TSRE GenX - MAX OVERHAUL
TSRE GenX
Capture.jpg
Hi Folks,
Alright boys, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee and set a spell. We need to have us a plain talk about TSRE: what it does right, where it gives us fits, and what we can still do to make this old mule pull a little smoother. This is a long post, no denying that, but if you've ever spent an evening fussing track into a hillside, painting endless terrain patches one dadgum square at a time, or muttering at the editor like it ought to know better by now, I reckon it'll be worth the read.
Purpose and Scope
I have been working through a set of practical TSRE route-editor improvements, mainly focused on making terrain work less painful for MSTS/Open Rails route building. The work started with track cuts and embankments, then expanded into route painting, water-edge detection, texture cleanup, and some editor quality-of-life items.
There has been talk for years about a new Open Rails route editor, and I would still welcome one, but we also have to be realistic. TSRE is what we actually have today. It can be cumbersome, awkward, and less than ideal, but it is also a working route editor with real capability. Rather than waiting indefinitely for a replacement, I think it makes sense to embrace the tool we have and keep improving it where practical.
I do not intend this to become a separate production fork of Eric's work. This is a test branch for debugging, experimentation, and evaluation. Eric's main branch remains the upstream production code; GenX is my experimental improvement and evaluation branch. My goal is to make focused improvements in the areas I know best, then hand them back to Eric for consideration and, hopefully, eventual inclusion in the main project. As history has proven, my interest around here tends to ebb and flow, sometimes disappearing for months at a time, which makes me a poor candidate to host or maintain production code long term. I have compiled a ready-to-use TSRE GenX build, though I will spare everyone the embarrassing details of how long it took me to get a clean compile.
Highlights
The following major updates and fixes are included in TSRE GenX:
F4 Activity Builder Disclaimer
The new F4 screen currently includes a working standalone Path Editor and high-resolution TrackDB map display. Paths can be created, edited, checked, and saved independently of an activity.
The surrounding Activity Editor controls are still under active development. Several of those functions have been pulled apart, reorganized, or exposed only as placeholders while the new workflow is being built. They should not be used to create, modify, or save production activities at this time.
For now, please use F4 only for route viewing and path work, keep backups of route files, and continue using established tools for production activity creation. The Activity Editor will be enabled section by section as each part is completed and verified.
Download and Test Branch
This branch includes the current experimental code and a ready-to-use GenX release package for evaluation. Look for "RELEASES" in the right-hand sidebar and download the ZIP. In the root folder I added a small program, AddShortcutDesktop.cmd, to add a desktop shortcut for TSRE. When unzipping the folder, I suggest you keep this copy completely separate from your production copy of TSRE.
The complete Work Detail is included in the attached text document.
scoWorkList.txt
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Piotr Gadecki (GokuMK), the original creator of TSRE5, for the enormous body of code that made this editor possible and for his willingness to publish and share that work. Every later TSRE5 fork, including TSRE GenX, stands on the foundation he created.
Special thanks also to Eric Olesen (eric-from-trainsim) at Trainsim.Com for years of support to the train-simulation community and for continuing the development and maintenance of the Trainsim.Com TSRE5 fork. Eric's TSRE8.006 codebase is the direct starting point for TSRE GenX.
Distribution Notes
The test package is intended for evaluation and should be kept separate from any production TSRE install.
Future Work: The Telephone-Pole Vendetta
Overall Goal
The general direction is to make TSRE more practical as a production route editor: better track terrain shaping, faster tile-based painting, cleaner shoreline texturing, safer texture handling, safer route database saves, and fewer repetitive manual cleanup steps.
Regards,
Scott
Capture.jpg
Hi Folks,
Alright boys, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee and set a spell. We need to have us a plain talk about TSRE: what it does right, where it gives us fits, and what we can still do to make this old mule pull a little smoother. This is a long post, no denying that, but if you've ever spent an evening fussing track into a hillside, painting endless terrain patches one dadgum square at a time, or muttering at the editor like it ought to know better by now, I reckon it'll be worth the read.
Purpose and Scope
I have been working through a set of practical TSRE route-editor improvements, mainly focused on making terrain work less painful for MSTS/Open Rails route building. The work started with track cuts and embankments, then expanded into route painting, water-edge detection, texture cleanup, and some editor quality-of-life items.
There has been talk for years about a new Open Rails route editor, and I would still welcome one, but we also have to be realistic. TSRE is what we actually have today. It can be cumbersome, awkward, and less than ideal, but it is also a working route editor with real capability. Rather than waiting indefinitely for a replacement, I think it makes sense to embrace the tool we have and keep improving it where practical.
I do not intend this to become a separate production fork of Eric's work. This is a test branch for debugging, experimentation, and evaluation. Eric's main branch remains the upstream production code; GenX is my experimental improvement and evaluation branch. My goal is to make focused improvements in the areas I know best, then hand them back to Eric for consideration and, hopefully, eventual inclusion in the main project. As history has proven, my interest around here tends to ebb and flow, sometimes disappearing for months at a time, which makes me a poor candidate to host or maintain production code long term. I have compiled a ready-to-use TSRE GenX build, though I will spare everyone the embarrassing details of how long it took me to get a clean compile.
Highlights
The following major updates and fixes are included in TSRE GenX:
- Updated code to build with current MSYS2/MinGW tooling.
- Reworked F terrain conforming for stronger, more practical track cuts and embankments, including improved low-end track-width behavior - for Jerry.
- Added Ctrl+F selected-object tile conforming, Shift+F non-destructive smoothing, and the F2 Conform DB brush for grade-following spot cleanup.
- Added Alt+A selection of all 256 terrain texture patches on the selected tile.
- Added autopaint tile-level track and road painting for faster route-wide texture work.
- Added Water Edge detection and painting that compares terrain elevation against the tile water plane, follows the actual shoreline with a feathered texture transition, and handles shallow-water terrain breaks instead of painting coarse 16x16 patches.
- Added F2 confirmed route-wide and current-tile TERRTEX reset tools for returning painted terrain to terrain.ace.
- Added F2 route-local terrain paint presets covering texture, brush, intensity, shape, and rotation.
- Added F2 full 0-360 degree terrain texture rotation for directional ground textures.
- Rebuilt F2 seasonal textures around a visible Summer, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Night selector instead of hidden settings-file switches.
- Added seasonal textures active-season refresh and per-file ORTS-style fallback for terrain, route objects, transfers, Dynamic Track, forests, and polyforests, including ACE/DDS alternatives.
- Added Terrtex: Mirror Season for paired default/snow painting, with safe opposite-side placeholder creation when matching seasonal swatches are missing.
- Protected seasonal TERRTEX 1024x1024 files from accidental downsampling during painting and corrected transfer/material cache refresh behavior.
- Reduced route performance stutter with forest-generation controls, a Forest Regions view toggle, and texture-cache invalidation only when material paths change.
- Improved load reliability with single-instance protection, corrected route-table refresh, and validated editable recent MSTS/ORTS root selection.
- Added Restore Last Session for reopening the last route and camera context, plus compact Pin controls that remember the main window, Control Panel, and Grade Helper placement between sessions.
- Added Windows the GenX executable icon, desktop-shortcut helper, and Route > Open Route Folder command.
- Consolidated Control Panel Status and Navi functions into a scalable F7 panel with editing-state controls, navigation, movement locks, and delayed edge snapping.
- Improved Object Panel with category-aware search and reset, cleaner Scale Rail grouping, and 30 Recent Items in a bounded scrollable history with Clear Recent.
- Reworked F1-F4 panels property panels, Object Panel, Control Panel, Settings Editor, and startup screens into a consistent scalable interface.
- Substantially reorganized F2 textures around a larger selected-texture preview, a compact two-column Recent Texture bank, clearer paint/preset/brush groups, and texture-name tooltips.
- Added global UI scaling, consistent manual-action sound feedback, cleaner square F12 boolean selectors, and coordinated state colors without false responses during passive refreshes.
- Added Place Guard validation with automatic undo and distinct feedback for dangerous or invalid scenery, track, and interactive-object placements.
- Reorganized F12 Settings into practical categories with direct settings saves, timestamped backups, full-sentence tooltips, and an integrated key-assignment reference.
- Repaired F3 maps OSM Vector Map HTTPS support, hardened failed-response handling, and increased generated map imagery to 4096 resolution.
- Preserved Dynamic Track Classic Flex while adding a Classic/NextGen selector and adapting GokuMK's work as the foundation for compound and full S-curve NextGen connections.
- Improved Dynamic Track editing with database rebuilding after Flex, synchronized elevation data, clearer section/length information, fallback textures, and consistent naming.
- Added splash screens runtime-discovered artwork with a persistent shuffled cycle shared by the Route Loader, Consist Loader, and About window during each session.
- Improved track properties grade-unit presentation and added Lock Grade so newly placed track or road pieces can inherit the selected piece's physical grade.
- Added Grade Helper for dock-friendly, validated, connected, per-piece vertical transitions to an exact target grade, with remembered placement and automatic Lock Grade handoff.
- Added Grade Symbols connectivity-aware markers for static and Dynamic Track, including steady-grade, transition, and direct crest/gully classifications.
- Added View and Markers reversible overlay toggling and improved marker placement, color, height, and label reliability.
- Added Edit > Copy Info selection diagnostics for clipboard-ready troubleshooting and reporting.
- Reduced route display overhead by rebuilding Grade Symbol connectivity only at safe tile/database boundaries, reusing unchanged pointer-depth results, and throttling unchanged Control Panel updates.
- Refined route lighting with warmer directional sunlight and cooler sky-facing ambient light while preserving MSTS texture artwork and neutral editor overlays.
- Added Save, Restart and Restore in F12 plus optional UI sounds for startup actions, toggles, checkboxes, dropdown selections, and menu commands.
- Added property guidance for Detail Level, MSTS StaticFlags, and MSTS Collision, clarified Alt+A in the key reference, and corrected read-only Control Panel hover behavior.
- Added the full-screen F4 Activity Builder and high-resolution TrackDB viewer.
- Added standalone MSTS/ORTS path creation, editing, validation, and PAT writing.
- Added natural-end water flow routing with live switch throwing and recalculation.
- Added reverse points, duration and clock-time wait points, overlap visualization, and passing sidings.
- Added selectable/deletable path controls, undo/redo, map rotation, route markers, labels, signals, stations, and service-point symbology.
- Standardized F1-F4 and utility panels with the charcoal/orange visual system, square selectors, consistent controls, active-tool highlighting, focus restoration, and pinnable helper windows.
- Added the pinnable Auto Place workflow and further Grade Helper, Control Panel, Object Selection, and Terrain Editor cleanup.
F4 Activity Builder Disclaimer
The new F4 screen currently includes a working standalone Path Editor and high-resolution TrackDB map display. Paths can be created, edited, checked, and saved independently of an activity.
The surrounding Activity Editor controls are still under active development. Several of those functions have been pulled apart, reorganized, or exposed only as placeholders while the new workflow is being built. They should not be used to create, modify, or save production activities at this time.
For now, please use F4 only for route viewing and path work, keep backups of route files, and continue using established tools for production activity creation. The Activity Editor will be enabled section by section as each part is completed and verified.
Download and Test Branch
This branch includes the current experimental code and a ready-to-use GenX release package for evaluation. Look for "RELEASES" in the right-hand sidebar and download the ZIP. In the root folder I added a small program, AddShortcutDesktop.cmd, to add a desktop shortcut for TSRE. When unzipping the folder, I suggest you keep this copy completely separate from your production copy of TSRE.
The complete Work Detail is included in the attached text document.
scoWorkList.txt
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Piotr Gadecki (GokuMK), the original creator of TSRE5, for the enormous body of code that made this editor possible and for his willingness to publish and share that work. Every later TSRE5 fork, including TSRE GenX, stands on the foundation he created.
Special thanks also to Eric Olesen (eric-from-trainsim) at Trainsim.Com for years of support to the train-simulation community and for continuing the development and maintenance of the Trainsim.Com TSRE5 fork. Eric's TSRE8.006 codebase is the direct starting point for TSRE GenX.
Distribution Notes
The test package is intended for evaluation and should be kept separate from any production TSRE install.
Future Work: The Telephone-Pole Vendetta
- By God, one way or another, I am going to get telephone poles to have wires on them. This has become personal.
Overall Goal
The general direction is to make TSRE more practical as a production route editor: better track terrain shaping, faster tile-based painting, cleaner shoreline texturing, safer texture handling, safer route database saves, and fewer repetitive manual cleanup steps.
Regards,
Scott
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