TANE SP2 - Final Release Candidate

TANE SP2 RC1 - 87725 to TANE SP2 Interim - 87869 Patch 1 of 3This weekend we released the "Final Release Candidate". This means that we're pretty sure that we've fixed all the critical issues and that it's time to give all our customers access to the new version. 

With more than two years of free updates, features, fixes, tweaks and optimisations, Trainz A New Era is almost unrecognizable from the initial build 75xxx release version. And with almost 6 months of updates post-SP1 HF4, including re-engineering a huge number of systems to improve performance and stability and to help future-proof the code base, the SP2 "live version" is certainly closer than ever.

Assuming no showstopping issues are found, this means we'll be officially releasing SP2 in a slightly staggered release over the next couple of weeks for PC, Mac, Mac AppStore and Steam.

Mac Updates:

We've released a 3 part patch for our Mac users as follows:
TANE SP2 RC1 - 87725 to TANE SP2 Interim - 87869 Patch 1 of 3
TANE SP2 RC - 87869 to TANE SP2 Interim - 88036 Patch 2 of 3
TANE SP2 RC - 88036 to TANE SP2 Final - 88059 Patch 3 of 3

Latest Changelist:

Fixes build 87978 to 88068:

• Compact route (causes assertions and corruption)
• ATLS level crossings (operating incorrectly)
• Locos leaving exoskeleton behind
• Unloading at certain industries
• Updates in German translation
• Crash on startup failure
• TNIGraphicsRender Crash
• Several game permit/mutex script exceptions
• Stitched mesh was stitching some items it shouldn't (fixes shaking attachments)
• Ensure that trigger mapobjects are flagged as modified when their radius is changed
• Material invisible from one side
• More quad terrain discrepancies
• Changing grid resolution results in black ground texture
• PrintScreen not taking screenshots in Driver
• Eighth driver added in quickdrive session not visible in Driver menu
• "ReplicationManager::Register> Node is already registered" shows on loading this route
• Animated doors on traincars continuously animate
• AddJunctionPermitsToArray fix
• Train permit debugging logs
• Placing new track shows "TrackStretch::CreateStructure> Spline is invalid; should have been caught earlier"
• Junction renumbering fix
• Merging this route loses all splines on the child route
• Improvements to the handling of corrupted route data.
• Improved error reporting for missing/invalid stretches on moswt
• Fixed a crash caused by missing/invalid vertex data on moswt
• The background sound in menus is always playing in Tutorials
• Importing SP1 route loses certain track splines
• "GSection::LoadMiniMap> Failed to load minimap material, likely corruption"
• Unable to assign drivers when more than 100 consists with locomotives exist on the map
• Timewarp discovered in "Vsync = None"
• Locos renumbered after save game
• Additional logging for "TrainzAssetAccessorArchived::OpenAssetFileForWriting”

There are still a number of known issues that will affect specific routes/assets/hardware configurations. Generally there are workarounds for these remaining issues. The Assertions that our beta testers will see in this final RC will not be visible in the official release. If you don't notice anything wrong after clicking "Continue" then chances are that the message is reporting something that isn't critical.

New "dev" feature:

We have added a new check box in Trainz Settings > Dev 
This is titled "Show script exception notifications".
This option enables and disables the "red bugs" that you see in-game if a script shows an exception.
If you are an active session/content creator, you will want to enable this option to ensure that you see any exceptions.
Most users can leave this option unticked, unless you are trying to track down an issue with a session not running correctly.

Other Known Issues:

Individual routes and sessions created during the SP2 beta phase can show some corrupted data. The best option is to re-install backup copies of your content from your SP1 version

In addition, the many of the assertion messages seen are of no real concern to an end user, so there is no need to report the following:

• GSection minimap assertions
• DoBindUniformBuffer assertions
• StitchedMesh assertions
• TrainzAssetAccessorArchived::OpenAssetFileForWriting assertions