Mullan Pass + Ruel problems

[niknak]

Hi guys, a little help if possible please. Downloaded Mullan Pass recently and have just started running activities. I'm getting OR log messages detailing missing road sections and I've also noticed all the buffer stops have disappeared on sidings. (or spurs if you prefer.)
I checked my copy of the Ruel route and the buffer stops have now disappeared from that route too. I have my 3 TS routes ( Mullan, Ruel, BNSF Starter route) in a totally separate installation from MSTS (marked TrainSimulations) and all was well until I downloaded Mullan. I'm sure it's something I've done but am at a loss as to what. Any ideas?

[crstagg]

Hi guys, a little help if possible please. Downloaded Mullan Pass recently and have just started running activities. I'm getting OR log messages detailing missing road sections and I've also noticed all the buffer stops have disappeared on sidings. (or spurs if you prefer.)
I checked my copy of the Ruel route and the buffer stops have now disappeared from that route too. I have my 3 TS routes ( Mullan, Ruel, BNSF Starter route) in a totally separate installation from MSTS (marked TrainSimulations) and all was well until I downloaded Mullan. I'm sure it's something I've done but am at a loss as to what. Any ideas?

Reinstall and exclude that folder from your virus protection software.

[Peter M]

Hello,

I recently downloaded Mullan while it was on sale and had the same problem with missing road sections and other errors. I made it sure the route was installed to its own Mini-route folder outside of the protected Program Files directory, and that the installer finished without errors. I also disabled Windows defender and Norton temporarily and tried reinstalling, but still no luck. I tried a couple of different installation methods as well(installing to desktop, thumb drive, etc) so I am not sure what I did wrong...

Eventually, I just gave up and copied the missing road shapes over from another route. It is mostly the dirtroad_ and road2l_ straightaways and turns. Then, I uncompressed each of the shape files and changed each texture from ".ace" to ".dds" since TrainSimulations retained the texture names but not the format. This seemed to solve the problem as the missing road sections at the Bonner lumber mill showed up.

A couple of other bugs I found while running activities: (Weren't some of these mentioned and fixed before?)

1) OR Error with blank.ace in the SD70ACe cabviews - Fixed by creating a new 10px * 10px blank.ace in Gimp

2) World tile "w-012581+014688" has "DirtRoad2LStrt10m_NA.s" named incorrectly - Fixed by opening the world tile and replacing all instances of "DirtRoad2LStrt10m_NA.s" with "DirtRoad2LStrt10m.s"

3) ORmg rev 82 Error: SR_Track_w7.dds missing. Additionally, the Ace files counterparts in the texture folder will not export correctly. I fixed this by copying the related aces from another SR install and converting them to dds. This is only an error in MG rev. 82

4) rlightc.dds error: I simply deleted this file, and the error log went away.

5) Lighting error(s) with sk_roseburglumber.s: I couldn't figure out how to fix this, anybody know a method?

6) Missing medium_river sms: I couldn't find this in any other TS route I own, but I'm sure it's out there.

7) Scalerail bridge 5m end track has default texture color, not route specific.

I did not have any errors with the bumpers disappearing, so I have no ideas about that.

For what it's worth, I think this route is STUNNING and a good example of what is possible with OR. This isn't meant as a complaint, and I am thankful TS has taken the effort to produce such prototypical and interesting products! I have already spent hours playing the provided activities and "exploring" the old grades and tunnels (I really like those kinds of details ). Thanks TS!

Hopefully this helps someone...

Peter

[R. Steele]

Hello,
...Then, I uncompressed each of the shape files and changed each texture from ".ace" to ".dds" since TrainSimulations retained the texture names but not the format. This seemed to solve the problem as the missing road sections at the Bonner lumber mill showed up.
...
A couple of other bugs I found while running activities: (Weren't some of these mentioned and fixed before.
Hopefully this helps someone...

Peter

Very helpful post Peter, thanks...I had forgotten to change the texture from ace to dds in the shapefiles...and also never bothered to check the world files for the naming error...thanks.

[niknak]

Can I just echo Gerry's thanks for that helpful information Peter. Regarding the medium river sms - I just copied and renamed the water_c sms and that seems to do the trick. The missing buffers are a real mystery - I just have Ruel, Mullan and the BNSF starter router in the TrainSimulations folder. The starter route has it's buffers whilst the other two routes are missing them, although Ruel WAS okay until I installed Mullan recently. I have reinstalled Mullan to no effect. I have to say that the problems haven't spoilt my enjoyment of the route.

[Peter M]

One question I would ask is: Is the shape itself missing (the tsection line shows up in the editor, but no bumpers; you get an error for the missing shape), or is there no tsection line at all?

Additionally, I installed Ruel, Mullan, and the starter route in seperate mini routes because I didn't want to have troubles with overwriting files. You might want to do this if you continue to have problems with the track sections.

Also, thanks for the idea about the sms. I'll do that this evening.

Peter

[niknak]

Peter, I don't get any messages on the OR logfile regarding the buffers. In the TrainSimulations Global tsection file there are several different types of buffer listed. a1tbuffer, BRBuffer, SR1tBuffer etc. The 1st and last of these 3 show up in the Global Shapes folder but not the BR buffer. I'm by no means proficient in these matters so am kind of groping in the dark here lol.

[Peter M]

Oops, when I said "the tsection line shows up in the editor, but no bumpers" I meant TrackDatabase line. (The yellow line in TSRE). If you open the route(s) in TSRE and see the yellow line section for the bumper track, but the shape fails to appear underneath the line, it could be a problem with the shape file itself.

Otherwise... I have no idea what would cause the buffers (or the textures) to "disappear" from the route itself without errors. Since the relevant shapes are present and listed in the global tsection, the problem must lie somewhere else.

FWIW, the tsection (54) will list all of the track sections ever created for OR/MSTS, even if they aren't present in the specific route. Essentially, the a1tbuffer is xtracks, the SRbuffer is scalerail, etc... IIRC BRbuffer is UKfinescale but I don't use that so I could be wrong.
As far as I can tell, Mullan uses only scalerail, while Ruel and Scenic use xtracks and possibly some scalerail pieces. Thus, the missing BRbuffer shouldn't be causing a problem.

Either way, the situation you describe is complexing, as the lack of errors must involve some major edits to each route's world tiles, tdb, and more to fully delete the existence of the buffers. That shouldn't happen by simply installing a new route into the directory, since those files are contained in the routes themselves and wouldn't be changed/overwritten. Additionally, the track textures are contained in the route folder as well.

I would try re-installing a temporary copy of Ruel or Scenic as a mini-route, and make sure the buffers show up in OR in that clean install.

(Or, you could try going to the Bonner mill woodchip tracks in your current version. Do you see the bumpers there?)

Peter

[niknak]

Yes it's a bit of a mystery Peter. I took a trip to Bonner and noticed some small buffers on some of the spurs there. Also, on a few of the other spurs on the way to Bonner there was the occasional large-type buffer present. But the most commonly used buffers on the majority of the spurs are missing. I will persevere lol. Many thanks for your help anyway.

[Peter M]

Ok! Let me know if you find anything!

Thanks,
Peter

[derekmorton]

The global tsection that Mullan used is build 54 which is standard.

[PerryPlatypus]

As far as missing buffers/bumpers - a picture is worth a thousand words. Hard to get an idea of what you're talking about otherwise, as I've never heard anyone else with that issue. I think there's a chance you are looking at spots where buffers simply weren't added in the route, either because there aren't any in reality, or it was simply overlooked

[niknak]

Thanks for responding Sean. I'm sure it's something I may have done rather than a TrainSimulations fault, because like you I've never seen anyone else posting about this. Unfortunately I don't think I'm seeing just an occasional overlooked buffer - For example on the Ruel route (which was ok before I d'loaded Mullan) there are 9 tracks without buffers by the old roundhouse at Capreol Yard. (not the ones ending at the warehouse doors.) Not to worry, the routes are great and I'm having a lot of fun running them.