Oh, Great Masters of the routes .. a question

That was thick wasn't it? Seriously, since I've uploaded my first route and have had the problems it has had, I thought I would ask for some help this time.1. How long do you wait to fix/update? Assuming someone else has had a problem at one time or another. Maybe I'm the only one 2. What do you continue developing on? Do you use your original, or do you use the downloaded copy and go from there? If you use your original, and your ref items referencing shapes/textures that were not in the original upload, how do you keep track of (or even know) which new shapes/textures to add to the update?3. Also, how do you keep track of changed files so that when it's time to update, you know what is new.Example, I've been using a Dosasaur batch using the xcopy32 /m /s to copy modified files to another directory to keep track of, but still came up with a bunch of missing files, although this was a first version, not an update.Any light you can spread in this tunnel will be Welcome, even if it's the lights of an oncoming train. Any ideas you have time for would be much appreciated!Thanks again to all of you for the help you've given.RobertR

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>1. How long do you wait to fix/update? Assuming someone else
>has had a problem at one time or another. Maybe I'm the only
>one Depends on the severity of the problem: the more severe, the sooner you must fix/update.>2. What do you continue developing on? Do you use your
>original, or do you use the downloaded copy and go from
>there? If you use your original, and your ref items
>referencing shapes/textures that were not in the original
>upload, how do you keep track of (or even know) which new
>shapes/textures to add to the update? I continue developing the original, and plan a completely new version to replace the last version. Then I don't need to compare with the last version.>3. Also, how do you keep track of changed files so that when
>it's time to update, you know what is new. Changed files have new dates: check the file dates.
Michael Vone
Step by Step Guide to Route Building for MSTS - http://trainsimulatorworld.com/catalog/b470.htm
Albula Line Route
Rocky Islands Route
Cliff Hanger Route
http://avsim.com/hangar/utils/mvchallenges/

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Man, did this thing collect some dust! What, no "Great Masters of the routes" around here?!
Well, hell, I dunno nuthin' either, but I'm real good at pretending I do, so I'll take a shot at it.(1) As long as it takes. Figuring out what the actual problems are is the first step, and I still don't think it's those lime green dumptrucks, since the ESD number in the .sd file matches the textures in the folders correctly. Tackling one problem at a time is a good idea, so tracking down and eliminating the crashes in the summer daytime would be the first step, then worry about seasonal/snow/night stuff after that. As for uploading a patch, as long as it zips to under 100k you can just post it in a thread, if it's over 100k (and the fix for the blast furnace will be), you'll have to upload the patch to the file library. For that, might as well wait until you have a full patch that fixes all the problems.Question #2 oughtta be taken out and shot, it's confusing and it's a lot more than one question. Question 3 clears it up somewhat, the answer to 2 is, depends on what you want to do, and the size of the route. After version 3 I started "cloning" the route by changing the filenames and entries in the .trk file so the sim would see it as a different route, and people could have more than one version installed at the same time. I generally started with the downloaded copy, since the first thing I do when it appears in the downloads is download it myself to make sure the zip didn't get corrupted somehow, and I delete my working copy and install from the download to test it out. Then I replace the ref file if necessary, and run EZstuff to restuff the route with everything, and go to work on that.
I've never had to keep track of updates, since it's such a small route I upload the entire route rather than an upgrade to the route. Yours is a lot bigger, so the best guys to teach you that would be Dave Klemm, Enocell, and Rich Garber, who have all done updates. I'm just now getting into adding custom objects (I've had custom textures for quite a while, but no actual custom objects), and what I do is go into explorer, and in each subfolder do a view, arrange icons, by date. That sorts out all the custom objects at the top, but the trick to updating is gonna be keeping a list of which new custom objects you added since the previous version, or you'll end up including files they already have.
Hmmm, you just gave me a scathingly brilliant idea, more bats from my belfry coming up soon!
As far as which route files get changed, probably the easiest is to include all the root files. The ones that change are RouteName.rdb, RouteName.rit, RouteName.tdb, RouteName.tit, and the tsection.dat file, but the other files in the root of the \RouteName folder aren't very big and compress very small in the zip.
Include the \TD folder just in case, it's not very big either.
Do the view, arrange icons by date, in the \Tiles and \World folder, and copy all those except the \Tiles\~e.raw and ~n.raw and any .bk files to another \Tiles and \World folder, that way you can paste those into an empty \Routenamed folder along with the root files and the \TD folder.

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-04-02 AT 00:18 AM (EDT)

Gentlemen, thanks for the input. That is the kind of information that I was looking for.Michael, the date situation was part of the problem this time around. I had kept everything backed up with the batch file, but had all those custom textures, and when they were unzipped, they kept the date of origination, rather than the date of unzipping. I had them as modified, but went by the date instead, thinking I had made a mistake. As you do, I'm thinking maybe I'd be better off working from the original, since the route is the size it is.Jim, I don't think it's the lime green dumptrucks, I think it's the Swedish/Danish truck that is causing the problem since it is also at both places, but I haven't heard back from them yet. I still haven't figured out where to look to see what the .s or .sd is referencing and there were quite a few textures to that d/l. Guess I just went too fast, too far. I think your 'brilliant idea' is the way to do it, with still one problem. The custom textures! How does EZStuff handle the custom textures? If I understand correctly, I'm going to have to dump all the custom shapes/textures I add to regular folders into a separate copied folder, if I go the new version routine like you do. That way I can add them into the outgoing file at the last minute in a custom folder to be copied last at the destination.If I go with the old version and update from there, I'm going to have to keep meticulous records of what new shapes/textures I add so I'm right back where I started from. Jim, you got an extra magic notebook like you had in that one thread that has everything in it?I think I just confused myself and everyone reading this At any rate, I thank both of you for your 'respected' input and the time it took to put it down. It's good food for thought.RobertR

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