Firstly, apologies for posting in the wrong forum but I was hoping that by doing so I might get a more 'Technical' audience. This is really a Livery file structure / Back-Up question. There is nothing wrong with the liveries themselves. This issue is that I just can't access them. I have made a number of liveries in the last couple of months (some uploaded) but most tangled up with 2 projects involving the 1938 Bakerloo stock. In total I have 12 liveries for this model but only 4 are now showing up in game. It appears, from looking at these files using a File Manager mod, that 8 of my liveries have a different file structure to the ones that are working OK. However, if I roll back to an earlier back-up, it is possible to get these working but at a cost of losing any liveries that I have created since this back-up. (See images below). The first image shows my files as of today. The second is from a back up taken at the end of November. You will see that in the first image many of my files don't seem to have a [D] at the end of their file names. (I think this identifies them as TSW4 files - mind you the files in lines 2-4 of the first image are working correctly even though they have no [D] in their name). It is these files that my TSW4 won't read at the moment. If you then look at the second image, which is an earlier back-up, you can see many of the same files that have got the [D] suffix. (I have highlighted one file in both images to make this obvious). If I roll back to this back-up then all the 'missing' files work correctly but at the cost of me losing any 'new' work done after this back-up. I have tried importing from the old back-up to the new but that doesn't work. I even tried uploading one of the 'old' files to Creative Centre (which worked OK) but I couldn't then download it again as I am the author. So I am a bit stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get out of this? I'm guessing that I wasn't supposed to use the back-up mod but it does seem to work correctly for most of my livery files....just not all of them. I can export a livery file from the older back-up to my desktop, and it seems to match the structure of another working file, but I can't then do anything with it. Is it possible to view where livery files sit in-game? (It's almost like I've managed to un-cook it but I know that that can't be true. Apologies again for the long post in the wrong forum but I'm hoping that I don't end up losing a lot of work as a result of this. Thanks for reading. Hope someone can help. David.
Probably not the approach which will make the solution, but one thing I would do in your situation is [security step before: making a backup of the files in question (copying them to anywhere), then] renaming/appending the "(space)[D]" at the end of the files (like it is the case in your backup from November) and see if it works then. Usually file conversions need more dedicated techniques, but some times simple renaming is at least worth a try I think. Cannot help you out further. Absolutely not a topic I know very much of. But since you asked for suggestions, that was mine.
Hi Robert, Thanks very much for your suggestion. I had thought about doing this but hadn't actually tried it. Well I have done so now and, as you suspected, it didn't work. So I am still stumped. Below are 2 screenshots from my November back-up of an IOW Heritage unit that very briefly ran on the island. This is one of the files that I can't access today but that I can access from my November 2023 back-up if I action a restore. So the files are still on my system and will, in certain circumstances work correctly. Having now carried out a few more tests I can see that the following doesn't work. 1) Exporting a 'today' file, carrying out a restore from the November back-up and then importing the 'today' file. 2) Restoring to November, exporting a November file, restoring to 'today' and then importing the November file. 3) Renaming Livery files by adding the [D] (which you can only do after exporting) and the re-importing. So, at the moment, my working hypothesis is that the back-up programme is working OK but that the importing/exporting side of it might not be. So that is why I was wondering if there was any other way that you can view livery files within the file structure of the game. If I can do that then I might be able to manually move files from one 'version' of my set-up to the other. If anyone has any other suggestions then they will be gratefully received. Thank you.
Unfortunately, I think I can't help you out further here. But one thing I still like to ask: Did you already contacted Dovetail Games about this problem? As far as I can see it might be a bug between TSW4 updates. What did they say? Or is this one of those bugs which is on a list to fix/improve, but unfortunately doesn't have priority?
Hi Robert, Yes I have contacted DTG about this issue. No reply yet but I'll let you know what they say. Thanks very much for you responses to-date. Surprisingly you are the only one to have offered any suggestions. So, on the one hand I'm pleased that I haven't actually lost any work but, on the other, am really surprised that we don't seem able to access the livery files. Kind Regards, David
Right, I'll chime in as it's my tool First, let's share some insight: In TSW4 (and 3), liveries changed from being stored "as is" and instead, they get compressed. The [D] at the end indicates that the tool was able to Decompress and parse the livery itself. If this is not present, this can indicate that the livery was somehow corrupted. Right now I'm not confident enough in my tool to dare and suggest that it's an issue on DTG's side. With that out of the way, let's start working towards a solution: spikeyorks are you on the Train Sim Community discord? If so, please look in the #tsw-creations for this thread: https://discord.com/channels/373055767642898433/1194299225677254718 Please introduce yourself there and upload the log file of the tool, as well as the two backups shown in your screenshots.
Oh I'm sure that my problems are all my own fault but thanks for taking the time to have a look at them. Will do.......although I'm sure I'll manage to muck that up somehow too. Watch this space
