.

p.s has john tried hovering over the missing assets in the editor to see if they reappear !.

joe whittaker

[gptech]

Hi Joe,
I believe that no matter what visibility level is set by a route author, the end users graphical settings and capabilities alter this to suit the game's idea of what is an appropriate level. That makes sense, no good giving a guy with a weaker system something that's set up for a high end machine. This routine tries to balance the load, though it seems a recent upgrade has altered how it works, hence the spate of incidence of invisible bridges. Your observation of the level being 1 on your system shows it in action, somebody else may hit that 6 or 7 straight off....I'll test that out when I get home in the morning.
John has hovered his mouse over where the bridge should be, but nothing sprang into view. He's no milk bottle to denote a missing .bin which logically leaves only a removal of the asset completely as the reason.. Now he's in a default state the bridge will hopefully display , one way or the other.

Of course we're looking at Weardale here, but as that seems to be the source of the bridge it makes sense to get it showing there before moving on to NER..

[whittaker]

Interesting ,if i go into Wear Valley the same bridges are set at 7 thats why i thought id up the rating,i would prefer the main items ,infrastructure etc to show.

Another thing to mention ,my settings are maxed out most of the time but ive found using fxaa 2x2 ssaa seems to make for a more stable system for me.but something has defo changed in one of these updates.

joe whittaker

[gptech]

John, if you have the assets for Weardale extracted too, temporarily remove them or rename the Scenery folder to SceneryX ---- or anything else that makes sense to you. Anything will do as long as it breaks the path that RW Tools will check. Then run the route checking routine over it again.

[J1o2h3n4]

Gary,
we're getting somewhere now. See attachment.
Opened W&T to find I only had career scenarios to pick from. Selected a scenario from Shildon yard - Ctrl+E - dialed in the co-ordinates 54.64174 Lon -1.67595.
Found where the bridge should have been, but as before nothing showing. That is, until I placed the mouse cursor where the bridge supports should have been. Then the bridge appeared, on double clicking , the resultant fly out gave a detail level of 3, I changed that to 6 -saved changes. On repeating this exercise the bridge appeared without any further input from me.
Do you think that thanks to your efforts and patience the problem is now resolved?

In the other attachment, no idea as to where the Scenery and scenarios folders appeared from. As prior to checking out things for this attempt to-night I had deleted all but AP and the route properties .xml as on the previous attempt.

Regards JohnT

[gptech]

Yes John, it looks like we've cracked it!
The Scenery and scenarios folders have appeared because you edited a scenario, or at least entered the editor through a scenario, and you've edited an item of scenery. Files inside .ap archives don't get edited but a copy is extracted outside of the archive which does receive the edits.

[gptech]

The problem may have been compounded by another oddity the game now seems to have acquired...... not too l,ong ago Peter (749006) had bother selecting a speed sign on MML; we found that if the asset had been extracted from the .ap archive manually it was unselectable, but letting the game do the extraction by dropping into the editor gave no problems. If the bridge in this case has also behaved that way it would explain why it initially didn't become visible when in the editor and moving the mouse over it---if it can't be selected it won't highlight/appear.

Pure conjecture of course, but until we know better worth bearing in mind.

Joe, just as a bit of useless information---on my system the errant bridge in the Weardale route has a visibility setting of 3.

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi,
going to try the involved scenarios later on, once I have copied the removed folders back into the route folder.
Interesting point "if the asset had been extracted from the .ap archive manually it was unselectable,", be interested to see if Joe or others could verify that this is the case. Makes me wonder why DTG, in answer to my query didn't point this out as a possible answer.

Once again, my thanks to you and others for showing an interest in my problem.

Regards JohnT

[gptech]

As far as I'm aware, extracting items from .ap archives isn't an officially supported method so it wouldn't be on any list of possible reasons. My thoughts that there could be a 'non selectable' slant were very much theoretical----it would need testing on a few systems to give it any credence.
Also, in theory extracting assets manually and allowing the game to do it result in exactly the same files being extracted; they both should work! Why there was a difference is something we never worked out, not even coming up with a half credible theory--could easily be that 'one in a million' glitch that's unique to that asset, in that location, on that route.

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi Gary,
your skepticism may well be justified. Because on re-instating the folders which were outside the AP files, the problem re-appeared. After a fair bit of frustration and poke & hope. Finally nailed the problem down a file within the new "Scenery" folder. Had to use build and just the AP files to re-apply the visibility setting to in my case 8, several times. Which file in the scenery folder is causing this effect is going to take some finding as the original inside the AP and the one outside both had exactly the same amount of enclosed bits. So to summarise have just done a standard scenario on the W&T from start to finish, with the bridge in question being displayed numerous times, i.e 1 arch -several arches, no problems. This with all the other folders which were outside the AP excepting the scenery folder being in place.

For me "that asset, in that location, on that route". it was that asset on at least two routes NER and W&T.

My head doesn't half hurt.

Regards JohnT

[gptech]

I'll have a play about with that myself after work, hopefully some others will to so we should get an idea of how 'global' the issue is....or not.

[whittaker]

Uploaded new scenario

RW05) Central Station Pilot

For this scenario there is a high requirement as follows

Stock requirements

European asset pack
AP MK2D Pack (new)
AP MK1 Pack
RSC Industrial North
DTG BR Blue pack
AP Class 40
DTG Class 45
All UKTS Freeware stock packs (coaches,wagons,diesel locos)
DTG CLASS 101 (BR Blue)
and usual stock requirements for North East Rails V.2)


Hope you enjoy this scenario as much as ive enjoyed making it ,brings back some good memories from my youth.

Joe Whittaker

ps Had to turn my settings down a bit ,to muth A1 running about .