TSRE Changes / Wish List

[eric]

One last tweak for the day.... Some of you might have used Tangent for calculating the angle needed to have a long, straight section of track meet up either to form a new vector, or to create a crossing. It's a standalone app that I've supported for over ten years.

That function is now integrated into TSRE via the Context Menu (e.g. right click).

Select the piece of track you're starting from. In this example, I'm starting at the marker for milepost 859:

capture_500533.jpg

Next, select the target you want to cross or meet:

capture_500534.jpg

Select the original piece again, remove it from the TDB (Z key) and "Paste Rot" to apply the proper QDirection / Rotation. Continue to add straight sections as needed to cross or meet the target piece.

My normal workflow on laying track is to place all the straight sections on a route using either markers or the real world positions based on the Google/Mapbox photo maps or Open StreetMap maps available within TSRE, and then placing the curves that connect them.

I've got a lot more information on that technique in my Route Building threads for the UP Gila, CNW Chicago/Harvard, and Packerland.

[peterman]

Howdy,

I'd like to add something to the wish list. I'd like to see a complete and precise operating manual for the finished version of TSRE. I don't want to be scratching my head every time I want to do alter a route and then wonder if I did it right, especially when existing manuals seem to be vague or incomplete. Just my thoughts. If this was mentioned somewhere else, then I must have missed it.

Peter

[eric]

A few more functionality adds as I'm winding up this development cycle for TSRE and testing it by doing some of my own route editing.


We've had it happen where we're hours into an editing session, and forget to save. And then poof.... the editor crashes or something else happens, and you lose all your work...

There's now another item in the new Status box -- a timer to show how long you've been working since the last save. After ten minutes, it will turn yellow. After 60 minutes, orange.

Before anyone asks, no, this is not an autosave. But.... having the timer available here does open the door to an auto-save at some point. Personally, I don't want to potentially ruin a route by having it auto-save when I didn't want it to. Let me know what you think.


capture_500535.jpg

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The next one is purely selfish. I've been working off track charts for the past year, and have grown tired of having to convert the real-world elevations from feet to meters....

Now, if you set the existing token "useImperial = true" within the Settings file, the pointer Y value (terrain height) will be displayed in feet vs. meters.


capture_500538.jpg

Everything else will still be in meters, and this is informational only in this one box. Please don't expect it to magically transform any measurements you enter in feet and convert it to meters...

[eric]

I'd like to add something to the wish list. I'd like to see a complete and precise operating manual for the finished version of TSRE. I don't want to be scratching my head every time I want to do alter a route and then wonder if I did it right, especially when existing manuals seem to be vague or incomplete. Just my thoughts. If this was mentioned somewhere else, then I must have missed it.

peterman Have you seen Pete Willard's manual on GitHub? It's pretty concise compared to the original.

https://github.com/pwillard/TSRE5-Document/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

Since the bulk of changes made in v8.003 so far are bug fixes and usability tweaks, his manual should still be fairly complete.

[kapitaen]

There is a problem with the representation of the forests in the TSRE. Everything that goes beyond the tile boundary is displayed in the underground.

Screen Shot 04-02-24 at 01.39 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 04-02-24 at 01.40 PM.jpg

If you select these underground and move them slightly, they jump up.

Screen Shot 04-02-24 at 01.40 PM 001.jpg

Maybe you can convince the TSRE to display them on the neighboring tile instead of underneath them.

Jan

[eric]

That will need to wait.

The improvements on Forests are a lower priority than getting the new PolyForest working. I can define them, but rendering is the goal.

I'm also looking at preventing items from going underground in general e.g. track sections falling when dragged below the terrain, and that may help with the forest rendering as well.

I'll still handle any items that are a break due to the new versions. But... it's been a month solid working on 8.003, and I want to wrap it up.

My work philosophy of only spending 4 weeks on a major task applies here just as it does to my route building. It's how I avoid burnout. That means I get to divert my attention back to some route building or model building for a few weeks.

[Preki]

Wishlist, huh? I've been thinking about a "paste into terrtex" function for transfer textures. Upon using such option a selected transfer texture would be embedded into terrain patch's terrtex texture and subsequently deleted from the world tile. It would be great for making ground roads with no traffic for example. Also, speaking of transfer textures - will the "pick this/put there" buttons ever be fixed? TSRE5 has the useful ability to change the shape filename on the fly, why can't be the same for transfers?

[eric]

No promises on the transfers... what I will do is disable the buttons for the time being since they don't have any code whatsoever attached to them.

There might be a way to merge materials, but that's way above my comfort level on coding at the moment. Being able to edit the name is probably more likely to happen.

If someone has a good feel for the code needed to do this, feel free to share it and I can drop it in....

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As I was editing tonight, I went against my own better judgement and added two more tweaks.

I found it annoying to be zoomed in on my work but the text of my marker was located 30 meters above the track.... the size of the text was also annoying.

Now.... both the height of the marker "stick" and the scaling of the text for the marker are adjustable:

capture_500550a.jpg

The ability to have markers and the compass turned on by default are also in Settings now.

The last tweak... if there's a Marker file with the same name as your route, it gets selected as the default.

The previous default for the marker file selected was the first file found in alphabetical order.

[Preki]

Being able to edit the name is probably more likely to happen.

At this moment, this would be more than enough.

[denglihong]

When I set the offset and automatically place the signal, it seems that the signal has not been translated and is still on the track. I need to move it one by one, which is too troublesome. Can fix it?

[eric]

Ni hao... yes, I can look at that. I also find it annoying to have to move the signal objects or speed post

[landnrailroader]

Better cut & fill needed. While the suggested settings by Eric do a better job, I find that the parameters for cut & fill still make no sense. I would hope that at some point, we could have the MSTS method either as the default, or as a alternate. To define the roadway width (I used 14 meters for single track, and the cut (anything from 0 to 80 degrees, and the fill (45 to 60 degrees) makes a lot more sense. The values I used for fill are a bit steeper than you would find on the prototype (never more than 45 degrees) I used 60 just to make the fill smoother. When I use the suggested settings, the width of the roadway is at least twice what it should be, but if I change any value the result is either no change happens, or the result is worse.

And then, is there a setting that will force the gradient to be in %, rather than per mile?

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

There are already four gradient options in the dropdown.... radian, per Mille, percent, and X in 1m

[rdayt]

I think he wants to be able to choose the percent option as the default. I agree.

Randy

[landnrailroader]

Eric, that is true and like Rdayt, I would like to put a parameter in the startup file that selects whichever option I normally use, which is % since I only do US routes at the moment.