Editor mouse and kb problems on COA route

[Toripony]

Somehow, I have lost some of the editing graphics when working on my route. ONLY on my route. Missing are certain mouseover visuals like the yellow lines highlighting loft/ribbon objects such as track. Also missing are the mouseover shadows of picklist items and the degree markers in my compass. There are other oddities too numerous to list here. It's odd because other graphics ARE present; for example, the N, E, S, & W of the compass are visible and "Selected" track displays the expected yellow ribbon upon the asset. Most non-linear assets highlight normally during mouseover. Another coinciding problem is that certain keyboard functions are not working, including the "Esc" key to bring up the exit/pause dialogs. "#9" key doesn't function but I can get to the 2D map using the icon on the compass. I checked the "Display" settings; everything is enabled except the sound domes.

IMPORTANT: This problem occurs ONLY when editing my Alleghany route. If I edit Chicago Yard, for example, everything is working fine. I have performed all the basic troubleshooting like reinstalling TS from Steam, Clear Cache, checking all my pc functions, etc. to no avail. After 3 days of troubleshooting, I am stumped. Am waiting for a response from RSC on this one. Meanwhile, I am painting terrain and placing scenery; cannot edit track or other lofts. Has anyone here seen this before? Any ideas what I need to check/fix??

Thanks,
Baffled Tori

[artimrj]

I have had a few keys not working from time to time but never missing graphics. Mostly it was the F keys. Couldn't save from keyboard. Had to press the play button to get to the save dialog and that always meant a reboot, then the buttons worked again. I assumed it was from the memory leaking.

[Toripony]

&*($%^# goofy computers! Check this....

Ok, three days ago the graphics vanished; I rebooted and did all the usual stuff but nothing helped. I copied my route over to a clean and complete Steam instance I keep on my HDD for just such problems. No change. Was running Offline, so I connected Online; got the "Steampipe" update but the problem didn't change. Ran a Verify files routine; all good, no files replaced and of course that didn't fix anything. Yesterday morning, on a whim, I ran another Verify; surprise, now it replaced two files. AND THAT WORKED! I went into editor, everything working fine, and spent about 2 hours placing Asset Blocks with trees. Tiring of that, I decided to do some track work; lo & behold, when I moused-over the track, the problem is back. So, this time I went straight for the Verify solution; 16 files replaced! WHERE DID 16 FILES GO WHILE I WAS PLANTING TREES?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Most days now, I hate computers!

[Chacal]

I suspect that these reports about files missing or corrupted should be taken with a grain of salt.
I think it means "X files failed to verify", which does not necessarily mean a problem with the files. It could be a problem with the verification (network or server time-out, etc).

It is also possible that some files have problems that are not detected by the file verification process.

What I have read several times here is this: sometimes a file verification is not enough. You need to rename your Railworks folder and let Steam reinstall it. Some people even go as far as removing Steam completely.
Of course this wipes out all of your 3rd-party DLC, so that may be a lot of trouble if you're not using an install script.

[Toripony]

So, the Verify routine replaced 16 files, but the problem wasn't fixed, so I immediately ran Verify again... it replaced 2 files. What the ^#@^%& is going on here? If the files are truly sychronized it would not keep finding more mismatches! Still, through all of this, the other routes function fine. I would suspect a memory leak issue, but rebooting doesn't resolve the problem.

[Toripony]

I do keep multiple copies of Steam/TS installed and the first thing I tried was moving out the current installation and re-installing the whole shabang... second time I did that since I started editing again in December. It took about 3 hours because of all the DLC I have, but it didn't fix the problem.

I'm suspecting something else is the problem but I can't figure out what it is. It doesn't help much when you email RSC with specific details and stating that I've been editing in this software for 3+ years and they respond with "That sounds odd. Have you tried Verifying youR files?"

[Bananarama]

Try isolating the problem by renaming the Scenery and Networks folders within your Content\Routes\<guid number> directory. If the problem lies within the track/road/loft network, rename the folders and their associated main *.bin files (Tracks.bin, Roads.bin, Lofts.bin) within Networks to narrow things down further.

[Toripony]

Good advice, Marc. A technique I had forgotten. Until today, I've been unwilling to admit this could be caused by something in the files of my route, convinced it had to be a program fault. Do you think there is any possibility that something in my route doesn't work well with TS'13? Remember, I started this thing wayyyy back in Kuju's release of RW. I've done mods and repaints by copying and modifying other's blueprints. Maybe I have an old rotten apple in there.

I'm off to start renaming folders.

Thanks!

[buzz456]

Your route loads fine in 2013. I have not run it end to end in ages but I know it loads. If you want me to try it I will. Last time it crashed in Roncevete (sp) but other than that it was OK so I don't think it's junk in any way.

[Toripony]

Well, that didn't take long. In a few steps, I've now renamed EVERYTHING in my route so there's nothing left but the RouteProperties file.... it's still broken. Is there something wrong with my RP file (which I probably hacked from some default route long ago)?

It's some kind of overlay function that isn't working. Attached is a screenie showing default terrain and dialogs pinned to the screen. Notice the Grid option is on, but there's no grid; it doesn't show when I'm in terrain edit mode either. Also notice frames are missing in the dialogs and the degree marks missing in the compass. When I lay track, no projection frame shows where I'm laying it, even though the info readouts at the bottom show my track length and stuff correctly.

Missing grids, etc..jpg

[Bananarama]

Tori - does this occur if you create a new route using your original route template and/or a default one from Kuju? If everything works fine when creating a fresh copy using your original template, then I would suspect you could copy everything into that directory without having to start from scratch.

Another thing to try is to blow-out the entire scenario folder and see what happens when RW creates a new one when loading (files and directories renamed to their original state too).

[Toripony]

Tried that: a new route using my template resulted with same problem; a new route using the Default template also had the same problem .

I stumbled upon a fix, though I don't understand the cause. I turned off TSX and everything works fine now. In doing this, I remember when I turned it on last week was when all the troubles began, but I didn't make that connection because the problem didn't start right away. I usually edit track with TSX off and had switched it on to work on scenery; never was a problem before this episode. Still odd that it only affects my route and any new route created but not the game default routes.

Thanks for the help; at the least, it was a great refresher in troubleshooting techniques.

[Toripony]

In case this happens to anyone else as TrainSimulator matures and begins to suffer the consequences of the software/time equation (obsolesence)... here is the conclusion to this issue I've had with missing editing graphics when TSX is enabled. Skipping the step-by-step details, the solution has been to upgrade to a newer Asus laptop that uses an Nvidea card. I resorted to this solution after verifying that starting a new route with the Default template in a clean installation of Steam/TS resulted in the same issue.

After a week of troubleshooting, my [surprising] conclusion is that the TSX component of TS has outgrown the ATI 5870 Mobility GPU in my Asus G73jh laptop. The key to the problem is "laptop" and "ATI Mobility", since most likely the problem isn't the GPU but rather the driver. Since the video system in a laptop is necessarily both embedded and customized by the laptop manufacturer, in many cases the driver component is different than in the same model of desktop video card. In my case, I can only use video drivers from Asus and I have the most recent driver available. Everytime I've tried to use the "non-M" version of a driver from ATI, it either fails or causes other complications.

It surprises me a little that any current game product in the marketplace would have outgrown a hardware/driver component that is still so young (not quite 3 yrs), but I have seen such things often in my computing career. Also, this situation is pretty specific... there's not a lot of folks editing routes in TS on a laptop, so the chance of a mfr solution is unlikely. I happen to have access to a newer machine (Asus G74sx) that solves my problem and, as a bonus, runs the game much better. BTW... buy Nvidea... textures look noticeably better, too!

Just wanted to share this experience with the next person who comes looking for help. As time marches on, I definitely won't be the last TS fan to encounter system obsolesence.

[krellnut]

Just to let you know, Nvidea is spelled like this; Nvidia.

[CSX2057]

Well this is the reason why I don't go for routes anymore. Because I got to many SBHH in my first try. I was trying to get the track off the ground for the monorail for the magic kingdom and I kept getting the popup. So I decided just to give up and try something else. I know how that feel about frustration with all these bugs and updates that rsc is giving you guys a hard time. I feel bad for Jerry and others who gave up Now I'm sticking to do scenarios. Its quite fun actually.