Using GeoTIFF files in TSRE

[RichardAJensen]

Hi,

I've been experimenting with both MSTS and TSRE, and I'm in a bit of a quandary.

TSRE seems much easier to use, but it also seems to be hardwired to use the SRTM datasets. However, the USGS has a significant amount of the lower 48 surveyed with high res LIDAR. The resolution is so good that you can actually pick up the crown on streets and highways.

I would like to use these files in TSRE. Is this possible?

I really don't want to battle with the MSTS route builder just to get high res terrain.

I was rather surprised to see the SD Capitol, from my hometown on the USGS LIDAR landing page: https://www.usgs.gov/calval/lidar

[RichardAJensen]

Side note: I probably shouldn't be too surprised by the use of the SD Capitol, seeing that the article was written by someone at the EROS data center which is just a few miles north of my current home in Sioux Falls, SD.

[Zephyr06]

Hi Richard,

The tutorial by Jerry Sullivan was exactly what I needed to get high-res USGS data manipulated for use in TSRE.

In the file library:
https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/tslib....rchid=21497993

-Matt

[RichardAJensen]

Hey Matt,

Thanks for the response. However, I get a 'no files match your search criteria' error when I click on that link.

Web programmer note: It seems that the forum software does not create URLs that encode the search string (e.g.: https://www.google.com/search?q=jerry+sullivan+tsre+train+sim), it creates search URLs that refer to a session key or database row that does not necessarily persist (https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/tslib.php?searchid=21497993).

I experimented a bit with the file search, and discovered a bunch of Milwaukee Road routes by him, which is kind of interesting because my first project is trying to reconstruct a short stretch of abandoned Milwaukee Road track from their Dakota Division.

Can you give me the file name?

Thanks a lot!!

[Nels_Anderson]

The right way to refer to a file in the library here is by giving the exact zip file name. The next person can then easily use our search engine to find that exact file. Search result links as used in the message above are temporary and are not transferable to another user.

[Zephyr06]

Sorry about that. My search query was simply "USGS" and the first file in the results is "dem_instructions.zip"

Hope this gets you moving in the right direction
-Matt

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Goku had mentioned in passing in a post on Elvas that someone had figured out a way to use or convert Geotiffs for use in TSRE. In the same thread I asked him for more details - he ignored my query.

Regards,
Scott

[RichardAJensen]

Hey all,

So the instructions worked, but I learned a few things trial-and-error that I'm going to post just in case they haven't been written down anywhere else:

1) If you right-click on any of these legacy executables (train.exe, launcher.exe, demex.exe, etc.) and go to properties, there's a 'compatibility' tab. I set each of these apps to use the Windows version current when they were written (mostly XP). Doing that made Demex far more stable and Train Simulator ran much more quickly.

2) I don't know if it's stated explicitly, but when you load images in Demex, the image(s) you load need to cover the entire route. At least when you first create the tiles.

I tried to export just a single tile in Demex, using a TIFF that only covered that tile, but I don't think it worked properly.

What I'm trying to do is use USGS 1/3rd second GeoTIFFs for the overall landscape, and then use 1M GeoTIFFs for the route tiles.

I like that you can use the USGS 1/3rd second GeoTIFFs via Demex. It's a bit kludgy, but ironically, I believe that gives you higher res with a 20 year old app than you can get through the Dovetail Games, which I think are still restricted to the 1 sec SRTM data.

However, it would be nice to be able to use that 1M data. I can't do all the tiles at once because the file size would be gargantuan even by 2022 standards, let alone what apps like Demex were written to handle.

One other note on the 1M data: Its embedded coordinate system is UTM, so it has to be converted to WGS84. I use QGIS to do this, as well as to create tile sized mosaics from the 1M TIFFs.

[RichardAJensen]

Goku had mentioned in passing in a post on Elvas that someone had figured out a way to use or convert Geotiffs for use in TSRE. In the same thread I asked him for more details - he ignored my query.

I actually went poking around in the TSRE5 source code and found a couple files (geotiff.h & geotiff.cpp) that suggest that functionality was at least anticipated for files covering 1 degree square, and the file naming convention is the same: [N/S][latitude][E/W][longitude].tiff (instead of ([N/S][latitude][E/W][longitude].hgt) But when I stuck .tiff files in the hgts directory, it didn't work.

[RichardAJensen]

Hi Richard,

The tutorial by Jerry Sullivan was exactly what I needed to get high-res USGS data manipulated for use in TSRE.

In the file library:
https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/tslib....rchid=21497993

-Matt

So ... it took me until earlier this afternoon to realize that I don't need to use the "Load Heights" tool in TSRE5.

And because TSRE5 is MSTS compatible, I could create a route in TSRE5 and then add terrain using DEMEX.



Ah well, live and learn.

The only thing left on my 'to-do' list is figuring out the proper coordinate system to use with these .5M resolution TIFs:
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/...4ed792940102a8

The source files are UTM, and DEMEX doesn't seem to be able to place them correctly.