Route_Riter Patch Generator Failing with Error 76

[Vince]

I'm attempting to generate a patch/update to the PRR East Reg route but using ANY version of Route_Riter fails with a "Error 76 Compare Arrays" dialog box with only an 'OK' button.

It's an endless loop failure cycling through the routes tile, world, shape, texture & terrtex files. The failures (hundreds) occur when shapes are being serviced, the filenames appearing in the bottom of the RR panel in the 'Processing' display. Pressing 'OK' and the error again appears with a different filename displayed.

This continues with hundreds of shape filenames listed as array compare errors until the next group, in this case the World files which run through error free and all the others, textures, world ect. are tested . . . then it starts again with the shapes and the same error 76 in endless succession.

Like maybe it's doing a compare of the shape files in the old (9,500) and new (7,800) versions of the route and blowing up?

regards,

Any suggestions appreciated.

[ChiFan]

Hi Vince, it's been awhile.

I've never encountered your specific error message while using RR, but I have encountered other situations in which RR/TSUtil failed to complete successfully because of errors (some reported, some just freeze ups). I do have some thoughts that might help.

From your description, and having had some experience myself dealing with RR/TSUtil errors with extra large routes including PRR-Eastern, I suspect sheer volume may be the culprit. Maybe there are too many of something that exceeded an upper limit inadvertently programmed by the programmer.

Here's an idea to see if this is the case, and if so, maybe there is a "get-around" that might work. Move a bunch of ".s/.sd" files out of the previous version of the route into a separate folder elsewhere to reduce the volume being handled, then try the function again. Perhaps everything else is/was properly handled except for the processing of the Shape/Texture folders of the two routes. By reducing the volume an EOJ might occur with output files and no "76" message.

Of course, the new execution might detect missing Shapes and quit for that reason.

If that doesn't occur but the same "76" message does after reducing the volume of Shapes, then maybe that isn't the culprit afterall.

Or maybe the new execution might get beyond that and produce output files as if normal completion. That would be progress. If so, the next step would be to apply the patch and see if the route will load.

Of course the the patched route may fail to load.

However there is a better possible outcome. The patched route might load and appear to be okay except for detection of missing Shapes when navigating to affected world files. There may be a way around this if you get this far.

Anyway, I hope this helps. I'm curious about results if you try the above, and about your plans if all else fails.

Chuck R.

[Vince]

Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the suggestions . . . Time flies when I'm having fun and the new Route Editor (TSRE) has me actually being able to easily edit/create routes. Less stressful than using the MSRE but I fail in communicating

Anyhow, here I've got the completed route that will update to any version of the PRR Easr Reg up to and including the PRRFix06 level. That is I would have if the Route Riter Make Update Patch routine wasn't failing during the 'Copy Files' step as displayed in the Make Update Dialog.

The updated route PRR Eastern Region v that includes the Philadelphia Terminal Area and surrounding 9 tiles plus Ron Pickardi's Altoona replacement to which I added two fully operational turntables. Route folder size before compressing world, shapes & textures. The final size should ne close to 2.7GB. . . . Now I DO have a freebe 60GB cloud drive at MEGA but d/l'ing 2GB ouch but only as a last resort.

I tried your suggestions. moved half old route version shapes, then all shapes except one! but the failure moved to the texture files.
I will try moving all shapes, textures AND terrtex leaving one ace file in each of their respective folders.
Problem with that is a patch would contain all the missing files in the update bloating it with files not needed but it will help in isolating the failure.

best regards,

I'll continue to work with RR. First thing is to compress the route.

I

[slipperman]

Hi Vince,
Apologies if you're already aware of this fix, or if it doesn't fix your problem.
If you're using Win 10, R_R uses a couple of temporary folder in what is now a protected folder. The solution is to create folders TempFiles and TempFiles2 in the Route_Riter installation folder.

Cheers,
Ged

[ChiFan]

Vince

Hopefully Slipperman's post is a good catch that gets you past the current issue. If that doesn't resolve it, I have some more thoughts.

If you conclude it is not a Win 10 issue, then your latest info update seems to give further indication that sheer volume is the culprit.

If you can get an EOJ with output files from RR, and if you can do so by removing only scenery related files from one or both routes, and if you can load the patched route into AE and RE/TSRE, then I may be able to resolve excess or missing scenery files with some mods to a scenery related program I have.

But first, need to see how far you can get. BTW in case you haven't thought of it, getting "Play" to work with an activity in AE is an easy and quick way to see if RR was able to handle the databases correctly.

Chuck R.

[Vince]

@Ged>>> Thanks Ged. My RR 7.6.26 in installed in the Train Simulator\UTILITIES folder in a non windows protected folder on my E drive. I installed MSTS away from the main OS Win10 C:\ drive so security protections are all owned by me.

@ChuckR>>> I don't think protections are the problem. Tonight I'm going to make sure all the ace files are compressed some of the larger, I see about 20-30 which go to almost 2MB. Then I'll be selectively removing blocks of shape & ace file out of the original PRRFix06 verrsion. I have sooo many backups so I'm also going to try an update to the PRRFix06 version with only the Philadelphia Terminal (Zoo) upgrade installed as I could have sworn I DID try this (just to see how the PRR Update Patch Generator worked and I DID get a good EOJ. This was almost a year ago but I'm sure it worked then. I've plenty of backups on a few terrabyte hard drive so lots of material to experiment with.

Thanks for the assistance and hopefully good news in the future.

best regards,

[slipperman]

Hi Vince,
Sorry, mate, but the location of TempFiles and TempFiles2 folders have nothing to do with where Route_Riter is installed. By default, R_R looks in C:\Users\[yourname]\AppData\Local\Route_Riter for them. For some reason, that location isn't accessible for R_R in Win 10, and locating the folders in its installation folder overcomes the problem.

Cheers,
Ged

[Vince]

Hi Vince,
Sorry, mate, but the location of TempFiles and TempFiles2 folders have nothing to do with where Route_Riter is installed. By default, R_R looks in C:\Users\[yourname]\AppData\Local\Route_Riter for them. For some reason, that location isn't accessible for R_R in Win 10, and locating the folders in its installation folder overcomes the problem.Cheers,Ged

Hi Ged,
My RR v7.6.26 does in fact have both folders you mention right there in the .. \..\UTILITIES\Route_Riter folder.
A later RR version does not but it also did work successfully in the past.

The patch process DID work previously (February '18) with only the Philly upgrade, failing only when I added the Altoona changes.
Hindsight says it was a mistake to add Altoona to the first patch as it was large to begin with but I just couldn't resist adding it as It was such a nice piece of work and no reflection on the author Ron Picardi for the screwup. The failure was entirely caused by me . . . taking to large a byte of way too much PRR data.
Splitting off the Altoona patch seems to be the way to go with this. Should take a few days to sort this all out to get the two patches ready.

Attempting to generate the patch with BOTH the Philly upgrade AND the Altoona replacement was just too much for Route_Riter to handle in one gulp, failing just as ChuckR said might be the problem, just too much data at once. You nailed it Chuck! Thanks!

So...
I am splitting the patch into two separate releases;
++ The first patch will upgrade the route with the Philadelphia Terminal, Zoo Interlocking, Phantom signals removed and proper speed limits installed the entire length of the Northeast Corridor from NY Penn to Washington Union Station. There are also many sound source and sound region changes. Lots of other minor tweaks to scenery and correcting bad (visual) track joins.

++ The second patch, still TBD, will deal only with the Altoona replacement (two tiles) and my addition of the two operational turntables there.
Slowly coming together and at least the major problem has been solved.

regards,

[ChiFan]

Looks like a good plan Vince. Looking forward to good results and releases.


Chuck R.

[Vince]

I installed OR on the wife's laptop and was able to run several of the test activities at not-too-good framerates in Philadelphia. They got down to 9 fps for about 3 seconds as I passed in the tunnel under Zoo tower which just happens to be the intersection the four Philadelphia tiles. I ran this as a test to sse if OR - PRR played nice and mostly, it did ok.

The patch process fails with a bunch of 'command syntax' errors, path does not exist after doing a cd , and others . . . screen shot shortly as the laptops is downstairs and importantly, the coffee pot.
Standby a bit for screen of errors.

regards,