At the end of the tutorial you will find some How To's. I will point to them at appropriate times, but you can also have a look at them before you start, or when a problem pops up. After that are links to some handy utilities. I'll point to them at appropriate moments as well.
Trainz is a game that has a significant on-line component: all the third party items that you can download. That does not mean that you cannot keep busy for a long time with the game as it comes in the box--you most certainly can. But there is no doubt that downloading things other people make is an important component of the game.
As such the game is a bit different from many other games, like for example First Person Shooters, RPG's, racing games, puzzle games, and so on. But it does share the on-line aspect with one class of games: the various Massive Multiplayer On-line games (MMO's) like Everquest, Never Winter Nights, EverMoreAvatars, and what have you. I'm bringing this up for the following reason. When you participate in one of these MMO's, you are faced with the following costs:
But I would not be talking about First Class Tickets if there were not some limitations to the free downloading. There is a limit on the speed of downloading, and there is a limit to how much you can download each month. That is not unusual in the industry. Many file servers (FilePlanet comes to mind as but one example) follow the same principle: for free it is a bit slower and you may have to wait, if you pay you get fast and immediate access.
Auran's version of what other sites call a "Gold Membership" (or just a plain membership, for that matter) is the First Class Ticket, the FCT. With an FCT you get faster speeds, no waiting in download queues and no limit on how much you can download. The price is quite reasonable, $20 Australian Dollars (OK, it is $19.99, you know how marketing types are dumb enough to think that people will not clue in to the fact that that really is an awful lot like $20). In some other currencies, that works out to something like $15 US, $20 Canadian, 15 Euros (roughly, depending on exchange rates and what the various Central Bank Directors had for breakfast that day). Is that expensive? If you are a model railroader, it is about the price of a single, not too expensive, model railroading item that you can buy in your local hobby store. If you are not a model railroader, it is about the price of one CD by Cool Dudes Screaming Alive. So it all depends where you are coming from!
My personal opinion is that it is easily worth the money. I like downloading (or I wouldn't be writing this tutorial!), and I have no problem paying for the extra service. But you can certainly start without it, download a few layouts, and make up your mind then. This is what we Dutch call "Looking the cat out of the tree," a popular passtime in the Netherlands (you should try looking a cat out of a tree one day, it beats watching the grass grow any time).
To buy an FCT, go to the TRS 2004 website (http://www.auran.com/TRS2004/default.htm), click on "Products", and on that page you will find a section about the First Class Ticket.
Now, finally, on to the layouts.
If you are totally new to the Trainz world, you will immediately see a couple of new concepts here: KUIDs and Missing Assets.
Once you know the KUID of the item you want to download, it is easy to find. See the section How to Find a KUID on the DLS on information how to find a KUID on the Download Station (DLS).
This leaves us with items on the layout that fall in category 3: not in the box or on the DLS. These cannot be downloaded automatically, because the Download Helper does not know where they are. So you have to do the work yourself. As we will see, there are tools that can help you with that, but it is clear that the fewer category 3 items, the better.
Missing Assets are those assets on a layout that you do not have. After downloading, these will likely be all items in category 3, so "missing assets" is often a synonym for "items not in the box or on the DLS". For the moment we will focus on layouts that have no or few missing assets.
Even if there are only a few missing assets, you still want to delete them from the layout. See the section How to Delete Missing Assets on how to do that. It may sound strange, but things that are not there do cause the display of the layout to slow down.
A large map with lots of great scenery. Lots of routes and places to explore. Just place a train somewhere, and go for a drive.
The layout represents a route from the south of Germany to the North of Switzerland. TRS contains in the box some German rolling stock. You'll see how to get more of it with the layout Minianlage 01. Here is a picture of Rorschach Station, with the town of Rorschach in the background:
This is a fairly large map, and you might get lost. So this is a good moment to go and get the utility TrainzMap. It will make a map of the layout for you. This is what a map of the whole route looks like (the utility lets you zoom in as well, the picture is just an overview):
A city layout (Amsterdam, obviously), quite realistic. Those who know Amsterdam will recognize many places. It does not come with a session, so just place a tram on the track and drive around. For a tram I have two suggestions. First KUID 316:10, the Peter Witt Streetcar. Make sure you click on View Pack and download the pack. For another suggestion, go to http://www.mytrainz.tk. Click on Download (on the left) and download one (or all) of the trams shown there. Here is a picture of the Damrak with two trams (and the Victoria Hotel, if I remember correctly, on the right):
This is the big brother (really BIG brother) of Amsterdam Tram 4. It is a very prototypical representation of the regular line from Amsterdam to Maastricht, and of the high-speed TGV line from Amsterdam to Antwerpen. The Schiphol (airport) line is in there as well, as are two tram lines. The scenery and trackwork around Amsterdam is very realistic.
Once you have downloaded it, go to your TRS2004 instalation folder, and then to World\Dispatcher\Downloads\kuid2 45977 100800 1. In there you will find a file readme all asd.txt which is helpful in getting you started. It mentions signs that indicate where you should put the trains bound for Maastricht and Antwerp. These signs are just outside Amsterdam Centraal Station (Amsterdam CS), one on either side of the station. They are right in the middle of the track, parallel to it. Here is the one for the train to Maastricht:
There are some Dutch trains in the game as it comes. The NS 1600 is one of them. You should use it with the ICR cars by gjvh. Find KUID 49267:10005, then do View Pack, and download the pack. With the game also comes the Mat54 Hondekop. If you type that name in the name box of the Train tab in Surveyor you will find the various units you can put together to make a train; the hondekop is the train on the right in the picture above.
For some more Dutch trains, have a look at http://www.webexpresse.nl/amazingmike/.
Here are some pictures. First Amsterdam Centraal Station, with various items of Dutch rolling stock:
The big train in front is gjvh's Regiorunner, KUID 49267:1030 (remember View Pack).
Next, some trams in front of the station (this is also in Amsterdam Tram 4, above):
Finally, the TGV passing Amsterdam Sloterdijk on its way to Rotterdam and Antwerp. The TGV is the one in the background, in the foreground is a Sprinter:
The TGV comes with the game and is called SNCF TGV. As with the hondekop it consists of various units that you can put together.
This is slightly more work than the previous maps, you get to exercise your download skills! It is a fairly small layout, so it should not tax your system.
The layout is narrow gauge (24"). Whenever you hear the words "narrow gauge" You should think "Trainzone." So go to www.trainzone.co.nz. Go to Downloads, and near the bottom of that page you will find a link for track (24", 36" 42" & 56" Railway Track). Go there, and download all the 24" Narrow Gauge items, save them in an appropriate folder. They are cdp files, so once one has downloaded, choose "Open", and Content Displatcher will install the item. If you have problems getting Content Dispatcher to start, see What to Do if Content Dispatcher Won't Run / Cannot Be Found.
Next, go to http://www.steammachine.com/slugsmasher/. Go to Downloads and download the 24"ga rolling stock, especially the SRRL Railbus #5.
Once all that is installed, go to the download station and download the map. Open the map in Surveyor, put the SRRL Railbus #5 on the narrow guage track (there is also some normal guage track), and start shuffling skiers!
Here is a picture of the railbus in the village where you should start. Yes, the railbus is that tiny thing in the middle of the picture!
And here is a station in ski-country:
How is your German 
? Anlage is German for layout. This is a single baseboard layout, but with very nice scenery. It is an excellent example of what you can do with a single baseboard. The use of scenery makes the layout feel much larger than it actually is. And the layout does not use a single not-in-the-box item!
Here is an excercise in international navigation. Go to http://www.trainzdepot.de/. Under "Downloadstation" (on the left menu) click on "Strecken und Anlagen" (routes and layouts). Above each picture is a clickable link. Click on "Minianlage 01". This brings up a page dedicated to the layout. Find the link "[ Datei herunterladen! ]" (Datei=file, herunterladen=download). Click it, and you'll download the cdp.
Here is a picture of a train pulling into the village station:
This site is also a very good place for obtaining German rolling stock. You have already been to the "Downloadstation" on the site, so all you need now is some translations, and I'm sure you will figure it out!
German-English Download Dictionary | |
| German | English |
| Datei | File |
| Dampflokomotiven | Steam Locomotives |
| Diesellokomotiven | Guess! |
| E-Lokomotiven | Electric locomotives |
| Güterzugwaggons | Freight cars |
| Herunterladen | Download |
| Kleinlokomotiven | Small locomotives |
| Lokomotive | Locomotives (surprise!) |
| Regionalzüge | Local trains |
| Reisezugwaggons | Passenger cars |
| Schnellzüge | Literally "fast trains", means trains that only stop at important stations |
| Triebzüge/-wagen | EMU/DMU’s |
| Zugsets | Train sets |
We'll go back to the DLS now. Oil Trees is a download that requires a bit of work, but is well worth it. First download the layout, KUID 41148:105051. You will get the layout plus a whole bunch of assets, so the download will take a while.
When the download is done, also download the following KUIDs:
63290:38051 35412:38042 35412:38073Note that some of these are part of packs, you might want to download the pack just on general principles! Downloading a pack is always a good idea, by the way, especially with rolling stock. Sometimes parts of rolling stock, like the engine and the bogies, are in separate KUIDs, and with the pack you get the whole thing. When you download the last of the three, you may get a message that there is nothing to download. That is ok, because it is a replacement of one of the other two. I just added it to the list to be safe.
Now you may wonder: how did I know that you have to download these extra KUIDs? From that fount of all knowledge: the forum. In the Route Builders is this thread. Have a look at it. It shows you a bit of real-world downloading . Whenever a new layout appears on the DLS it is a good idea to have a look at the Route Builders forum, you may pick up some tips there.
It is now time to take the next step in your Trainz career, and download TrainzObjectz if you have not already done so. When you have downloaded it, start it. It may ask you about errors that it finds. Always answer Yes to All, let it fix the errors. When it is loaded, click on the Maps tab, open the Map pulldown at the top and go to OilTrees. TO (that is what those-in-the-know call TrainzObjectz) will now analyze the map, this may take a little while. It will find missing assets, and ask you if it should look in Archives for them. Since you don't have any archives, just say no.
When the analysis is ready, you will get a list, with in red the missing assets. In all likelyhood you'll find something like this:
-------------------------- UNKNOWN OBJECTS [17] ---------------------------------- <KUID:41148:100039> <KUID:41148:100040> <KUID:41148:100044> <KUID:41148:100046> <KUID:41148:100052> <KUID:41148:100055> <KUID:41148:100064> <KUID:46110:21004> <KUID:46110:21005> <KUID:47439:21667> Author: Sirgibby E-Mail: mjsutton@clear.net.nz Web site: www.trainzone.co.nz <KUID:47439:21669> Author: Sirgibby E-Mail: mjsutton@clear.net.nz Web site: www.trainzone.co.nz <KUID:47439:21676> Author: Sirgibby E-Mail: mjsutton@clear.net.nz Web site: www.trainzone.co.nz <KUID:47439:21679> Author: Sirgibby E-Mail: mjsutton@clear.net.nz Web site: www.trainzone.co.nz <KUID:47439:37030> Author: Sirgibby E-Mail: mjsutton@clear.net.nz Web site: www.trainzone.co.nz <KUID:58259:1944> <KUID:58259:19441> <KUID:58941:10005> -------------------------- UNKNOWN ITEMS REPORTED AS REQUIRED ---------------------------------- ---------------------------- IN AN ITEM'S KUID-TABLE [4] ------------------------------------ <KUID:58843:50020> .... (required by <KUID:58843:102>) <KUID:58843:50020> .... (required by <KUID:58843:98>) <KUID:58843:50020> .... (required by <KUID:58843:99>) <KUID:58843:50020> .... (required by <KUID:58843:107>)
Intimidating, isn't it? But we know from the forum thread I mentioned above that it is no big deal. You can just go into Surveyor, delete all missing assets and fill any blank spots with a grass texture (using the Fill Grid button on the Paint tab).
However, there is a reason I've brought the missing assets up. In the list you'll see some by Sirgibby. He is the author of the famous Murchison narrow guage logging layout. For that layout he made a lot of custom content, and most of it is free. But some of it is, gulp, payware!
Of the 5 items listed for Sirgibby, the first four are free. If you go to his website, www.trainzone.co.nz, click on Downloads, then on Ground Textures, and scroll all the way down, you will find four textures by Author Unknown. Download and install them, and you are left with only one, which is a river. Should you buy this? For this one layout it is probably overkill. But you should have a look at the section Payware: The Murchison as well.
Here is a picture of a couple of trains at Steam Station West:
This layout is interesting because... it is unfinished! Mind you, there is lots of interesting scenery, landscapinng, track and industries. But a lot more can be done. And what is more, the author (Alain Rheault) actually invites you to do just that. So if, after seeing some impressive layouts, you are feeling an itch to try something yourself, but you don't know quite how to start... well, this is a good starting place. Just play around, put down some trees, add some buildings, try some different ground textures. When you save the layout, you get a new version (with a little c next to it in the Surveyor and Driver lists), the original one remains untouched. So don't be afraid, you cannot break anything. Just BYO (Build Your Own)!
Here is an example of what you can do. This picture is of a nice little valley with some bridges crossing it:
No look at the difference if you just put in some trees, shrubs, flowers, a cow and a sign warning for moose!
The razorback uses only out-of-the-box items. You can download it from the site above and start running immediately. It is a very realistic layout, but not prototypical. That means it is not a recreation of a real railroad, but it easily could be one.
The Razorback has something quite unique going for it: the Living Railway. If you sign up for that, you will be handed tasks to accomplish. You can complete a task at your leisure, submit the result, and then a new task will appear. You can even skip a task if you really hate it. These tasks come in the form of sessions and scenarios that you can download from the site.
You can do all this for free, and you can also take out a yearly membership. That will help the people who run the system to defray their costs, like the cost of running the server behind the whole system. If you become a member you also get new tasks faster. But there are already quite a few task on the system to start with, so you have lots of opportunity to look that cat out of its tree!
To show you the versatilty of the layout, here are some pictures. First a Red Hen at Patterson Station:
Logging in Freidman Forest:
Do you know the kind of model railroad layout where the creator has put in lots of details and has made everything move? Trains, cars, planes, nothing just stands there, it can all move. Well, that is TorontoTrainz. They produce the ultimate fun play layouts. You can drive cars, fly planes, and even drive trains! If you go to their website you can sign up, and they will send you links where you can download a layout and all its contents. It is all free, and if you like it you can give them a donation. No reason to leave that cat in its tree!
Here is a picture of the Century City layout:
See that car on the right side of the road? You can drive it (and a lot of others as well). This is just the city, there is an airport from where you can fly planes:
Your Learjet has just taken off! And if you really want to, you can even drive a train:
The lumberyard at sunrise.
Now we come to what is probably the masterpiece among what we have seen so far. And given the outstanding quality of the other layouts, that is saying something. The Murchison is a narrow guage (36") logging layout made by "Sirgibby" (Michael Sutton, you will find an explanation of that name on the web site). That it is narrow guage means you will have to download all the rolling stock for it, but that is no problem. It is all available from the website.
Most of the Murchison and what you need for it is free: the layout itself, all the rolling stock and most of the scenery items. But three sets of essential items are not free: textures, rivers and animated waterfalls. And without these the layout does not work too well.
So is this a marketing ploy by Sirgibby so he can get some money for his hard work? Yes. Does that mean we should now all yell and scream at him for not giving everything away for free? Probably not . First of all, the items themselves are of outstanding quality and a lot of work went in them. If you click "Downloads" on the web site, and then have a look at "Waterfall Series", "River Series" and "Ground Textures" you can see for yourself.
Payware is always an "interesting" subject. A truly amazing amount of stuff in the Trainz world is free, but some of it is not. Is it worth paying for custom content? In the end the decision is yours, but I want to point out two things about Sirgibby's content in particular. First, it often pops up in layouts. Usually not a lot of it, just a few items like in the Oil Trees. Of course you can always delete-and-fill, but you do lose a bit of what the author of the layout intended.
Second, if you buy the payware, you can then download the Murchison layout for free. It will have no missing items, so you will gain another impressive unproblematic layout. Mind you, you can do that without the payware as well, but you'll be missing quite a bit, as it has a heavy dose of the payware in it. And all other items you need for the Murchison, like the narrow gage rolling stock, are free. So it is up to you, but given that you get the whole Murchison thrown in as a bonus, this is certainly not a bad introduction to payware.
Click on the Murchison County button on the web site. Have a look at the screen shots. If you scroll down you'll find the Payware Content button. You'll see you get a deal if you buy the combo pack.
There are lots of screenshots on the website, but I couldn't resist a few of my own:
Supply train on its way along the shore to the forest.
Crossing a side river in front of a waterfall.
Rounding the bend by Cabra (I assume that is what it is called ).
Passing a small outpost.
The train getting almost lost in the landscape.
Did I mention there are a lot of waterfalls?
To finish off, an example of what you get for your payware money: the river with its animated rapids, the waterfalls and the forest. The forest? Yes, the slopes look heavily wooded, but that is almost all texture!
Over the years Auran has constantly been making improvements in the error checking area. TRS 2004 checks for much more than previous versions. As a result it reports many things that went unnoticed before. That does not mean that items with errors worked OK in the previous versions, they probably did not. It is just that no flags were raised.
As a result you may see quite a few errors listed in items that have been on the DLS for a while. The third party developers should not be blamed for this either. They tried to follow the instructions, but that is not always easy. Trial-and-error is an often used method of development, because both writing unambiguous instructions and understanding them is a far from trivial task. There is now better error reporting, which will over time result in more error-free content. But it is an evolotion, it won't happen instantaneously.
In your Trainz directory, in the folder Cache\Logs, you will find a file log0.html. Trainz makes this file everytime you start it. Double clicking it will open it in your browser. It contains error messages about assets with problems. Here is a list of some I have encountered, and what you can (or cannot) do about them. To fix an error, click on the link that indicates the KUID. This will bring up the directory with the config.txt file. Open the config.txt file in Notepad (double clicking usually works) and fix the error, if it is fixable. Most messages you can do nothing about. I've put the two that you can fix at the top of the list.
log0.html | |
| Message | What to do |
| Failed to read something as a number | Usually one of the following:
|
| Train asset X is missing a required Y asset | Usually rolling stock missing something. The rolling stock item will not be visible in Trainz. The KUID it is looking for is shown in parentheses at the end of the line. You can go to the DLS and search for it. If it is an engine or a sound, you can substitute the KUID of some other engine or sound. Note: TrainzObjectz can also check for missing Rolling Stock parts: under the Menu button there is an item "Check for Missing RS Parts". |
| world/custom/TrainzConfig_040115_212027.zip' is not in the correct location | This is a TrainzObectz checkpoint file. Ignore. Note: I had some problems with the world\custom folder at some point. One of the things I did to solve the problem is delete these zip files. I'm note sure if that was what solved the problem, because I did some other things (xcopy-ing the directories to another place) as well. |
| ... MOCrossing is missing mesh-table | Nothing you can do, ignore. Asset usually works (although possibly not quite as intended) |
| Smoke description has missing 'attachment' tag. Invalid smoke description for block 'smoke0'. | Nothing you can do, ignore. Asset may work anyway. |
| Unable to load mesh "something" | Nothing you can do. Item may or may not work. |
| Unable to load animation | Nothing you can do. I see that a lot with MOCrossings. They seem to work OK in spite of it. In general, the item will not show some animation that the author wanted it to show. |
