What are blueprint IDs and how are they generated?

[Jason210]

Hi

I'm fairly new to learning the extensions and scripts used to define content in Train Simulator, and have been spending sometime analysing XML files. Creating such a file is simple to do apart from one thing that I don't fully understand. When working with Blueprint containers, there is an ID that consists of an 8 digit integer. An example is shown in the code listed below:

Code: Select all

<cControlContainerBlueprint-cControlValue d:id="21262208">
    <ControlName d:type="cDeltaString">RPM_2</ControlName>
    <DefaultValue d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</DefaultValue>
    <MinimumValue d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0</MinimumValue>
    <MaximumValue d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="000000000000F03F" d:precision="string">1</MaximumValue>
    <BriefDescription d:type="cDeltaString">RPM</BriefDescription>
    <DetailedDescription d:type="cDeltaString">RPM</DetailedDescription>
    <ApplyToConsist d:type="cDeltaString">eFalse</ApplyToConsist>
    <InterfaceElements/>
</cControlContainerBlueprint-cControlValue>

In this example the id is shown on the first line and is "21262208". It appears to be unique, as if I compare one the engine file of two similar locomotives which use the same control, the IDs are different. In order to create entries like this, I need to know what that number is and how it is generated.

Any help much appreciated.

/Jason

[PapaXpress]

From my experience the id is unique but does not have any functional purpose. MadMike and I have copied child objects (similar to control containers) and never changed this number.

The ChildName or ControlName is a bit more sensitive. If you reuse the name (within their respective types) the last one listed wins when the BIN is loaded.

[Jason210]

Thanks for the reply. I was puzzled because I was looking at a collection of engines that were basically all the same save for minor differences such as textures and so on. I was using Notepad++ with the compare plugin to compare two of these xml files and noticed that the ID's of all the corresponding containers were different, even though they had the same names and used the same resources.

Thanks for the additional info regarding names.