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marting (6 posts)
Feb-02-02, 02:33 PM (EST) "Can I remove objects from my WP route?" Good News...
I've been plodding away steadily on my first route - Western Pacific's Reno Branch. It steadily expanded from Reno all the way up to Reno Junction then expanded out across the Sierra Valley and finally reached Portola. In a final burst I also added the Loyalton Branch.Bad News...
Somewhere down around Parr Boulevard I found a script in Train-Sim.com that allowed me to import all the objects from all the routes - "What a great idea!" I thought and ran it. At first it was great, I had a whole range of buildings to choose from, but now I want to share my route, I've used about three objects (and two of those are default ones!!) and I have Train Sim Modeller and want to do my own buildings anyway. The route is 173Mb when it's zipped and I desperately want to remove all those objects!I've tried creating a new copy of the route and importing the tiles and track database but that doesn't work so now I'm desperate!!Please can anyone help? I don't mind letting folks have a CD with a 173Mb zip file on but I'd far rather find a way to make this route into something that everyone can download.Yours hopefully,
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Table of Contents

Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... dvdhoven Feb-02-02 1 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... marting Feb-02-02 2 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... Nalle13 Feb-02-02 3 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... marting Feb-02-02 4 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... Nalle13 Feb-02-02 5 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... wp713 Feb-02-02 6 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... sniper297 Feb-02-02 7 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... marting Feb-10-02 8 RE: Can I remove objects from my WP... Nalle13 Feb-10-02 9

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dvdhoven (563 posts)
Feb-02-02, 03:00 PM (EST) 1. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" Hi,Don't be desperate!
First of all, when you run EZStuff, you used stuff from the 6 routes that came with MSTS. You never need to package that stuff in your Zip files.
When you used much of the stuff, you can ask the user to run EZStuff again, look in the installation readme's of several routes.What you need to package:
All the files in the root of the route folder, remove *.bk files.
The World folder. Remove *.bk files.
The Td folder.
The Tiles folder. Remove *_e.raw and *_n.raw files.
The Activities, Services, Path and Traffic folder.
Custom objects in the Shapes folder, both .s and sd files. Custom are objects that didn't come with the 6 routes.
When you have create your own sound regions, the .sms files of the Sound folder need to be packaged even .wav files you have created. When you used only things from the 6 routes, this isn't necessary.
For the Texture and TerrTex folders only ace files that are not from the 6 routes. So custom ace files.
Dick van den Hoven
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marting (6 posts)
Feb-02-02, 04:10 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" Thanks,It'll take me a couple of days to try this (other commitments) but I'll get back as soon as possible and, all being well, there'll be another (basic - so far) route for everyone to have a go at!Martin Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Nalle13 (188 posts)
Feb-02-02, 06:13 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" Now this is interesting...
I've got the whole 3rd Sub built from Oroville to Portola (actually got tracks to Hawley and plan to go to Reno Jct.).
Now if we can find a way to merge the routes together........Just laid tracks from Quincy Jct. to Quincy. Decided to do the whole Quincy RR so I had to extract a few more tiles. Haven't run the DEM process since September so I was a bit worried I wouldn't remember how I did it Need to get an SW-1 but the QRR has borrowed a GE 45-tonner in the meantime..... Nalle Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
marting (6 posts)
Feb-02-02, 06:48 PM (EST) 4. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" You're ahead of me - I've got bare ground so far, mainly because I realised I had a problem with all the added objects.I'll put some images up on my web-site during the next couple of days so that you can get an idea of what's done so far - Dick's suggestions have made a huge difference to the route ZIP so with luck I should have a useable route file by Tuesday...Martin Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Nalle13 (188 posts)
Feb-02-02, 07:16 PM (EST) 5. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" I've been hacking away at this route since September. I'm beginning to think I'll never see the end of it Mail me if there's anything I can do to help..... Nalle Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
wp713 (324 posts)
Feb-02-02, 08:57 PM (EST) 6. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" All I have to say is WOW. Quincy jct. looks just like that. I heard that the QRR has an sw1 from the Amador Central. I have some pix if ya need them. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sniper297 (1554 posts)
Feb-02-02, 10:04 PM (EST) 7. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" I replied to somebody else in another thread about shrinking a stuffed route, so I'm just gonna paste in the relevant portion of that:The big killer that's the easiest to fix is the \terrtex files, even people who go nuts with 80 different terrain textures for a single route don't need to copy all 126 megabytes of \terrtex from all six routes. And the sound folder can easily be reduced from 50 megs to 11 or so, since you're not likely to use all six sound region sources on the same route anyway. Take that 650 megs final install size down to 400 or so just by weeding out sounds and terrain textures you don't use, and you don't have to fool with the shapes and textures for the actual objects.
As for distribution, to make the zip size as small as possible, I quote from myself in RouteEditor.txt;"When your route is finished, before distribution, go through the error message section and change "myroute" and "Ezstuff3.bat" to the appropriate names for whatever your route's directory and batch file are named. You need to make at least one simple activity to get the route to be drivable in explore mode, be sure to include these for distribution. Delete the following folders; \envfiles \shapes \sounds \textures \terrtex. Do a tools, find in explorer (STARTING IN THE ROOT OF YOUR ROUTE) for *.BK , *E.RAW , and *N.RAW . Select all, delete all. Then zip the route up, delete the copy you zipped it from (you have been making backups as you've been creating this thing, right?) and test the extraction to make sure it works and is playable."All files ending with .bk are unnecessary since they're backups in case of problems, and if you are having problems with the route they should be fixed before thinking about packaging anyway. The *e.raw and *n.raw files are lighting and geometry for the sim, if the route is opened in the RE or run in the sim and those files are missing, they are automatically generated before starting the first time it's run.Custom objects are a different kettle of fish, I haven't added any yet, but if you look at PO&N4 in the installpo4.bat, you'll see that I had some custom textures I used, installed from a \custom folder I left in the route folder. Two ways of doing that, make a \custom folder in the route with \shapes and \textures subfolders, and add lines to the batch file to copy from there, or delete all the texture and shape files that everyone else already has on their MSTS, and paste the custom ones into the proper places without the default stuff before zipping. Note that I used a custom folder since I had to overwrite one of the default textures to change waterbot.ace for the coal mine, if you aren't overwriting a default texture it's not necessary to do it that way.I should add one more thing I've become more aware of since writing RouteEditor.txt, test your route from several starting points in winter at 00:00 to make sure you aren't missing snow or night textures for the add-on objects.As a suggestion, any route developer trying to figure this out, download PO&Nver4.zip from the file library routes section. When you run PortOgden4.exe, the self extractor, uncheck the box that automatically runs the batch files. Then you'll have the unzipped route (not fully installed or runable without stuffing it by clicking on Instllpo4.bat), and you can reverse engineer my packaging by examining the folder structure. You CAN get the zip incredibly smaller than 200 megs, even with custom objects.If you used Combstuff.zip, instructions for editing the batch file are in the RouteEditor.txt file. Only 3 objects, really? If that's true, you could copy the shapes and textures from each one individually. Here's an example;call xcopy ..\usa2\shapes\US2SawMill.s .\shapes\
call xcopy ..\usa2\shapes\US2Sawmill.sd .\shapes\
call xcopy ..\usa2\textures\US2Sawmill.ace .\textures\ /s call xcopy ..\europe2\shapes\OE_Footbridge.s .\shapes\
call xcopy ..\europe2\shapes\OE_Footbridge.sd .\shapes\
call xcopy ..\europe2\textures\OE_FootBridge.ace .\textures\ /s Note that the syntax is important, the \ at the end tells the xcopy that this is a directory, and you don't add the filename at the end or it will stop and ask if it's a file or directory. Without the filename it assumes the source filename and destination filename is the same, which is what you want. The /s after textures is important, since that will get seasonal and night textures, if they exist. Wildcards (*.*) can also be used with partial file names, like I did for the farm terrtex in PO&N4;call xcopy ..\usa2\TerrTex\us2farmland*.* .\Terrtex\ /sThat copies any and all files that start with us2farmland into the proper places. This format;call xcopy ..\japan2\JP2DanStation*.* .\ /sShould also work, assuming that all the ace files start with the exact same names as the s and sd files, I haven't tested that yet. This one;call xcopy ..\japan2\*Station*.* .\ /swould copy any file from japan2 that had station in the name, including the power station and the US2fuelstation, along with the passenger stations.This is where it gets complicated. Once an object is placed on the route, the name of the shape file is written to the .w file in the \world folder, and that's where the sim loads it from. The game does not even look for the ref file, so if the ref file is deleted the route will still run in the game. You just can't open it in the route editor. If you use one of the combined ref files such as combined.ref or ALL_OBJECTS.REF, or my new beta Stuffit.ref, there won't be any problem running the route in the game, because again, the game does not look at the ref file. If you try to open the route in the route editor tho, every single object that is listed in the ref file must be in that route, or you will be looking at a bunch of error messages. The way around this is to run one of the EZstuff batch files to edit the route, then delete \envfiles \shapes \sounds \textures \terrtex, and run the install bat to replace only the files for the objects actually used. I usually don't do it that way, and include the ref file and all shapes and textures because PO&N4 is such an easy route to reinstall that many people like to hack it to learn the route editor, and can easily reinstall it when they botch it up. My favorite space saving is still the 150 megs or so of \terrtex files and \sound files, fully installed PO&N4 is only 277mb even with all the additional objects. That's gonna change with PO&N5, I'm probably gonna include more custom textures, but it won't be that much bigger. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
marting (6 posts)
Feb-10-02, 05:25 PM (EST) 8. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" Here I am, a little later than promised, with my WP Reno Branch route - 1st draft.I've put the zip files up on my website for now as the route isn't really ready for mass consumption, I don't think.The route itself consists of the following three zip files:<http://www.deskdata.co.uk/routes/wprb/wprb01.zip>
<http://www.deskdata.co.uk/routes/wprb/wprb02.zip>
<http://www.deskdata.co.uk/routes/wprb/wprb03.zip>The route was originally packed with objects using the 'ALLTOOLS' routine available on Train-Sim.com and you can download that and run it yourself if you wish or there's a fourth zip file:<http://www.deskdata.co.uk/routes/wprb/tools.zip>Which contains the 'Alltools' files and also the three consist files that I made up for the route. The Alltools files unpack into the default ROUTES directory and the consist files into the default TRAINS\CONSISTS directory.Note that the route unpacks into a folder called WPRenoBranch in the default ROUTES folder location. There is a subdirectory under there called WPRB Consists which contains the .CON files for the three special consists that I set-up for the route. The consists all use default rolling stock.Please bear in mind that: -
a) This is my first route - albeit it 'growed' like Topsy...
b) There is no real scenery at this time.
c) The UTM boundary is still very evident in spite of my best efforts - thinking hard about what to do with this!
d) The next step is to smooth out some of the track between Stead and Reno Junction (the line runs along on it's own little mountain range in places - I misunderstood about the gradients on the profile I was using) so please don't put too much time into additional activities just yet - I promise I'll stop work on the track database soon.Finally, I hope that you folks enjoy the route and get some pleasure out of it - I've had great fun getting it to where it is!All the best,
Martin Gibson,
Kings Langley, England
mng@deskdata.co.uk Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Nalle13 (188 posts)
Feb-10-02, 07:38 PM (EST) 9. "RE: Can I remove objects from my WP route?" I'll grab it ASAP...
I'll try to merge it with my route. I'll keep you posted. Nalle Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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