Dash9 updated!

[NickF]

To add to my suggestion from above. Restore the original D9 files, add a new folder for th GE C44 9W. That way the 3rd party repaints and scenarios will still works while while 3rd parties create new repaints and scenarios.

I agree with your proposal, but I doubt they'll implement it. After all it's "only a very small number of our customers have come across an issue." As I mentioned in a previous post at some point it becomes more cost-effective to simply put the fix on the back burner and use your resorces for other things. After all, most of your customers aren't having an issue. And for those who are affected you just tell them that "we're working on the problem."

In Tech Support terminology that means "put them on hold until they go away."

That's why I worry when they keep saying it's only a few users. If it was a majority of users the problem would be fixed by now.

[BlueLight]

Businesses have known that for every one person who complains about a product or severices, there are 15-20 who do not but take their business else where. Here in lies the question; how do we know that it was just a comparitively small number of customers that lost their Dash9's? The only one's saying that is RSC. So lets do an unoffical tally, everyone who lost their Dash9 pack make one post here with this post being the first.

[SMMDigital]

Aye. Lost my Dash 9.

I'm afraid its much more complex than just posting that it went into the netherworld when there was an update. There may be things that we all have in common - computer configs, OS version, 64 bit vs 32 bit, type of graphics card, processor, what types of RSC add-ons, what types of third- party add-ons, ad-nauseum, infinitum. It could b something as mundane as a flipped 0 in the game code on our computers or as stupid as the checksum flagging our computers as having a pirated copy of Railworks.

I'm all with the suggestion that they put the original, unupdated D9 back on Steam. Other than that, put your backup copy back on your computer and turn off automatic updates.

[fraserm]

Lost my Dash9s! I think the suggestion to restore your original package and disable auto-updates is sound advice. At least one will be able to use what one has paid for.

IMnsHO (In my not so humble opinion)

Just my

Best,
Marc

[harryadkins]

My Dash9s are dead too.

[NickF]

Aye. Lost my Dash 9.

I'm afraid its much more complex than just posting that it went into the netherworld when there was an update. There may be things that we all have in common - computer configs, OS version, 64 bit vs 32 bit, type of graphics card, processor, what types of RSC add-ons, what types of third- party add-ons, ad-nauseum, infinitum. It could b something as mundane as a flipped 0 in the game code on our computers or as stupid as the checksum flagging our computers as having a pirated copy of Railworks.

I'm all with the suggestion that they put the original, unupdated D9 back on Steam. Other than that, put your backup copy back on your computer and turn off automatic updates.

They have my email address; I'll answer any questions they want to ask me, but I'm not sure having everybody deluge them with system/software/OS information is going to help. There is such a thing as too much information.

[MikeK]

"Here at RailSimulator.com we work hard to ensure that our new releases are of the highest standard possible"

2012-07-31_00003.jpg

"Here at RailSimulator.com we strive to achieve the best, and testing is a big part of that."

[dfcfu342]

They keep claiming that differences in computer configurations are causing the packs to disappear. Can someone explain to me exactly how this would effect an add-on updating correctly?

How do different processors and different graphics cards effect how the file is updated? I'm pretty sure the graphics card has no impact on their update package and all a CPU can do is execute the code and instructions it is given.

As far as I can tell its just simply some bad code written by RSC and yet they blame the end-users computers for the FUBAR. I just don't understand, perhaps someone with more coding experience than me (and I have none whatsoever ) can explain.
I have never had an update ever break anything on any game I've had other than TS2012, and yet RSC seems to bat about .500 on a good day, yet they still blame the end-user computer.

Heck, Battlefield 3 has updated twice on me at 2+ GB each time and it runs better than ever! Doesn't seem like the end-user computers cause their updates to implode on themselves.

I suppose I'll just go back to driving my DP Dash-9 and enjoy that until they "update" it too

[PamBrooker]

welll, i'm sorry that they are bvlaming everything on our computers. If their software is that delicate, i guess i just better not risk buying any more of it.. After all, for them, it may be in income, but for me, its a loss of income when i buy something, so, it needs to work,and keep working. even if its just for entertainment.

[SMMDigital]

@dfcfu342 - It's not difficult at all to blame different computer configurations for the problems. For example, people with ATI cards sometimes get a "black sky" error, whiles those with Nvidia cards do not. Some people report differences in performance between 32 and 64 bit systems. From personal experience, when I released v3 of my route, it ran exceptionally well (and still does) on my computer, but some people got an SBHH, caused by corrupted terrain painting, that for the life of me I just cannot replicate or make fail.

It is a flaky platform, RW is, and it seems to be getting worse as time goes along.

[OldProf]

That article shows RSC is pretty much in line with other software firms for normal maintenance processes.
Wile posting on forums or FB are good for venting frustrations, the only useful thing is to e-mail support.

What irritates me to no end, but is sadly also standard nowadays, is the customary meaningless PR-speak:
"Here at RailSimulator.com we work hard to ensure that our new releases are of the highest standard possible"
"Here at RailSimulator.com we strive to achieve the best, and testing is a big part of that."
"The quality of all our products from the largest route to the last nut and bolt on a locomotive is extremely important to us."
The worst is "Martin the head of social media team". The first half of his text, before "but", is just PR-speak.

PR zombies make you add that to whatever you publish, to prevent journalists, bloggers and lawyers to interpret your text as an admission of guilt.

"Her at BP protecting your environment is our highest concern. Despite our efforts, it appears we might have spilled a few drops in the Gulf..."

That kind of language is called "boilerplate" and nearly every company in the world uses it. Boilerplate phrases typically get distributed to all employees in contact with the public, who are ordered to use it as often as possible. Company heads and managers are obviously too blinded by the stacks of money around them to realize that even the most dense customer quickly sees through boilerplate and becomes annoyed with it.

Tom Pallen

[jamesphh]

If RSC is saying that some computer systems are to blame, then they MUST specify the Exact requirements of a computer required to run RW. That includes the CPU (include model #), Motherboard ( same), Memory (type), Vid card (model #), and HD (same).With that their customer base would only include a few.

[roinuj]

I can't believe the update made such a dramatic change over the pre-updated Dash9 to break so many computer setups.

[fecrails]

Now that the "Dash 9 update" thread is approaching the same number of replies as the "new US route" thread, I think it's fair to say that more than a few users are being affected by this issue. When a product update botch is creating as much "buzz" amongst your customers as your newest, latest and greatest creation you expect them to buy, I'd say it's time to take notice and get the issue resolved quickly. Over a week is getting a bit long IMHO.

[dfcfu342]

@dfcfu342 - It's not difficult at all to blame different computer configurations for the problems. For example, people with ATI cards sometimes get a "black sky" error, whiles those with Nvidia cards do not. Some people report differences in performance between 32 and 64 bit systems. From personal experience, when I released v3 of my route, it ran exceptionally well (and still does) on my computer, but some people got an SBHH, caused by corrupted terrain painting, that for the life of me I just cannot replicate or make fail.

It is a flaky platform, RW is, and it seems to be getting worse as time goes along.

The Nvidia vs. ATI issues are simply do to the fact that RSC refuses to support ATI cards and the Nvidia banner on the splash screen seems to indicate they don't plan to anytime soon. I play the game fine on my ATI card and it was actually the SP1 update that made TS2012 playable on my card with more than 8fps and with an actual sky, go figure.

The performance differences between 32bit and 64bit systems comes down to the simple fact that you can only address a combined 3.96GB of memory between both the RAM and the video card on a 32bit system and on the resource intensive game we like to play, that's just simply not enough. For all intents and purposes of home computers a 64bit system allows you do address an unlimited amount of memory.

The issues with your route combined with their issues in updating their own system themselves does seem to point to root problems in the Railworks code. If the platform is so unstable that it can't even be updated properly on systems different than it was written on, they have some serious issues they need to work through (as if we didn't already know ).