Help with RF&P Route

[aelmont]

RF&P Route Problems

I have been working to resolve the following two problems for some time without success:

Error Reading Train Database File:

File: Trains\Trainset\NALW_P42\P42_AMTK_5_2.eng

File: Trains\Trainset\Tropicanaboxcar\Tropic.wag

This is the Freight_tropicana_boxcar.zip file
which contains the following six elements: freight7.ace, tropic.s, tropic.sd, tropic.tga, tropic.wag, us2freight7.ace.

I placed this file in the trainset directory under Tropbox.
This file does not contain a jpg or gif element. I wonder if that may be the problem.

After clicking through the error messages I can run the default activities and the amtrack103 non-default activity. The other non-default activities crash mostly due to the problem with the
boxcar file.

Any help given would be appreciated.

TIA

aelmont

[AlanCh]

Hi

Help from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

The NALW P42 is in gen_pak4.zip from this site, which installs it to the NALW_P42 folder (and installs a load of other stuff as well).

As for the tropic.wag - MSTS is looking for it in a folder called Tropicanaboxcar, not Tropbox, so you need to rename the folder. MSTS does not use jpg or gif files - they are included so us humans can look at a picture to see what we are getting.

Alan

Please have a look at my railway photograph site - http://alan-lewis-chambers.fotopic.net/ - lots of British steam and early diesels

[aelmont]

Hi Alan:

Tried your suggestion. Sorry no luck with tropicanaboxcar. Previously I have tried a variety of names.

Thanks for responding.

Art

[baldwin]

"This is the Freight_tropicana_boxcar.zip file
which contains the following six elements: freight7.ace, tropic.s, tropic.sd, tropic.tga, tropic.wag, us2freight7.ace."

The only zipfile I can find in the library that contains those filenames is tropcana.zip. This does not have any path info for the files so can be placed in a folder of any name. If the activity is calling for Tropicanaboxcar\Tropic.wag, renaming your Tropbox to Tropicanaboxcar will fix the problem.

Having looked at the consists for the activity I find that the actual call is for Tropicana Boxcar which is just a little bit different.

Beer is not a matter of life and death. It is much more serious than that.
mervyn.

[aelmont]

mervyn:

Thanks for your help. Renaming the file to Tropicana Boxcar solved the problem. However, then a similar problem showed up with a file for a Tropicana Reefer which was solved by renaming my file named trreef to Tropicana Reefer. As one problem is solved others appear.

I now have an error message relating to P42 via #902:

Failed to generate texture file: Trains\Trainset\NALW_P42\Blank.ace

Any additional help provided will by appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Art

[Swissie]

Hi Art

blank is the default texture applied to a 3D-modell source file while it is being built in Train Sim Modeller (TSM). Usually, a modeller makes sure to replace it on each single polygone with a custom .ace (texture) file, but once in a while some inward looking polygone gets missed out and is exported still calling for "blank.ace".

Usually it is a 256x256 pixel sized texture of some uniform muddy blue - but it actually rarely matters, unless an author would use it on purpose to texture some parts (c.f. Tim Muir's Milwaukee Road Boxcabs where blank.ace is a rusty brown, applied to various small parts of the locomotive).

You can serch your trainset folder for any blank.ace, copy it and paste a copy into the NALW_P42 folder. Unless the locomotive looked weird in some places thereafter, you don't have to worry about the original copy that is missing.

Lukas a.k.a Swissie

Edit: I just looked up the shape file in my copy of said engine, and it really calls for five textures, including blank.ace, while the download only contains four textures. In Shape Viewer, the engine looks externally ok, so that texture must indeed be applying to some small part or interior polygone. Just copy the blank.ace from folder NALW_P32AC-DM into folder NALW_P42 and the error should go away!

[aelmont]

Hi Swissie:

Thanks for your help. For some reason my P32, P40 and p42 folders were fouled up. To remedy the situation, I downloaded and installed Gen_Paks 1, 3, and 4. This solved my problem with the P42 texture file. However, as mentioned in my original post, I still have a problem with the following:

Error Reading Train Database File.

File: Trains\Trainset\NALW_P42\P42_Amtk_5_2.eng

Any additional help offered will be much appreciated.

Thanks again,

Art

[Swissie]

Hi Art,

first, to clear things up a bit: The error message you are getting indicats that when you installed the route and its activities, the installer also put a consist into your trainset/consists folder that calls for the engine P42_Amtk_5_2 to be installed in folder trains/trainset/NALW_P42. However, you do not seem to have this locomotive installed, so the consist triggers the error message each time you are loading MSTS.

The cure is to either use ConBuilder to check your consists and identify the consist(s) calling for items you do not have installed. Once you know which consists are containing errors, you could open them in ConBuilder and substitute the missing item(s) with stuff you have.

The alternative is of course to download all the missing items - in your case I assume the missing engine is part of Gen_Pak2.zip which you have not installed so far. Please check the ReadMe of the route or its activities and see if that file tells you what (additional) items you need to download to run the activities.

If you're not interested at all in running the activities provided, you have a third option: namely to identify the .act and .con files giving you the errors, and then to move them in a subfolder where they are out of MSTS' way when the sim loads the route, or to delete them alltogether.

Hope that explains a bit what is going on...

Lukas a.k.a Swissie

[Literalman]

The AMD-103 I used is, as far as I know, not available in the Train-Sim file library any more, but I think it's still on Railserve.

[aelmont]

Hi Swissie:

Once again thank you so much for your help. I installed Gen_Pak2.zip which solved my problem. I did install all of the non-default files outlined in the route readme. However, I found that some additional files were required. Obviously not having the technical expertise required to track down various problems I encountered I relied on help from the members of this site. I was not disappointed I received great help. Now trainsim is operating like it should without crashing.

Many thanks,

Art

[aelmont]

Hi Steve:

With help from the members of this site, yourself included, the RF&P Route is running without problems. Thank you for making it available to all. I am sure I will enjoy using it.

Art