Removing Scenarios

Hi,

Does anybody know any ways of removing scenarios? I've got loads and would like to remove some without it being a hugely time consuming task. Preferably save them for later.

I have a tool that lets me store routes but I'm don't know if storing them will then impact merged routes eg south London and Thameslink, or wcml south and Birmingham.

G

 

If you store a route then if that is required for a merged route then you would missing scenery.
You can copy any route to an external drive and then copy it back when you wish to use it again

You cannot remove Scenarios acquired thru Steam without removing the route and its *.ap file
If you have Scenarios you wish to remove from other routes you can move them to an external drive.
Or by going in to Build you can select and delete them.

 

Thanks for the advice Peter.

 

Actually you can. The scenarios are stored in the "railworks/contents/route" folder. In there each route dlc has its own folder and inside them is a scenario folder that contains a seperate folder for each scenario.

Even ap. Files can be opened with 7zip and either delete each individual scenarios folder or the entire scenario folder itself without needing to unpack.

 

That is not quite correct
If Steam does a verify then it will see the size of the MainContent.ap file is different to what it should be and replace it.

 

Correct, the question is, how often does someone verify.
Ideally each DLC should have separate scenarios or even trains, like with the 2012 remasters. I removed those after playing.
By the way, QD is a scenario as well.

Ultimately though it shouldn't be required, it's just trying to cope with the slow grid in the scenario menu.

You can also write a Powershell / cmd script to rename all Scenarios folders. ZIP files are a bit more problematic of course. The template is:
...\RailWorks\Content\Routes\<routeId>\Scenarios\
So just iterate through all folders there. AP files are directly in the root folder and follow the same structure. Example:
...\RailWorks\Content\Routes\0d92a283-d8aa-4af6-8b66-55888f583dcf\MainContent.ap\Scenarios\
Renaming is more efficient because it's reversible.
AP files likely won't match as a binary file, but you can flip-flop a backup file. But for the mere purpose of filtering scenarios, it does suffice. (Mind you, it is brutal slow either way.)

 

Actually, this on its own is inaccurate. You can remove individual scenarios that are stored in an AP file. HOWEVER, this means you have to do the following:

1. Extract the AP file located at Content/Routes/[RouteID] (usually MainContent.ap, but scenarios in other packs using that route may have a name like "WCMLNClass92Pack01Scenarios.ap" for the Class 92's WCML North scenarios)
2. After fully extracting the contents of the file, delete the AP file
3. You can now scan all scenarios using LocoSwap or TS-Tools
4. Identify the scenario you want to remove
5. Find and delete its folder

With that said, while this proves that it's possible (I deleted the first Mittenwaldbahn scenario once to try it and everything loaded just fine in the menu with it missing), it makes no sense to do this with official scenarios. If you want to save an official route or pack of scenarios for later, either copy the route to an external drive (or even elsewhere on your hard drive directly) or uninstall the item from Steam. Remember: verifying your game files on Steam WILL redownload the missing scenarios and AP files as applicable, hence why uninstalling is an ideal method. Additionally, you can extract the contents of a file and then uninstall the DLC; note, however, this is NOT advised for route DLC or loco DLC as these use items in the Assets folder and Steam DRM usually protects those items even if you extract them. Scenario packs, however, would technically work.

Deleting the MainContent.ap file on its own without extracting the files is a way you can "uninstall" a route and maintain the assets in your install by keeping the DLC installed (until the next Steam verification or update to an affected DLC). Of course, if you're going to do that, just delete the route folder containing the AP file and get rid of the other scenarios too. You'd have to later find and reinstall anything from the Workshop or other sites if you don't maintain a backup.

For non-official content, you can delete individual installed scenarios from third-party packs or delete Workshop scenarios by simply finding the folder (use the same tools as above) and deleting the individual folder. This is simpler because AP files are not used.

 

I know of people who edited a route and the edits disappeared when Steam verified the *.ap file -
Even though the file verification process had not been run

 

Yes, I've heard that story when editing routes as well. That doesn't change the fact that one CAN extract the entire AP file and delete the AP file if they wish. Steam should not be touching other files in the route folder, as far as I know, so that might be a problem to take up with Steam, not DTG, if someone were to complain about that. Any edited files are not in either the old or new versions because they are not in the AP file.

That said, I understand that route updates may make things not work with some edited files on an old version. And understand that non-advanced users might not know how to scrub old files. So Steam might just think of it as part of the process. I know updates to only scenarios have left my old CurrentSave files alone, making them extremely useless.

 

I do it a little differently I just extract the routeproperties.xml file from the .ap files either using TS-Tools or 7-zip/WinRAR which saves a huge amount of disk space and doesn't potentially slow down TSC loading. I then at the same time just extract the scenario folder from the .ap file and that means any mods I make to the scenarios are not overwritten by a steam update event for TSC.

 

Yeah, this works with AP files. For cases where an AP file doesn't exist (Great Western Main Line for instance), you can directly edit any scenario files and save them directly, but if you then screw it up there is no recourse other than to uninstall and redownload, reverting all changes to other files that get redownloaded as well (of course, you can back them up and restore for ones that still work). Also, you still cannot edit Career scenarios directly; they would have to be cloned before editing in-game. You're also free to swap stock using TS-Tools and LocoSwap on Career scenarios and force the issue, but you cannot edit timetables and will get the Scenario.bin or Tracks.bin errors when loading the scenario, having to cancel that to play anyway.

 

I've just tried something else, seems to work, doesn't modify the .ap archives and might just be what the op could use.

You just need to replace the ScenarioProperties.xml file with a blank one.

for instance if you want to hide Chatham Main Line railfan scenarios you would:

1. find the route folder with the name "00000066-0000-0000-0000-000000002016"
2. Create a folder inside it called "Scenarios"
3. open the "MainConten.ap" archive with 7-zip
4. Drag and drop the three scenario folders with the names "3c88e286-ff10-4be5-83af-eae6269a36ab", "abd2fb42-891a-4e17-a73a-843a428ba6e6" and "ae71695b-d55a-48e1-871f-d4ec8244c6c8" into the scenario folder created in step 2
5. delete everything each one contains
6. right-click -> new -> text document
7. rename the whole thing from "New Text Document.txt" to "ScenarioProperties.xml"
8. copy and paste it in to each scenario folder.

 

No idea that this would generate so much discussion! Thanks for the input.

 

If you wish to run those scenarios at a later date then you are stuffed without a ScenarioProperties.xml file

 

Lately I found Steam to always verify my files when adding a new route DLC - very annoying if your install is half a terabyte in size.
Working with Dummy folders and adjusted appmanifest files (with all DLC disabled) solved that for me.

 

Not at all. You're just creating a loose file that superceeds whats in the .ap archive not replacing it. If you decide you want the scenario back then just delete the blank .xml file.

 

"supercedes".

And this is correct. Say, on WCML North, you try to spoof the Career scenario "Scots Pine" (which, to be fair, DOES have an AI collision that can wipe out 90 minutes of work as you're trying to finish and needs to be repaired). By putting in an edited version of that scenario, you are literally editing that scenario directly. You would need to back up this scenario yourself before doing anything to modify that scenario; if you break it, your only resourse is to uninstall and reinstall the DLC from Steam to get it back, thus wiping out changes on other included scenarios as well (unless you then back THOSE up). Since this is a Career scenario, you would have to hack in a pathing fix for the ICN5 train that causes the collision. Polmadie Hop, however, also has an AI crash that cannot be avoided; you can delete the static train that refuses to move and allow the train that does move later on to move freely, and completer the scenario, without having to hack because Standard scenarios are not protected. AP files, however, are automatically protected; you can delete your spoof later and the original returns.

By the way. look at the ICN5 train path in Scots Pine if you don't believe me when I say it's a game breaking bug. If hacking is needed to fix it, that's a problem.