Is the Theory About .ap Files Correct?

[Chacal]

Very clear.
I have a feeling the support guy is gonna pass this one to the devs like a hot potato.

[mikesimpson]

I have noticed that when you run a clean copy of TS2014 the first time, it copies some of the Scenarios from the .ap files into the outside file structure.

Another anomaly was that I made a clone of the Donner Pass route using TS2014 and the clone was missing many of the scenarios.

Further if you check all of the Scenario folders in the Donner Pass, a lot of them are empty.

I am currently working on a copy of TS2014 in which I have placed 2 new folders, Assets_Full and Content_Full - in these I have unpacked all of the .ap files.

The files in the 'Full' folders are then invisible to Steam/TS2014 should remain untouched. I am going to modify a bunch of these and move them back into the standard Assets/content folders and see what happens to them under verifies and running of TS214.

Mike

[latimers]

Hi Mike.

I hadn't noticed the empty scenario folders in Donner Pass but have just had a look and 27 out of 36 are empty. The question in my mind is why the other 9 actually have something in them. I would have though all of them should be empty (retaining the old folder structure) with their previous content now in the .ap file.

I've just checked the Donner Pass MainContent.ap file and it contains only 20 scenario folders (with content).

Now by my figuring 20 + 9 = at most 29 (even if there are no non-empty duplicates) which leaves 7 of the 36 unaccounted for.

When I count the Standard, Free Roam and Career scenarios in-game, I get only 27.

I'm wondering if what we're seeing is a less-than-perfect implementation of the .ap principle.

Bob.

[mikesimpson]

Yes, we really could use some documentation!

In the meantime, I have put a beta update of RW_Tools v5 on my site today. It can:-

1. Automatically copies the new Serz.exe and its associated .dlls to the RW_Tools folder

2. Includes a command line version of 7zip which can be used to unpack selected .ap files from within RW_Tools

3. Has file menu options to find all .ap files and unpack them (this takes a long time if you select all, better just do 2 at a time...)

4. Has a further option to display .ap files and their contents.

Please see the Read_me for further details, I have also found some code for a method of checking the files inside a .zip which should allow a user to check a route without unpacking the .ap files, however the code is really complicated and not commented, so I may take a while to do this.

By the way, a user on uktrainsim suggested making the unpacked files 'Read only' - would this stop TS2014 deleting them? I will give it a try...

Please advise any comments etc.

Mike

[g_nash]

Thanks for the continued effort Mike, many would be lost without the Tools.

[latimers]

Just had a very interesting reply from Railworks Support.

"Thank you for contacting the Railsimulator.com customer support, your inquiry has been logged with a member of our dedicated customer support team.


It might, but it could equally be caused by the various different updates and changes sent out by steam recently, it may take a few weeks until
everything settles down, there will be another small update before the Microsoft official release of Windows 8.1 in a few weeks."

So it sounds like anyone loading their modifications in a folder that has an .ap file should be prepared to keep reloading them for "a few weeks".

Bob.

[latimers]

I asked Railworks support:

Are you able to confirm the theory that the Steam file verify (once it’s settled down) will update only the .ap file (if an .ap file exists) and will not touch modified files that have been placed in the old folder structure and which take precedence when running TS2014 over the files inside the .ap file.

and the answer was:

Unfortunately we cannot at the moment, steam may be able to shed some light on the matter, we are dealing with an unusually large volume of emails at the moment as you know TS 2014 has just been launched, once we have dealt with the flood, it may take several weeks to subside, we may then be able to take some time to examine the finer details of steams distribution methods.

So RSC doesn't know the answer???????????

Bob.

P.S. I'm still waiting for a reply from Steam Support.

[buzz456]

What pray tell would Steam have to do with this?

[roinuj]

I've been quietly following this and was wondering what is the new file format going to do to all the library files? Unless I'm missing something, I can see a bunch of my repaints setup files not working because the RWTools batch file will be calling for the default geo files to be copied which are no longer in the same folder as they have been moved and put in the the .ap file.

I'm really getting tired of these annual changes potentially breaking things.

[dgallina]

The RWTools installer is easier / better in an ideal world, but that's one reason I *don't* use it when distributing files. You never know what they'll change / break. Safer to rely on the RSC installer plus file copies.

[artimrj]

I'd say then we would have to extract the geo from the .ap file and copy it to our repaint.

[Ericmopar]

I'd say then we would have to extract the geo from the .ap file and copy it to our repaint.

This^ except that a program like 7-Zip as I've found out, won't let a person copy and paste, you have to click and drag the opened .ap file over and then it should ask you if you are sure you want to copy it.

I think I'm seeing a method to the madness of the new .ap files.
I've noticed that after a file verify in TS 2012/13 that a lot of the modified files are left in place in some folders and some reinstall's can make the files become more and more bloated.
We've also noticed that the external folders in 2014 can sometimes be wiped during a verify.
I'm wondering if they hope we will use the external folders rather than the .ap folders to add mods. That way a file verify will wipe the external mods, leaving the .ap files "pristine" and leaving a truly virgin and unbloated copy of Railworks in the Steam folder...
It would be kinda like doing a clean install without as much fuss...

[roinuj]

I'd say then we would have to extract the geo from the .ap file and copy it to our repaint.

Probably be a good idea that a sticky be placed somewhere on the forums to instruct new users who may not be aware of having to do this. Can see it being quite a pain if someone is adding a lot of 3rd party freeware, especially for older files that will probably never get updated.

[mikesimpson]

I am not sure about this, but I have a feeling that if a user makes any change to an .ap file, then it will be invalid in Steam's eyes and if you do a verify cache, you will lose all the changes.

It looks like any changed files should be in the folder tree outside of the .ap archive file, and that verify should leave these intact.

I feel this was the intended action, but from all of the above messages, it is not always working in practice.

The option 'Open .ap File' in the latest RW_Tools allows you to extract any file/files from the .ap file and place it in its correct external folder.

Mike

[peterhayes]

Mike

The option 'Open .ap File' in the latest RW_Tools allows you to extract any file/files from the .ap file and place it in its correct external folder.

That works perfectly but it also copies over the .MD5 file and I believe that is what Steam uses to verify the cache - on my system removing that *.sbn.MD5 file and the accompanying *.sbn file - then verifying the cache leaves the external extracted files (and folders) intact.
There is one .MD5 file per .ap file, one for each scenario and route (not in ap) in CONTENT and one for each loco etc in ASSETS - with a total of >4550 x .MD5 files.

I was under the impression that the MD5 files were used for cache verification??

pH