Railworks America

I have no idea why this keeps happening. I started a new route and this happened when opening the route again.

It kept happening, so I deleted the route and started over. Same thing...I did a little more work and then...surprise! Black. I can't go back to it without this happening. Nothing changes if I close out the entire program and return. Clearing my cache does nothing. I can move freely around the route, and as you can see, I can click on assets and such. But it's all black...

Hi,

I remember seeing something like this when something went wrong/misplaced (don't quite remember) with my route's TimeOfDay blueprints. Did you by any chance edit these files in the assets you're using on your route, or install something that might override something in them?

Cheers,
Michael

The only changes in my assets recently have been with rolling stock. I was cleaning up my file organization this Saturday and successfully resolved a few "ghost car" issues and such. Much of what I've downloaded in the last couple years was done when I was significantly less proficient in understanding how all those files work, let alone how to organize them. There was a of stuff lying around haphazardly so I decided to clean it up.

Looking at my recycling bin from Saturday...

x50_main_bump.TgPcDx was a loose file just hanging around for some reason that I sent to the bin. Everything else deleted are plainly files for repaints. I don't see how this would affect anything in the route editor where no rolling stock is used.

Interesting thing is that one time yesterday (Sunday), I tried opening up this route and everything WAS fine. So I shrugged and proceeded to begin laying some more track and placing more structures. I saved, made lunch, and haven't been able to get back to it since. Is it possible that assets from too many other routes are selected?

No, I recommend to check the TimeofDay like Michael did.

Aaaaahh...derp. I thought he meant a route called "TimeOfDay." In the Scenario Editor, I know how to adjust time of course. But I've never heard of this in the Route Editor. Where would I find this?

I switched over to the Scenario Editor and the time shows 12:00:00. High noon. Plus, in the screenshot above I've got the torch on and it does nothing when zooming right up to objects. So I'm at a loss here...

It occurred to me that I oughta do that cache clearing thingamajig. This screenshot stuck out like a red thumb. On Saturday when I was setting up the new route, I was going through all the other routes looking for some basic assets I know I wanted to use. In the course of un-checking certain route assets, the program asks if I'm "sure I'd like to delete blah blah blah." I'm guessing you've all seen it when un-checking groups of assets in the Route Editor.

Is it possible this has something to do with my issue? I went back and double-checked that even the most basic groups of assets were selected, but nothing changed...

Hi,

The TimeOfDay system is the set of blueprints (.bin files) the game uses to control the lighting (sky colors, ambient light, sunset/-rise times, etc.) of the route you're playing, which is why it's my prime suspect in this case of total blackout. Or check if your route's citizens have paid their electricity bills.

To find the TimeOfDays you're using, open the RouteProperties.xml in your route's Content folder and scroll down a little until you get to the section <Skies>. There should be four references below that, detailing the four seasonal TimeOfDay blueprints (could also be one file used in all four seasons).

Check that the four files referenced in the RouteProperties actually exist and that you can open them in TS_Tools (to rule out file corruption) and that their Provider/Product is enabled in your route. -- Note that even though the referenced files are shown as having an .xml extension in the RouteProperties, but the game actually looks for the .bin files of the same name.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Michael

When I open this new route, I've got folders for MixMap, Networks, Scenarios, Scenery, Terrain, and a single 9 KB XML Document called RouteProperties. I assume this is what you mean. When I open this up with Internet Explorer (for whatever reason), I see the screenshot above. But I can only expand or collapse these lines - they don't tell me anything. Do they tell you anything?

Would I be on the right track here? Assuming this problem hasn't been addressed before on this forum, I hope continued assistance on this matter will help others in the future as well. So your patience here is still appreciated...especially considering that once I start dabbling in coding like this and such, I'd be the one to somehow make my entire block's electricity go out in real life.

Hi,

That was the right file to look at. Internet Explorer is probably set as the default program to handle .xml files in your Windows settings, you can change that any time if it bothers you (or just right click on the file and select "open with" and pick the program of your choice, like say Notepad++ if you want to edit the file).

Those four entries in the <Skies> section tell us that your route is set up to use the seasons from the Academy route. See those four near-identical blocks called <SpringSkyBlueprint>, etc. -- inside them are the references for where the game will look for the files. In this case, provider DTG, product Academy, and then the file path. So in Explorer speak, this translates to Assets\DTG\Academy\TimeOfDay\Spring.xml, etc.

With that in mind, check that your route has the asset filter ticked for the Academy assets. And in the probably highly unlikely event that those Academy assets got deleted or damaged, a Steam verify might help.

Alternatively, you could also edit the RouteProperties.xml to link to a different set of TimeOfDay blueprints if you don't want to use the Academy assets (and thus have to keep their asset filter enabled forever). Simply open the .xml file in a text editor of your choice (I think even WIndows' own built-in one might do the trick) and replace the references as needed. For example, you could replace all four calls to "DTG" and "Academy" with calls to "Kuju" and "RailSimulator" in case that's an asset set which you are using on your route.

Create a backup copy of the .xml before editing it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Michael