[dforrest]

Is there any way someone like myself without the skills to compile the code, can run the Track Viewer and give our comments?

-------------
David

[Genma Saotome]

dforrest, on 06 February 2014 - 02:19 PM, said:

Is there any way someone like myself without the skills to compile the code, can run the Track Viewer and give our comments?

-------------
David

No, not until the OR team does that for you and you get the result in a version update.

[gpz]

Here is my compile attached. Copy the contents beside RunActivity.exe.
 TrackViewer.zip (107.69K)
Number of downloads: 386

[JeroenP]

Dear all,

Thanks for all the feedback.

Quote

I would like to ask, where are the settings stored, because I want to reset them. :)

Let me start with the annoying bug that it currently crashes on non-ascii characters (and won't restart afterwards). The config file is stored in C:\Users\<yourname>\AppData\Local\ORTS\... AppData might be a hidden directory. So you either need to make it visible in folder options, or type it directly into the Windows Explorer window (click on the top input window).
I found this issue myself also already. But unfortunately, I need to learn a bit more unicode to solve this.

Making a stand-alone version would be more work. I think it is possible to make it XNA independent. However, making it .net independent is much more complicated. And probably not really needed either since I guess all modern windows computers have .net installed.
The difference between installing ORTS and installing a separate Trackviewer is not really big. The biggest difference is XNA (assuming like I said that .net 3.5 is already installed.). ORTS is not really being installed, you just put it in a directory. So I am not sure you would gain a lot.
Trackviewer was set up with the idea of re-using the ORTS code in multiple places. Pulling out all the necessary code to be able to run it standalone would create a more difficult-to-maintain solution.

The other point is about an MSTS feature to be able to export and import a route. I understand the idea. Currently trackviewer needs the .tdb file, the tsection files, possibly the .rdb for roads. It starts with the .trk file. Sending these files as preview is an option. I have used that myself already.
Perhaps it is possible to use JSON to dump and retrieve the data structures. This is something I only learned about today, however, so I cannot judge whether this is indeed possible.

Regarding the future of trackviewer. The jury is still out on that. In particular there are already a number of other activities related to an activity editor, and Rob asked me to consider working on that. Such an activity editor would start with those things that are currently difficult or impossible from MSTS Activity Editor. I do not think there currently is a plan to create an ORTS Activity Editor for MSTS format directly. Even though it would be nice to be independent of MSTS, the biggest priority (now that ORTS is able to run from MSTS files) is to add new stuff, instead of redoing existing stuff. (And yes, Trackviewer is in fact redoing existing stuff although not from MSTS :sign_thanks: ).
Whether or not Trackviewer has an independent future is therefore still to be seen. However, given the current already pretty mature state, it might not be a bad idea to keep it alive anyway, and add a few of the things people mentioned already.

I like the suggestion of being able to zoom onto a certain tracknode, and perhaps also being able to directly show the errors noted in Openrails.log. In other words, using trackviewer as a consistency checker.

Regarding the possibility of having TrackViewer show real time data. There is already a feature for that: The dispatcher window. It is available in multiplayer. I think you should also be able to use it in single player mode (there is already an option for that on the options page of the initial menu, but I haven't got it working yet).

For those that would like to test it without compiling ORTS itself, that might be a bit difficult for now. Genma correctly stated that the OR team needs to do that (if they decide to give TrackViewer a future). Unfortunately, trackviewer currently uses the code of RunActivity. So I am afraid that a pre-compiled version will only work with the RunActivity (and perhaps some other files as well) compiled from the same source.

Best regards,
Jeroen

[JorD1]

Nice and helpfull program, would it be possible to also include a path editor?

I found a little bug.

If the route (or path?) contains an umlaut the program crashes giving this error:
 bug.png (10.89K)
Number of downloads: 243

Cheers Jordi

[steamer_ctn]

Hi Jeroen,

JeroenP, on 07 February 2014 - 01:26 PM, said:

The jury is still out on that. In particular there are already a number of other activities related to an activity editor, and Rob asked me to consider working on that. Such an activity editor would start with those things that are currently difficult or impossible from MSTS Activity Editor. I do not think there currently is a plan to create an ORTS Activity Editor for MSTS format directly. Even though it would be nice to be independent of MSTS, the biggest priority (now that ORTS is able to run from MSTS files) is to add new stuff, instead of redoing existing stuff. (And yes, Trackviewer is in fact redoing existing stuff although not from MSTS :sign_thanks: ).

I believe that if we continue to think that all users have access to MSTS, then we are limiting OR acceptance, and we will lose the opportunity to engage new users. I have had a number of people contact me through my website, and they are now trying to run OR without MSTS installed. In fact I believe that it is almost impossible for them to obtain a copy of MSTS. So we need to recognise the fact that we now have users who don't have access to the MSTS activity editor.

I agree that a full OR Activity Editor is not realistic now, but is a future development.

So the question now becomes how do we assist non-MSTS users to start to "build" or modify elements of an activity without AE?

There are a number of independent utilities which already assist in this area, for example, RR has consist editor. Whilst some of these are not very user friendly, they can be used by users without the need to develop them in OR at this time.

However, I believe that the only activity element that is not easily covered by an independent utility (outside of MSTS) is ability to create and edit paths.

By developing a path editor for OR in the short term it would fill this gap, and assist non-MSTS users to start to explore OR a lot more.

Therefore, can I request, given the wonderful work that you have done in creating this tool, that you and Rob consider modifying the activity development priorities slightly to so that a path creation tool moves higher up the list?

Thanks

Peter

[conductorchris]

Jeroen, thank you for your work and thank you for considering working on an Open Rails activity editor.
Christopher

[nicober]

Hi!

It's really a great utility and immediatly I used it for a route, I'm trying to save a french route for Open Rails.

But I encounter a major problem with your utility at two occasions.

1- I tried to display Platform and Name Platform in the main screen and the program crash immediatly with an error message, the same error reported by Jordi displayed earlier. It don't like to work with characters with accents. I think it will be the same with russian route who use cyrillic characters. But the worst thing, impossible to restart the program - each time it want to reload the same route and impossible to access at the menu bar and each time the program crash. I needed to remove everything from an experimental version of OR and reinstall the program on an other exp. version of OR.

2- After I have worked a certain time with it, I made a change in the Track Data Base and also TIT files with a Text Editor, because a name of a platform has a special error impossible to correct with the IE. Everything worked fine with the Itinerary Editor to open the route, but when I tried to open the route with your utility, I received an error message "Can Open the Route". I tried to close the little box screen with a click on OK, and also on the X - Nothing - NIET - the program try at each time to read the TDB and the Tsection.bat of the route and give us always the same error message. Impossible to access at the menu bar, I needed to pass by the Task Manager to close the program. And if I tried to reuse it - it display all the time the same message. I needed for a second time to remove everything and reinstall it on an other experimental version of OR.

The main problem is it's impossible to close the program properly and to have access at the top menu bar when we encounter a problem, to change the path of the problematic route for an other route, the time to make some changes.

Hope these experiences can help you for a better version beacause it's a very useful utility.

Thanks for your attention.

Cheers!

[JohnnyS]

Hi, for those looking for a stand alone track viewer with added functionality, there is one that was made available via trainsim.ru late last year, despite the fact the program uses the Russian language and alphabet I have found it reasonably easy to use, though discovering functions has been a case of trial and error.

http://www.trainsim.ru/download/16/

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2819/12392307115_feff98a89f_b.jpg

Cheers,
John.

[JeroenP]

Dear all,
I am aware of the bug related to font names. I am trying to fix this. But more importantly, I guess, is the ability to recover on an error more easily (and especially being able to start with clear 'settings').
With the release I posted above, I guess, the only option is to remove/clear the settings manually (from C:\Users\<yourname>\AppData\Local\ORTS\..., see also below).

I am currently also working on the functionality to search tracknodes.

I will work on a MSTS path editor next (simply because I find that a challenging feature, apparently there is a lot of interest in that, and I think it is not too difficult given the current status of TrackViewer.). This will not be an activity editor. As mentioned, there is already a consist editor. Furthermore, making an MSTS activity editor is yet again another project.

I thought some more about making it independent of the rest of ORTS and making it XNA independent. But that is much more complicated (so that is not high on my list).

I will discuss how to release TrackViewer with the ORTS team.

Best regards.
Jeroen.