TS2013 - blueprint editor won't build projects any more

[chrisell]

Having spent the last three hours trying to export one of my models using the new blueprint editor, I've come to the conclusion that the new ConvertToTG.exe is broken. Some textures it likes, some it doesn't now, and there appears to be no rhyme or reason to what textures it will convert. The sympton is this : the model begins to convert and build properly and then at some given point, I get an error "The Parameter Is Incorrect". ConvertToTG.exe crashes and the blueprint editor messes up all the values in all the text and number fields.
I'm so broken right now that I can no longer export any of my custom models and I've no idea why. The last 12 months I've been working just fine but tonight, I'm at a dead stop for reasons I can't explain.
At first I thought it was non-square textures, for example 1024 x 512, but then I found a bunch of 256x256 that it wouldn't work with. Then I thought it was the filename or some special characters, but that went nowhere. Then I thought it was something in the geometry of the model but I've got it down to a single map on a single face in a model that just will not convert now and I have no idea why.
Did they change the format of the ACE textures with 2013 or something? Do I need a new photoshop plugin and then need to re-export all my textures? I can't tell you what a gigantic time-waster that'll be if that's what it is.

I'm pretty desperate at this point - my entire development cycle has ground to a halt because I can't export anything. Any help would be appreciated.

[chrisell]

Edit : it's blueprinteditor.exe
I went to my system backups and replaced it with the TS2012 version - called it "Blueprinteditor-old.exe" and ran that - everything exports perfectly again.

[tnleeuw01]

I guess that for now there's no recourse but to use the old version, and send support email to RSC...

I hope you won't be stalled too long in your model building!

[chrisell]

I guess that for now there's no recourse but to use the old version, and send support email to RSC...

I hope you won't be stalled too long in your model building!

Fortunately I have a server that does backups every night (plus Carbonite) so I was able to go back and get the old tools back. I've emailed RSC support and heard back from them and rsderek.
So here's the weird update.
This morning I had to reboot my machine (typically it stays on 24/7) and after rebooting I can no longer reproduce the problem. So I'm guessing there's some dependency that blueprinteditor.exe relies on, that gets installed with TS2013 but does not force a machine reboot after installation - a visual C redist or something like that.
So if you have this problem, reboot your PC first and see if it goes away ...

[chrisell]

This message has been edited by a Moderator

The wheels on the train go round and round ....

So after a couple of hours of using it, the blueprint editor has stopped working again. The reboot only cured it for a short while. It does seem related to texture conversion - as soon as the first texture is converted and the command prompt window disappears, the blueprint editor fails.

Back to using the old one again ...

[Moderator Comment: BigPeter - - Edited by Moderator]

This message has been edited by a Moderator

[shanyiqua]

for me it usually does this: If i want to open a bigger engine blueprint, then after some seconds i just hear the default Windows 7 error sound. And nothing. No error messages. After a lot of retries i can open the blueprints (for example last time i retried 20 times...), and sometimes after some retries the blueprint editor just crashes, or write "improper argument". (of course the old blueprint editor works perfectly)
I sent report to RSC, waiting for solution.

[burek]

have you updated your shader files for max with the ones from TS2013?

[chrisell]

have you updated your shader files for max with the ones from TS2013?

?
I didn't change anything in Max or the models. Do I need new shaders? If so, where do I get them? The support site has no info on this (it has very little on anything for developers after 2008).

[burek]

http://the-art-of-rws.blogspot.de/

[chrisell]

http://the-art-of-rws.blogspot.de/

Looks like they only added one new shader - TrainUberShader.fx (for flowing water).

Copied them over, re-exported. Worked first time. Crashed second time.

[Reppo]

Hello chrisell, I had exactly the same problem. Now, i am using the old blueprint editor from TS2012 to export. That is a problem that happens only to few of us. I had the same problem after the release of RW2 and TS2012 so I guess there is something in the setup of my pc which produces the problem. Can you post your hardware setup, OS, hard drives and its partitions, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Ricardo Reppo Rivera.

[chrisell]

Hello chrisell, I had exactly the same problem. Now, i am using the old blueprint editor from TS2012 to export. That is a problem that happens only to few of us. I had the same problem after the release of RW2 and TS2012 so I guess there is something in the setup of my pc which produces the problem. Can you post your hardware setup, OS, hard drives and its partitions, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Ricardo Reppo Rivera.

AMD PhenomXII 3.2Gz with 16Gb of RAM
256Gb solid state drives (Crucial)
XForce 5670 graphics card
Windows 7 x64 <--- which I suspect is the culprit.

[rkalousd]

Hi, I am experiencing approximately the same issues since the upgrade, I see behaviour of the Blueprint Editor and the conversion tools that I could call at least 'unpredictable' (or the logic behind it is so complicated that I do not understand it )

To summarize what happens here:

- Small scenery blueprint files always load and export correctly with textures and 3d models;
- With the new Blueprint Editor, sometimes larger engine blueprint files won't load and the Blueprint editor produces the 'ding' error sound, sometimes the same blueprint files load;
- A newly created engine blueprint file from the new BP Editor always loads, even when I copy almost all xml values from a non working engine blueprint file 'under water' to the newly created blueprint file;
- Exporting scenery models works fine, and they show in the preview window and the sim as before;
- Exporting engines from an engine blueprint file produces no error message, but the 3d models do not show in the preview window;
- Exporting the same 3D .igs file as I use for the engine, but than referred by a scenery blueprint exports fine and shows in the preview window;
- If I reference that same 3D .igs file that I use as scenery item from an engine blueprint file, the preview window shows nothing;

I would assume that I am doing something wrong, but until yesterday before the upgrade, everything worked perfectly and there were no issues. Unfortunately, reverting to the old Blueprint Editor version or replacing the conversion tools with the older ones did not solve the issues for me.

for the record, I am using Railworks on a Win7 64bit pc with 10 Gigs RAM and lots of hard disk space, so resource constraints should not be the issue. But it could also be a software compatibility issue that I do not recognize as such. The upgrade from Railworks 2 to 3 went flawlessly last year, so the issues of today come as a big and unpleasant surprise. The development of my engines has come to a halt now until I find a solution. What a pity...

[Reppo]

Do you get a error which reads "The Parameter is not Correct" ?

I don't think it is produced by Win7 64 bit, many guys have this OS without the problem.

[rkalousd]

Do you get a error which reads "The Parameter is not Correct" ?

I don't think it is produced by Win7 64 bit, many guys have this OS without the problem.

I did not see the 'Parameter Not Correct' error, should this show in a dialog box or just as an output of the tools in a minimized window? If I know where to check, I will check it. Until now I supposed that the export of the 3d model works okay, because I can see the 3d model when it is 'attached to' a scenery blueprint when I preview it; when I attach the same 3d model to an engine blueprint, I do not see it, neither in the preview of the Asset editor, nor in the sim itself. But maybe there are 'under water' error messages during the export process that I do not see.