Charlie's Trainz Page
(The Trainz logo when I started this thing in May 2002 - back when it was so amazing and fun)
This is old stuff, but could still be handy:
Constructing Points/Turnouts for Trainz beginners!
Creating art files including a discussion on alpha channels, using both tga and bmp files!
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1/1/04 154KB
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Grab my beginner's Reskin Kit (zip file) for some basic help in creating new paint jobs for an operating log wagon for TRS2004! |
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30/3/05 156KB
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NEW! Reskin kit to suit the updated 45ft and 50ft log wagons with automatic numbering! Zip file contains all you need to get started. |
All My Creations
Most of my stuff is available on the Auran Download Station. I used to subscribe to the philosophy that if you hadn't bought Trainz then you didn't deserve stuff that I'd spent my time and effort making, so I kept all of it on the DLS. But by doing so I'm punishing those who want my creations but who don't buy fast downloads from Auran, and it means I gave up version control and so forth. So now I don't care as much, and as a service to my many Trainz friends (and ex-payware customers) I'll put it all up here too. If you've got a pirated version of Trainz, you're a bad person and I hate you, so there.
About version control:
The KUID system is a good concept, as you release new items you give them a new KUID and use the Obsolete: tag to override older versions. Its main limitation is that it isn't supported properly in Trainzscript and coded activities (scenarios) break with a "KUID not found" if it is looking for an older version that you have obsoleted, even if you have the latest version.
The KUID2 system, with a version-number suffix, promised a better way of keeping track of versions but, predictably, Auran stuffed it up and it has created many, many problems which they have not, and are unlikely, to ever fix.
So what I'm doing here is putting my assets up with a package date. Updated items will be marked. If in doubt, download the asset again, bandwidth is cheap.
TRS2004 vs TRS2006 and Trainz Classics
I'd been a loyal - some would say fanatical - supporter of Auran and Trainz right from the word go, and for several years immersed myself in the content creation and beta testing side of things, and spent a lot of time on the forums helping other users. I was able to call Auran management about issues and sometimes they called me. These were the good times.
I had a significant involvement in the creation of content for, and beta testing of, TRS2006. My relationship with Auran and Trainz badly soured as a result of both this and personnel changes at Auran. With the (then) cancellation of MSTS2, the rail sim field was completely clear for TRS2006 to build on the success of TRS2004 and take the market by storm. Instead the beta testers and content developers were lied to and treated like idiots, and another buggy pre-release was shoved out the door as "gold," complete with the abysmal CMP and the knowledge that a large proportion, if not most, of the previously available content would not work properly with 06 or import cleanly into CMP. This includes a big chunk of the built-in content - virtually none of it was fixed unless it actually crashed the game - and the workaround is for Trainz to bypass checking it.
So Auran having torpedoed the title before the first copy was sold, the subsequent community frustration was no surprise. After a year of bashing my head against the TRS2006 and Auran brick wall, I finally saw sense and deleted it from my system. Departing from the Auran forums was more difficult, made easier by the senseless loss of five years accumulated knowledge in the "old" forums, and by the constant sniping and censorship from Alan Yeomans, a thirty-something adolescent hired to perform customer relations but with the behaviour of a power-crazed pimply herbert. (Official stance: forum mods are hard to find, so Auran will always side with the mod, even when they are wrong, even when senior management sends me emails apologising for his actions.) So stuff 'em. Interestingly, I haven't missed the forums much at all recently. The first six months was the hardest.
I have two copies of TRS2004 installed; one for playing and one for development and testing content for myself and Razorback Railway. I do not have TRS2006 installed. I do not know, nor particularly care, if any of my stuff does or does not work in TRS2006 or Classics. Do not bug me if it doesn't. I know some of it has been modified and if there is sufficient interest, I will update the versions on here and put an "06" or "Classics" tag on them. In the meantime, almost everything here is guaranteed to work in TRS2004 and some in the even older UTC.