Help:Dual Installations - Beta vs Public Builds

Beta & Public Builds - Managing Two Application Instances

The intent of this process is to afford content creators and players alike a stable unchanging platform with some redundancy that safeguards against changes in the application potentially affecting content creation.

Notes:

• Developing content in any beta means the user is accepting some risk as there is no guarantee from build to build that the application will remain unchanged. That is the nature of “beta”.
  • ...it is an excellent way to make sure you remain abreast of changes and can react accordingly.
• Setting up multiple instances of Trainz is a good practice for maintaining the RELEASE “BUILD:” and a BETA “RELEASE ASSERTIONS” BUILD: independent of each other.
• Please note that builds labeled as “RELEASE ASSERTIONS” on the launcher are BETA and not a final release.
  • Expect changes to occur between releases.
  • Expect assertions and exceptions to occur in beta releases.
• Important: We recommend users backup the existing application & data directory prior to patching. Adopting this process will allow you to easily roll back if needed.
  

Create Two Unique Installation Folders

• Setting up two directories to manage public and beta builds may be done when running the games installer or manually after the game is already installed.
• This example uses the “installer” approach for TRS19 but is also applicable to TANE. You may derive the manual approach from these steps:

1. When the installer is run the first time it shows you the default path the game will be installed to.
2. The default path is "C:\Program Files\N3V Games\Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019"
3. At this point you may rename the path, or insert a new folder:
   • ...for example: "C:\Program Files\N3V Games\TRS19\Public"
4. Then for your beta installation:
   • "C:\Program Files\N3V Games\TRS19\Beta"
5. Now you have two instances of the application installed

Create Two Unique Data Folders

1. When installing Trainz, the game will create a clean data folder.
   • We call this "clean" because it has no other content installed except what ships with the game.
2. Find this by running the Launcher > Trainz Settings > Install tab, see “Local data folder” path.
   • The system places the data folder in your “user” folder with a alphanumeric name that is great for maintaining separate data directories, but not-so-great at being user-friendly.
     • The following is optional but suggested.
     1. Browse to the location of the “public” installations data folder
     2. Change the folder name for the public release from its alphanumeric name to “Public”
     3. Do the same for the beta build data folder, calling it “Beta”
     • Important: Update the “Local data folder” path to match your changes
   • Now you have two clearly defined “at a glance” data directories with user friendly names.
3. Now create two unique shortcuts on the desktop.
   • One pointing to your “public” installation
   • The other pointing to your “beta” installation
   • Clearly label these two shortcuts (i.e. - “Public” & “Beta”).

That’s it.

Sanity Check: Moving forward, it is recommended that you backup and archive your work regularly.

• The best time to do this when working on content is when you have reached a milestone and generally at the end of the work day.
• You may do this by making a copy of the entire data directory and compressing (zip\rar\etc.) or exporting to CDP.
• For more info on moving\creating data folders please go here.