Happens to everybody ... ??

Hi All,
You know the situation - you find an activity you want to run, so go through the long list of required stock, downloading any you don't already have, then installing them all.  Now comes the moment - you've installed the activity and all the stock - and you're ready to roll!!  Click the button and off we go - oh no we don't! The message "Failed to create Cab view" pops up.  That's not so bad - at least you've not started yet, but what about missing sound (.sms) files - those messages pop up and, although they don't stop the activity, you have to keep pressing the ENTER key, which destroys the flow of the activity.  I'm sure we've all had these situations - perhaps if we'd read ALL the information in the readme files, it wouldn't have happened, but we wanted to get going ... didn't we??

I have created a utility which processes all the eng and wag files in the TRAINSET folder and creates reports of missing cabviews, sounds or Freight Animation shape files.  The user selects which search is to be performed.  Optionally, the program can suggest suitable source/s for any missing files, and, as supplied, most of these sources are based on files available from UKTS although the user can create their own Source files.  In the absence of any source files, the program will continue to report, but without any suggestions.

As well as checking for the presence of the required .cvf (Cabview) or .sms (Sound) files, further checks are made to ensure that the first .ace file referenced by the .cvf file and the first .wav file referenced by the .sms file is also present.  This is because, although the .cvf /.sms file is in the loco's own Cabview/Sound folder, the remaining files may be aliased to somewhere else in the installation.  The program runs pretty quickly, but more time needs to be expended on sorting out the reported errors!!  I have found that even commercial routes can contain these types of errors.  Even though MSTS doesn't seem to fail due to missing sound files, if there are a great number, I wonder if it may be the reason for some spurious crashes, possibly caused by a buffer overflowing.

The program makes absolutely no changes to the installation being checked and doesn't use the Registry.   It may be run on any MSTS/ORTS installation with the only stipulation being that it should have a root folder (any name) which MUST contain folders named SOUND and TRAINS, with the latter containing the TRAINSET folder.  The SOUND folder will hold the normal MSTS default plus any rolling stock sounds added by the user.

Currently, the program (MSTS_Check) is being tested by Bob (scampispeedway) - thanks, Bob  - , but I'd like another couple of testers, please.  If you'd like to help, please send me your email address, by PM.  If you just want more information, just ask

Cheers,
Ged

Ged, I think you have my email address but I can send it to you if you like ...........!!

Funny, I have spent today jumping between routes and activities and mini-installs doing some checking and really thought that the author of TSFE and MCTS_Swap should get a medal or something (how did we exist without them).  And now ....

Hi David,
Thanks for your compliment

Yes, I have your email address and I'll get a copy to you tonight.

Maybe I should add that the current version does not work with Windows XP. This is because MS Visual Studio Express 2013, with which the program is created, uses Net Framework 4.5.1 which is incompatible with XP. If you use XP, there'll be a delay getting a copy to you because I don't currently have an XP installation on which to create and test it (unless I can find a way to make my Win 7 version create an XP compatible executable - I suppose anything is possible!)..

Cheers,
Ged

Ged. I'm on Vista 64

Hi David,
Vista 64bit SP2 can run Net Framework 4.5.1, although if you don't have it, you'll need to download and install it.
The off-line installer is here : https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=40779

If your Vista 64bit is not SP2, it looks like a No-No -- Sorry

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Everybody, as Ged has said I'm currently testing his Checker and luckily enough I have mine
loaded in Win 7 but can use the Checker to locate my MSTS Trainset Folder in my XP partition.
You will be amazed at the error messages I've come across as I have checked stock for the many
Routes in installed.
Many times the files are simply missing and cannot be found as the original files have been deleted
and so had to find replacements in my huge Trainset Folder, once I edited the .eng or .wag file to
use the alternative stock, the errors went away.
You may find that the files are actually there but still I got reports that there were errors so this took
my looking at the File itself and find what other stock may be used by the loco. or wagon.
Just now I have found an error message in the URB Class 66 GBRF-Metronet folder and I should
of realised that it was only one of the few loco's in the pack that was giving the error message and
none of the others so there was nothing wrong with common,sound Folder itself.
Eventually I spotted that the .eng file had a sound line of
"..//..//.common.sound//Class_66//Class66Cab.sms" and when I removed the "." before the folder
"common.sound", I now got a clean bill of health.
This when Ged makes it available, is an excellent tool and so you should never get MSTS giving
you pop up error messages again.

Cheers
Bob

Scampispeedway wrote: and so you should never get MSTS giving
you pop up error messages again.

Cheers
Bob

If only!

Hi Ged.

I'd like to give it a whirl.

I test any additions to my collection pretty carefully before adding them, so it will be interesting to see what your utility turns up.

Regards,

Bob.

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the offer

I'll get the latest version to you this weekend.

Cheers,
Ged