Revision as of 01:31, 11 November 2022

This page is a guide for Trainz Content Creation Program or 'TCCP'
TCCP Beta Testers should look HERE

Under Development The contents and the layout of this page is under development.

Trainz Content Creation Program or TCCP allows you to become a Registered Content Creator with N3V Auran. You will be eligible to upload Content which may be made available for download by Trainz users, and, for Approved Content, to receive a share of revenues for sales relating to your Content.

Getting Started

Set Up Account

Your first step is to get a TCCP account at tccp.auran.com When you create your account use your My Trainz username and password. You will be asked to accept the EULA terms and conditions. This account will be the same for content creation and beta testing, so please do not try to create multiple accounts.

Once you have an account created you can find a lot more detailed instructions under tccp.auran.com/documentation.php.

This video also explains most of what you need to get up and running. It is a long video but is split into sections so you can skip to what you need: DETAILED VIDEO

Connect With Other Creators

More heads are better than one. There are differnt ways to connect with other content creators and you should be involved with this. Trainz is a community based platform, and as such you need to be involed to help gaurantee success. You will find if you are a team player, you will benifit from the team. Here are some avenues to connect;

• Trainz Forums
• Trainz Discord channel
  For this you will need an invite, see the Trainz Forums above.

Creating A Package

Thumbnails

Your primary asset(s), Routes, Sessions, Rolling Stock and Locos must have the proper set of thumbnails. To add the thumbnails to your asset, edit the config.txt and make sure it looks like the code below, take note of the dimensions and filenames listed for each thumbnail. If you do not have the correct size thumbnails or filenames, you will need to create or modify them. If the 'default' thumbnail is not named 'thumbnail.jpg', it will not create the auto generated 'new' session thumbnail when a new session is created.

thumbnails
{
  0
  {
    image                               "0.jpg"
    width                               1280
    height                              800
  }
  
  1
  {
    image                               "1.jpg"
    width                               1280
    height                              800
  }
  
  2
  {
    image                               "2.jpg"
    width                               1280
    height                              800
  }
  
  default
  {
    image                               "thumbnail.jpg"
    width                               512
    height                              384
  }
}

TCCP Manager

Current TCCP projects can be from a TRS19 or TRS22 build. Do not try to create a package using a Beta Build. If you can submit your project in TRS19 SP5, then you can target both TRS19 and TRS22 customers. Open Trainz and look for the Developer Tab. It can be found from the Launcher and the Content Manager.

• Select 'Open TCCP Project List'
• Right Click inside window and select 'Create New Project...'

Once the panel opens, type in a Title. Then type a description in the text box, it can be anything as these will not be the final title or description, so it could just be a note at this point. If you close this dialog without giving it a Title or a Description, you will get an error. If you wish to still quit, close the dialog a second time and it will abandon the project. If you close the dialog with a Title and Description, a TCCP Project ID will be assigned to your project and now can be found on the TCCP website.

In the TCCP Project List, your project will now be listed. You can right click on it and it will give you the option of 'Edit Project...' and 'View Project on TCCP Website...'.

When you choose edit project, the window that pops up it will now have your title on the menu bar. The first list box is where you place the assets you have made and wish to distribute. You will need to open a Content Manager window, and drag your creation(s) into it. The second box is which from the first box you want to encode as payware. You can now drag from the first box to the second box to populate it. If you are a route creator, and wish to have an unlocked base session, you would leave that session out of the second box.

Using newer asset versions where available

Checkbox - need more info on this setting? Default leave unchecked.

Uploading

Once you have populated the two list boxes, click the 'Upload Package' button on the bottom right of the dialog.

• .TZARC - Trainz Archive File

The manager will attempt to build your files into a .tzarc file. It will add every dependancy the package needs into the file. If succesful it will upload it to the TCCP build machine.

Errors

• Payware
  You can not include payware in your project, this includes dependencies.
• Packaged and not avialable
  This will happen from time to time. There are different ways to fix this. You could edit your creation and remove the offending asset. You could clone the asset if the license allows or you have permission, then upload it to the DLS, then replace your old one with the new one from the DLS. Or you could open a helpdesk ticket if there is an earlier version on the DLS. If the only version available is the packaged one, then you must remove or clone.
• Unfeasable
  You already have a built package on the TCCP website. You will need to go to the website and cancel the package, then delete the .tzarc file. You will now be able to upload your package.
• Unknown Errors
  
  

TCCP Package Setup

Login

Once you have uploaded your .tzarc file you will need to login at the TCCP website and navigate to your file or Package. The top level, or the Apps Dashboard, has 3 major sections. Content, Beta Testing and Documentation. Your file will be in the Content section or the Content Creator Dashboard. At the bottom of the page will be a list of your projects. Click on the title of your package in the list to continue to the Content Creator Project.

Package

You are required to fill in all the fields before clicking the 'Update Package' button at the bottom of this page. What is entered here can be changed before you submit it to the build machine, so don't be worried if it's not 100% accurate at this point. The Title and Description will overright the Trainz TCCP Manager, so this is important to remember if you need to modify your .tzac file and re-upload it.

Images

Upload at least six 1280 (width) x 800 (height) marketing screenshots and one 600 (width) x 262 (height) Trainz Store header image for your product. Accepted upload formats: 'png' or 'jpg'. Please ensure to include a 1280x800 resolution version of the 600x262 header image in the screenshots section as well, as this is required for creating the header images for Steam.

These images will not effect the images in your assets config.txt file.

Optionally you can upload a YouTube video.

Files

You can have only one .tzarc file uploaded for a project. If you need to change something, you will have to delete the file from this page. Depending at which stage your project is in, you may need to Cancel Beta and/or Cancel Project

Beta Testing

Before you submit for Beta Testing you should add your own questions as part of your Beta so testers have specific details to test with your content. You can add specific testing questions under the Test Plan Tools

Assets

Notifications

Build Machine

Near the top of each Content Creator Project page is a status box showing the current build status of the package. Once your package has passed all the requirements, the Submit To Build Queue button will appear.

• Prepare For Submission
• Building
  Your package is building. It may take up to a couple of hours or more to build the project.
• Failed
• Success
  Your package passed and can now be submitted for Beta Testing
• Live
  N3V has approved your package and it is now on the store.

Beta Testing

Test Quesions

Tickets

Final Review

Once you have addressed all tickets opened during the beta test, which could mean that you will have to submit a new beta, again, to confirm the fixes. Your package will pass beta and go into Final Review. This is where it is now scrutinized by the N3V staff.

Per Zec, "Something I've been meaning to do for quite a while is post up a bit of a 'guide' on how we generally review DLC packs. This isn't a hard and fast method, but should help you guys to review your content yourselves before submission There is a difference between routes/sessions and traincars, as they involve different aspects of gameplay. For all content, I will verify that the advertised content is included (ie route, sessions, traincars, consists, etc). This is based on what you advertise in the description (ie if you say there are 5 sessions and I only see 4, I'll send it back to you to double check)."

After verifying the content is installed, and is fully active, and no open tickets.

Routes / Sessions

For routes/sessions:

• Each session is loaded into Driver, and then verified that the session loads successfully
• Drive the session for a few minutes, or untill the first navigation mark or task is complete. This is to ensure that the session is starting correctly, and the initial rules are working correctly. It also ensures that the locomotives and rolling stock at the start of the session are working correctly (ie brakes releasing correctly, and so on).
• Take a quick fly over of the route to make sure it all is loading correctly
• If the DLC pack also advertises custom/specific locomotives and rolling stock, then this will also be reviewed using the below.

Traincar

For traincar DLC packs:

• Check that the advertised traincars and consists are present
• Place the traincars onto a blank route, that has the track sitting directly on top of water. This allows me to check that the traincar has a water reflection that works properly, looks like the traincar, and isn't badly broken/distorted.
• For passenger coaches, place them onto a test route with a passenger station to check that the doors work as expected with a passenger station.
• For all traincars, place them onto the KSC2 route, and do a check for obvious mesh/LOD issues (ie obvious changes in the look of the loco when moving toward/away from it). This includes distortions to the texture map, or smoothing issues, on lower LODs.
• At this point, also do a check that all controls work. This means that using keyboard and HUD controls work for all main controls (reverser, throttle, dynamic brake^, train brake, independent brake, headlight, ditch lights^, pantographs^, sander, and of course simple controls mode).

^The controls marked with this are 'optional' on traincars, so are only checked where that item has them fitted. The independent brake, although not always fitted in the cab view, should generally be operational on traincars since the HUD control is available. Dynamic brake, OTOH, is generally acceptable if it is not functional (but it absolutely should be functional on locos fitted with one).

• Quickly try any advertised scripted functions to make sure these work.
• For locos, take the locomotive for a short drive in Driver to make sure that they drive appropriately (note, this isn't necessarily a check for prototypical operation, but more just to make sure that they operate correctly as a locomotive in general). This also allows checking that sounds are working correctly/etc.
• For rolling stock, do the same, but use a builtin locomotive to haul them.

As a final note regarding traincar DLC packs. It is expected that locomotives and rolling stock scripts will not break default functionality.

Examples of this are startup/shutdown scripts that are off by default. For the average user who purchases a loco with this, they will have no way to know how to startup the locomotive, and hence are stuck with a locomotive that to them simply does not work. For startup/shutdown scripts there are two options for this, one is to simply have the loco on by default and allow the player to choose to turn it off in the properties, and then allow them to go through the startup sequence. Another, as seen on the Frecciarossa train DLC, would be to have the train pop up with a message to provide startup options.

Another example would be custom throttle/brake controls that prevent the HUD controls, DCC controls, or keyboard controls from working. Again the average player who purchases this DLC pack will not know what is happening and will see this content as being broken. In this case you must ensure that custom controls correctly respond to the HUD and keyboard.

Review Results

If any issues are found during review, these will be reported via the beta testing bug report system in TCCP. If no issues are found we will then process the DLC pack to PreviewPass for 2 weeks, then release publicly after the 2 week PreviewPass. Note that in some cases, very minor issues might be reported but we may still process to previewpass, these issues should be resolved in an update during previewpass or after release, normally we'll note this in the bug report.

Request Skip Beta

Depending on the issues noted, we will generally let you know if you can request skip beta on the package after resolving the noted issues, however if we don't you can choose to request this after building the package. However if the issues noted were something that needs testing, we will reject the skip beta so that it can go through another round of beta testing. Otherwise we will review the DLC pack again, double checking that reported bugs are resolved.

Getting Paid

In order to get paid for your work, you will need a verified PayPal account. Then you will need an Affiliatly account linked to the PayPal account.

Affiliatly Account

You will need to setup an Affiliatly Account

Start earning royalties and commissions from your Trainz hobby today.

Are you a Trainz Content Creator? Expand your own website sales and earn commissions on all your items sold through the Trainz Store and via other online stores such as Steam and Mac App Store. (Submit your content through this link). Commissions are 50% of the sale price for direct purchases. You will also receive commissions on Silver and Gold subscriptions that download your DLC content. The amount of these commissions vary and a detailed chart can be found under the TCCP website Documentation section.

Do you run a Trainz website or Youtube Channel? Use your Affiliatly link to earn commissions on sales through our store. Each time a user clicks on your link then purchases an item in the next week, you earn a 10% commission on that sale. This could result in a total of 60% on a direct sale.

Registration is free. Sign up now to get your Affiliatly ID and begin earning commissions and royalties. The website tracks the royalties earned for referrals and sales through our TrainzPortal store and shows payments to your nominated account. The amount shown may be less than you will actuallly receive as the subscription revenue does not show here, which is calculated on the processing date as it's a shared revenue.

Once you have set up your account you will be given an Affiliatly ID number. Log back into the TCCP website, and in the Content Creator Dashboard choose Options. Enter your ID and Save. WARNING: Double check your Affiliatly ID. Adding the wrong ID could mean the wrong account is paid!

PayPal Account

In order to get paid, you must have a PayPal account linked to your Affiliaty account. You will get paid on the 15th or 16th of each month, depending on your time zone and when they process your account. You must have at least $100 US in earnings before you will get paid.