TSRE Activity Editor Question #2

[Winterhawk76]

Good Morning All: Another week...another question concerning TSRE AE. Does anyone know if it is possible to create an activity in the MSTS AE & make changes to that activity in the TSRE AE? Reason for the question is this. The only functioning part of MSTS I still use is the AE function & that program resides on an older pc. Once I create an activity in the MSTS AE, I transfer the relevant folders (Activity/Services/Paths/Whatever) to a second pc where both TSRE & OR reside, launch the activity in OR & run the sim. I have been doing this for some time & have yet to encounter a problem w/this procedure.

However, I recently decided it was time to learn the AE function of TSRE, & began by adding loose consists to an existing activity created in the MSTS editor. There is no problem adding the loose consists...have added dozens w/no problem. Also saved the activity in TSRE. The problem is, however, when I try to launch the activity in OR, I get an immediate crash to desktop. Doesn't matter if I had added a dozen loose consists or a single railcar, the result is the same.

So. My question is, does anyone know if it is possible to create/modify activities in the MSTS RE & make modifications to that activity in the TSRE AE w/o crashing the entire program? If the answer to this question is "no, it cannot be done", then is there any tutorial material out there that explains, in detail, how one can create a functional activity in TSRE. I have been thru the existing manual, step by step, multiple times but have yet to successfully develop an activity that actually works.

Advice/Guidance/Help would be appreciated...Thx...hawk

[commec61]

Yes you can. But DON'T open the file in MSTS AE once you've made changes. That is the key.

[Winterhawk76]

Steve: Thank you for the reply. So here is the latest on this. I created a simple, new activity in MSTS AE. Just the basics...no loose consists, AI traffic or anything else. Just the player & path. (Both player & path used in other activities w/no problem.) Transferred the activity to the other pc where TSRE & OR reside. Have done this hundreds of times on this & other routes. No problem. Launched the sim & ran the activity in OR. No problem. Shut the sim down, opened TSRE AE & added a single freight car to a siding. Relaunched the sim & immediately got an error message saying that there was a missing track node in the tdb, after which the activity was unusable. This is the same error message that I receive no matter what changes I make in the TSRE AE, no matter now minor.

So I tried creating the same activity in TSRE AE, w/no loose consists. Just the player. Launched the sim & received the same tdb missing node error. I can only conclude I making a mistake in the setup on the latter, but have no idea what as I am following the steps in the TSRE manual. As to the former activity created in MSTS, the sim worked fine until I placed the single object, but that placement clearly created the error message. However, although the activity was created in MSTS & modified in TSRE, the modified activity was never placed back into the MSTS program as that program resides on a separate pc.

[mmax45581]

Can you post the OpenRails log file to help us find the solution to your problem? When I created an activity with TSRE5 I never got any problems getting it to run in OR.

[kapitaen]

Set in settings.txt

writeTDB = false

You use the wrong ttesction.dat for your Route.

[Winterhawk76]

Changed the setting in the setting.text folder to false. Opened TSRE AE to previously saved route & added single loose consist. Same error message. "System.IO.InvalidDataException: Track node could not be found in track database."

Attaching the latest log file.log.txt

[snowlover]

I am also attaching a copy of the Settings.txt file in case it might contain another improper setting. Thx to for all the input. Much appreciated. hawk

[mmax45581]

I read the log you provided and it seems like TSRE5 is not recognizing the folder it installed in correctly, overwriting the settings.txt file you edited and downloading all the assets needed for operation all over again. Could it be that the folder is read-only?
Maybe you're starting TSRE5 with a shortcut that isn't set up correctly?

[Winterhawk76]

I am using a shortcut on the desktop to launch TSRE5, but I checked the properties, & it does not appear to be a read only folder. So far as the setup goes, I'm not sure, so I did a search for TSRE5 to verify where it resides. The TSRE5 executable resides directly on my desktop as does the shortcut. However, I did discover that the version for the app executable = v.0692.exe, but the version for the shortcut = v.06974. Don't know if that could be an issue, but that is what I found.

[mmax45581]

I don't really know what I'm looking at right now, but it seems you're using a old version of TSRE5.
Try to download the latest version (0.69752, I think) and place it where you want it (I prefer a subfolder). Ensure you are connected to the internet. Now execute the new TSRE5 file you just downloaded. It will check for a few files, and, if they don't exist, create them or download them. Now, create a new shortcut by right-clicking on the file and choosing "Create shortcut" or something similar. You should now have a functioning shortcut to the latest TSRE5 release.

If this didn't work or you don't want to get the new TSRE5 release, try to upgrade or downgrade your global tsection.dat file (search for file name tsection* in the file library). Then search for writeTDB in TSRE5's settings.txt and set the value to false. Be careful to uncomment it by removing the # if there is one in front of the statement. Hopefully, it will work after that.

[Winterhawk76]

Thx for the detailed help. Will give it a try first thing tomorrow am. Your help is much appreciated. h

[Winterhawk76]

Good Morning All: So this morning, I d/l the most current 64 bit version of TSRE5 (v0.69752) & installed it on my pc. Deleted the previous shortcut (v0.6974) & placed new shortcut on the desktop that matches up w/the 0.69752 version of the app. Opened the sim in OR in Explore Route mode & it worked fine. Opened the AE, located an activity created yesterday & it too opened and functioned properly in OR. Went back into AE, changed start point to another location on the same route, reopened the route in OR, & it too worked fine. Added a loose consist @ that starting location, & the sim crashed immediately back to the desktop as it has b/f.
Went back into the AE & removed the loose consist, saved, & relaunched the sim in OR. Crashed immediately. I'm attaching a copy of the OR log in case someone can shine some light on what is going on here. As I now apparently have the most current version of TSRE5 & the executable for both the app & the shortcut match up, I'm wondering if the problem might lie somewhere in the Consist Editor. Just a thought. Any other thoughts or suggestions as to next steps would be most welcome. Hawk

[Winterhawk76]

One add'l bit of information I have just discovered. Once the sim has crashed from the add'n of the loose consists, the entire route is corrupted to the point that it is unusable, even in Explore Route mode. To be able to use the route again, in any capacity, I have to delete the route entirely & reinstall from a b/u copy. I do not know what this means other than something relating to the add'n of a loose consist seems to corrupt the route to the point that it is inoperable. h

[geepster775]

This was part of the concern raised when everyone was discussing the creation of an activity editor and whether that should have been freestanding apart from the route editor. Nothing done in an activity editor should be altering the TDB in any way, but there were grand plans and big dreams (running before learning to walk style) to have an AE that was capable of deleting track sections to create derailment dioramas or trackwork zone dioramas as part of activity creation.

I have no idea what is changing that requires you to go back to a backup copy, but in general anything related to the TSRE shape viewer, consist editor or activity creator should not be touching, updating or writing to the TDB, so unless you are actually working on route editing things, that toggle for writeTDB = false should always be in settings.txt

[R. Steele]

If one is not attentive it is possible, while in the AE mode, to choose some other window or tool and thus exit from the AE...now you are operating in the RE and not aware of it....there appears to be no safety interlocks or user warning that you are exiting the AE, other than asking if you want to save your changes....there might be more, but not being all that knowledgeable about the RE portion of TSRE, I couldn't comment on them...and I'm not all that confident that I'm not missing something...the AE being kind of a "black-hole" when it comes to detailed operating instructions...other than pete willard's good work.

I have always wanted the AE to be separate from the RE...something like the CE. The AE could use the same display as the RE...but the active tools would be limited to those for making and editing activities...there might be some overlap with the RE portion, but nothing that changed the route would be actively displayed. I hope I'm clear enough about describing what I mean.

geepster post accurately sums up the developmental history...