Trainz/Hierarchy Of Assets

Note to newcomers
The words Assets and Content are frequently used interchangeably on the because they are the same except for context. In a strict technical sense, an 'asset' needs be within a container to become 'content', which on the highest side, means it will be a dependency of a  or. But those assets do not report all needed dependents for they just list a series of other upper s in association (link or call) as referenced KUIDs The most important container to individuals is her local data base (Selected by using the 'The local content' filter (or tab) in Content Manager) which lists assets&mdash;initially just Routes and Sessions for us all; but then assets added to the code builds' base ). Some items are optional. Some rolling stock parts only apply to powered rolling stock.

Asset Organization
Trainz assets all start as data in the same folder, usually when edited, the folder wiil be named after the listed in the mandatory parts of the  in a config.txt file&mdash;the central data self-defining  that sets up each asset. As one discovers when one begins fixing faulty content two key data elements define what else must be defined inside such config.txt ini files:, which (originally) only loosely defined certain enumerated types describing the way the content creator means for the asset to be used (e.g. various types of rolling stock, scenery, interactive trackside items like signals, etc.) and the KIND specification (mix of tags and specifying certain sub-elements as are necessary to define an Object Oriented Class's data elements. In the newer data models, particularly for , the category-class tag has a processing determining role, and interacts as part of the  definition, the only allowed current spline data class (That Object Oriented thinking again) and the DLS upload filters now are disallowing older spline Kinds to be uploaded.

In Trainz, all such sub-element associations are not necessarily independent assets, but some are called (Meaning a sub-data type, a structure with particular properties and members&mdash;but which unlike a Kind can be used as a sub-element in a variety of Kinds in a parent child relationship) and which are included in various  and whose active effects (subsequent processing) are based on the tag  and the Kind specifying that child.

Driver Session or Scenario

Route, Map or Layout
The category-class tag is to Map, the manuals, Trainz menus and surveyor controls refer to 'Routes' and route building and route builder tools, while the Model railroading Hobbiest world refers to a Layout. In each case, it is meant the data set defining a virtual world which in Trainz starts with a single Base map board.


 * The following assets are attached to map assets:


 * Ground Textures (terrain painting, )


 * Buildings ( unless an interactive industry.)


 * Other structures such as, animals, animated or static people, windmills, lighthouses, etc.


 * Electricity pylons &mdash; formerly spline objects, now classed as Track


 * Vegetation &mdash; foliage scenery (trees, shrubs, flowers, field crops)


 * Roads &mdash; formerly spline objects, now classed as Track


 * Road signs and signposts (special 'trees' with verbiage and sometimes symbols!)


 * Vehicles, Static Road types &mdash;somewhat confusing to the new comer, these are also sometimes classed by as buildings or scenery assets. Previously, pre-N3V Trainz had two built-in filters that affected object and component searching in CMP and Surveyor,  and &mdash;both useful in CMP and especially in Surveyor searching, if somewhat non-uniformly defined by CC's. These tags are now illegal in TB's above v2.8 (TC3).


 * Track &mdash;including tunnels and spline engineered (extendable) bridges. As noted above, all spline types are now forcibly retired by DLS upload screening.


 * Trackside Objects &mdash;includes a ton of general content: (signals, speedboards, gantry's, electrical panels etc.)
 * Industries (including passenger stations)
 * Products

Rolling Stock
Rolling Stock, such as Locomotives (engines), passenger cars (carriages), and freight cars (wagons) are placed on a map in the Surveyor editor module, but actually are attached in the related Trainz Session module, while being enumerated (listed in a reference table of kuid codes) in the map.
 * These asset types are component parts of rolling stock assets:
 * Bogies (US English: Trucks)
 * Enginespec
 * Enginesound
 * Hornsound
 * Interior
 * Pantograph

HTML, media, and TrainzScript assets
Media assets in Trainz serve various functions.
 * Sounds &mdash;Sound file types are used to create background noises such the soft murmur of a brook, the raucous cawing of a crow, the sound of a distant church bell or a noisy bustling industrial area with jack hammers. They are essential aural scenery items, serving much the same function as a well designed three-dimensional scenery building (e.g. a Tree species, or fancy house). Many are attached and part of more dynamic objects and triggered solely when there is a specific action (The noise of a mechanical switch changing the position of junction points).
 * HTML Assets &mdash;


 *  &mdash;rules are little applets (often called scriptlets) fronting for a asset used inside Driver's Sessions. They provide 'software hooks' to digital model features of a route  and enable the session's coding to communicate values with the gameplay software. Such rules also often involve monitoring, storing and processing tabulated data such as a session coded to let a driver speed once but not twice without penalty, or other possible scoring interactive imagineerings.
 * Driver Commands &mdash;are user modifiable rules that can be changed during driving Sessions or provided as AI Drivers task commands to be executed one at a time.
 * Allowed Driver Commands are controlled by the Driver Commands Rule, and that limits the optional choices to us humans in the drop down Driver Command menu when playing a session in Driver. This means if the session designer doesn't want you to navigate via a trackmark, or allow auto-coupling or decoupling, you have to modify the session in the (auto-cloning the bundled route and session into your personal version) to access such a rule afterwards in the new modified session.


 * Scenarios supporting files: &mdash;Scenario support has been in all versions Trainz UTC to TS12 but has largely died a natural death from disuse of . It is not being supported in TANE.
 * Scenario TSO File &mdash;Scenario support file, the main program of a Trainz Scenario
 * Scenario GS or GSE File &mdash;Scenario support Trainz script files.

Notes and Footnotes

 * Notes


 * citations