TS2013 - RouteProperties.xml problems

[mikesimpson]

Some users have reported problems with 3rd party routes (C&O Alleghany, Great Central Railway v2 etc) which either won't work in TS2013 or even if it runs in the program, it is then impossible to open the route in the World Editor.

After a lot of testing with Bob Latimer at uktrainsim.com, the following is what we discovered:-
TS2013 is much less forgiving with 3rd party routes if the Providers/Products entries in the RouteProperties.xml file are incorrect. When a route author builds a route, he selects those Providers and their Products he wishes to add to the route, and when the route is complete TS2013 automatically adds a list of all the Providers/Products he has selected to the RouteProperties.xml file. Unfortunately, this list includes Providers/Products he has NOT actually used in the route.

If you then try to open the route in the World Editor, TS2013 will look for all Providers/Products in the list and if any of them are missing, then you get a ‘Something Bad Has Happened’ error and are bounced back to the desktop.

Some route builders also select rolling-stock items in this list while building their route, this is incorrect, rolling-stock is listed in the ScenarioProperties.xml file, not the RouteProperties.xml (as they are not part of the route as such) so if you don't have any stock from the listed Provider then that causes a SBHH error as well.

To fix this, I have added an option to RW_Tools which after it checks a route, makes a list of all Providers/Products actually used by the route, and fixes the RouteProperties.xml to comply with this list. So if you have a route which possibly works OK in TS2013, but crashes when entering the World Editor, or will not load at all, then this might help you.

Mike

[Samwolf]

Thanks Mike, you've been a Godsend to the RW community.

[mikesimpson]

Not as much a godsend as you thought. We have just discovered that although this has fixed the ability to get into the routes OK in the World Editor and the Game, now the Scenario Editor does not always work.

Back to the drawing board on this one.

Mike.

[imnew]

Mike and Bob, keep at it guys.. Thank god we have guys like you tackling the problems.

[latimers]

I couldn't find on this forum anywhere that Mike had followed up on this thread with the research we did later.

(I'll post it here since I'm not allowed to post at UKTS anymore. )

After removing the unnecessary Provider/Product (P/P) entries (which is now built in to RW_Tools) we found that we could not get into the scenario editor for some scenarios on some routes. We tracked this down to the total amount of P/P content that is "called" for a particular Route/Scenario combination. The biggest problem was caused by the Kuju\RailSimulator\Railvehicles and/or Kuju\RailsimulatorUS\Railvehicles folders because they tend to be quite large.

I started with a Kuju\RailSimulator\Railvehicles folder of 9.93 Gb and a Kuju\RailSimulatorUS\Railvehicles folder of 1.91 Gb. The first one was so large because I had downloaded and installed a lot of reskins that I'd never used.

What I did was to move each of these folders aside and use RW_Tools to identify which folders were necessary for the scenarios that I had installed. (Mike added a new button that lists all stock used in all scenarios and can be used to identify the missing ones.) (After I have moved the necessary folder back into the Kuju folders, I ran the "Check selected stock for missing files" RW_Tools routine to identify other items of stock that were needed to satisfy some dependencies.)

When I finally got all of the "missing" stock back in the Kuju folders, I had a Kuju\RailSimulator\Railvehicles folder of 4.36 Gb and a Kuju\RailSimulatorUS\Railvehicles folder of 0.9 Gb. I haven't had an SBHH since, running the game, the route editor or the scenario editor.

Our conclusion was that TS2013 will produce an SBHH if the total size of the P/Ps called by a route/scenario combination includes too much "stuff". (I called it "stuff" because we're not quite sure what TS2013 loads from the P/Ps that are called. We haven't figured out how much is too much either.)

Bob Latimer.

[trainman1950]

Ok, That something I just learned from reading this forum. I downloaded Ballastbanan Route. from Andrea's 13's Railwworks site. I cannot even get into the route. The route runs, and before it totally loads it kicks me back to the desktop. Been working with Andreas who build the route, and he cannot help me. So when I get into RW tools, where and how would I check the properties.xml's to fix this route. I know a little about rw tools, but i do not know how and where to get to the place to check and fix properties. xlm's. Any help I would appreciate.

thanks
david

[latimers]

The way to fix the Provider/Products (P/Ps) for a route using RW_Tools is as follows:

Run Check Route - when the first stage completes and the missing shapes report shows up, exit and choose to view the list of shapes. Then click on List Providers & Products Used - this gives you a button to Fix Prov/Prod.

We're now working on the next phase. Even if the route has had its P/Ps corrected, it is possible that a scenario writer has ticked too many P/Ps when creating a scenario. This could also lead to P/P overload and an SBHH. It is possible to correct this manually but it's a rather long process. (Using RW_Tools, get a list of the P/Ps used for the route (after fixing them) and a list of the P/Ps used in the scenario. Then edit the scenario (if you can open it in the editor - if not strip down your Kuju RailVehicles folders to the minimum needed for the scenario) and remove any of the unused P/Ps - to get these changes to stick I found that it was necessary to change the weather so that TS2013 actually saves the changes to the P/Ps).

Bob.

[Chacal]

Or edit the xml file directly.

[trainman1950]

Run Check Route - when the first stage completes and the missing shapes report shows up, exit and choose to view the list of shapes. Then click on List Providers & Products Used - this gives you a button to Fix Prov/Prod.

I just tried to follow these steps, when I clicked on Fix Prov/Prod Button, I get a error #5 unexpected call or procedure. When trying to Fix the route Ballastbanan Route.

David

[latimers]

Another update. ScenarioProperties.xml files can have too many P/Ps too.

I ran into a problem with a new UK route, Cambridgeshire Lines, where one of the scenarios (Coal from Newcastle) wouldn't start for a lot of people and those that could start it didn't seem to be able to get to the end without an SBHH.

After lots of digging, it turned out that there were too many unused P/Ps selected in the ScenarioProperties.xml file. It's my understanding that the only P/Ps in the ScenarioProperties.xml file should be for the stock and scenery items that are used in that particular scenario and are not already selected for the route. (Although I'm not sure there's a problem created if they're selected in both the route and the scenario.) The solution in that particular case was to reduce the list of P/Ps in the ScenarioProperties.xml file from about a dozen to just two. Reports are that most people are able to run the revised scenario.

(I'm currently trying to convince Mike Simpson to build the scenario P/P clean-up into RW_Tools, just like he did with the route P/P clean-up. But, hey, no pressure Mike. )

Bob.

[trainman1950]

Run Check Route - when the first stage completes and the missing shapes report shows up, exit and choose to view the list of shapes. Then click on List Providers & Products Used - this gives you a button to Fix Prov/Prod.

I just did try the above steps to fix the fix prov/prod for the three scenario's for the Ballastbanan route from Andreas 13s website, it said that it fixed all 3 Prov/prod's on the three scenario's. I went in again, and started all 3, and the same thing keeps happening. I get kicked out of rail works all 3 times. Andreas 13 the author said he does not know why this happens. no errors at all. i never even get the scenarios to load.

I hope someone has a fix in RW tools that will fix this.

Thanks
david

[latimers]

trainman1950,

The RW_Tools routine does not fix the P/Ps for scenarios (yet). All it fixes is the P/Ps for the route.

Before you start, you might want to clone the route and scenarios using RW_Tools and work on the clone, just in case it all goes pear-shaped.

What I did for the Cambrigeshire lines problem scenario was as follows:
- Run the RW_Tools routine to fix the P/Ps for the route.
- Get the list of P/Ps used in the route (the route only) from RW_Tools and print it.
- Select the route and a scenario in RW_Tools and then towards the bottom press "List items used by selected scenario".
- When that's complete, press "Remove duplicates from list" then save the resulting list as a file.
- Open the stock list in Excel (or something) and reduce it down to a list of only the P/Ps used for the stock.
- Do the same for the scenario's scenery items, if any.
- Now open the scenario in the TS2013 scenario editor and first change the weather (that's the only way I could figure out to get TS2013 to save the changes to the P/Ps) then press the blue cube and go through the complete list of P/Ps and untick any that aren't used in the route or the scenario (from your previous lists).
- If you're confident editing the ScenarioProperties.xml file, skip the last step and remove any P/Ps that are listed but don't appear in the list for the scenario and its scenery files. (Don't worry about the P/Ps for the route, they shouldn't need to be in the ScenarioProperties.xml file at all but I don't think it hurts if they are.)

Repeat for each scenario.

If you would like to post the urls for the route and scenarios, I'll have a go and see if I can figure it out.

Bob.

[Chacal]

- Now open the scenario in the TS2013 scenario editor and first change the weather (that's the only way I could figure out to get TS2013 to save the changes to the P/Ps)

Hitting F2 usually forces a save.

[latimers]

This is a bit off-topic for this thread but probably the best place to post it.

I downloaded the Ballastbanan route and installed it. The first thing I noticed was that there are a lot of assets included in the package that are copyright to someone other than the route author. So, unless the author got permission for each of them, their inclusion violates copyright law.

Then I ran the route through RW_Tools and it came up with some missing assets from the folder \steamapps\common\railworks\Assets\AndreasHoff\GARL\.

I had a look at the two scenarios included in the download (one Free Roam and one other) but I don't have the Swedish stock. However I did manage to open the Free Roam scenario in the TS2013 scenario editor.

At that point I gave up, thinking that it's not a P/P issue.

Bob.

[trainman1950]

Yeah there is a problem with the route. I cannot figure it out either. I went to the author's website, and he is out of ideas to. So I think that the problem with the route is not me. Has some on this forum has the same problems that I have. It should be a problem that Andreas 12, has to fix. But i keep posting on his website, and not getting any answers.

David