G-Trax dlc is causing game to crash

[dtrainBNSF1]

Hey guys. I've been having problems with some stuff from G-Trax, namely the 4449 and the lightweight passenger cars.

The 4449 will work light engine on any route, but whenever I try to put it into a consist in both the scenario editor or the consist editor in quick drive the game crashes on every route except Cajon Pass, Donner Pass, and Horseshoe Curve. So far tech support at DTG have NOT been helpful in trying to solve this issue.

Also whenever I use the lightweight passenger cars anywhere with any loco the game crashes.

In both cases I have done nothing to alter the models. Both items of dlc are as they came. I don't know what the problem is because it seems like everyone else is using them with no issues.

I use an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop 64-bit operating system with quad core processor using Windows 7.

Has anybody else here run into similar problems with these items of dlc? I'd love to use them (especially when one cost me $$$) but I can't figure out what's wrong.

[buzz456]

Which all lwt's do you have installed? Have you tried just one car at a time to see if it's any particular one that's causing the problem. As far as the locomotive my only suggestion at this time is for you to uninstall it manually (I am assuming that's the one you paid money for) and then run a local game verify which will re-install it and see if that solves the problem. Another thing to maybe try is to place the cars and or locomotive on the tracks not hooked up to anything and see if they are all right before you try to couple to them and see if that is OK. Then try coupling them up and see if that causes a crash.

Lot's of fiddling around but we should be able to get to the bottom of your problem.

[dtrainBNSF1]

I have the freeware version of the lightweights. The 4449 is the payware. I'll try and see if it's a specific car that's causing the problem.

About the 4449: How do you recommend uninstalling it? By going into the G-Trax rail vehicle file and deleting the loco?

[dtrainBNSF1]

It would seem that after some testing that the lightweights cause the game to crash when they start the scenario coupled to the loco. I want to see however if it does the same thing on older routes like Cajon Pass or if this problem is specifically for newer routes.

[buzz456]

That shouldn't make a difference but we never know for sure. What you can do is go find the 4449 folder and rename it 4449.xxx then run the verify. If anything goes wrong you still have it on your computer but it will fool steam into thinking it's gone.

[dtrainBNSF1]

I'm verifying the game cache now after renaming the 4449 file.

I have found that you can start with a consist of the lightweight cars on "older" routes (routes from TS2012) from the scenario editor with no problem. Also it seems that the cars do not work very well on "newer" routes. I tried backing down and coupling to a car on Marias Pass at Whitefish station and every time my loco connected the game crashed. Each test was set up as a free roam scenario.

This sort of thing doesn't make sense. Railworks as I recall should be backwards compatible.

[buzz456]

Which car and which locomotive? I'm trying to duplicate your issue?

[dtrainBNSF1]

Baggage car, NKP Berkshire 765 and SP&S 700 on separate tests

[dtrainBNSF1]

I think I might be on to something. Need to run another test just to be sure...

[dtrainBNSF1]

Okay, here's what happened:

I started running the test again. I noticed that consistently the coupler wasn't rendering. So I removed my loco (the 700) and turned on the base US content from Kuju and successfully coupled up to the coaches with the BNSF ES44AC. I noticed that for that test the coupler did indeed render. I decided to leave the Kuju assets on and then try a loco from another pack. And another. From then on coupling was successful. I then meshed them into a consist (2 light weight Sky Blue Baggage cars with the new Sky Blue Empire Builder pack from the Market Place) and backed up to them. The baggage cars were placed a short distance from the rest of the train. The coupling was successful. The test was repeated, this time with the baggage cars added directly to the front of the rest of the train. Success. I then went back and then added the motive power directly to the front of the consist. The scenario began without a hitch and I was able to drive away from Whitefish with the prototypical consist of the Empire Builder in 1967.

So here's what I think: The game continued to crash because the game couldn't handle coupling the train together without a rendered coupling, and it is most probable given what happened that the coupling referenced by the wagons' blueprints are those from previous editions of Railworks which are turned on when the US stock under Kuju is selected in the scenario editor which would explain why they worked on older routes (the US Kuju stock is usually on by default on those routes and if I'm not mistaken the pack was developed during the 2012-era).

These tests were conducted in Free Roam mode and the stock was never changed after turning on the US Kuju assets, meaning that the couplers had a chance to render at least once before being included in a consist. I've already tried to mesh the cars straight off into a consist in a standard scenario and the game crashed again. What I may have to do is scrap the scenario and start again (I wasn't that far into the writing process anyway) and this time have the US Kuju assets on BEFORE adding in the baggage cars, place the baggage cars on the track, play the scenario once just to let the couplers render, and then build the rest of my consist. I'll let you know how that works out.

Maybe that's also what's wrong with the 4449...

[dtrainBNSF1]

Yep, that's exactly what the issue was. And here's a pic of the results (btw - nice work on the repaints buzz). I'll go back and do the same with the 4449 and see if that's what the problem was...

[dtrainBNSF1]

Went back to work with the 4449 and did the same as before. Now I can drive her to my heart's content! However after driving her for a bit I came to a decision: I've got some improvement work to do with 4449, not as much as the Berkshire or the SP&S Northern pack, but definitely there's some work to be done.

[buzz456]

Good job. Yep those cars are all referencing the "default" Kuju couplers.

[Kali]

Yes, you will find if you drive near a vehicle that can't find it's coupler blueprint ( couplers don't have to be visible ) you'll crash the game too, when it tries to start the physics for that vehicle. That can cause much head scratching... likewise if an engine can't find it's cab it'll suddenly disappear :p

To get round it you can copy the blueprint to the same tree as the stock that references it - you don't need to copy all the graphics files or anything, the blueprint will still look in the same place - and then change the references in the stock blueprints. That works for any child object.