Managing the Kuju folder - will this idea work?

[ade72]

Hope it's OK to start a thread for this, thought it was better than trying to resurrect an old one - moderators feel free to advise, merge or whatever if this is a faux-pas!

Anyhow, like many enthusiastic users of reskins and other community-made goodness, I fear that I may have contracted a case of Kuju bloat. Indeed, Class 47s are bordering on a pest species. I make periodic backups of my Assets folder, (sadly not with an unsullied Kuju folder due to early carelessness on my part) so don't mind a bit of experimentation, but before embarking I would be very grateful for advice on whether the approach I've thought of will work, or whether there'll be unintended consequences. What I'm thinking is:

Copy my current Kuju folder, Class 47s and all, somewhere, or rename it. Next, go to Steam and untick the US and European asset packs in the list of DLC, which I understand will uninstall them. Delete any leftovers then tick the asset packs on Steam which will redownload a "clean" version. Back this up as well. Then, create multiple, renamed instances of the Kuju folder with different combinations of assets and reskins installed and before playing Train Sim, make sure I rename the one I want to "Kuju".

Does this sound sensible and workable?

[GavNormandale]

Don't think unticking that will get rid of anything other than default files, any reskins in the folder will be left. When you reinstall it would be exactly the same

Gav

[TransportSteve]

Yes, and don't forget that your default Kuju folder also has Couplings and Input Mappers, etc, etc, in separate folder structures, you can't just delete various locomotives without disturbing other miscellaneous associated files as well.

Best thing is to just move your complete Kuju folder into another area of your hard drive/desktop and just download the whole thing again from scratch, then pick the bones out one by one.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

[gptech]

Don't think unticking that will get rid of anything other than default files, any reskins in the folder will be left. When you reinstall it would be exactly the same

Gav

He's already considered that Gavin...

......which I understand will uninstall them. Delete any leftovers .......

However, Steve's got the right ides...DON'T dive in and delete, but move/copy the current installation to somewhere safe beforehand.

Then, create multiple, renamed instances of the Kuju folder with different combinations of assets and reskins

or...rationalise your reskins etc---do you really need 'x' number of class 47 reskins? OK, doing that means you'll probably need to edit downloaded scenarios more often but if you're prepared to mess about renaming folders etc before embarking on a journey.......

[chrisonline]

I think I have more Class 47's than were ever built!

[chrisonline]

To be honest, I think all of your suggestions reflect what he is ACTUALLY describing!

As long as there is a full backup to fall back on, I can't see any harm done with this . . . worst scenario (no pun intended!), he can just put the original Kuju folder back in place.

[gptech]

Yes Chris, with the important part being...

As long as there is a full backup to fall back on

Ade, with one of those in place you can experiment to your heart's content, to find the *solution* that fits your needs..... don't forget what the 'P' in PC stands for!!

[peterfhayes]

I would look at it from another angle.
What detrimental effect is "KUJU bloat" having on TS 2017?
Is this just a cosmetic operation to remove reskins no longer needed or is there a performance effect.
TS/Windows doesn't care how big the kuju folder is as long as it does NOT contain any "corrupt" or "suspect" files.
My Class 47 kuju folder is 3GB in size (each on 3 separate PC's) but I do not have any detrimental effects in TS2017.
pH

[ade72]

Thanks all for your suggestions! I'll experiment and see what happens using my usual motto, "what's the worst that can happen?"

@pH, as I understand it (someone correct if wrong, I'm slightly hazy on the details hence this thread), if the Kuju folder becomes too large (the value of "too large" depending on various things including in game settings, PC etc) then sometimes when loading complex scenarios that use Kuju content, it can cause memory issues due to the quantity of stuff that gets loaded, and therefore game crashes. Reducing the size of the folder may alleviate this. It is also cosmetic as it's easy to lose track over time of what addons and reskins are in there and which ones are actually needed.

[gptech]

TS/Windows doesn't care how big the kuju folder is as long as it does NOT contain any "corrupt" or "suspect" files.

That's definitely open for discussion Peter; whilst the size of the folder doesn't matter (fill it up with non-game files and nothing will go wrong) there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that there's seemingly a limit to how many .bin files the game/the user's PC is happy with--not just wild musings by folk who don't know better, but also from respected, knowledgable users. Anecdotal though, there have been (or at least as far as I'm aware) no hard and fast figures or *rules* regarding this.
There are many factors involved in the Kuju folder; we've already seen 'couplings' mentioned in this thread so we have to ask "are the number of calls to such a shared asset part of the problem?"

Ade, so far you haven't expanded on just what it is that's making you suspect a case of 'Kuju bloat', nor given an indication of the size or number of assets/.bin files you have in there, so it could be a case of "that sounds plausible, I'll blame that" on your part.

[ade72]

Ade, so far you haven't expanded on just what it is that's making you suspect a case of 'Kuju bloat', nor given an indication of the size or number of assets/.bin files you have in there, so it could be a case of "that sounds plausible, I'll blame that" on your part.

Basically - crashes to desktop when loading some scenarios that I know use things from the Kuju folder (e.g. Tubemad's recent Plymouth-Paddington epic and a workshop scenario on Weardale and Teesdale that uses the Kuju Deltic), even with graphics quality turned down a notch. By comparison I have no issues running very busy scenarios that don't use Kuju stuff e.g. AP class 456 scenarios on the South London Line (with graphics notched down as advised). Could be confirmation bias on my part of course, but I can think of two ways to test this: firstly, getting rid of non-essential reskins and stock in the Kuju folder and secondly by swapping stock in scenarios where there's a suitable alternative.

I may be wrong but I don't mind spending a bit of time tinkering about to find out. Thanks again to those replying - I've enjoyed learning about the folder structure, important types of file and generally what makes the game tick during my time on the forums, meaning I can fix a lot of issues myself, produce working scenarios, know where to find obscure addons to get freeware routes working, and in general get a lot more enjoyment from the game.

[gptech]

crashes to desktop when loading some scenarios that I know use things from the Kuju folder

OK, that makes sense but could also be explained by:

TS/Windows doesn't care how big the kuju folder is as long as it does NOT contain any "corrupt" or "suspect" files.

It would certainly be worth the time to check those assets before embarking on a 'multiple folders' set up as it only takes a single duff (no class 47 pun intended) .bin file to have undesirable consequences.
I'd discount any issues with scenarios on the JT Western Main Line route though; the route itself has to be recognised as a possible factor in any issue folk have so I'd treat that as completely separate issue.

[mikesimpson]

Just checked and my Kuju folder is 14 gigs (it has been in use since the original Rail Simulator and still includes some stuff downloaded from this site with files dated 3/9/2007, nearly 10 years ago), I don't seem to have any problems with running TS2017.

[peterfhayes]

Mike
My Kuju Assets folder is the same size as yours 14Gb - it was the Class 47 folder that I was referring to at 3GB which is not to dissimilar to certain Assets contained in the DTG and RSC individual assets folders.
pH

[gptech]

If you take the average size of a class 47 reskin as 10MB, that's hell of a lot of reskins in 3GB Peter. That could certainly be a candidate for optimising, though of course if it ain't broke......