TANE Developer Release Build
(work-in-progress notes on using the developer build) |
Revision as of 12:59, 12 May 2014
This page describes the TANE Developer Release build, which is available to members of the Trainz Pioneer Council and the Trainz Enthusiast Group. Information provided on this page is publicly visible and not covered by any NDA, however it should be noted that the features described here are NOT available to the public, and may never be available to the public in their current form. The features described here do not relate to any retail version of Trainz and should not be assumed to relate to any future retail version of Trainz. This page may include descriptions of in-development features which are not currently available in the Developer Release build.
Contents |
Installation
Installation instructions are provided with each Developer Release build, however the following overview may be useful in understanding the layout of the build.
Build Installation: Windows
To install the Developer Release build on Windows 7 or Windows 8, simply unzip the archive and copy the contained TANE folder to your desired installation location. The default location of the retail build will be the Windows Program Files folder, however you may choose to place the build in any suitable location. Do not attempt to merge the TANE folder contents with an existing installation- if you wish to replace an existing installation, then delete that folder first before copying in the new build.
Build Installation: Mac OS X
To install the Developer Release build on Mac OS X, simply unzip the archive and copy the contained Trainz.app to your desired installation location. The default location of the retail build will be the Mac OS X Application Folder, however you may choose to place the app in any suitable location.
Directory Layout
The Developer Release build aims to follow Windows and Mac OS X "best practices" for on-disk layout, which may vary substantially from what existing Trainz users are familiar with. Specifically, for Windows users, any user-modifiable files are no longer stored alongside the exe files in the Windows Program Files folder. On both platforms, the user-modifiable files are stored in the standard per-user application data locations, specifically:
- Windows: The "N3V Games\TANE" subfolder of the application local data folder is currently used. This typically defaults to "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\N3V Games\TANE".
- Mac OS X: The "com.n3vgames.tane" subfolder of the containers folder is currently used. This typically defaults to "/Users/username/Library/Containers/com.n3vgames.tane".
Use of the OS-standard locations for this data have the following pros and cons:
- PRO: A default install does not require admin privileges to run, reducing the footprint of any potential security vulnerability.
- PRO: Multi-user machines behave as expected with user accounts and data being per-user instead of per-machine.
- PRO: Compatibility with vendor requirements, such as Games for Windows, the Mac App Store, etc.
- CON: A default install requires sufficient storage space in the system default data location (typically the boot drive.) Some machines are configured with minimal boot drives with the expectation that large data files will be kept in non-standard locations.
- CON: Multi-user machines, where the users explicitly wish to share the Trainz installation and user settings, will need custom configuration.
- CON: Multiple installs of the game on a single user account are not possible without customisation. (This has always been true, of course, but the extent of customisation required has increased.)
Custom Layout
It is expected that install-time and post-install options to move the user data files will be introduced in the future. A the current time, power users can add a text file named "override-data-path.txt" next to the TANE.exe or TANE.app file which contains the full (absolute) path to an alternative user data folder. If the folder does not exist or the path is otherwise invalid, the developer release build will use the default location. If the folder does exist but is not writable, the developer release build may fail to start.
It is also feasible that multiple data sources may be introduced in the future (such as a shared location for DLS/payware content and a separate per-user location for locally modified content. This is not expected for the TANE retail release.
Installing Default Content
At the current time, the Developer Preview build does not come with any installed content beyond the most basic files required to start TANE. The zip archive distribution will typically contain a content set which can be installed into TANE in the regular fashion using the "File > Import Content" menu.
Installing Additional Content
The Developer Preview build supports importing of content folders using the "File > Import Content" menu. The imported content folder(s) may include raw content files or CDP files. Users should keep in mind that many content types are not supported or are incompletely supported- these should import correctly but may not function within the game environment. The Developer Preview build does not support asset validation at the current time; faulty content may simply fail to load correctly, or may crash the build.
Cleaning the Build
In order to completely clean the build back to a fresh install state, the following steps should be taken:
- Close all windows relating to the developer build, and wait for the process to fully exit.
- Locate the user data path (see above) and delete all contents, leaving only an empty top-level folder.
Upgrading the Build
Each release of the developer build is a fresh install and may not maintain backwards compatibility with the user data of previous developer builds. It is strongly recommended that the user data is cleaned from the machine (see above) before a new build is used. It is strongly recommended that multiple developer builds are NOT installed on the same machine, unless the "override-data-path.txt" mechanism is used and confirmed working for each installation.
Running Multiple Copies
As all installations of the developer build default to the same user data location, it is not possible for a single user to use (simultaneously, or sequentially) multiple separate installations of the developer build without customising the user data location (see above.)
It is also not possible to run multiple simultaneous instances of the same installation at the current time. The first-started process will lock the user data files, and subsequent startup attempts will "hang" waiting for access. If you accidentally start a duplicate copy of TANE.exe (Windows only), you may need to use Task Manager to terminate it.
Discussion and Sharing
The Developer Release build is only available to TPC and TEG members, and active discussion between group members is encouraged on the TPC and TEG forums. Since the build is not available to other members of the Trainz community and most aspects of the build will have changed prior to the retail release of TANE, broad discussion of the build on the public forums is not encouraged. N3V asserts ownership of the Developer Release build and does not permit redistribution of the build.
